Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17 ESV

What does the final phrase of this verse mean? The ESV footnotes that shadow due to change could also be rendered a shadow of turning. Many of us hear that wording and immediately think of the beloved hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

The hymn certainly gives us the overall intent of the verse, which is why the ESV translates turning into change. But why does the Greek speak of turning as change?

I think of two pictures.

The first is likely what James had in mind as he wrote these words under the guidance of the Spirit. He calls God the Father of lights, which is most likely pointing us to the heavenly lights: the sun, moon, and stars.
While I have only recently become a stargazer, I am developing a delight in mentally tracking the movements of particular stars and constellations each night as they move through the sky. Of course, the sun and moon similarly have their courses to run through the heavens. Thus, the lights are in constant motion above our heads. They are ever shifting. Their shadows are perpetually turning.

Not so with God. The Maker of the great lights is not like them. With Him, there is no variation. No shadow of turning. He is constant. He is consistent.

But there is another picture that James did not likely have in mind but is still worth considering. The Greek word for turning or change is tropes. In classical Greek literature, this word famously appears at the beginning of the Odyssey describing the poem’s main character, Odysseus. Homer calls Odysseus polytropos, a man of many turnings. We could also translate it as “a man of many wiles,” “many twists”, or “many plans.”

The idea is that Odysseus is always turning his mind toward new schemes and strategies. He is always adapting to the situation around him. And while this can be an admirable quality, it also makes him a man of deceit. He becomes whatever the situation requires in order to survive. In other words, there are all kinds of shadows of turning with Odysseus.

As with the heavenly lights, this is a negative picture of what God is like. God is not like the heavens that are constantly moving above our heads and require complex mathematics to calculate their patterns. Nor is He like Odysseus, who is one thing today and another tomorrow. Our God does not change. He has no need to adapt Himself to various circumstances. He is constant and unchanging.

That is good news for us. It means that we can trust Him. When God declares Himself to be “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” He is revealing who He was, who He is, and who He always will be. Let us give thanks that there is no shadow of turning with our God.
Great is His faithfulness!