In church this morning, I happened on James 1:18. No, I wasn’t day-dreaming. The Pastor was actually preaching James 1:12-18! I read from my English translation:

• James 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

I immediately latched onto the rendering “sovereign plan.” I suspected this was a bit of an interpretative gloss, so I reached for my tablet to look at what the Greek text had to say. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge the battery, and I had no sooner found the text than the whole thing died. Drat. I plan to ditch the tablet and bring my hardbound UBS-5 to church from now on.

But, that doesn’t matter and you don’t care anyway. What does matter is what on earth James 1:18 is saying, and what that ought to mean for your life, if you’re a Christian. Because I’m an incurable nerd, I came home and translated the verse straightaway. It’s interesting, to say the least.

Here is my pitiful translation, and below are some thoughts I had on this verse: