Sermon Starters: Happy Trials to You

Preached at Mt. Edna Community Life Church, 8-3-25

Scripture: James 1:2-8, 12-15

Introduction

• I haven't gone through many trials, perhaps you have (note relatively minor worries in the vast scheme of things).
• My daughter lost 2 dogs, a cat, and a parakeet in the same year. Still, not the same as being martyred or losing a child.
• This is the anniversary of my mother's death, but she died at 98, father at 87. They both died well, and lived blessed lives.
• Still, the questions arise. Why does God allow so much suffering? Why so much evil? Why do the bad guys win so often? 
• Tim Keller -- We have small pieces of an answer but not really a comprehensively satisfying one. Free will explanation. Satan and demons explanation. We just have to trust that God is in control and that, if we could see everything, we would see that he is in fact good.
• James was stoned in AD62. Jerusalem was in between Roman governors and the high priest jumped at the opportunity.

I. Trials perfect us (1:2).

• This is one of the main answers to why God allows suffering. It can make us stronger. It can help us grow. "No pain, no gain."
• Running. If you're not training, you won't be able to make it on race day. Many times, our reaction to a sudden trial reveals whether we've been training -- by orienting our lives around surrender to God.
• A person who has had an addiction needs to surrender that area of potential temptation every day. So we should be practicing surrender long before the time of trial comes.
• We may, without thinking of it, think of God more as a candy machine than the one we are actually living for.

II. God wants to give us wisdom 1:5.

• He doesn't begrudge us asking. While God (and the Holy Spirit) stand ready to give us wisdom for anything, the context suggests God will particularly give us wisdom when we are in a time of trial.
• "Ask... seek... knock" (Matt. 7). This is "if we ask according to his will" (1 John) and are remaining in him (John 15). That is, our wills are aligned with his. And he gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us (Luke 18).
• If we really want an answer, he will give it. It may not of course be the one we prefer.
• The "double-minded person" is someone who has divided loyalties. They have not been truly surrendered to God but are half loyal, half self-loyal.
• Many of us make the "Corban" move -- we say we have given everything to God but then we decide what to do with "God's" stuff (Mark 7).

III. Sometimes we bring trial on ourselves (1:14-15).

• One reason for trials are bad choices we make.
• 1:14-15 give the anatomy of a sin -- a temptation, a choice, a sin, eventually death.
• As said, one reason we have suffering is because God gives us a choice. Then we experience the consequences.
• God is not being mean when we run into a brick wall. The wall isn't being mean. We made a choice to run into it.
• Give illustration of consequences of sin (e.g., a broken marriage because of sinful choices).

Conclusion

• Let's start getting ready to suffer now.
• Job -- never finds out about Satan's wager. He finally has to trust in a bigger picture he doesn't see.
• God allowed Job to suffer. He didn't direct it in this case.
• The bottom line -- 1 Cor. 10:31 and Col. 3:17 -- living a life fully oriented and surrendered to God

2. James 1:2-27 (Introduction)

James 1:1

Introduction (1:2-27)

• 1:2. Christians are urged to look at trials as something positive, counter-intuitive to human nature of course. It suggests that it was typical at the time for Christians to face trials.
• 1:3. Trials lead to endurance and perfect/make complete the person enduring them... if they endure them.
• 1:5. The mention of wisdom after the mention of trials suggests that what James primarily has in mind is wisdom to endure trials. "Lord, give me the wisdom to know how to endure this time of trial."
• 1:6-8. If you ask for wisdom in a trial, you had better want it. A double-minded person isn't someone who has a doubt. It is someone with divided loyalties.
• 1:9-11. James, like most of the New Testament, has a very negative view of the wealthy. A reversal is coming. The lowly will be exalted. The rich will be humiliated.
• Important cultural background to James' valuation of wealth is the notion of limited good. In our current world, there is a sense that the gross domestic product or the stock market can grow, as it were, out of nothing. In the Mediterranean world, if one person had more, there was a general assumption that someone else had less. As an ancient Arab proverb went, "Every rich person is either a thief or the son of a thief." This perspective may help explain some of the negativity toward wealth in the New Testament.
• 1:12-15. These verses slide from peirasmos as "trial" (1:12) to peirazo as "tempt" (1:13). These are two related but distinct events.
• 1:12. First, there is the idea of trial, which does not have a moral component. Trials bring positive benefits but are not always brought on by an evil person or entity.
• 1:13. God does not tempt anyone. This is an important statement of God's character. God doesn't try to trip people up.
• There are parts of the Old Testament where God does tempt people. God tempts David in 2 Samuel 24:1. But there is perhaps a moment of progressive revelation here. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 is the same event but says that Satan is the one who tempted David. 
• Arguably, the concept of "the Satan" was not known in Israel until after the Babylonian captivity and into the Persian period. Accordingly, the older parts of the Old Testament are less precise and ascribe all events to God's direct agency, his directive will. 
• In the more precise understanding of the later Old Testament and the New Testament, God does not tempt directly but allows temptation, whether by other agents or by human desire itself.
• 1:14-15. Temptation is when human desire draws a person toward an inappropriate object of desire. The desire itself may not actually be bad, such as the human desire for sex. It becomes a temptation for evil when that desire has an inappropriate object.
• Temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted and did not sin (Heb. 4:15). Adam and Eve both had no sinful nature and yet were tempted.
• 1:15. When a person acts on that desire, first mentally and then perhaps physically as well, then it becomes sin.
• 1:16-18. Verse 17 is especially a key verse for James. "Every good gift" comes from above. This contrasts with other possible patrons that might tempt believers. For example, we see a rich person in James 2 who might be a potential patron.
• Patron-client relationships were common in the ancient Mediterranean world. The "haves" gave to the "have nots." The "have nots" did not earn the gift or repay it. However, there often were expectations associated with the gifts, especially a return of honor or perhaps favors.
• 1:18. Christians are first fruits from God. They themselves are gifts from him. Language of the word possibly has Stoic overtones. In Stoicism, each of us have a "word seed" inside us. We will see more of this in 1:21.
• 1:19-21. We get the impression that James is giving us a taste of some of the topics upon which he will expand later in the letter. Here is one--the need to be slow to speak. Chapter 3 will especially build on this idea. Some think that 1:22 is the key verse of the letter.
• 1:20-21. Anger rarely brings about righteousness, even though in itself it is not yet sin (cf. Eph. 4:26).
• 1:21. Here James uses the Stoic language of the implanted word. To Stoics, the world was governed by God's Word, his Logos. It was God's mind, the Reason that governed the world. We each had a seed of this Logos inside us, and we needed to heed it.
• 1:22-27 anticipates chapter 2's discussion of the importance of works. We cannot merely hear the word. He must do it.
• 1:25. The law of liberty is the law of love, mentioned in 2:8.
• 1:27 talks about true religion. True religion takes care of those who are in need. It takes care of orphans and widows.

James 2

James continued...
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In response, James makes it clear who the true Patron of every believer is, "Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (1:16-17). It is difficult to rely on God, who is unseen, when someone is seen right in front of you.

This idea, that God is the one on whom we should rely, arguably stands in the background of the whole book of James. It is there in James 2, when James tells Christians not to show favoritism to the rich and warns them that faith without deeds is about as useful as the faith of demons. In James 3, James tells Christians to rely on the wisdom from above, which will keep them from using their tongue to curse others. In James 4, he warns them about friendship with the world and scolds those who think they can rely on their own plans or earthly riches. He ends his word with encouragement to wait on the Lord, to have faith in prayer, and to help those who have strayed to return.

James thus draws a sharp distinction between the world and reliance on the world and reliance on God. Wealth, greed, selfish ambition, living for pleasure, envy--these are worldly attitudes that lead to fighting and division. By contrast, Christians should be "quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (Jas. 1:19). They should submit to God as the one who is the only true Judge and Lawgiver (4:12).
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This is feeling very dry and boring to me. Feels like a bad start... may need to start over.

