The letter from James is probably the earliest of the Letters, written no later than 50 a.d. since it does not mention the Jerusalem meeting of around 47 a.d. This is believed to be the James that was Jesus’ earthly brother and not one of the original disciples. The content is relatively simple and practical, appealing to common sense.
James only describes himself as a slave of God, just as Paul often did, in spite of being the half-brother of Jesus. But notice that the letter is directed at the twelve tribes of Israel, scattered among the nations. Many people advocate the theory of ’lost tribes’, the remnant from when Israel and Judah were conquered. But that was long before this letter was written, yet here is James writing to all twelve tribes. Not one hint is made about any of them being lost. However, some could take the expression as poetic license, just a way to refer to Jewish believers not living in Jerusalem. Even so, it should be noted that not one hint of any lost tribes is mentioned in the Bible. In addition, we have all twelve tribes listed in the book of Revelation concerning the distant future compared to the first century, as well as Paul’s assertion of his being able to trace his Hebrew lineage (Phil. 3 for example).
James begins by advising the people on the proper reaction to hardship. Its purpose is to refine and mold us, to make us strong and mature. That message has largely been lost today. Most believers think God only wants them to be happy and comfortable. And note the reference to brothers and sisters
; even though this letter is addressed to the twelve tribes
of Israel, these are also believers in Jesus.
Another issue that seems to have been forgotten today is that of asking God for wisdom. Instead we try to work for everything, but we never seem to reach the goal because we’re using our own power instead of God’s. We ask God for many things in prayer but really don’t expect an answer, and James makes it clear that such an attitude will not get us anything from God.
In this passage and again later, James targets the issue of how we view riches and social standing. The rich should be humbled by the fleeting nature of wealth, and the poor should boast of their true and eternal riches. Many of our values in this life will be reversed in the coming kingdom.
We must be careful not to take the term crown of life
as meaning salvation, or we’d have to say James is teaching salvation by works (we’ll look at that more in the next chapter). But God never tempts anyone to sin, which is an important point to remember on the topic of the sin of Adam, because some claim God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden to get him to sin. And Satan is not mentioned here at all, but only our own desires, along with a warning about deception.
Today it’s becoming increasingly popular to blame this or that ’spirit’ of something for every evil thing we do or experience, such as ’the spirit of lust’ or even ’the spirit of poverty.’ Such notions come from superstition, not God. We do get tempted by the world around us, and certainly demons are involved in much of that, but the blame for falling lies solely with us. Instead of slamming the door when sin comes along, we invite it in and allow it to stay. Then it grows up
and takes over.
In contrast to the notion that temptation comes from God, James tells us that only what is good comes from God. God never wavers or changes, which is very much in contrast to the gods of other religions such as Islam, whose god openly and frequently reverses commands.
We would do well to heed James’ advice here to be slow to take offense. We live in a world where everyone feels entitled to be free of offense. Even many Christians expect others to tiptoe around them and never hurt their feelings. The slightest disagreement is taken as offense and hostility. We are to be sensitive and considerate, but that doesn’t mean the hypersensitive can demand never to be challenged.
James advises people to be self-controlled and patient, and that we must go beyond merely hearing the Word to also practicing it. We must choose daily to keep focused on Jesus and the truth of the gospel, and the sound teachings of the Bible. A good sign that we’re practicing the teachings is how well we control our tongues, a topic James will elaborate on later.
A religion that is clean and pure is of no credit to us without standing the test: staying clean in spite of our contacts with the world. There is no reward for being clean if we never venture out into the world. A monastic life is largely an untested and concealed life; it’s of much more value to be found clean if one is out where the dirt is.
James appeals to the people’s own experience to question why they would fawn over the rich and despise the poor. He states in no uncertain terms that it’s a crime to favor the very class of people that do the most harm to the faith; it favors the enemy and disgraces the name of Jesus and his people, who are often found among the poor.
In spite of this passage being familiar to most believers, it’s rarely followed. Favoritism is alive and well in the churches. The unbiblical clergy class is favored over the so-called laity, men are favored over women, and the rich are courted for their financial support, even though it’s these people who do the faith the most damage. Favoritism is a violation of the royal law
to love your neighbor as yourself.
If one part of the law is violated, the whole thing is violated. So nobody can claim to be better than anyone else since everyone violates the law, and nobody can practice only part of the law. When it comes to judgment, God will judge us with the same standard we used on others. If we want God to go easy on us, then we’d better do the same for other people in this life (see also Mt. 7:2).
Now to the faith and works
passage, one which has vexed Bible students for ages. Many believe it to be at odds with the teachings of Paul, who said in Romans 4 that Abraham was made just or righteous by faith alone, in contrast to the earning of a wage.
First of all, remember that this letter was written before Paul’s letters (with the remotely possible exception of Galatians), which contain a much more developed theology. Second, James is speaking of a dead faith, not a non-existent one. If a person dies, does it mean they never existed? Of course not, and neither is a person without works necessarily one who was never born again spiritually. Third, this whole letter is about practical, everyday Christianity. Just as James was amazed that people were fawning over the rich who were exploiting them, he is also amazed at people who claim salvation but never show it.
In verses 14–20 James is talking about the uselessness of a faith no one can see in action, not that such inaction proves a complete absence of faith. He asks how anyone can know you have such faith if they can’t see it. People are not like God who sees the heart; we have nothing else to go on but actions and words. So James is building a case against those who have made the claim but never displayed the faith, to ask them why anyone should believe them.
But what about Abraham? James says that Abraham was declared righteous by offering Isaac on an altar, doesn’t he? But note the pivotal phrase, And that fulfilled the scripture that says ’Abraham believed God…’
In other words, what Abraham would later do was determined beforehand by his faith. The point where Abraham was declared righteous by God is the belief, and the offering of Isaac is the result of the test. So James is not contradicting Paul at all; the thrust of his argument is that Abraham was declared righteous for us to see when his faith took action. Otherwise James would not only be contradicting Paul but also himself, because he said Abraham believed… and was credited with righteousness
and that a person is justified by actions. Which is it?
