Hal Chaffee Ministries

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruit of His creatures. – James 1:16-18

In this passage, James warns us not to be deceived. He says this because we have an accusatory enemy that seeks to pin the blame on everyone but himself. In a few passages preceding this one, James teaches us that no temptation comes from God, for God is incapable of evil, nor does He tempt anyone. And here, he declares that good comes from God and no other source:

Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and coming down from the Father of lights. – James 1:17

James is outlining the doctrine of omnibenevolence, which states that God is perfectly good and benevolent in all aspects. This idea is part of the ‘omni’s’ of God’s nature, alongside Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence. That is, God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and all good (perfectly benevolent).

Some people see this as a contradiction. Because we observe suffering in the world, many see the ‘problem of suffering’ as a reason to doubt either God’s goodness or God’s ability, or more commonly, whether there is a God at all. They will say, “If God is good and all-powerful, why is there so much evil and suffering in this world? He must not be good, or else not powerful enough to stop the evil.” When I speak to unbelievers on this matter, they tend to doubt God’s goodness more than God’s power. They say that the God of the Bible is evil, and, even if He did exist, they certainly would not love Him or serve Him.

This thought process was also around in the days of the apostles. Epicurus, a famous Greek philosopher who lived a couple of hundred years before Christ, held this argument:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent (powerless). Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent (wills harm). Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil (i.e., why is there evil)?

There’s little doubt that the devil is behind this wicked philosophy. All the blame gets put on God for the evils that ultimately originate with him (but are also perpetrated by us). God is not the author of evil, nor does His allowance of it somehow prove His inability or unwillingness. The simple answer to this ‘dilemma’ is #1 – that God has a sufficient reason for the present sufferings that we endure, and #2 – God will justly reward the innocent and righteous in such a way that it will vastly outweigh our temporal sufferings, however severe they seem to be.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. – Romans 8:18

God does not change

The second thing that James establishes is God’s immutability. This means that God does not change.

I am the Lord, I change not – Malachi 3:6

This is important to consider when speaking of the goodness of God. God is good, and He will always be good. We often experience people in life who start well but change. King Saul of Israel and King Solomon were sad examples of this. They started out so well but changed over time, ending poorly. We also have many examples of this in our lives today. How many husbands started so well, and how many wives? How many employers and employees? How many ministers of the gospel? How many members in the local church? Many of us have experienced the betrayal of someone who did so well at the beginning but changed. But God is not like that. Men change, God does not.

Change is not always bad, as we know. Humans can certainly change for the better, but God does not. There is no better for God. God has all knowledge, power, and wisdom; He has no need to improve in any way. If He says something, it is with perfect knowledge. If He does something, it is with perfect wisdom. If He keeps still and quiet, it is with perfect benevolence.

God does not change His mind. A being who makes no mistakes has no reason to ever change His mind. Some may object by citing the many instances in the Bible where God relented from His threatenings after intercession was made. However, this is not a change of God’s mind. God is predisposed to relent when the proper conditions are met. It is not His mind that is changed, but our posture. When we meet the conditions, His actions change, but only because He was already disposed to do so (see Jeremiah 18:7-10).

There is more that could be said about God’s immutability, but the point that James is making is that God is perfectly good and that does not, and will not, change.

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. – Psalm 107:1

The example of Job

Job is a great example for us to consider. He believed in the unchanging goodness of God. That goodness was easy to see for most of Job’s life, for he was a good man who was blessed by God. He experienced the normal course of events for some time. That is, he pursued righteousness and experienced God’s blessing as a result. This is what God had promised in scripture in many places. A good example is Isaiah 3:10:

Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. – Isaiah 3:10

And also, Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly… But his delight is in the law of the LORD… He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water… and whatever he does shall prosper. – Psalm 1:1-3

But things changed for Job in a moment of time. All his fortune disappeared, his children all died, and his health deteriorated into painful boils all over his body. One would think that things could not get any worse, but his wife, being far from comforting, exclaimed in her bitterness: “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9)

The question to be asked in the scenario is, who is right? Was it right for Job to refrain his lips from charging God with evil? Or was his wife correct, who concluded that God must be malevolent for allowing such misfortune to occur?

The rest of the book of Job is a conversation between Job and his friends. They all throw around ideas as to why this horrible misfortune occurred. His friends conclude that it must be because of some secret sin that Job has committed, but Job insists that he has not sinned. Job doesn’t understand, however, why all this evil has happened to him. In his grief, he questions and even challenges God to appear before him so that he can plead his case and show his innocence.

God did finally appear to Job, but things did not go as he expected, nor as we would expect. God did not explain the situation to Job. Instead, he said, in essence: “There are a lot of things you don’t understand, nor will you understand as a limited mortal being, nor do I have an obligation to explain to you all the things that I do.”

In other words, God was telling Job that there are good reasons for how He conducts Himself. Those reasons may escape our minds for a time, but the conclusion should never be that God is evil. God is good, and bad situations do not change that.

The second important thing that we see in the case of Job is that God sufficiently compensates those who suffer yet maintain their faith and integrity. At the end of his temporary sufferings, God gave Job twice as much as before and a long life to enjoy it.

In the same way, God has promised extraordinary blessings to those who persevere in Christ. Blessing upon blessing are promised to the Christian, with the length of eternity to enjoy them.

A similar story

I shall end with the remarkable story of a man who had a similar experience to Job. His name was Horatio Spafford. He was a lawyer and investor in the city of Chicago during the days of the great evangelist D.L. Moody. In fact, they were friends. But tragedy struck his business when the great Chicago fire occurred in 1871. He had recently made great real estate investments, and it was all lost.

Soon after, his family planned to go across the Atlantic on a sort of spiritual vacation. They planned to help D.L. Moody with his work in England. However, just before the trip, Spafford was prevented from leaving by business and sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him, planning to meet them later. But tragedy struck again. The vessel that his family was in struck another vessel and quickly sank. All four of Spafford’s daughters drowned, only his wife surviving. She sent a telegram to him that said, “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

Not many people would have blamed Spafford if he had cursed God to his face, but he did not. Instead, he got on a boat to go to his grieving wife in England. As they passed by the place where the wreck occurred, he penned these famous words:

When peace like a river attendeth my way;
When sorrows like sea billow roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught my to say,
It is well, it is well with me soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

He doesn’t blame God, but chooses to trust instead, then He looks upon the blessed promise:

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so–it is well with my soul.

Conclusion

The wise man does not blame God foolishly. God’s goodness is unchanging, despite our circumstances. God has perfectly legitimate reasons for what He does or does not do. We see through a glass dimly and cannot possibly understand the ‘why’ behind everything that happens in this world or in the spiritual world. But we can see that God is good. We should not be deceived into thinking otherwise by a devil with wicked intentions. God is good, and that does not change.