Takeaway points: James' Epistle

This week we finished up with James. There are several take-away points:

• James' Epistle was the first NT text written. It was apparently penned sometime between AD44 and 60, as early as 15 years after the Crucifixion and perhaps as early as 15 years before the first Gospel. As such, it represents a link between the OT and the NT. It is very representative of Job and Psalms and Ecclesiastes, while also being perfectly in accord with Jesus teachings in the Gospels and Paul's NT teachings.
• Also, because it came first, it filled a need for direct, practical teaching on Christian living in a time when everyone was still trying to figure out what Christianity was all about and how to go about being a Christian.
• The central theme of the book appears to be expressed in Jas 1:22f and Jas 2:14f - the idea that we are to be doers of the word instead of mere listeners because faith without works is dead (not real faith at all). We are to live Christianity rather than simply professing or confessing Christianity.
• James seems to cover numerous topics other than this central theme of listening vs. doing. James discusses diverse topics including faith, patience, suffering, trials, blesing, self-control, wisdom, worldliness, money, and prayer.
• James appears to jump back and forth between these topics in a disjoint, almost random manner, as if he didn't have an outline of what he was writing. The disjoint appearance of the book can give the initial impression that James might have been either uneducated or senile, but a more likely reason is that he was just trying to cover a lot of material and didn't think he had much time or space to fit it into. This seems likely because it was the first and only instruction of its kind and because of the persecutions that he mentions.
• Though it was the first NT text written, James was one of the very last to be fully accepted into the canon of scripture. For years it was considered antilegomena (lit. "spoken against"), almost second-rate or apocryphal by church leaders including Martin Luther. However, James was accepted and confessed to be inspired, apostolic in origin, and canonical at Westminster, which we use as our denominational standard, so It does us far more good to dig in and study James than to gripe about the form of it or to try to diminish its importance.

Next week we will be beginning 1st Peter at chapter 1. Even the first reading of 1Peter makes it clear that it was written by someone very different from James, but we'll be that 1Peter and James are very much concerned with the same message. See for example, Jas 4:6 and 1Pet5:5, which quote the same OT passage.

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I look forward to seeing any of y'all that can make it on Tuesday mornings to help me with this study.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Worthwhile memory verse

A very precious promise (as Peter calls them - see 2Peter1:4) - worth memorizing:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (James 4:7-8)

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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The logical form of James 3

James, in his third chapter discusses taming the tongue and striving for heavenly wisdom instead of earthly wisdom. It seems to me that most of the first part of this (taming the tongue) is an extended example of men not being perfect. It takes the form...

• IF there were any perfect men then they would be able to perfectly control themselves (Jas 3:2)
• BUT no man can even control his tongue (Jas 3:5-3:12)
• THEREFORE we are imperfect and should think twice before presuming to teach our folly to others (Jas 3:1)
• AND if you are really knowledgable, you'll seek heavenly wisdom instead of earthly (Jas 3:13-18).

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Clint Eastwood and James, Brother of Jesus

If any of y'all like Clint Eastwood movies, you might like to watch his new one, "Gran Torino." The language is rough, but the movie does a pretty good depiction of inner-city violence, prejudice (James calls it 'partiality' in chapter 2), redemption, and in the end, sacrifice.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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Acting "as if..."

Another way of thinking about this supposed controversy between faith and works is this. In many situations, you can begin changing your life or by "acting as if..."

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You know, if you're depressed, get up and go for a walk. If you want to be more professional, then start dressing and acting as if you were more professional. If you want to have stronger faith, do the things that faithful people do.

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Sola fide, BUT ALSO ora et labora!

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Go and work out your salvation (Phil 2:12f). Start acting as if by being a doer of the word (Jas 1:22f) like Abraham and Rahab did (Jas 2:20f).

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Learning and faith

There is a definition in education circles now that says the purpose of "learning" involves changing your life for the better. In this line of reasoning, if you are learning then you are changing your life. If there is no life change going on then there is no learning going on.

