We continue our study of the letter from James. In Part One we determined that the letter was written by James, the half brother of Jesus, around 50 AD when most of the Church was still of Jewish origin. They had been scattered throughout Israel and surrounding countries in the persecution that began after the stoning of Stephen in 36 AD, and James was sending what was probably the first letter ever written to the growing Christian community. This week we’ll look at chapter 2.

Favoritism Forbidden

“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4)

Once again James identified his readers as believers in Jesus. As we began to see in chapter one, the purpose of his letter was to inform these new believers (and us) on proper Christian behavior, admonishing us to be not just hearers but also doers of God’s Word (James 1:22).

“Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?” (James 2:5-7)

Many believe that on a proportional basis there will be more people from among the poor than the rich who inherit the kingdom. Obviously we can’t prove this, but from all the Bible says about money and what it can do to people, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that this is true.

If so, it’s the poor who are really God’s favored people. A large percentage of the wealthy will find when they die that they’ve already received every blessing they will ever get, ever, and the rest of their eternity will be far different from their first few years.

And yet most believers typically show an inordinate and often undeserved amount of respect, and even envy, for the wealthy, while “looking down their noses” at the poor. James rightly condemned this practice. As we arrive in the Kingdom, no part of our earthly fame and fortune will accompany us.

Therefore, the only thing we should value in each other is our faith, and as a group the poor have a much deeper faith than the rich, because they are much more dependent upon God’s provision. Focusing on a people’s wealth rather than on their faith, dishonors the poor.

“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker(James 2:8-11)

The term “royal law” appears only here in the Bible and was perhaps a term James coined. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is not one of the 10 commandments. The idea comes from Leviticus 19:18 where it was part of an admonition against seeking revenge. I believe James took it from the Lord’s answer to a question about the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:34-40).

Jesus said the greatest commandment is the first one, “Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind.” Then He said, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Remember, the context here is dishonoring the poor. In effect, James said that even if a person was able to keep the whole Levitical Law and yet dishonored the poor, God would consider him to be a lawbreaker because favoring one person over another due to worldly stature is a sin.

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12-13).

Once again James used the term “the law that gives freedom” from chapter one. There we learned that the law that gives us freedom is the Gospel. Jesus died in our place to fulfill the requirements of the Law, freeing us from the consequences of breaking it.

James is reminding us that this incredible demonstration of God’s mercy toward us is meant to make us more merciful toward others. His mercy has stayed the hand of judgment against us and triumphed over it, canceling the penalties rightfully due us (Colossians 2:13-14). How could knowing this produce any other response in us than to show the same mercy toward others that we have received from Him?

Faith and Deeds

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17).

Remember that James was writing to believers here. He was not talking about what it takes to be saved. He was not talking about what to look for in others to see if they are saved. And he was certainly not talking about combining obedience to the Law with our faith to make our salvation complete.

He was talking about how we can tell we are saved. If our faith manifests itself in acts of charity and kindness toward others then we can be sure it is genuine. If not, then it’s merely theoretical, an intellectual position we’ve taken that has no bearing on reality and no influence in our life.

Believers don’t have to make themselves perform these acts of charity. In fact they have to make themselves not do them. The Holy Spirit will prompt every believer to perform various acts of kindness as circumstances arise. We have to refuse to comply by ignoring His prompting.

When Paul said it is by grace we are saved through faith and not by works, he was talking about the root of our salvation, which is faith alone. James was talking about what happens after we are saved, the fruit of our salvation, which is our faith manifesting itself in the way we live our life.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (James 2:18-19).

Believing there is one God is not enough to save us. To be saved, we have to believe God sent His son to die for our sins, and accept His death as the payment we owed for them. The gratitude we feel for what He has done for us is the energizing force behind our acts of kindness.

The demons believe there is one God because they’ve seen Him. They shudder because they know the judgment He has reserved for them. They know there is no escape because there is no comparable provision for their forgiveness.

“You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone” (James 2:20-24).

In Hebrews 11 the writer summed up Abraham’s situation nicely. Long past child bearing age, he and Sarah, who had been barren all her life, were enabled to conceive and bring forth a son (Hebrews 11:11). Isaac was the heir God had promised Abraham, through whom all of His promises to Abraham would be fulfilled.

“Then one day, before any of these promises had been kept, God asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham reasoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead rather than break His promise, and so he agreed. Of course it never went that far, and at the last minute a ram was substituted for Isaac. But figuratively speaking Abraham did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17-19).

The whole story is told in Genesis 22 where it turns out they were acting out a prophecy. It foretold that one day God would offer His son as a sacrifice for sin. All this happened on Mt. Moriah, the same place where Jesus was crucified. Genesis 22 is often called the gospel in Genesis for this reason.