James - The Living Church 1

The final book in my "Life Lessons from..." series is The Church Moving Forward, which covers Hebrews through Revelation. So far in the series is:

• Paul: Messenger of Grace (Corinthians, Galatians, Thessalonians, Philippians)
• Paul: Soldier of Peace (Romans)
• Paul: Prisoner of Hope (Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, Pastorals)
• Jesus: The Mission (the essence of Jesus)
• Jesus: Portraits of the Gospels (the special themes of the Gospel authors)
• The Church: Acts (in the pipe)

So this manuscript is due July 1. May as well start today...
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For many, the book of James is their favorite book in the Bible. It is a book of wisdom, the Proverbs of the New Testament. It provides us with numerous tidbits of wisdom for everyday living that jump across the pages of history from the first century to today.

From its opening verses, we see a worldwide movement under pressure. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds" (Jas. 1:2). James addresses "the twelve tribes, scattered among the nations" (1:1). [1] The implication is that believers are facing trials all throughout the world. [2]

Although James addresses the twelve tribes (of Israel), he is probably thinking that Gentile believers have already been incorporated into the people of God. After all, there is nothing distinctively Jewish in the book of James. [3] It is hard to find any truths in James that are tied down by the world of first century Jerusalem or uniquely Jewish issues.

We should also not think that the Romans had some world-wide policy against Christians. Christians weren't nearly that significant to them at this point. The trials to which James points, interestingly, do not come from the government or "the Jews." It is true that James himself met his death at the hands of the high priest of Jerusalem, sometime around the year AD62. [4] But there is no clear reference to the Sanhedrin or the Jerusalem establishment in this letter. [5]

No, the trials of James come from within, or at least close. It is the wealthy who are the persecutors, probably patrons within synagogues and churches. [6] "Is it not the the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?" (2:6-7).

In response, James makes it clear who the true Patron of every believer is, "Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (1:16-17)...

[1] James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude are sometimes called the "General Letters," "General Epistles," or even the "Catholic Epistles" because they do not address a specific audience. The earliest meaning of the word "catholic" was "universal."

[2]Some have suggested that the book of James is more a collection of James’ wisdom than a unified letter, in which case it would not necessarily picture a single, worldwide situation.

[3] Interestingly, Paul's letters deal more with distinctively Jewish issues than James does. We tend to miss this fact because we often function with an already universalized version of the early church.

[4] Mentioned in the Jewish historian Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews 20.199-203.

[5] Indeed, the very language of the letter, Greek, points away from the Aramaic-speaking world of Jerusalem.

[6] Although versions usually translate James 2:2 with a word like "meeting" (NIV, CEB) or "assembly" (NRSV, ESV), the Greek word is actually synagōgē.  These are not bad translations, but it is worth pointing out the actual word.

Scot McKnight's new James commentary

My first, unthinking thought was, "Yeah, I can use that when I teach General Epistles..."



My next thought was... "Oh, that's right, I'm an administrator now." ;-)

Explanatory Notes: James 2:14-26

2:14 What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone should say to have faith but should not have works? The faith is not able to save him, is it?
Works for James, as we have already seen, have to do with what we traditionally think of as "good works," helping those in need like the poor, widows, and orphans (1:27). We have seen thus far a significant concern on James' part that leaders not pander to wealthy patrons but that they instead love their neighbor who is in need, the poor in their community. In this well known section, James continues the theme of hearing and not doing that he began in chapter 1:22-27.

Those who say they have faith but no works to prove it are like those who are hearers of the word but not doers. James here makes it clear that such a person will not be saved, will not escape condemnation on the day of judgment. Faith alone, understood as a mere assent to certain beliefs, is inadequate to save.

2:15-17 If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food and someone of you should say to them, "Go in peace. Be warm and fed," and you do not give them the needs of the body, what is the benefit? So also faith, if it should not have works, is dead by itself.
Here we see by example what James understands by "works." Works are the kinds of things that Matthew mentions in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt. 25:31-46): welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty. The rich person James has mentioned in 1:9-11 and 2:2-7 has the resources to help those in need but does not do so. Leaders in the community might be able to help those in need, and James' exhortation is surely directed primarily at them.

Faith without works is dead, like a body without a spirit. It is of no use. It does not do anything.

2:18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
The original Greek of this verse presents some complications. Ancient Greek largely did not use punctuation, including quotation marks, so scholars debate exactly where the quote ends and what the precise nature of the question is. By far we believe the above punctuation is most likely.

James' imaginary conversation partner simply claims to be a different person, one that has faith but who does not do works. James is a different type of person, one who does works. James somewhat mockingly, without completely denying the other person's "faith," points out the ironic that his faith shows in his works. The other person's faith, on the other hand, is dead faith.

2:19 You have faith that God is one. You are doing well. The demons also have faith and they tremble.
One disadvantage of reading the Bible in English is that you cannot see the similarities between various words. In English, the word faith and the word believe look quite different, and we might strongly distinguish them. But in Greek, these are varying meanings of the same word, the pist- root. Since we believe James is talking here about an inadequate faith rather than something that is not faith at all, we have chosen to translate accordingly.

The person James is indicting says that they have faith without works. The demons, James points out, have this level of faith. This is a mere belief that does not impact one's life. It is a mere assent with one's head without any real investment with one's heart. You believe that God is one, the affirmation of the Jewish Shema. Any mainstream Jew might affirm such a thing. The rich Jewish patron visiting your small Christian Jewish gathering would.

But this level of faith is no different than the amount of faith that the demons have, and they are still facing the judgment. And so will those within the community whose faith goes no further than mere assent to certain beliefs.

2:20 Do you want to know, O foolish person, that faith without works is ineffective?
This verse repeats the idea that faith without works is dead from 2:17 in a slightly different way. James uses a word play difficult to translate into English--faith without works (erga) is useless (arga). Those who think they are okay simply because they believe with their heads are foolish.

2:21 Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works after he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
From this point on in the chapter, we increasingly begin to sense that James is interacting with Pauline tradition in some form. We do not believe that James' thinking here actually contradicts Paul's thought, even though on some levels it may sound as if it does. Indeed, Paul and James did likely disagree on some issues as we play out the principles of their comments. Even further, they probably thought they disagreed! But nothing that has made it into the biblical text itself seems irreconcilable between the two.

James is still arguing that the faith that counts before God is a faith that issues forth in obedience and action. Paul certainly agreed with this idea as well. Here James brings up the well known story of Genesis 22 in which God tells Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, and Abraham obeys until God releases him.

2:22 You see that faith was working together with his works and faith was completed through works.
Again, this statement does not seem to contradict Paul's theology. Paul knew nothing of a faith in Jesus as Lord that did not result in the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, and so forth (Gal. 5:22-23). Ephesians 2:8, the classic "justification by grace through faith" verse, is immediately followed in 2:9 with the observation that "we were created for good works in Christ." Paul's theology may be more precise in the mechanism of justification, but the "product," what real faith looks like, is the same for both. Both faith and works are necessary to have the full package. They go together.

2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "And Abraham had faith in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called "a friend of God."
It is this verse more than any other that makes it very difficult to argue that James is not interacting with some type of Pauline tradition. This verse in Genesis 15:6 is a key passage in Paul's arguments for justification by faith (e.g., Gal. 3:6; Rom. 4:3). James is clearly responding to a "faith only" position of some kind, although not really to Paul's actual position on these issues.

Some have thus argued that James is writing very early, perhaps even earliest of any New Testament writing. In this scenario, James has only heard rumors of Paul's teaching and so does not quite have him right. One might note that James urges Paul to remember the poor in Galatians 2:10 when they finally did have a chance to talk at length.

Alternatively, one might argue that James is late, a generalized version of the historical James' own emphases in response to a perversion of Paul's teaching that arose after his death. While it is true that Paul did at points seem to point out that all justification is a matter of grace--that no one could truly earn God's favor--most of Paul's discussion of justification centers around works of Law rather than works in general. That is to say, when Paul argued against justification by works of Law, he was primarily arguing that matters like circumcision, food laws, and sabbath observance could not make a Jew right with God in themselves. Only the faithful death of Christ could bring about true justification.

In either case, James is not addressing the real point of debate between Paul and James during the central time of their disagreement. Their real point of disagreement centered on whether Jewish Christians were justified both by the faithful and necessary death of Christ and by their faithfulness to God's covenant with Israel, which of course included keeping the Jewish particulars we mentioned above. They also disagreed apparently on what Jewish and Gentile believers needed to do to eat with each other.

