277 THE IMPLICATIONS GRACE THE ETHICS JAMES OF FOR OF God’s sheer munificence but also unlocks the idea that God does not expect his people to have wisdom except as a gift from him. God does not condemn the petitioner for their lack of wisdom; instead he generously gives the very thing that they need in order to become mature and complete (1,4). The warning to the doubter that follows in 1,6-8 makes clear how im- portant this aspect of God’s character is. To hesitate when requesting what God wants one to have shows either doubt in his character as generous or vacillation regarding the value of wisdom, and this does not please God. The diakrinomenov stands in direct opposition to God’s nature as aplwv, ¥ Ω˜ failing to recognize the basic generosity of God’s nature. While God seeks to give to his people everything that they need to please him, those who doubt, like those who are friends with the world (4,4), reveal their uncertainty regarding whether they want to please God, and thus cut themselves off from the help he willingly gives. Having clearly specified God’s generous nature here, and having also issued a warning to those who doubt God’s unstinting generosity, the warning against deception in 1,16 makes even greater sense, because it is followed with yet another expression of God’s munificence. As with the warning against doubt in 1,6, v. 16 implies the soteriological significance of this deception. Failure to understand God’s nature as it is revealed in vv. 17 and 18 can lead to a complete failure to receive his gifts, of which salvation is paramount. James 1,17-18 may be the most triumphant statement in James of God’s role in redeeming his people. It begins with a reiteration of the lesson we learned in 1,5 of God’s generosity. The author uses a redundant statement to emphasize this: “every good gift and every perfect giving comes down from above, from the father of lights” 13. In contrast to the desire, sin, and death that bog down the previous verses, we now find that God is the source of every good thing that comes into our lives. As with the double-minded doubters in 1,6-8, James does not want his audience to be confused about what does and does not come from God. God is the source of manifold good, not evil, as James makes perfectly clear with his reiteration of pav : pasa dosiv agauh kaı pan dwrhma teleion, “every ˜ ˜ ¥ ß ù ù˜ ¥ ¥ good giving and every perfect gift”. James emphasizes both in the com- pleteness of God’s giving with the double use of pav and highlights the ˜ gift nature by the synonyms dosiv and dwrhma. This is not the same as ¥ ¥ the reward of endurance in 1,12 (the “crown of life”) but the sum total of See D.J. VERSEPUT, “James 1:17 and the Jewish Morning Prayers”, NT 13 39 (1997) 177-191, for a plausible background for this description of God as the “Father of lights” within Jewish prayers said each morning to thank God for his faithfulness in bringing the new day and his mercy evidenced thereby.