Someone once said, “If what we claim to believe does not result in action, it’s doubtful we really believe it.” And that’s the point James was making. By his actions Abraham’s faith was demonstrated as being genuine.

Some like to point to the apparent conflict between this passage and Paul’s claims about Abraham in Romans 4:1-3 that he was not justified by his works but by his faith. But the context is totally different.

In Romans 3 Paul said no one is inherently righteous (Romans 3:9-19) and no one will be declared righteous by keeping the Law (Romans 3:20). But there is a righteousness from God apart from the Law. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21-24). In effect, Paul then said Abraham was the prototype for this because, although he was not inherently righteous, and didn’t have the Law to govern his behavior, he believed God and his belief was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4:1-2).

Paul was talking about attaining righteousness and James was talking about demonstrating our righteousness by our actions. Again, Paul was speaking about the root of our righteousness and James was speaking about its fruit. Both positions are correct.

“In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:25-26).

Rahab lived in Jericho. She and all her neighbors had heard of what God had done for the Israelites, making a path for them through the Red Sea, and destroying the armies of Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. But while the others in Jericho cowered in fear, Rahab had determined that the God of Israel was God of heaven and earth, and had helped the Israelite spies who came to her by hiding them from her own people in return for her family’s safety (Joshua 2).

After Jericho had been destroyed, her house was the only one standing, and she and her family were safe inside. Rahab joined the Israelites. She married an Israelite man named Salmon and they had a son who they named Boaz. Boaz was the father of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.

Rahab’s faith was demonstrated by her actions. Because of it, she gained a prominent place among the Israelites and is mentioned in the Lord’s genealogy (Matt. 1:5).

So ends James chapter 2. Already we’re beginning to see that James was not writing to Jews still under the Levitical Law but to Jewish believers in Jesus who adhered to the “perfect Law that gives freedom.” More next time.

A fair amount of controversy has arisen of late over this letter, some even questioning whether it belongs in the Bible. Others say if it does, it was certainly not meant for the Church. In this series we’ll address these questions while undertaking a verse-by-verse study of the letter.

First, let’s determine who James was and when he wrote his letter. Although he never came right out and said so, many experts believe that of the four men named James who appear in the Bible, the writer was the Lord’s half brother. The other three are the disciple and brother of John (Matt. 4:21), the disciple and son of Alphaeus (Matt. 10:3), sometimes called James the younger, and James the father of Judas (Luke 6:16). These three are easily eliminated as not having had the stature in the early Church to have written such an authoritative letter on the strength of his name alone.

In contrast, the Lord’s half brother was a prominent figure in the church. He was called “James the Just” and “the righteous one” and was appointed by the Apostles to be the overseer (bishop) of the Church in Jerusalem. As such he presided over the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) where the issue of Gentiles coming into the church was decided. But like his brother Jude, he didn’t emphasize his familial relationship with the Lord (Jude 1:1). They both called themselves “servants of Jesus Christ.” Since neither of them became believers until after the resurrection, they may have felt more comfortable thinking of themselves that way.

No specific date exists to tell us exactly when James wrote his letter. But since he was writing to believers who had been scattered among the nations, we have some clues. The scattering from Jerusalem began when the persecution of believers broke out following the stoning of Stephen, around 36 AD (Acts 8:1).

James died in 62 AD. According to one tradition he was taken by the Jewish leaders to the pinnacle of the Temple where they hoped to persuade him to tell the crowd below to stop following Jesus. In full view of everyone they asked him,

“Oh, righteous one, in whom we are able to place great confidence; the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one. So declare to us, what is this way, Jesus?”

But they were mistaken and James responded in a loud voice.

“Why do you ask me about Jesus, the Son of Man? He sits in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and he will soon come on the clouds of heaven!”

The people were ecstatic and began to shout.”Hosanna to the Son of David!”

In a fit of rage, the leaders threw James off the Temple into the crowd, hoping to show the people what they could expect if they persisted in following Jesus.

Incredibly, the fall didn’t kill James. He rose to his knees and began to pray for his attackers, asking the Lord to forgive them. But one of them struck him in the head with a club, killing him.

From the stoning of Stephen in 36 AD to the murder of James in 62 AD gives us 26 year time frame to work with. A case can be made that he most likely wrote the letter around 50 AD. If so, that would make it the first letter written to the Church, with the possible exception of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. It would also mean the letter was written too late for James the brother of John to be its author. He was put to death by Herod Agrippa in 44 AD.

James wrote his letter while the Church was mostly Jewish in composition, explaining the salutation James used, “To the twelve tribes, scattered among the nations” (James 1:1). It also explains why James’ letter is the most Jewish in its perspective of any New Testament book.