But none of these issues are at all in view in this section of James, probably implying that James as it stands is either very early or that it embodies the carrying forth of James' voice to address a post-Pauline situation. In either case, there is no substantial disagreement between the theology of the two as it is found in the New Testament.

2:24 See that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
It was no doubt this verse more than any other that got Luther's goat, seeing that for him Paul was the champion of justification by faith alone. We now recognize that this was a slight misunderstanding of Paul's own teaching. Paul nowhere say that justification is by faith alone. Romans 3:28 comes closest with its very close statement that "a person is justified by faith and not by works of Law." But even though the wording is so close as to make one wonder if James 2:24 is a direct response to Romans 3:28, the two statements are quite different in sense and do not contradict.

First, as we have mentioned above, works in this section of Romans primarily has in view those aspects of the Jewish Law that distinguished Jew from Gentile--circumcision, food laws, etc. James, on the other hand, has works like helping the poor and needy. Paul believes that authentic faith results in these sorts of concerns as well. Indeed, in some ways, the empty faith James is targeting is much like the "teacher of the Law" Paul also targets in Romans 2:21-23. This person is also a hearer of the Law who is not a doer.

A second observation is that justification by faith for Paul may very well focus firstly on the faith of Jesus himself, his faithfulness to the point of death. In that sense, justification by faith for Paul is in the first instance justification by the faith that Jesus showed to the point of dying on the cross to atone for sins.

Finally, works do play a role for Paul as well in final justification before God on the Day of Judgment (e.g., Rom. 2:6-10; 2 Cor. 5:10). One cannot earn a righteous status before God (Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:20), but once one has been justified from past sins, works are required of a believer in order for a person to be justified finally (e.g., Rom. 3:31). These works are brought forth in Paul's thought by the power of the Holy Spirit (e.g., Rom. 8:1-11).

Biblical theologians have worked hard to work out a consistency in Paul's thought here. The nicest option is of course to say that for Paul, works result after justification by faith so that one is not strictly justified finally by works at all but that authentic faith will have works. Nevertheless, the basic points in Paul's thinking remain. There will be some evaluation of believers' works on the Day of Judgment, with the possibility of judgment. It is apparently even possible not to get the prize of eternal life after having been earlier justified through the blood of Christ (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:27; Phil. 3:10-14). Yet despite these necessities, one cannot be good enough to earn acceptance before God. Christ's faithful death is the essential prerequisite.

Paul never says that we are justified by faith alone. This is a slight modification of Paul's own view. James therefore does not in any way contradict Paul himself, although it might contradict Luther and Calvin's understanding of Paul.

2:25 And similarly was not Rahab the prostitute also justified because she welcomed the messengers and sent them out a different way?
It is not clear why James would use Rahab as an example of justification by works. Perhaps it is because Rahab was a person whose "faith" in itself might be questioned. Rahab, in that sense, might very well serve as an example of the justification of a non-Jew. She perhaps did not start out with the faith that "God is one," but she treated Israel properly. Is this a thinly veiled exhortation to Gentile believers to show kindness toward lesser fortunate Jewish believers?

2:26 For just as the body is dead without spirit, so also faith without works is dead.
And thus James ends this section with a generalization of what he has been discussing. Faith without works is not living faith. It is dead faith, like a corpse. Faith that is worth anything is faith that issues in material help for those in need.

Scholarship Starters: James 2:6

If I were a different person in a different life, I would try to publish these ideas, but alas, it takes so much work to write and article and my life is overfull.

I don't know if anyone has seriously suggested what I did in my explanatory notes Tuesday, that the situation in the first part of James 2 is a Christian Jewish subgroup of a larger synagogue and that the rich person is a wealthy Jewish patron from the larger Jewish community. The idea holds a lot of promise as it reflects new perspectives on Judaism and integrates new social scientific perspectives on the Mediterranean world. It would be a lovely contribution to scholarship on James.

If you beat me to it, which alas almost anyone could, remember me when you come into your footnotes. You can say you got the idea from Ken Schenck in private conversation, to save you the embarrassment of trying to publish something scholarly with a footnote referencing a blog :-) And of course if you'd like to have a private conversation, you know how to get hold of me...

Explanatory Notes: James 2:1-13

We now have finished going through James 2 in General Epistles class... some notes on the first part:
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2:1 My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with favoritism.
If "faith" in this verse has anything like the meaning it will have later in the chapter, it probably refers to a set of beliefs relating to Jesus Christ, presumably having to do with the fact that he is the glorious Lord, the king of the Jews. This faith regarding Jesus entails significant consequences for life, one of which is not to show favoritism toward others, particularly because of their wealth or poverty. James will get to the royal law of love later in this section, a law that favoritism directly contradicts.

2:2-4 For if a gold-ringed man with splendid clothing should come into your gathering (synagoge), and a poor [person] should also enter with dirty clothes, and you should look on the one wearing the splendid clothing and should say, "You, sit here well," and to the poor [person] you should say, "You, stand there or sit at my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become enacters (kritai) of evil thoughts?
The situation James has in mind is at first glance fairly easy to picture. A group of believers are gathered and two individuals enter the gathering. A fine seat is given to a wealthy person while a poor person is made subservient even to the seater. Such a practice, while natural enough in terms of typical human favoritism toward wealthy patrons, is to be rejected by those with faith in Jesus as Lord, who follow the kingdom law of love.

However, beyond this basic understanding, questions arise. Exactly what kind of a gathering is pictured and is this rich person a part of it? James calls the meeting a "synagoge," which need not refer to a synagogue building as we think of synagogues, but could simply mean a worship meeting. Since James is writing to "the twelve tribes in the Diaspora" (1:1) and James is usually associated with Jewish Christianity, it is reasonable to see a largely Christian Jewish gathering or "synagogue" in view here, perhaps even a "cell group" that is part of a larger Jewish gathering/synagogue.

It is thus reasonable to see the rich person in question as a wealthy Jew, a patron of a larger Jewish community and somewhat of an outsider to the Christian Jews in mind. This person would be like the wealthy person of 1:10, ambiguous in relation to the "brotherhood" and more likely destined to pass away like the grass of the field.

Regardless of whether we understand James himself writing this letter, the letter as a collection of James' general teaching, or a pseudonymous conveyance of James' authority to a later context, we surely must see the situation here as one that was all to common throughout Greek-speaking Jewish Christian communities in the Mediterranean as subsets of broader Jewish communities established their own Christian identity within Judaism. It seems much more difficult to think that James has some more specific context in mind, since the letter does not present itself in that way. One way or another, James presents itself as the voice of James to the broader Greek-speaking Jewish Christian world.

2:5 Hear, my beloved brothers. Has God not chosen the poor in the world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He promised to those who love Him?
We are reminded of the teaching of Jesus presented in Luke's Sermon on the Plain--"Blessed are you poor... woe to you rich" (Luke 6:20, 24)--and in Matthew's more spiritualized Sermon on the Mount--"Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3). Matthew, Luke, and James alike have little good to say about the rich and little hope to hold out to them. Here it is important to keep in mind that the ancient world was not a monetary economy but primarily an agrarian one with a sense of "limited good."

The idea of limited good is that there is a finite amount of goods in the world. Prosperity is thus a "zero-sum" game. There are only so many olives in the world and if one person has more then it follows naturally that someone else has less. There are only so many to go around. We can thus understand the later Arab proverb, "Every rich person is either a thief or the son of a thief."

In the world of Jesus and James, therefore, those who are wealthy in the Jewish community have almost certainly come to such wealth by depriving others of what should be theirs. One has become richer with the consequence that another has become poorer. Divine justice thus entails that the rich will be brought low and the poor will be restored.

The kingdom thus involves a reversal of fortune. "You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matt. 6:24). The kingdom is thus for those who love God, which by its very nature implies that one does not love worldly possessions.

