<p>1:17 <i>Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor shifting shadow</i>- Again, James warns us not to err in thinking that God is leading us into sin by stressing that &quot;every good gift and every perfect gift (gift of perfection) is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights&quot; (v.17). The gift that leads to perfection is that of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts to bring us towards the maturity of Christ. This coming down of the &quot;good gift&quot; (cp. &quot;the good word of God&quot;, Heb. 6:5) is parallel with the gift of wisdom in v.5, which gift is further expanded in 3:15-17: &quot;The wisdom that is from above is first pure (cp. &quot;the words of the Lord are pure&quot;; &quot;Your word is very pure&quot;, Ps. 12:6; 119:140), then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits&quot;. Thus the effect of asking for wisdom (1:5) is to be liberally given the gift of responding to the word so that it cultivates a fullness of spiritual fruit in us (1:17; 3:17). The gift of wisdom produces a fullness (&quot;full of...&quot;) of characteristics which recall the moral characteristics of God's Name as declared to Moses: &quot;Merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant (cp. &quot;full of good fruits&quot;) in goodness and truth, keeping mercy...&quot; (Ex. 34:6,7). The R.V. describes Yahweh as a God &quot;full of&quot; these things. Thus the Spirit through developing those characteristics in us leads to God's Name being upon us and God being manifested to us.</p><p>The gift of the Spirit &quot;comes down from the Father&quot;. 'Coming down' is the language of God manifestation- e.g. God &quot;came down&quot; upon Mount Sinai in a mighty theophany; Jesus &quot;came down from Heaven&quot;; God &quot;came down&quot; to destroy Sodom and Babel. It is through the word 'coming down' into our hearts that we are able to manifest God. Thus Jn. 3:5 speaks of being born again (lit. 'from above') by the Spirit. &nbsp;</p><p>&quot;The Father of lights&quot; means that the light within us is from God, by His direct gift. Another connection in this context starts in 1 Jn.1:5: &quot;This then is the message (word) which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all&quot;. The prologue of John's Gospel is closely linked to that of his epistles. The parallel to 1 Jn. 1:5 is Jn. 1:4 &quot;In him (the word) was life, and the life was the light of men&quot;. Thus the Father of lights is the source of the logos-word, which is the gift that can be given to us in our hearts.</p><p>James again puts his finger on the feelings we have in those moments of weakness- there is &quot;no variableness, nor shifting shadow&quot; in the amount of spiritual strength He gives. It is tempting to think that the power of the Spirit does vary, and therefore God&rsquo;s involvement somehow waxes and wanes in our lives, and this affects the likelihood of us overcoming sin. But this is not the case. There is no variableness from His side; any such sensation is solely our fault. There is a subconscious element of doubt within us as to the stability of God; and we need to recognize that and realize that we are wrong and it is we who move from Him and not He from us:<br />- In Num. 23:19 Balaam assures Balak that God will not suddenly give him a different prophetic word after the one he had just given, and that the prophecy he had just given would be surely fulfilled: &quot;God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the Son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?&quot;.<br />- Later Saul thought that the word of God was variable, in that he doubted whether the command to totally destroy the Amalekites still stood. Samuel rebuked him for not &quot;obeying the voice of the Lord... the Strength of Israel will <i>not</i> lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent&quot; (1 Sam.15:22,29).<br />- Mal. 3:6 &quot;I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed&quot;- because of the eternal covenant of grace which God made with Israel.<br />- Titus 1:2,3: &quot;In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised... in... His word through preaching&quot;. &nbsp;</p>