James 1:9-11 – Boasting In What Does Not Fade

Several weeks ago, my wife and I brought a pot of pansies home and immediately put them on the front steps of our house.  They were very nice - bright, vibrant, colorful. They made the entrance to the house colorful and cheerful. A short time later that afternoon, we stepped outside for something and were quite shocked to discover the pansies were wilted! Not simply wilted but lying flat in the pot. I mean, if she hadn’t just put them out there, you might have assumed they had been abandoned for days and were practically dead. It was fairly hot that day, and apparently pansies are sensitive to the heat. What was bright, vibrant, beautiful just moments earlier - had begun to fade.

James uses a similar illustration in today’s passage to communicate the temporal and fleeting nature of this world. He wants us to see that earthly wealth, earthly status, earthly beauty, earthly success—what Scripture calls the world and its desires, or trappings—they are passing away. They are temporary. Their beauty is fleeting. They wither far more quickly than we imagine.

And yet, we naturally derive our sense of stability, security, and significance from our material circumstances – the earthly treasures that we do or do not possess. We all instinctively measure our worth by things that do not last.

We look at our bank account, our opportunities, our comfort, our possessions, and we quietly ask, “What do these things say about me?”

Some people feel diminished by what they lack. Others feel secure because of what they possess. But James tells us that both poverty and prosperity can become real spiritual trials when they persuade us to seek identity, security, and significance anywhere other than Christ.

You see Christ reorders our understanding of worth, wealth, and status. Christ, who humbled Himself to the point of death and was exalted in resurrection glory. In union with Him, the lowly are exalted, the rich are humbled, and all believers receive an inheritance that cannot perish, spoil, or fade.

And because of this, believers should not boast in how much they possess or despair in how little they possess. In other words, they should not base their identity in what is worldly, temporary, and fading. Rather, believers should base their identity in, and boast in, that which is heavenly, eternal, and unfading.

And that is why this passage is so relevant. James is not only speaking to the materially poor or materially rich. He is speaking to every one of us who is tempted to interpret life by visible circumstances rather than by gospel reality.

We must allow the person and work of Christ to reshape how we see our circumstances.

We do this as we understand that Christ is the unfading, eternal inheritance of all who trust in Him by faith.

So then, if Christ is our unfading inheritance, how should believers think about material possessions and worldly circumstances?

Because Christ is the unfading, eternal inheritance of all who trust in Him by faith, believers with little can boast in their exaltation and believers with much can boast in their humiliation.

Through these verses, the Holy Spirit is teaching us that everything in this world is subject to decay. Everything in this world is touched by loss. Everything in this world can be diminished by time, suffering, disappointment, or death. But what Christ gives to His people does not wither in the sun. It does not collapse under pressure. It does not lose its beauty. What the world offers fades. What Christ gives endures forever.

Let’s look together at these now.

First, James begins by showing how understanding the glory of Christ and the eternal inheritance found in Him can reshape the perspective of those who have little.

He begins in verse 9 by saying, “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.” At first hearing, that sounds almost contradictory. How can the lowly boast? How can the one in humble circumstances rejoice, or boast, in their exaltation? In what way are they exalted?

In its immediate context, James is certainly addressing those who are poor from a socio-economic standpoint. Many of his original audience were Jewish Christians. We know of a famine that struck the area around Jerusalem at about this time, and it is probable that many of those Christians would have been affected by the overall poor conditions from the famine along with being ostracized by much of the non-Christian population.

But the principle can be applied more broadly to any who think they have little according to the world’s standards. It applies to anyone who would count themselves less than others because of a lack of some worldly possession.

Would you say you fit into that category? From a financial standpoint, would you say you have little? Whether or not that is actually the case, compared to those around you, would you say you are in humble circumstances?

The world assigns worth by visibility, influence, comfort, and possessions. It honors the impressive, the connected, the beautiful, the successful, the well-positioned.

We must be careful here. These things are not inherently evil. It is not wrong to have possessions, wealth, comfort, or beauty. Those can be gifts from the gracious and generous hand of the Father. It really comes down to a matter of trust. If we have been granted those things, do we find our worth, security, and value in them? Though they are not evil in and of themselves, they have great potential to become a snare.

For those believers that don’t have most of or all of those worldly comforts, they may feel restricted by circumstance, overlooked by others, and burdened by daily need. They may be tempted to think that their life carries less dignity, less usefulness, or less value.

But James says, “No—boast in your exaltation.” He can do so only because the gospel has introduced a new reality that the world cannot see. James exhorts the poor to boast (or glory) in their high status in Christ. Boast in what is already yours in Christ. Boast in your adoption. Boast in your inheritance. Boast in the fact that you belong to the King.

It is a little like a child standing outside a massive mansion, dressed plainly, carrying nothing that would impress anyone passing by. To the world, he looks insignificant. But then the front door opens, and someone says, “Come in—this house belongs to your Father.”

In a moment, everything is reinterpreted. His clothing has not changed. His outward appearance has not changed. But his true status is revealed. He is not an outsider. He is a son. And that is James’s point. The lowly believer may appear unimpressive in the eyes of the world, but in Christ he belongs to the household of God, and that changes everything.