2:6-7 But you dishonor the poor [person]. Are not the rich oppressing you and they themselves dragging you into court? Do not they themselves blaspheme the good name that has been invoked over you?
The audience seems to be located somewhere in the middle, neither displaced from its inherited place in the world to become poor or inflated beyond its inherited place to become rich. While James thus applies to all believers, it seems directed as much at the leaders and teachers of 3:1 who can make decisions, as to everyone in a gathering. James is primarily directed at those in a Jewish Christian gathering who can do the seating!

The picture of these wealthy visitors blaspheming the name of Christ (presumably) confirms that they are not truly believers. Again, the most plausible scenario is that these are wealthy patrons within broader Jewish communities who retain significant influence over Christian Jews who are a subset of the community. The possibility of dragging them into court may speak of financial obligations.

The question of Christ's name being invoked over a person would naturally apply either to a baptismal setting or the laying on of hands. The former would presumably apply to all believers, while the latter would apply more to leaders set apart. It seems impossible to know for certain which James might have in mind.

2:8-9 If indeed you complete the royal law according to the Scripture--"You will love your neighbor as yourself"--you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you are doing sin, being proven by the Law as transgressors.
It is striking that in such diverse New Testament writings as Matthew 22, Romans 13, Galatians 3, James 2, and 1 John 4, we find the recurring sense that "love of neighbor" summarizes the Christian ethic of behavior toward our fellow human on earth. This common tradition thus very likely goes back to Jesus himself.

The fact that James does not engage in the concrete particulars of the Jewish Law is sometimes used to argue for a setting after the historical James' lifetime for the letter. The argument is that discussions of the Law would surely have a more concrete Jewish flavor, especially given the picture of James in Galatians 2 and James' apparent engagement with Pauline teaching later in this chapter. Nevertheless, such an essential focus is highly appropriate for such a general, catholic letter, especially one aimed at Greek-speaking Christian Jews scattered throughout the world. The concerns of James seem not unlike those of other books like Sirach or Tobit that are not focused on the kinds of purity issues that separated Jew and Gentile. Those concerns may have dominated a particular window of time in the Jerusalem church, but probably were not major concerns for Diaspora Christian Jews at large.

James agrees that the essence of kingdom law, the "royal" law, is not that which separates Jew from Gentile but the very heart of the Law: love of one's neighbor. We have every reason to beleive that James and Paul fundamentally agreed on this point, despite any differences they might have had around the edges of the expanding church. If sin is violation of the Law, then the person who shows favoritism is a transgressor, a law-breaker, no matter how well they might follow the Law's Jewish particulars.

2:10=11 For whoever should keep the whole Law but fail in one [area] has become guilty of all [parts]. For the one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." And if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of law.
These statements sound strangely Pauline. Underlying these statements would seem to be the idea that the entire Law is summed up in "Love your neighbor as yourself." The prohibition of adultery is a playing out of that kingdom law no less than the prohibition of murder. Those who do any one of these things is thus guilty of the entire Law for they have not loved their neighbor.

2:12-13 So be speaking and so be doing as [those] about to be judged by the law of freedom, for judgment is without mercy for those who do not show mercy. Mercy has a boast over judgment.
Once again, we might rather expect such statements to come from the mouth of Paul as from the mouth of James. The "law of freedom" is presumably the law of the kingdom of God, a law that focuses on the essentials of loving one's neighbor rather than the bondage some Jews laid on other Jews in that day. The law of freedom is the law of love and it is a law oriented around mercy rather than judgment. We are reminded again of Jesus' teaching, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy" (Matt. 5:7), and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt. 18). In terms of how humans are to relate to each other on earth, mercy is always preferable to justice or condemnation.

Explanatory Notes: James 1:5-27

I probably shouldn't have spent the time to do this, but here are some notes from this time through James 1 in my General Epistles class.
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1:5 And if someone of you lacks wisdom, let [that one] ask from the God who gives to all generously and who does not reproach and it will be given to him.
Because this verse follows right on the heals of endurance in trial, it seems likely that the wisdom in question is wisdom when one is undergoing trial. We can certainly imagine that God offers wisdom freely in general as well, and some do think James gives disconnected proverbs such that we should not necessarily connect this verse with the one that precedes. But all in all, such a connection seems likely.

God does not rebuke a person for asking for such wisdom, but generously provides it to each who asks, that is, given the caveat that follows.

1:6-8 But let [that one] ask in faith, doubting not at all, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea being blown and tossed. For do not let that person think s/he will receive something from the Lord--a "two souled" person, unstable in all his ways.
We should not take doubting here in some modern, highly introspective sense. James is referring to a person of divided loyalties who does not entirely want God's wisdom to endure trial. This person has not fully made up his or her mind to serve the "Lord," which may possibly refer to God rather than Jesus, given that God has been the referrent in the immediately preceding verses and 1:17 will speak of God as the giver of every perfect gift.

God thus does not grant wisdom in trial to those who are not committed to enduring trial for the Lord. This is an unstable person, a person of "two souls," two minds

1:9-10 Now let the humble brother boast in his height and the rich [person] in his humiliation, because as a blade of grass [he] will disappear.
We can debate over whether the rich person pictured here is a brother or not. Certainly the parallel between the first line, where the poor or humble person is a brother might lead in this direction. However, perhaps it is significant that James does not specify what kind of rich individual this is. Perhaps, as in chapter 2, James has in mind a person associated with a believing community but about whom it can be questioned whether they are truly brothers.

James has nothing positive to say about a rich person whatsoever and looks to an eventual reversal of fortune. The lowly person today who is in troubled circumstances and trials, will find themselves eventually find themselves blessed. Meanwhile, the rich person who appears to have power and good circumstances today will find their status and comfort pass away on the day of judgment.

1:11 For the sun rises with heat and it dries the grass and its blade falls off and the beauty of its face perishes--so also the rich person will wither away in his pursuits.
The verbs in this verse are in the aorist tense, which we have long thought of as normally referring to events in the past. Stanley Porter has argued that these aorists show that aorist tense is not about past time but about undefined action. On the other hand, perhaps the influence of Aramaic is in play here.

Such statements seem to fit well a Palestinian agrarian setting and seem very fitting on the lips of a James, whether James directly writes them or they are James tradition being passed along in Greek by someone else. The statement on the rich person withering away in his pursuits reminds us of the indictment of the rich James makes at the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5. We are also reminded of the parable of Luke about the rich person who has big plans but whose life is taken before he can see them through.

1:12 Blessed is the person who endures trial, because having become approved, [that person] will receive a crown of life which [God] promised to those who love Him.
This verse reveals that the idea of perseverence during trial has never left James' mind. Here we find some of the specifics of what endurance actually leads to. 1:4 had mentioned that trials built to endurance, but it did not say what the reward of endurance was. Here we see that the reward is a crown of life, presumably eternal life. James does not say here exactly where believers will enjoy that life but it is promised to those who love God.

1:13 Let no one say when being tried, "I am being tempted by God." For God is untemptable with evil and He himself tempts no one.
James shifts at some point from talking about trials to talking about temptations, perhaps temptations in particular that are brought on through trials. The previous verse clearly is talking about trials. But the same word can also mean "temptation," and at least by the second use of the word in this verse, James has shifted to the topic of temptation.

When we are speaking in ordinary language, we shift between various meanings of a word with ease, often without even noticing we are doing it. The context usually makes it clear what meaning we have in mind. Good English translations of the Bible do the same for us. They translate the same word differently as appropriate so that we do not even realize we are dealing with the same word in Greek.

We have translated the first instance of peirazo in 1:13 as "being tried" to keep continuity with the previous verse. An audience would as yet have had no reason to think of a different sense of the word. But the second instance begins to blur into "being tempted," a sense that is clear by the end of the verse and in the verse that follows below.

James represents movement in thought from early parts of the Old Testament where God is actually said to send evil spirits on people like Saul (1 Sam. 16:14). But James holds that God does not tempt people to do evil in addition to the fact that God himself is not tempted by evil.

1:14-15 But each person is tempted, being dragged away and enticed by his/her own desire. Then desire, having conceived, bears sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
Although in other contexts one might speak of Satan tempting a person, in James temptation is discussed in terms of one's desires. One desires something that one should not have. Interestingly, James does not equate this desire with sin. Sin is what results when one pursues that desire or lets that desire take its course. Similarly, when sin has run its full course, it will lead to death. James does not specify whether spiritual or physical death is in view, so it is best to leave the nature of such death unspecified.