The answer of course is that God sees our faith, but we can only see actions. After all, God really didn’t need to see Abraham’s actions in order to know if Abraham had faith, yet the Angel of the Lord said Now I know that you fear God…
(Gen. 22:12b).
There is a popular phrase, Faith without works is alone, but faith that works is never alone.
Those who say this demand proof by works that a person has faith, or they call them unbelievers. But that’s something only God can know; it’s not anyone else’s place to judge. We can only see actions, and there are times that actions force us to expel someone from our fellowship. But we dare not call them lost without asking first what they believe.
Again, James is imploring people to put their faith into practice, not writing a thesis on salvation. Those who insist on works for salvation cannot agree where the line is drawn anyway. Exactly what and how many works are required, and where does the Bible say this? Instead, we see the same line of reasoning Paul used about the difference between spiritual infants and mature adults, between the spiritually immature and true disciples. A dead person exists but is useless; likewise, a dead faith exists but is useless. We are not to be content with just being born, but to be useful to God and the other believers.
Now to the subject of Bible teachers. Anyone who is in a position of teaching is held to a higher standard since they’re responsible for the spiritual nurturing and protection of others. If all Sunday School teachers and preachers would take this seriously, how many would be left? Did God ever intend for any warm body who can read a teacher’s guide to be given a teaching position? As Paul wrote, the standards for teachers and Elders are very high, and God will hold them responsible.
I don’t think there is necessarily a break to a different subject in verse two, which begins the passage on the tongue. James just wrote about teachers and how careful they have to be in what they say. Like the rudder of a ship, the tongue can control the whole body
, which can refer to the body of believers. Great damage can be done by false or inept teachers. Of course the section can apply to every individual believer as well, but there is a strong possibility that James may have had teachers in mind when he wrote this part.
Back again to general Christian behavior, about putting our faith in action. If we do this we won’t have the squabbles and conflicts typical of churches throughout history. The hierarchal structure of ’churchianity’ fosters the jealousy and selfish ambition James writes about here. And if it was a problem in James’ time, before this structure set in, then we can understand why it’s so much greater a problem now.
What causes those battles and struggles? The same self
that James wrote about earlier, that tempts us to sin. We crave a lot of things, and even try to fool ourselves that some of them are not desires but needs that God owes us. We are allowed to enjoy the fruit of our labor, but we must not forget the poor. How often do we ask for the means to help them? And we must remember how God views human pride. Just as he will speak of a different kind of resistance on our part, James first speaks of God’s resistance to the arrogant. They may succeed in this life, but God will be their judge in the next.
This time James offers a strategy for standing firm: Resist! Most of our sin is simply due to our not even putting up a fight. But if we stand against the Tempter he will run away in fear. Yet doesn’t this conflict with James’ earlier statement that temptation comes from within? No, because he never said all temptation is from ourselves. We do have an external Enemy, but one that cannot prevail against a strong defense. The pride of self is no match for him, but if we humble ourselves to God instead of being self-sufficient and arrogant, we can’t lose.
Bringing down the idol of Self can be painful, but it must be done if we’re to conquer sin and stand against temptation. We must also stop watching others like a hawk to see if they fall so we can ’shoot our wounded.’ People gossip and backstab and cut each other down continually, or they go to the other extreme and pretend not to see error or sin or heresy.
Here is an instance of do not judge
, and like the others, it’s typically taken out of context. James has been talking about people tearing each other down, and it’s this kind of judging that is wrong. Instead of judging themselves compared to God’s standards, such people judge themselves by their own. They are very much like the Pharisees.
Pride is the root of boasting. From our own limited perspective we think that our lives are long and important. But we’re in fact mere vapors, fleeting moments in time. As Paul has said, anyone who brags should only brag about the Lord. To know all of these things, and ignore them or fail to act, is every bit as much a sin against God as the commission of evil acts.
Do you get the impression that James was a little upset with the rich? Like many employers today, they were exploiting workers— and he’s addressing believers. Many employers have gone to church each Sunday but lived like the devil all week, saying Business is business.
And again, these were the types of people who gave the believers most of their trouble.
Abruptly James shifts focus to the exploited, asking them to be patient. We hold out the hope of the Lord’s return as our power to endure. Sadly, just when we need it most, this hope has been all but abandoned by the churches today. They have decided that prophecies are just stories about good and evil, and they mock those who still believe the Lord will return for us. After another quick jab at the judgmental ones, James gives examples of patience from the past, the hated and persecuted prophets of old.
Next is a statement that we must be careful not to misunderstand: Do not take oaths. But like the same issue when Jesus was speaking about the Pharisees (Mt. 5), who were using legal loopholes to get out of keeping their oaths, James is only saying we should be people of our word. We should not be trying to see what we can get away with but how holy and faithful we can be.
This passage is not a magic formula whereby we can practically order God to heal someone. There is nothing magical about oil used to anoint anyone. But notice whose faith it is that can heal the sick person: the Elders who are praying over them. Most so-called faith healers blame the sick person for not having enough faith to get better, but the Bible clearly lays the blame at the feet of the ones doing the praying and anointing. The prayers of the proud and fake cannot heal, but those of the righteous can.
There are some commentators who believe that James has a specific kind of sickness in mind here, meaning the sickness was caused by sin. But we don’t have enough in the context to say for sure.
James ends the letter with an encouraging note: that it’s a great honor and blessing to bring people back from sin and deception. This of course stands in stark contrast to the ’shooting our wounded’ we usually see.
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