Now we know who wrote the book and approximately when he wrote it, so let’s see what he said.

Chapter 1
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

Greetings.

Trials and Temptations
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:1-4).

James was addressing the Jewish believers who had been driven from Jerusalem by the persecution. In effect, he was telling them not to be discouraged by this but to see it as an opportunity to grow stronger in their faith. Let me emphasize that God was not testing their faith. He already knew who were His. Through the persecution they were getting a chance to prove to themselves the strength of their faith. The Bible being a timeless document means the same is true for us.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do (James 1:5-8).

As we’ll see, James repeatedly jumped from one thought to another without any warning, sometimes going back to a previous one to provide additional insight. There was no effort to make the letter flow nicely from idea to idea, or to organize it by topic, but as the Holy Spirit put this thought or that one into his head, James wrote it down. Neither could it be said that James made any effort to be diplomatic. A person had to be in a position of authority and have earned the respect of his readers to speak to them so directly.

In this case, he was encouraging his readers to seek God’s wisdom, and warning them that if they sought it, they had better believe wholeheartedly that God would provide it, or else they shouldn’t expect anything. Remember, the gospels hadn’t been written yet, and being scattered like they were, many of the believers didn’t have organized support systems to strengthen them. They were pretty much on their own, with only their faith to sustain them.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business (James 1:9-11).

Coming to faith in the Lord has the effect of putting everyone on a level plain. Believers who live their lives in humble circumstances here should take heart in knowing they’re part of the family of God and will dwell in eternity with Him. And those who experience the artificial elevation in status that often comes with wealth should know that when all that passes and they’re left with nothing, they will still be part of God’s family. Our status on earth, whether high or low, is temporary and fleeting. But because of our faith we’ll all be the favored children of God forever.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).

Here’s another thought on persevering under trial. James already mentioned it will result in a strong, mature faith. Now he’s saying it will also bring the crown of life. This is one of five crowns mentioned in the Bible that will be awarded to believers at the Bema judgment. These crowns are identified as the Everlasting Crown (Victory) in 1 Cor 9:25, the Crown of the Soul Winner in Phil 4:1 and 1 Thes 2:19, the Crown of Righteousness in 2 Tim 4:8, the Crown of Life in Jas 1:12and Rev 2:10, and the Crown of Glory in 1 Peter 5:4.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:13-15).

James makes it clear for us. God doesn’t tempt us to sin. It’s our sin nature that does this. We can’t prevent the arrival of a sinful thought at the threshold of our mind. But we haven’t sinned until we are dragged away, in other words, until we give the thought conscious consideration. If we refuse to consider it, rebuke the thought, and eject it from our mind, we’re still clean. But once we start imagining what it would be like, even fleetingly, we’ve sinned whether we act on it or not. At that point we need to confess and be forgiven (1 John 1:9).

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created (James 1:16-18).

In contrast, every good and perfect gift is from the Lord. Paul said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sin nature” (Romans 7:18). A thought that leads to sin cannot come from God, and a thought that leads to a good and perfect gift cannot come from us. His goal for us is that we will be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the first of many brothers (Romans 8:29). Every gift from him will support that goal. No matter how much we might like to think otherwise, especially when we’re being tempted, He will neither break, suspend, nor ignore any of His laws to accommodate us.

Listening and Doing
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you (James 1:19-21).

Paul would later present almost identical instruction to the Church (Ephes. 4:25-32) saying our failure to follow these instructions causes grief to the Holy Spirit who is sealed within us to the day of redemption (Ephes. 4:30) and is therefore forced to witness all our behavior.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do (James 1:22-25).

Don’t be confused by James’ mention of the law here. Notice he called it the perfect law that brings freedom. No one would describe the Levitical Law that way. Believers have freedom in Christ, the fulfillment of the law. In dying for our sins Jesus separated our belief from our behavior. He made our salvation totally dependent upon our belief, because of which God has imputed to us a righteousness apart from the Law (Romans 3:21-24).

This gives us tremendous freedom unknown in previous times. It includes the freedom to say no to sinful behavior without having the threat of judgment always hanging over our heads. Therefore, by following the behavioral instructions from the New Testament we will be blessed, because we’ll be doing so purely out of gratitude for what we’ve been freely given, instead of merely following some hard and fast rule in the hope of getting it.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world(James 1:26-27).

Notice that James did not mention keeping the Law as being part of a pure and faultless religion. He said our religion is for helping those who can’t help themselves and living in a manner pleasing to God. Such behavior is an expression of our gratitude and is wholly consistent with New Testament doctrine. Next time we’ll cover chapter two. See you then.