1:16-17 Do not err, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every complete gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or turning shadow.
If we are to see some continuity in the train of thought, we can connect the trials that were first mentioned in 1:2 with the rich of verse 10 and 11, with the need for wisdom on the part of the troubled and distressed (1:5) and the temptation of 1:13-14. One temptation in such circumstances, as we will see in chapter 2, is to rely on the patronage of the rich. One desires what material resources can offer and is tempted under trial.

But in what is at least a key verse for James, James makes clear who the real and ultimate Patron for the believer is. It is God, the Father, from whom every good and perfect gift truly comes. Such gifts do not come from earthly patrons or the earthly rich. Such individuals not only vary with their own whim and fancy, not only turn like the shadow on a sundial. Such individuals will soon pass away, and those who depend on their patronage will only die.

In some ways, therefore, 1:17 plays itself out in much of the rest of James.

1:18 Having been wanted, He gave birth to us through the word of truth in order that we might might be a certain first fruit of His creations.
Whether James is conscious of it or not, the use of logos or "word" imagery in this verse in the next bears significant Stoic overtones. If so, such Hellenistic imagery generally points away from James himself as the person responsible for the current wording of the book. However, such language would not disprove that James coined these particular words. It is impossible to say what currents in language made their way where and at what time. Language can come from a particular tradition without the user of that language even knowing where it came from.

In Stoic thought, there is a close connection between God's word inside of us and seed imagery. The Stoics believed that we all had word implanted in us, logos seeds. The wise person lived in accordance with that word, for the word inside us was in sync with the divine Word or Reason that governed all things.

The idea that James' audience might be the first fruits of God's creation implies some sort of theology of new creation. The audience would be part of the first generation, in effect, because the word of truth had only of late come and been implanted.

1:19-20 Look, my beloved brothers, even let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of a person does not bring about the righteousness of God.
If 1:17 serves in some ways as a general statement that plays out in the rest of James, 1:19 does as well. Many scholars would suggest that the introduction of James ends with 1:18 and that 1:19 actually begins the body of the letter. The vocative, "my beloved brothers" might thus serve as an indicator that a new section of the letter is beginning. 1:19 does not of course play out neatly in the rest of the letter, and we are reminded that many think that James has no clear literary structure.

The idea of being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger would apply particularly to leaders of Christian gatherings, as is played out especially in chapter 3. It might also apply to the rich, although throughout James such individuals are spoken of as outsiders. The letter is thus directed more at Christian Jewish leaders and the poor.

Anger does not bring about righteousness, the righteousness that typifies God. The phrase, "the righteousness of God" sometimes in Judaism seems to have referred to the fact that God is righteous. This is the sense it primarily seems to have in writings of Paul like Romans. However, its sense here seems to be righteous acts that God expects such as helping those in need such as the poor, orphans, and widows. Anger toward others does not naturally lead to these sorts of righteous acts, a warning perhaps to leaders.

1:21 Therefore, putting off all filth and the abundance of wickedness, with humility, receive the implanted word that is able to save your lives.
In contrast to those who are quick to speak and to anger at the actions of others, James tells Christian leaders and believers in general to put off their own filth and wickedness. To let the word, the logos seed that is implanted within them, to bring forth the appropriate fruit, the righteousness of God. Heeding this word will end in salvation on the Day of Judgment and their lives will be saved.

The word we translate here as "lives" can at times be translated as "souls." However, that word has particular somewhat Platonic connotations for us that are not the prevalent way the word is used in the New Testament. It would seem more appropriate to go with the more Semitic use of the word in reference to a life.

1:22-24 Become doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves, because if someone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this person is like a person looking at his birth face in a mirror, for he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets of what sort he was.
This theme of being leading to doing will strongly occupy the second half of James 2. The problem James addressed 2000 years ago is somehow strangely familiar, the person who hears God's word but who somehow manages to go forth unaffected, the teacher who is quite good at talking but does not live what they teach, the person who believes the right things but whose beliefs somehow do not make it to life. The imagery of a mirror is not entirely clear, but the overall sense seems once again to be a person who can see what they are--or at least are supposed to be--but who does not live in accordance to their birth.

1:25 But the one who looks into the complete law of freedom and who remains [in it], having become not a hearer of forgetfulness but a doer of work, this person will be blessed in his doing.
The parallel seems to be between the mirror that shows us what we should be according to the word of God and the perfect law of freedom. In other words, the law of freedom is indeed who we are in accordance with the word of God. The next chapter will speak of the "royal law of love," and it is reasonable to think this is what James has in mind here as well.

The doing that we are to do in accordance with who we are is thus love in action, which of course constitutes the righteous acts of God, whose content will become particularly apparent in 1:27.

1:26 If someone seems to be religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is foolish.
This verse returns to the theme of being slow to speak and anticipates James 3. Certainly this "proverb" is true in its own right. But if we are to read it somehow in the context, perhaps we should best take it of someone who is a leader or teacher but whose words do not match his or her actions. This person's talk does not match their walk. Their faith does not match their action.

1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to look over orphans and widows in their trouble, to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Here is James as it is best known, a letter about the gospel with feet. What is true worship of God? Religion here does not have the sense of a system of faith or belief but more what some used to mean when they talked about "getting religion." True religion takes care of those in need.

Orphans and widows would have especially fit into this category in the ancient world. There was no social security or welfare system to take care of such people, no jobs for a widow to get to support her children. Such groups were entirely dependent on the generosity of others. By contrast, the world here likely has the same connotations of wealth and those comforts an orientation around such things might afford.

Explanatory Notes: James 1:2-4

1:2 Consider it to be all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various testings,
The word for "testings" might also be translated "temptations," and the word clearly seems to take on this nuance in 1:12. But it is hard not to distinguish the meaning here from the later meaning. 1:2 seems to be broader than temptation per se and refer to challenges to endurance in general.

As good proverbial wisdom, these words have a generally universal application. Testing is displeasurable, but it can actually make us stronger and more mature. Depending on when James was written, of course, some specific period of testing might have been in view. Paul speaks of resistance against believers in Judea (e.g., 1 Thess. 2:14). It is hard to know whether things worsened for believers in Jerusalem in the decade leading up to the Jewish War, which started in AD66.

At the same time, if James is meant to convey what James would say if he were here, rather than what he did say, then it is at least conceivable that the statement could allude to the misfortunes of Israel around AD70, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. However, the statement really does not have any clear, concrete referent and would apply in any context.

1:3-4 ...knowing that the proving of your faith brings about endurance. And let endurance have its complete effect, with the result that you are complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
Faith here has a robust sense, unlike the shallow sense James will give the word in 2:14. Faith here is a faith that endures testing and thus is proved to be true faith. As James says later, "I will show you my faith by my works" (2:18). Do you really believe? Testing will show us.

The principle that facing resistance results in strengthening is a well known principle, especially in our age of sports training and exercise. A muscle that is not used becomes flabby and useless. Only by working the muscle does it become stronger. So testing not only shows how strong faith already is. It also strengthens it.

James 1 anticipates most of the themes that appear later in the book. The theme of testing in James largely appears in relation to the troubles brought on by the wealthy. James 2:6, for example, mentions the rich dragging the audience into court. James 4:13-5:6 also has some of the harshest words toward the rich in the New Testament.

The word for "complete" might also be translated as "perfect" or "mature." However, the word perfect is almost unintelligible to a contemporary audience, since it is inevitably taken to mean some sort of absolute perfection without any fault. The word mature similarly seems to fall short of the fullness the word seems to imply. Testing helps make a person complete to where they lack nothing and are a whole believer.

Dunn's Beginning from Jerusalem 18.2

Last week I started what will almost certainly be a long and yet incomplete read through James Dunn's Beginning from Jerusalem. For the full deal, Nijay Gupta's your person.

For what I've done so far:

1.1 Defining Terms

This week I skip almost to the end of his massive tome to Dunn's section on the book of James. I am teaching James this Fall and doing some explanatory notes on the side on it. And I find it so hard to read a book from beginning to end. Jumping around helps hold my attention and then I can force myself to endure the boring bits. And lets face it. No matter how good an author is, there will almost certainly be boring bits.