In Christ, the believer who is overlooked by the world is honored by the Father, united to the Son, indwelt by the Spirit, and made an heir of everlasting glory.

So, James tells the lowly - boast in the reality that your present lowliness does not define your eternal standing. Scripture teaches that believers even now belong to the heavenly realm as its citizens. We await the Lord from heaven, and we await the day when even our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body. That means this exaltation is both present and future. It is present because the believer is already in Christ, already accepted, already seated with Him in the heavenlies. And it is future because the fullness of that glory is still to come.

To be sure, James is not asking the lowly believer to pretend poverty is pleasant. He is calling him to interpret poverty through the lens of redemption. Humble circumstances are real, but they are not ultimate. The lowly brother is exalted in Christ, and that dignity can never be taken away.

That is James’ word, and therefore God’s Word, to the lowly believer. Next, James shows how understanding the glory of Christ and the eternal inheritance found in Him can reshape the perspective of those who have much. Look at verse 10. James turns to the rich, and his word is just as startling: “Let the rich boast in his humiliation.”

The word there for boast is the same as in verse nine. The word for humiliation means humble or low. So James indeed says that the rich should boast in their low position. Again, we are struck with a seeming contradiction. Those who possess much should boast in their humiliation? What humiliation does the rich experience? Aren’t they normally exalted in our society and often in their own view as well?

So, what does James mean? It is, in part, the rich believer’s recognition that however exalted he may seem in the eyes of the world, his true standing before God is the same as every other Christian: empty-handed, needy, dependent upon mercy. And it is also the rich believer’s identification with Christ, who humbled Himself and was considered of no account by the world. You see the rich believer truly boasts when he rejoices that God, in His mercy, has humbled him, shown him the fragility of earthly abundance, and taught him to rest in Christ rather than in his resources.

A man who rests in his earthly abundance is like a man walking across a frozen lake. The surface looks solid. It seems strong enough to carry him. So, with every step he grows more confident, not realizing that beneath him the ice is thinning. It won’t ultimately hold him.

Earthly abundance - whether monetary, material, or both - often works that way on the soul. It can create the feeling of stability without providing true security. This is because it ultimately cannot reconcile us to God. It cannot calm a guilty conscience. It cannot overcome death. It cannot secure eternal life. It cannot go with us into the next world.

James, in mercy, is warning us not to build our lives on thin ice. Only Christ can bear the full weight of a human soul.

In his commentary on James, Matthew Henry notes: “For this reason James says the rich should boast, not so much in the providence of God, that makes him rich, as in the grace of God, that makes and keeps him humble; and in those trials and exercises that teach him to seek his felicity [source of happiness] in and from God, and not from these perishing enjoyments.”

You see there in the second part of verse 10 James gives further explanation of what he means. He says riches are like the flower of the grass. James almost certainly echoes Isaiah’s reminder that all flesh is grass and all its glory like the flower of the field.

For a moment they appear strong, beautiful, enviable, even permanent. Then the sun rises, the heat scorches, the flower falls, and its beauty perishes. The flower may look impressive in the cool of the morning, but under the scorching heat—or even the desert wind—it withers suddenly. It is like the pansies that we set out on the porch.

What James is striving to convey to his original audience and us is the transitory nature of worldly wealth. He is warning believers not to rest their confidence on what cannot endure.

Again, I want us to be clear here. James is not condemning possession itself. Scripture never teaches that grace and wealth are absolutely incompatible. There are believers in Scripture who possessed much. The issue is not possession but trust. The issue is not whether one has resources, but whether those resources have captured the heart.

The rich believer is therefore called to boast, not in abundance, but in humiliation—in the humbling grace that teaches him he is no less needy before God than the poorest saint. Every Christian comes to God spiritually bankrupt. Every Christian stands by mercy alone. Every Christian is saved, not by accumulated resources, but by the riches of Christ. And that means wealth must never be allowed to become a rival savior. It must be held loosely, stewarded humbly, and viewed honestly as something temporary.

What we realize is that both commands become clear when we see them in light of the person Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:6-11 captures this truth very well. Listen to what the apostle Paul says about Christ - 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In His humiliation, Christ entered our weakness, our sorrow, and our lowliness. In His exaltation He secured glory for His people and opened the way into an eternal kingdom. So, whether a believer has little or much in this life, his truest identity is found in Christ and not in the shifting conditions of the moment.

That reality must minister to us no matter where we find ourselves on the earthly treasure scale. So the question for us is not simply, “Do I have much?” or “Do I have little?”

The deeper question is, “What am I boasting in? What is giving me my sense of worth? What am I trusting to tell me that I matter and that I am safe?”

If we have little, we must not conclude that we are forgotten. If we have much, we must not conclude that we are secure. In every condition, faith learns to boast in Christ. The poor look up and rejoice in their exaltation in Him. The rich look down and rejoice in their humiliation before Him.

So let us hold the things of this world with open hands. Let us receive humble circumstances without despair and prosperous circumstances without pride. And let us ask God for grace to see what James wants us to see: that in Christ, the lowly are lifted, the proud are humbled, and what is eternal has already begun.

Boast, then, in what does not fade. Boast in Christ.

Let us pray.