James 1-5
I love this letter from James. It comforts and encourages those facing trials, and it delivers very real “rubber meets the road” challenges to us all. Are you suffering, facing various difficulties? Count it all joy, as such testing produces steadfastness. (James 1:2) Do you think you are religious? You are deceiving yourself if you can’t bridle your tongue. (James 1:26, 3:2-12) Do you boast of your business savvy? You do not know what tomorrow will bring. (James 4:13-16) Yes, James covers a lot of ground — and packs a punch as he does so.
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is One; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! … You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James 2:17-19,24
Some see these words from James as contradicting Paul, particularly Paul’s letter to the Galatians that so forcefully argues that one is justified by faith, and not by works of the Law. But nothing could be further from the truth; there is no real contradiction here. What James is saying here is that “the proof is in the pudding”, that authentic faith — real trust in Jesus and not just intellectual assent to a few facts — results in actions (“works”) that reflect that faith. Paul clearly agrees with that notion, saying that what matters is faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6) So if you’ve ever been bothered by this so-called “contradiction”, you can put that idea to rest.
See also:
- July 27 (2021) / James 1:1-27
- July 28 (2021) / James 2:1-26
- July 29 (2021) / James 3:1-18
- July 30 (2021) / James 4:1-17
- July 31 (2021) / James 5:1-20
One more thing…
Our reading schedule follows the order given in the Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible, so we may be tempted to think that we are, in fact, reading things chronologically, with the Epistles presented in the order in which they were originally written. But the problem is that there is quite a lot of guesswork that goes into assessing the chronology of things 2,000 years old. For example, this letter from James may have been written before Paul’s letter to the Galatians, even though we are reading it after. Or it might have been written several years later and after other letters that we have not yet read. We simply do not know.
My point here is that we should not take the order given by The Chronological Study Bible as being definitive in any sense. Nor should we base any doctrine on any such supposed chronology. Rather, hold the chronology loosely, and consider what the Word of God actually says, not so much when it might have been said.
My father was a concrete contractor – floors, patios, driveways, etc. One day a cement truck driver delivered a load of concrete to our job site. As he unloaded the concrete, the driver engaged in conversation with us using such vulgarity as I had never seen on a work site – and I worked with some pretty “rudimentary” fellow workers. I wondered at this foul mouth behavior and then my dad spoke, “Are you going to eat your lunch with that mouth?” The driver looked at Dad with a “huh” expression and my father went on, “You’ve been talking such filth that I’m afraid you’ll spoil your food eating with the same mouth that you are speaking with.” The driver apologized and his behavior changed. I was really proud of my dad.