By the way, I think I am an above average author and teacher because I find so much of everyone else so utterly boring. I've never read a book I couldn't put down. I've come to read a lot, but almost every page is painful.

Reading Dunn and others on James makes me glad I've formed a lot of my opinions without having read them. I am on such a different page on many things. It makes me wonder how much of interpretive discussion is biased by reading the commentators. At the same time, certainly we gain much when ground has been plowed as much as Paul has. With James and Hebrews, less plowed, the commentators are less helpful, I think.

James
Dunn goes through a number of arguments against James as author and then, almost surprisingly, asserts that James in its current form is a collection of James' oral teaching made by someone else after his death.

Dunn finds these arguments against straightforward James authorship unconvincing:

1. The Greek is too good for James.
2. James would have introduced himself as the brother of Jesus.
3. The letter wouldn't have faced so much difficulty becoming canonical if James wrote it.
4. The polemic against the rich doesn't fit James' lifetime.
5. The letter seems more typical of Diaspora rather than Palestinian Judaism.
6. The attitude toward the law doesn't fit the Temple/Jerusalem context of James.

Dunn concludes, "the arguments usually marshalled against attributing the letter of James to James of Jerusalem, the brother of Jesus, are not strong enough to overturn the most obvious implication of the heading of the letter" (1127).

I might say that I still find 1, 5, and 6 significant. And so much scholarship (e.g., Bauckham, Luke Timothy Johnson) I find strangely confuses what is possible with what is probable. The truth question is not, is it possible that a Galilean, Aramaic speaking Jew could write a letter like James in Greek without any help. The question is, is this the most probable scenario, the statistical likelihood. As I said in my initial explanatory notes, I think James has had some help with the Greek if we are to see him as the author.

And ironically, Dunn himself sees James as a collection of James' teaching, which of course means that he does not think James put the letter in its current form even though it accurately reflects the things James taught. Dunn sees James as the legacy of James of Jerusalem (1129). This is an interesting suggestion that, whether true or not, I cannot find fault with from a standpoint of inerrancy.

Letter?
Dunn answers emphatically no. It is a collection of the wisdom sayings of James, a "commonplace book." I am a little more optimistic about finding an outline to the book than Dunn, as will become apparent as I move through James in my explanatory notes.

Oral Tradition
From Jesus Remembered and A New Perspective on Jesus, Dunn clearly thinks that his appropriation of recent studies on oral tradition to Jesus and now James are cutting edge, and I think they are. He eschews the so deeply ingrained orientation toward literary sources that in so many areas needs to die the death. Similarly, tradition is re-presented in the words of the person passing it on. In short, Dunn has no problem concluding that James contains "genuine recollections of teaching given by James and evidence of the influence he exercised and impact he made" (1136).

Further, he also believes we are hearing in James the same impact of Jesus' teaching on James, passed along in James' teaching perhaps even at times without conscious reflection that he was passing on Jesus tradition.

Emphases of James
Dunn highlights five themes:

1. maturity/perfection ("the teaching of James was not evangelistic, directed to non-believers" (1137).

2. wisdom (not just as a genre, but as a theme)

3. prayer

4. warnings to the rich

"... denunciations, of course, could fit many situations... But one of these is the period prior to the revolt of 66, when arguably the rapaciousness of many landlords was a factor in driving smallholders and tenant farmers into brigandage" (1141).

5. the law and works

Like Dunn, "I do not doubt that the passage evidences a reaction to Paul's teaching" (1142). He maps out parallels to Romans 4, although he does not argue for direct dependence. "And since James is the more polemical, the most obvious inference is that the James version is responding to the Paul version" (1143).

I'll confess that the only reason I can come up with why some scholars argue either that James is independent of Paul or that James was first (indeed, some like to think James is the first book of the NT written) is the old deeply ingrained harmonization tendency. I don't actually think James as it stands contradicts Paul in substance. It is more a parody of Paul that it addresses.

But again the only way I can explain this aversion on the part of some has nothing to do with the overwhelmingly probable best read of James. It has to do with subconscious hermeneutical tendencies that we must get over if we ever want to have a voice on the playing field of truth.

Is it Christian?
Yes. Indeed, Dunn finds in it great potential for information on "embryonic Christianity" (1146). He gives a list of several inferences, one of which is the idea that Jesus teaching formed an important part of the early Jerusalem church.

"The letter of James, then, is an invaluable testimony to a past age, to a time when in effect Christian and Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus were more or less synonymous" (1147).

Explanatory Notes: James 1:1

I'm scheduled to teach General Epistles this Fall: James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude. It was largely my fault that Hebrews was split off from these, which I never regret when teaching Hebrews, but almost always regret when teaching General Epistles. It is difficult for me to have so much time to spend in Jude, 2 Peter 2, 1 Peter 3. It comes out to almost a week a chapter.

In any case, I thought I might slip some verse by verse explanatory comment in preparation. Any suggestions for a commentary on James to use this year? Thus far I've used the NIV Application commentaries, Nystrom on James; McKnight on 1 Peter, Moo on 2 Peter and James. Perhaps this isn't the semester to try new things with the seminary starting.

Anyway, here are some explanatory notes on James 1:1. By the way, I think I'm going to go way out of order and look at Dunn's comments on James in his new volume Friday.
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James, slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are in the Diaspora, greetings.
This is a fairly standard ancient letter greeting, except for the more Pauline style expansion on who James is. It is possible that James (or the author if it is not James himself) knew of Paul's characteristic expansions in his greetings. We will later argue that James 2 is reacting to a simplified version of Paul's theology, so it is possible that James is following Paul's style. Paul only calls himself a slave in a letter opening in Philippians and Romans, but James 2 does parody a version of the theology of Romans.

The James of the greeting is almost certainly James, the brother of Jesus (e.g., Gal. 1:19). While we cannot preclude the possibility that he was a step-brother, perhaps even a cousin, we have no reason not to conclude that he was a younger brother of Jesus from Joseph and Mary. It is clear from Paul's writings that he was a central and powerful figure in the early church even within a few years of the resurrection. Paul indicates that he was an apostle before him (1 Cor. 15:7), and Galatians 2:12 shows that even Peter seemed to yield to him at times. By the time of his murder in AD62 by the high priest--in between Roman procurators--he seems to have been the undisputed leader of the Jerusalem churches (cf. Acts 21:18).

Some scholars consider James to be pseudonymous for various reasons. The most obvious would be the fact that it is written in fine and fluent Greek, to where we would probably need to say James had some help if he was in fact the author. The style does not seem to reflect an Aramaic speaker who has learned Greek as a second language. The way James seems to be responding to a simplified version of Paul's theology pushes the timeline close, for James died only a couple years after Paul was taken to Rome. Nevertheless, we have a window of a few years during which James could have written it.

We will keep an eye on both ways of reading James as we move through the epistle. It is probably appropriate to call it an epistle. An "epistle" is less situational than a "letter" and by nature addresses a more universal audience. Indeed, these letters at the end of the New Testament are sometimes called the "general" or "catholic" epistles for this very reason.

Evangelical scholars tend to reject the notion that James is pseudonymous. A pseudonymous writing is one written under the name of an authority figure from the past. We can debate whether the intent in such pseudonymous writings was always or ever to deceive. Certainly most conservative scholars reject pseudonymity because they cannot imagine the practice not involving deception. In theory, however, there is nothing about the letter of James itself that would have to be deceiving if its original audience clearly understood it to be a kind of "deposit" of James' teaching for the church.

James is written "to the twelve tribes that are in the Diaspora." The fact that James is in Greek fits with a message for those outside of Palestine, for whom Greek would be the language most in common. The first thought at the mention of the twelve tribes certainly goes to Israel, although it is more difficult to know whether only ethnic Jews are the intended audience or whether James figuratively means to include Gentile believers as well.

Given the picture of James we get from Paul's writings, as well as from Acts 21, it would be a little unexpected to hear James speak of the "twelve tribes of the Diaspora" and mean to include Gentiles. And James 2 speaks of the gathering of its audiences as a "synagogue" (2:2). Yet at the same time, there is little exclusively Jewish about James or distinctly Jewish in a concrete way. This is especially noticeable in its discussion of works in chapter 2. Paul's discussion of "works of law" is actually more Jewish in character than James'.

