James: A Social Justice Commentary on the Epistle of James

James:

A Social Justice Commentary on the Epistle of James

Jim Reiher

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2016 by Jim Reiher

All Rights Reserved.

This e-book should not be reproduced or resold to any third party in any format.

Unless it is otherwise stated, all Bible references used in the text are from Today's New International Version (TNIV) Hodder and Stoughton, London Sydney and Auckland, 2004

Table of Contents

Introduction: Could Christians actually kill people?

Part 1: What James is all about

Chapter 1: Looking at James the wrong way

Chapter 2: Background to James

Chapter 3: Why James wrote

Part II: The major themes (with study questions)

Chapter 4: Caring for refugees – James 1:1

Chapter 5: Handling tough times – James 1: 2–16

Chapter 6: Be slow to anger: The first call to peacemaking – James 1:17–25

Chapter 7: Caring for the powerless – James 1:26–27

Chapter 8: Sucking up to the rich – James 2:1–19

Chapter 9: Do not commit murder: The second call to peacemaking – James 2:10–13

Chapter 10: True faith responds to the poor – James 2:14–26

Chapter 11: Collateral damage done by the tongue – James 3:1–12

Chapter 12: God’s wisdom seen in peacemaking: The third call to peacemaking – James 3:13–18

Chapter 13: Wars and fighting: The fourth call to peacemaking – James 4:1–10

Chapter 14: Guard your tongue – James 4:11–17

Chapter 15: God’s war on the rich – James 5:1–11

Chapter 16: Above all else: A fifth call to peacemaking – James 5:12

Chapter 17: A final call to longsuffering, prayer and community – James 5:13–20

Part III: Further study

Chapter 18: More on authorship and date

Chapter 19: Corrupt Roman governors in Palestine after Pilate

Chapter 20: Words, phrases, and passages in more depth

Bibliography

Introduction: Could Christians actually kill people?

You may or may not have read the book of James. Some people love it and read it all the time. Others might have trouble finding it as they dig around near the end of the New Testament. Ironically, most people who do read James seem to miss a really huge thing that is happening in the letter.

There is a very violent background that sits behind, and oozes through, the letter of James. If you are familiar with the letter, I want to ask you a quick question: Are you aware that James accuses his readers of killing other people? In fact, he says it twice. These two references to killing might come as a shock to you. Could James really be accusing Christians of killing people? Surely that is not even possible? A third reference to killing occurs when he gets angry at rich landowners killing exploited workers.

James accuses the readers of his letter (Jewish Christians, originally) of participating in murder. The first occurrence is in 2:10–13. The heart of this is an illustration that he puts to the readers. James writes: ‘He who said Do not commit adultery also said Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you have become a lawbreaker.’ The second occurrence is more blunt. In 4:2 James writes: ‘You want something but you don’t get it. You kill and covet.’

Have you stopped to think about those statements before? The readers of the letter are Jewish Christians who are suffering. And James accuses them of participating in killing.

Moving forward 2000 years …

The headlines in recent times have been pretty discouraging. Afghanistan. Iraq. Rwanda. Fears about Iran. North Korea. Syria. ISIL. And nobody really wants to talk about the newest super power on the block – one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world – China. (Shush! Don’t say that! They’re an important trading partner after all.)

Thousands of children are being stolen, or sold by desperate parents for a pittance, and they end up in the sex slave market – a market that seems to be a continually growing business. Children are kidnapped each day and forced into armies to fight adult wars. As well, some 24,000 children under the age of five are dying every day from preventable diseases and starvation. Twenty-four thousand! Every day! You may have heard the comparison to September 11 before: on 11 September 2001, when terrorists dropped the Twin Towers, about 3000 Americans were killed. Three thousand American deaths led to the so-called ‘war on terror’. It seemed a lot of lost lives. Three thousand innocent people, died on that one day. It led to some of the biggest political decisions and changes the world has seen in modern times. But 24,000 children die every single day. That is as if eight sets of Twin Towers filled with children under five ‘drop’ every day! And we are still waiting for the real ‘war on poverty’ to begin, to gain momentum, and to be won.

