Happy Monday, {{first_name | everyone}}!
Big announcement coming in tomorrow’s email so keep an eye out! 👀
This week we are memorizing James 4:7, a verse that hands us two commands, one promise and a choice: who will you submit to?
In today’s email…
📕 The letter behind this week's verse, and the man scholars think wrote it
❤️ Preparing your heart for the week
🎵 A song to help you memorize and meditate on this verse
MEMORIZE 🧠
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
Want to memorize in your favorite translation? Try our new iPhone app here.
CONTEXT 📕
According to scholars and historians, the most probable author of this week’s verse was the half-brother* of Jesus Christ.
Hint: Don’t confuse James the brother of Jesus with the disciple, James son of Zebedee, the brother of John.
*Remember, Jesus was not born by Joseph but by the Holy Spirit, so he and James shared a mother (hence the half in half-brother).
That said, they grew up together in the same household. Jesus was his oldest brother.
We read about Jesus’ other siblings peppered all throughout the gospels, yet they never understood Jesus as the Son of God and refused to follow him:
For not even his brothers believed in him.
Later on, James came to faith when the resurrected Jesus came to him (1 Corinthians 15:7), and James accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and devoted his life to God.
Recognizing James as the brother of Jesus can help us filter everything he wrote through a new lens:
James was a transformed skeptic.
James wrote to Jewish believers dispersed among the nations, whom he calls “the twelve tribes of the Dispersion” (James 1:1).
These Christians lived under pressure, facing trials, temptation, oppression, and the ongoing challenge of living faithfully for Christ in a fallen world.
The book of Acts records that persecution against the Jerusalem church intensified after Stephen’s martyrdom, scattering believers throughout Judea and Samaria.
And Saul approved of his (Stephen’s) execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
These believers already accepted the gospel, and now they had to learn how to live it out in the nitty gritty day-to-day.
James is remarkably practical and direct.
He teaches that true faith perseveres through trials, obeys God’s Word, controls the tongue, loves without partiality, rejects worldliness, and produces good works (James 1:22; 2:14–17; 3:1–12).
And rightfully so, this passage became famous for its long list of commands in just a few verses.
Our memory verse this week has two:
Can you identify them?
APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃♂
📖 Read James, chapter 4 today (it’s a short chapter).
Prepare your heart for the week ahead by heeding James’ warning about worldliness and being ruthless with sin.
Which of the following is present in your own life?
bickering and fighting (v1)
jealousy (v2)
pride (v6)
gossip (v11)
judging others (v12)
boasting (v16)
withholding good (v17)
🙏 Pray
Father, thank you for the book of James and that I get to read these words written by someone who was so devoted to Jesus and the spread of the gospel. Please help me this week to not only memorize this verse, but also to let it confront me where I need confronting. Lord, use it to wash away anything in me that is not honoring to you. Amen.
SONG OF THE WEEK 🎵
Pay-it-forward subscribers, enjoy the song we created below to help you memorize the verse of the week!
SCRIPTURE MEMORY SONG OF THE WEEK 🎵
Pay-it-forward subscribers, enjoy the song we created below to help you memorize the verse of the week!
It looks like you don’t currently pay-it-forward. If you’d like to, you can do that here.
FREE SONG OF THE WEEK 🎵
This week’s song is Battle Belongs by Phil Wickham. A song about fighting the way this week's verse teaches us to, on our knees before the God who has already won.
ANSWER KEY ✅
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
See you in your inbox tomorrow with a very exciting announcement! 😄
Best,
The Malachi Daily team 🙏
Today’s Contributors
Eljoh is a South African writer, editor, and artist with a Master’s in Practical Theology. She creates resources to help believers of all ages abide in Christ and grow in faith. Explore more free resources and creative tools at Vine Creative Studio.
Kieran is a husband and father of 4 living in NJ. In addition to Malachi Daily, he writes a personal newsletter about the intersection of faith, fatherhood and entrepreneurship.
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Bible translation(s) | ESV | ESV, NIV, NLT, KJV, and NASB |
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