In the end, if the historical James is the author, we should probably think of James as a general letter to Diaspora Jews, one with which he has had significant help. If James is pseudonymous, we should perhaps think of it addressing all believers as a kind of deposit of James' essence and person to the church that remained.

Typical Skew on Sin in James

In my General Epistles class this semester, we worked through Nystrom's commentary in the NIV Application series. My impression of Nystrom from the commentary is that I would like this guy. He seems full of faith and exactly the type of person Zondervan wanted to write for this series. An added bonus to me are the references to classical literature sprinkled throughout. I don't know if Nystrom had some training in classics or if one of his principal sources did, but I like it.

I do have one bone to pick with him, however, and that is his use of the idea of a yetzer hara, an evil impulse, as the lens through which to look at double-mindedness in James. We all have an evil impulse, so the story goes, as is attested in the rabbinic literature. Thus we have a war within us between our good side and our evil side.

I'm going to leave almost completely out of discussion (in other words, other than this paragraph ;-) the fact that it is always thin ground to use later rabbinic discussions to interpret a person like Paul or James, who wrote some 150 years before the rabbinic material was written down. I know it puts a horrible damper on things, but half the stuff pastors use from the pulpit comes from older sources like Jeremias who were not scrupulous with their use of later sources--often much later!

But what is really significant is that this concept is clearly the wrong lens through which to read James. The double minded person in James is not "everyman" but is a person in big trouble. This person should not think they will receive anything from the Lord. The double minded person is someone whose loyalties are divided between God and the world, and this divided loyalty must either stop or face judgment.

So once again, the Zeitgeist of the church right now, unable to see that the Bible does not expect believers to be defeated by sin, the world, or the Devil, let alone to be double-minded.

Summarizing the Book of James

The teaching of James is notoriously difficult to organize or systematize--even to outline the book is difficult. This led Martin Dibelius to consider the book a somewhat random collection of diverse teaching, "paraenesis."

I resist this idea, and I don't think it's just because I went to Asbury :-) For example, I don't think that the Book of Proverbs has a clear structure but that it often is somewhat loosely connected wisdom material. But I think James has a number of interlocking themes that run throughout the book. My goal in this post is to try to show some of these relationships, to map them in relation to each other.

Divided Loyalties
I think the best place to begin describing the thought of James is with the concept of "double mindedness" (e.g., 1:6-8):

"Let him [or her] ask in faith, doubting nothing. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. Do not let that person think that he [or she] will receive something from the Lord--a man with two souls, unstable in all his ways."

We shouldn't think of this as honest doubt. This is a person whose loyalties are divided between God and the world. In other words, maybe we should read James 4:1-10 first before we reach our final understanding of 1:6-8:

4:4--"Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is to be an enemy of God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world constitutes an enemy of God."

4:8--"Purify your hearts, two souled ones."

Who are these "two souled ones," these "double minded"? They are those whose "battles" and "warings" come from "your passions waring in your members" (4:2). "You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, so that you might spend [the answers] on your pleasures" (4:3).

Clearly James does not view this situation as a hopeless situation. Indeed, the double minded person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, except perhaps to lose their "life" in death (5:20). We would thus be wrong to connect this language with 3:2--"we all stumble much."

But we should connect these comments with 1:13--

"let no one being tempted say, 'I am tempted by God' ... Each person is tempted when he [or she] is dragged off and enticed by his [or her] own desire. Then when desire has conceived it bears sin..."

We should not think of this as inevitable in James' thought. This is still the person whose passions, whose desires indicate a divided loyalty between God and the world.

Double-mindedness underlies James' teaching on all the other major themes in the epistle. So the double-minded person praises God and curses others from the same mouth (3:9). The double-minded person takes his or her wisdom from below rather than above (3:15). The double-minded person is tempted to rely on the rich for his or her patronage rather than from God above, the giver of every good and perfect gift (1:17). This person's "faith" is little different from that of the demons--it does not issue in action (2:19).

The Rich
A significant amount of Jesus material seems to underlie James. One such teaching, although James does not mention it, is Jesus' saying that "You cannot serve God and wealth." James has very strong words to say against the rich.

1:9-11--"Let the humble brother boast in his exaltation. But the rich person in his humilitation, for like a flower of grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with heat and dries out the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its face perishes."

As with the introductory comment on double-mindedness, we best understand what this opening comment on the rich is about by turning to later comments in the epistle:

2:6-7--"But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich the ones exploiting you and dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the good name which was invoked over you?"

These comments remind me 1 Corinthians 6 and Romans 2:24. It of course seems unlikely that James would have known of 1 Corinthians unless the epistle is pseudonymous. Was it really widespread that the rich dragged Christians into court? Or perhaps this is more a statement of James' experiences in Jerusalem than of widespread practices in the Diaspora?

In any case, we see in this comment the connection between double-mindedness and the trials of which James speaks in 1:2. The trials that James primarily seems to have in mind are trials brought on by the wealthy and the double-mindedness he primarily has in mind is the temptation to rely on them, the earthly rather than on our true Patron, God:

1:16-17--"Do not err, my beloved brothers, every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning."

The double-minded person is not true to the "word of truth" that God has implanted within them (e.g., 1:18, 21). This seems to be Stoic imagery of the logos seeds in each one of us (probably an indication that at the very least, James has had some significant help in drafting this Greek epistle).

The rest of James of course has nothing good to say about the rich. 2:1-13 is about showing favoritism to the rich over the poor. The double-minded person does not have their priorities right. They should rather be following the kingdom law of loving their neighbor (2:8), showing mercy (1:13), helping poor, widows, and orphans (1:27), not judging (11-12), quarreling and warring (4:1), or grumbling against each other (5:9).

Rich merchants do not rely on God. They do not have an attitude that says, "If the Lord wills, I will do such and such." Rather they make their own plans and think their life is in their own power (4:13-16). Here we think of some Jesus material like Luke 12:13-21. Hopefully, James does not have Paul in mind, who was a merchant who went and spent a year in such and such a city!

Rich landowners abuse those who work for them, failing to pay them their wages (5:1-6). Here James surely alludes to situations in Palestine in particular. I suspect that the leaders of Jerusalem are most in his mind, and the killing of the "righteous one" is either an allusion to Jesus or, if pseudonymous, perhaps even an allusion to the murder of James himself by the high priest (which of course would also imply that deception was not involved).

There is hope for the double-minded person who errs by relying on the earthly, the animal, the devilish (cf. 3:15). Brothers can bring back the sinner who wanders from the truth in these ways, save them from death, and cover their sins (5:19-20). 5:13-18 point out that prayer and the fellowship of the synagogue are means for restoration from sin and sickness that comes from sin.

Trials
From 2:6-7 above we can infer that the primary source of trial in James' mind is oppression by the rich. Although James 1:3 is valid no matter what the source of external hardship or persecution, the epistle of James seems to have oppression by the rich particularly in view.

1:3-4--"Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various testings, since you know that the proving of your faith produces endurance."

This opening theme peeks out at 2:6-7, as we mentioned, and then returns near the close of the letter just as it appeared at the beginning. 5:10-11 returns to the topic of suffering and uses Job as an example (some suggest the Testament of Job might have influenced James' picture of Job, since in Job itself Job does grumble a bit about his suffering).

Wisdom from Above
The person in trial can seek wisdom, true wisdom, to endure:

1:5--"If someone of you lacks wisdom, let him/her ask from God who gives to all genuinely and does not reproach [for asking] and it will be given to him."

The context of the double-minded person is invoked in the next verse of the person who doesn't really what true wisdom or God's patronage but tries to be friends with the world and its patronage as well (cf. 4:4). The double-minded person envies and has worldly ambition (3:14). That is earthly wisdom, not true wisdom.

3:15-18--"This is not the wisdom coming down from above but is earthly, animal, demonic. For where there is jealousy and discord, there is disorder and every wicked deed. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, genuine. And the fruit of righteousness sows in peace to those who make peace."