When the rich Western nations meet to discuss the world economies, they have been challenged to assist the poorest of the poor nations. They have been challenged to ‘let them off’ their massive debt. And each year, the same answer would be heard: ‘The world could not afford to do that. It would hurt the first world economies.’ Some gestures, and occasional partial debt relief did occur. But nothing big scale. The world could not afford to find the money to let the poorest of the poor be debt-free.

Then, recently (around 2008) the rich West sank into a deep recession. And the Americans found trillions to spend on themselves, to help them generate economic activity that was planned to cushion them from the worst effects of the world recession. Australia found tens of billions to do the same thing. Compared to the trillions the US is spending, billions might sound like loose change. But the fact is that before the recession, neither country would ever have entertained getting into that much debt to assist the desperately poor. But to assist ourselves to maintain our extraordinary materialistic lifestyle, we suddenly ‘had the capacity’ to get into big debt and spend that sort of money.

When it is for us, we find a way. But when it is for people of a different culture, a different colour, a different religion, or simply people out of sight and out of mind, we just don’t do much.

I am sure you are familiar with all this. What might be surprising is that the letter of James addresses some of the big issues of social justice, in ways that are still relevant for us today. The letter penned by James talks about war and injustice. It is written to people forced to flee their homes because of persecution and dangers. It talks about poverty and exploitation. It talks about the feelings of wanting to take revenge, and do violence, and take justice into our own hands. It talks about how to stay Christ-like when so much tragedy is going on around you.

The book you are holding in your hands will unpack that little letter. It will show you that James speaks to the big issues of our day. It calls on you and me to take a Jesus-like response to the things that are happening around us. It wants us to be upset by injustice. It wants us to do something about global inequalities. But it is also desperately calling us to do things as Christ-followers. It is a call to personal pacifism in the face of hostility and injustice; however, it does not stop there. Pacifism does not mean passivity. The letter of James is also a call to action to address injustice – but in Christ-like ways.

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How to get the most from this book

This book can be read by one person quietly, or used for daily devotions by an individual, or used for group study work on the epistle of James.

If you are using this book for group studies, Part I of this book (Chapters 1–3) should be read by all before the first discussion group. That is the background material to this letter. When you meet, you will be working on Chapters 4 to 17 – they are the chapters that deal with the actual text of James. You may decide to read the relevant chapter together along with the selected text from James, or you may have asked the participants to have read the relevant chapter beforehand as well. In that case, the first four chapters of this book should have been read before the first meeting.

The questions for discussion begin in Part II at the end of Chapter 4 and they relate directly to the material of that chapter and the specific text from James that the chapter deals with.

Part III (Further study) does not need to be read. However, some may find it useful. In particular, the study group leader will find it worthwhile to keep flicking to Chapter 21 for extra reference material in preparing each study. That chapter considers some of the main areas of debate, and has in-depth discussion of certain words and phrases used in James.

The bibliography lists the various sources that I have used to help me think and reflect on this small letter. Some are wonderful, others are helpful, and some (it seems to me) are barking up the wrong tree altogether. But it is always good to read from every position when seeking to firm up your own view! Unless it is otherwise stated, all Bible references used in the text are from Today’s New International Version (TNIV). Enjoy.

Part I:

What James is all about

Chapter 1:

Looking at James the wrong way

In a word, St. John’s Gospel and his first Epistle, St. Paul’s Epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first Epistle are the books that show you Christ and that teach you all that is necessary and good for you to know, even though you never see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore, St. James’ Epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to them; for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel in it. (Martin Luther)(1)

Some people look at the letter of James from inadequate starting points. We will consider three such mistaken views in this chapter.

But first, keep in mind what James is about: the letter of James cares about the poor. The author calls on people to look after the poor and suffering, the powerless and the oppressed. Yet he also calls on Christians to be pacifist at the same time. Christians will recognise injustice and be angered by it (just as James was), and their pacifism is not inaction. But the Christian response will not use violence to resolve oppression and injustice. Christ-followers must resist the temptation to take up ‘the world’s’ weapons and fight evil. They must respond to injustice, but do it the same way Jesus did. They must oppose evil, but must not fall into the trap of using evil to fight evil. The Christian response to injustice and poverty, James says, is in sharing our resources with those in need, being patient and longsuffering in the face of evil, being prayerful, demonstrating peace, and waiting for the ultimate justice that comes from God.

