Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. James 1:8
“He said to me, “You know that you slaves of God are living in a foreign land. For your own city is a long way from this one. If, then,” he said, “you know your own city, where you are about to live, why are you preparing fields, expensive furnishings, buildings, and pointless rooms for yourselves here? Anyone who prepares these things in this city, therefore, cannot return to his own city.
You foolish, double-minded, and miserable person! Do you not understand that all these things belong to another and are under someone else’s control? For the ruler of this city will say, ‘I do not want you living in my city; leave it, because you are not living by my laws.’
And so, you who have fields and houses and many other possessions — when he casts you out, what will you do with your field and house and whatever else you have prepared for yourself? For the ruler of this country rightly says to you, ‘Either live by my laws or leave my country.’ And so what will you do, you who have a law from your own city?
Will you completely renounce your own law for the sake of your fields and whatever else you own, and follow the law of the city you are in now? Take care, because renouncing your law may be contrary to your own interests. For if you want to return to your own city, you will not be welcomed, because you have renounced its law; and you will be shut out of it.
And so take care. Since you are dwelling in a foreign land, fix nothing up for yourself except what is absolutely necessary; and be ready, so that when the master of this city wants to banish you for not adhering to his law, you can leave his city and go to your own, and live according to your own law gladly, suffering no mistreatment.
Take care, then, you who are enslaved to the Lord and have Him in your heart. Do the works of God, remembering His commandments and the promises He made; and trust in Him, because He will do these things, if His commandments are guarded.”
The Shepherd of Hermas 50.1-7, Parable 1 (c. A.D. 70-140) as reported by Bart Ehrman in Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It Into The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) 268-269.
We have now moved to the parables section of The Shepherd of Hermas. Remember work included in the Apostolic Fathers started with visions, then commandments, and concludes with parables.
This excerpt helps us understand what a double-minded person is. As the NLT translates today’s Scripture, “Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”
I am researching the Apostolic Fathers, in part linked to a paper I will deliver in Amsterdam in July on the topic of “Advice from the Apostolic Fathers on Christian Social Engagement in a Hostile World.”
Today’s reading provides really good advice for people who live in hostile settings: “fix nothing up for yourself except what is absolutely necessary.” This enables you to function in an agile manner.
For those in the USA, we pause today on Memorial Day to give thanks for those have served to give us the freedoms we enjoy. And yet, we must maintain our posture of simply, missional living as strangers in a foreign land.
If we are slaves of God, we are double-minded if we live as though USA is our home. We must, in the words of Hermas, take care. Or be mindful to live simply, do the works of God, and keep our trust fixed on Him.
This is where I am on this Memorial Day, pausing to remember God’s faithfulness in biblical times, through church history, and today. And choosing to trust Him for everything in my life, with my family, and my work.