James
Author: James
James writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, insisting that faith which does not work is dead.
Outline
Trials, the tongue, and the poor (1)
Joy in testing, a request for wisdom, and a warning against a religion that does not bridle the tongue.
Faith and partiality (2)
Favoring the rich in the assembly is condemned, and faith without works is called dead.
The tongue, wisdom, and prayer (3–5)
A small fire, a wisdom from above, and a call to the sick and the wandering close the letter.
Key verses
James 1:22
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James 2:17
Faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.
James 1:5
Anyone who lacks wisdom is told to ask of God, who gives to all liberally.
James writes to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, and he writes like a teacher who expects to be argued with and does not intend to lose. The letter has little narrative and many imperatives. It sounds like the wisdom books and like the sermon on the mount: trials, the tongue, the poor, oaths, patience, prayer. The author calls himself a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The tradition that he is James the Lord’s brother fits a letter sent to Jewish believers outside the land, and the letter itself does not pause to prove the identification. It begins with a command that sounds wrong until the next sentence explains it. Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith works patience. Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not, and it shall be given him. Ask in faith, nothing wavering. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The poor and the rich change places under this wisdom. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, and the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. Blessed is the man that endures temptation. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. Lust conceives and brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Lay apart all filthiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. A hearer who is not a doer is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, who goes his way and forgets what manner of man he was. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The assembly is then put under the same test. If there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect to the one and say to the other, sit here under my footstool, are you not then partial and become judges of evil thoughts? Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith? If you fulfill the royal law, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and you say, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, and you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. A man may say, you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. The devils believe, and tremble. Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac, and the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God. Rahab is named beside him. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James is not inventing a second way to God. He is refusing a faith that never moves the hand.
The tongue is a little member and boasts great things. A small fire kindles a great matter, and out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and full of mercy. The rich who keep back the hire of their laborers are told to weep. The brethren are told to be patient until the coming of the Lord. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. Is any sick? Let him call for the elders. If any err from the truth and one turns him back, he saves a soul from death. James ends where it has lived the whole time: a faith that hears, visits, refuses partiality, and turns a brother back.