This verse reminds us of the beatitude about peacemakers, as well as of 1:20, which has already warned that anger does not produce the righteousness of God. So wisdom here is about a certain kind of behavior more than a particular kind of understanding. Wisdom from above is about loving one's brother and not about worldly ambition or favoritism to the wealthy.

Words and Deeds
Finally, all of the themes we have mentioned above connect to perhaps the best known feature of James--its emphasis on deeds that live out a person's words. The double-minded theme again lies in the background here. The double-minded person says that they are serving God but in fact his or her true loyalty actually lies with the world. They are hearers of the word implanted in them but not doers (1:22).

Their wisdom is like the wisdom of the demons (cf. 3:15), who believe in one God, but are still scared of the judgment that is to come for them (2:19). The double-minded person may say praises to God with his or her tongue, but the "cursing" of their brothers and sisters shows that they are not fully loyal to God (3:10).

2:14-26 thus has the famous teaching of James on the importance of our deeds matching our words. It is not enough to "say" the right content of faith but faith that counts is faith that leads to action. Luther's sparring with James over justification by faith has unfortunately made it difficult for us to hear these verses in the context of James itself. It does seem likely that Paul stands somehow in the background of these words (are we really do suppose that James and Paul both came to use Genesis 15:6 to make opposite points by coincidence?).

But James' point is not primarily to spar against Paul or, more accurately, a perverted version of Paul. James' point is that it is a person who is double-minded and friends with the world for whom deeds of concrete love do not follow from faith. The person for whom this is not true is not justified in God's "court." This is a soul headed for death (5:20).

James' teaching on the tongue in 3:1-12 takes us one step further. If 2:14-26 is about our deeds matching our words, James 3 takes us the rest of the way in critique of our words themselves. We can suspect that the double-minded person's words are not even so right as they might think.

So all these themes--trials from the rich, the need for heavenly wisdom to face them properly, the need for a faith that leads to concrete, loving action toward brothers and sisters in need rather than envy and selfish ambition--all these themes relate to the danger of double-mindedness and divided loyalties, friendship with the world and living out of our passions and desires rather than from the word implanted within us. Far from a random collection of unrelated wisdom sayings, the book of James presents us with layers of interrelated themes.

James 4

Where are the battles and wars among you coming from? From here: from your passions that battle inside you! You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You are ambitious and you are not able to succeed, so you war and battle. You do not have because you do not seek. You ask and you do not receive because you do not seek with the right desires--you ask so you can spend what you get on your passions.

Adulterers, do you not know that to be friends with the world is to be enemies of God! So whoever wants to be a friend of the world has proved they are an enemy of God. Or do you think that it is for no reason that the Scripture says, "The Spirit that dwells among us yearns with jealousy."

But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says,

God opposes the proud
But he gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, be subject to God. Oppose the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners. Purify your hearts, those who have divided loyalties. Lament, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter turn into sorrow and your joy into gloom. Be humble before the Lord and he will exalt you.

Brothers and sisters, stop slandering one another. The person who slanders or is critical of his brother or sister slanders and is critical of the Law. And if you are critical of the Law, you are not someone who keeps the Law but a judge. There is only one Law-giver and Judge who is able to declare salvation and destruction. Yet you think you are someone who can pronounce judgment on your neighbor?

Hear now, you who say, "Tomorrow and the next day we will go to this city and stay there a year, do business, and make a profit." You do not know what your life will be like from one day to the next. You are a mist that appears briefly and then vanishes.

On the contrary, what you should say is "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All boasting of this sort is wicked. Pay attention: if someone knows the good they ought to do and does not do it, that is sin.

James 2

A translation of James 2:
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Partiality
My brothers and sisters, do not live out the faith that relates to our glorified Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism. Say a man with a gold ring comes into your synagogue with attractive clothing and a poor person also enters with sordid clothing. Say you look at the one with the attractive clothing and say, "You, sit here in this good seat." Then to the poor person you say, "You, sit there or sit at my feet." Have you not distinguished between yourselves and become evil in your judgment?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters, has God not chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the coming kingdom which he promised to those who love him? And yet you have dishonored the poor! Is it not the rich who are oppressing you? Is it not they who are dragging you to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the good name invoked over you in baptism?

Certainly you are doing well if you only satisfy the royal law found in Scripture: "You will love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show favoritism because of wealth, you are sinning and are guilty as a transgressor of the Law.

For whoever keeps the whole Law but ignores one particular area is fully guilty. The God who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." So if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you are still a law breaker.

So talk and behave as someone who is going to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment will come without mercy to a person who does not practice mercy. Mercy takes priority over justice.

Faith and Works
What is the benefit, my brothers and sisters, if some should say that they have faith but do not show it in their deeds? Is it possible that such faith will save them? Say a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily bread. Then say one of you says to them, "Go in peace! Get warm and get fed!" Yet you do not give to them the necessities of the body. What is the benefit? So also faith, if it does not result in action, by itself is a lifeless corpse.

But someone with the right attitude will say, "You have faith, but I have deeds. Show me your faith that does not lead to action. I will show you my faith by my action." You have faith that there is one God? It is good to have that faith! But remember that the demons have that faith too, and yet they are terrified of what is to come for them!

Are you willing to learn, foolish person, that faith that does not lead to action is pointless.

Take Abraham, our father. Was it not his obedient actions that resulted in God's approval when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? See how his faith worked together with his actions? His faith became complete when it led to obedient actions. The Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham had faith in God, and it was reckoned to him as innocence." Thus Scripture calls him a "friend of God." See how a person is justified by actions and not by so called "faith" alone?

Similarly, did not the actions of Rahab the prostitute also result in God's approval, because she welcomed the messengers and sent them out a different way? The bottom line is that just as the body without the spirit is a corpse, so also faith if it does not lead to action is dead.

James 1

We dive into the first chapter of James tomorrow in General Epistles class. I thought I might try my hand at a somewhat "dynamic" translation:
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Prescript
James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are in the Diaspora. Greetings.

Introduction
Whenever you chance upon different trials, my brothers and sisters, consider it to be pure joy. Do so because you know that the proving of your faith brings about endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, namely, that you become mature and whole--lacking in nothing.

And if one of you lacks wisdom in such a trial, ask from the God who gives genuinely to all and does not reproach someone for asking. Wisdom will be given to this person. But let them ask with faith and not be unsure if they really want the wisdom to endure through the trial. The person unsure in this case is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and blown about.

Do not think that this type of person will receive anything from the Lord. These individuals have divided souls. They are unstable in all their ways.

But let the brother or sister humbled by trial boast in their exaltation. And let the rich who perecuted them boast in their humiliation, because they will pass away like a flower in a field. The sun rises with burning and dries out the grass and its blossum falls off and its attractiveness goes away. So also the wealthy will wither away in the middle of their pursuits.

Also blessed are those who endure another kind of testing, temptation. When they prove worthy they will receive the crown of life that has been promised to those who love God. Let no one say when they are tempted, "I am being tempted by God." God is not tempted to do evil things, and he himself tempts no one.

Rather, everyone is tempted by their own desires, as they are dragged away and trapped. Then when desire has become pregnant, it gives birth to sin. Then when sin is finished it gives birth to death.

Stop being deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or changing shadow. As he desired he has given birth to us through the word of truth so that we might be a certain first harvest of his creations.

You should know, my beloved brothers and sisters, that every one must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of a man or woman does not bring about the same kind of righteousness that God will show on the Day of Judgment.

Therefore, put off all dirtiness and excess of wickedness in humility and receive the implanted word that is able to save your lives. Become doers of this word and not just hearers who are not thinking straight. If someone is a hearer of the word but not a doer, this person is like a man who would look at his face in a mirror, the face of his birth. But then after considering himself and going away, he immediately forgets what he looks like.

So the person who glances at the perfect law of freedom and continues to look at it, this person has not become a forgetful hearer but a doer of deeds. This kind of person will be blessed in what he or she will do.

If people think they show proper due to God but do not restrain their tongue and deceive their own heart, their worship is meaningless. Pure and blameless worship before God our Father looks like this: looking after orphans and widows who are in distress and keeping yourself uncorrupted by the world.