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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