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James is saying the same thing in chapters 1-2. Faith without works is not really faith at all because works are the natural consequence of faith. If there are no works there is no real faith. The Reformation Study Bible has a great essay on Faith vs. Works that delves deeper into the idea of superficial (intellectual) faith vs. real faith, if you want to go check that out.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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James and the Great Commission

You know, it seems like a really superficial reading that leads folks to the James vs. Paul, Faith vs. Works issue. Compare Jas 1:22f and Jas 2:14f with Mat 28:16f (red-letter words of Christ).

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You'll notice that in the Matthew passage, the disciples are having a crisis of faith, and what does Jesus tell them? He reassures them in their faith (v18, v20b) but he also tells them a bunch of verbs, "Go... evangelize... baptize... teach... observe..." Christ is saying, Have faith, but go and do good works too." This is almost verbatim James' message in the controversial passages. James is right in line with Jesus teaching with respect to the Great Commission.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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How I do Bible Study

Photo courtesy of eye2eye

I'm not going to tell you how thou shalt do Bible study, but I thought I'd let you know how I generally go about mine.  I usually alternate OT and NT books but right now I'm doing Non-Pauline epistles in approximate chronological order starting with James.  I do one chapter per week in the following manner:

• Always start out with a prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit - a prayer for understanding and tutoring.
• Read the entire chapter each weekday.
• By about the 2nd or 3rd day, start chasing down cross-references.  I subscribe to the idea that you want to "let scripture interpret scripture," thus cross-references are better than commentaries.
• Note any cross-refs or connections that occur to you but are not in the list.
• By about the 4th or 5th day, maybe look through the commentaries. 
• First cross-references, then commentaries, then word study.  It is too easy for me to go off on a tangent when I get to as microscopic level as word study.
• Read the whole book (or several chapters) every weekend.  This way, you get a broader view of the topic and the structure of the book makes more sense.
• Make notes in the margins.  Underline.  Write your own commentary.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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James' Epistle as a missing link

The first chapter of James is sort of an expanded introduction to the rest of the letter. In the first chapter he foreshadows much of the rest of the book.

• James 1:2f points forward to James 5
• James 1:9f points forward to James 2
• James 1:26f points forward to James 3

At the same time, James 1 points us back to the OT (The only inspired scriptures available at the time James was writing)

• James 1:2f reminds us of Job
• James 1:9f reminds us of Ecclesiastes
• James 1:21f reminds us of Micah 6:8

And what's more, I think you'll find that James 1-2 is largely parallel with Matthew 7 (which would be written later) - so in a sense, it seems James foreshadows the later NT texts. This makes sense, because as a part of the canon, James would have to be consistent with the rest of the Bible.

So, James is not just an introduction to the rest of the epistle (and even the rest of the NT), but it serves as a link between the OT and NT.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Faith vs. works - James vs. Paul

Today we started our Tuesday morning men's group. We run this group in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This year we'll be doing the non-Pauline epistles in roughly-chronological order.
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Today we got cranked up with the Epistle of James. James was the first NT text to be written, dated approximately 40-50 AD, which places it about 10-15 years post-crucifixion and 10-15 years before the first Gospel account. This means that James was the first inspired text in hundreds of years, and was one of the only good texts available to folks in the middle of the first century when people were still trying to figure out what Christianity was all about and how to be Christian.

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James is a highly pragmatic text, having been called "the Proverbs of the New Testament." Some of the Reformers, most notably Luther, contended that James was not inspired or apostolic. He cited several reasons, but they primarily boil down to the apparent contradictions between James and Pauline theology - the faith vs. works dilemma.

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Despite the objections of these reformers, James was retained in the New Testament and was confessed to be inspired and inerrant at Westminster. As such, it doesn't do us any good to moan about the tension in James. Rather, it does us much good to take ourselves through the material that led to the apparent James-Paul tension. As Adler points out in How to Read a Book...

The faithful reader of a canonical book is obliged to make sense of it and to find it true in one or another sense of "true." ... In any case, he is obliged to accept the resolution of the problem that is offered him. He reads essentially without freedom; but in return for this, he receives a kind of satisfaction that is possibly never attained when reading other books.

In other words, we know (or we have declared) both James and Paul to be true. Now we have to figure out in what sense they are both true. It is spiritually enriching to go through the process instead of resolving the tension by diminishing the importance of one or the other.

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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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