Every good gift

What do you consider to be a ‘good gift’? If you think of the gifts you receive at Christmas or on your birthday, a ‘good gift’ may just be something that you need or always wanted. But more than this, it is something you receive from someone you really love. We read in the book of James that ‘every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights’. James 1:17.

As Christians, we need what comes down from above. The gifts of our heavenly Father are ‘good and perfect’ because they are incorruptible and they come from Him. Indeed, we have nothing if we are not receiving life from Him. Everything we produce from our own resources is corruptible. We recall that as a result of the fall of mankind, God cursed the ground. The ‘ground’ includes all our resources that we use to generate increase and provision. It is corrupting and everything it brings forth is corruptible. Everything we produce from our own resources is likened to ‘thorns and thistles’. Gen 3:18. According to the book of Hebrews, these thorns and thistles are worthless, close to being cursed, and end up being burned. Heb 6:8.

For this reason, James prefaced his statement on every good and perfect gift by saying, ‘Do not be deceived my beloved brethren’. James 1:16. We are deceived if we think that anything we produce from our own resources has eternal value. We must receive the incorruptible gift that comes down from above. The apostle Peter said that we are ‘born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever’. 1Pet 1:23. That seed is able to fall into corruptible ground to die, but still bring forth life that is incorruptible. This gives tremendous meaning to everything that we do. If we are sowing an incorruptible seed, we will not produce thorns and thistles. We will produce ‘certain firstfruits’. James 1:18.

When the apostle James speaks of every ‘good thing’ and every ‘perfect gift’, it is not a statement of comparison. However, it does refer to two distinct types of gifts. Every ‘good’ gift is the way in which the Lord supports our lot. Even when He is correcting us, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. Rom 8:28. And Jesus identified the ultimate ‘good’ gift as the Holy Spirit Himself. He said, ‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’. Luke 11:13. The Father and the Son give the Holy Spirit to us.

It is by the Holy Spirit, the good gift, that we receive every perfect gift. So what is the perfect gift? The perfect gift is the word of truth. It is the truth of our eternal sonship. It is the incorruptible seed of our sonship that lives and abides forever. It is the incorruptible seed of the Father’s life that comes to us in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. There is no greater gift than that!

David Baker

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Feature Articles
November 2008

Understanding your way

The words of eternal life

Every good gift

The song that counts

Be fruitful and multiply

A man who prays

Amazing grace

The secret place

Perspective on tribulation

Bearing the yoke

The problem of evil