It is a compelling letter. Indeed, James actually gives a definition of ‘true religion’ in Chapter 1. No one else in the New Testament tries to do that. Think about that for a moment. How would you define ‘real religion’ if you were asked to do it in a sentence? What is true religion?

Well, James defines ‘true religion’ as ‘visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself unstained from the world’. Visiting widows and orphans is the first thing that comes to his mind when he says what real religion is. That is wild! Think about what he does not say. James does not say ‘true religion is adhering to the clauses of a particular doctrinal creed’ (as important as right beliefs are). He does not say ‘true religion promotes salvation by the grace of God, received by faith and not by works’ (as true as that is). He does not say ‘true religion is regular church attendance and staying morally pure’ (as valuable as church and morality are). He does not say ‘true religion is standing up against the inroads being made in our society by gays and pro-abortionists and other immoral people’ (as some emphasise). Nor does he say ‘real religion is having an influence, and prospering materially as one walks in faith principles’ (as some outrageously suggest).(2)

No. James uses none of the normal definitions of ‘religion’ that we are used to hearing today. Instead he talks about caring for the poor and avoiding the ways of the world as the key identifiers of real religion. He repeats that concern all over the place in his letter of five short chapters. He will get stuck into the rich, and offer comfort and strength to the poor. He will say such things as:

– Let the poor rejoice in their situation and let the rich person be warned: you will be brought low and your riches are vulnerable. Your riches will disappear in the midst of your selfish pursuits (Chapter 1).

– Don’t show favouritism in your meetings towards those with lots of cash, and neglect to treat the poor with love and attention (Chapter 2).

– What good is faith if it is not feeding the hungry and clothing the poor? (Chapter 2).

– Real heavenly wisdom is seen in rejecting selfish ambition, and pursuing peace – being peacemakers in fact, in a world full of injustice and violence (Chapter 3).

– Don’t be an overly confident business person who believes they control their own life. Nothing could be further from the truth: even your life is like a mist that is here briefly and then vanishes (Chapter 4).

– And of course the whole ‘woe to the rich – weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you’ passage: you have neglected the wages of those who worked for you; you have ripped off the poor and powerless; your judgment is coming (Chapter 5).

James is radical stuff. Maybe that is why we don’t study it all that much in the Western churches of the 21st century. Or maybe that explains why it has been ‘sanitised’ by approaching it in softer ways.

James is a passionate cry for Christians to care for the poor. It is a cry to avoid following the ways of the world, especially when fighting injustice. It is a call to longsuffering and pacifism. It is a call to live a sacrificial and serving life, caring for those in need, showing love to all, not avenging yourself, not taking up the weapons of the world to address injustice; and trusting your daily walk to God as we seek to live like his son Jesus.

Having said all that, it is sad to see the letter of James being handled badly in the church. It has been handled badly in a number of ways. Different people have tried to use this small letter to justify different things over the years. They have often missed the forest while focusing on just one tree.

Let me explain why three different views about James, are inadequate.

Mistaken view 1: The string of pearls

This view says that the letter of James is a kind of New Testament book of Proverbs: a loose collection of wise sayings that are good to put into practice in your life. Short disconnected sayings strung together with no rhyme or reason to them.

Douglas Moo states: ‘A ... well-known feature of James is the looseness of structure. Several sections develop a single issue at some length ... but most of the book is made up of short, seemingly independent, sayings of short paragraphs. Moreover it is often difficult to discern any logical relationship between one section and another.’(3) Moo concluded that James should be seen as ‘a homily in which the author takes up one subject after another, sometimes relating it to the previous one, sometimes picking up an idea or theme mentioned earlier in the letter, sometimes abruptly introducing a whole new topic’.(4)

William Barclay said much the same thing. He clearly stated that James was a collection of disconnected ideas strung together. He climaxed this discussion with the direct statement that James is like a string of beads: ‘One of the names for preaching was charaz, which literally means stringing beads ... This is exactly what James is.’(5) Barclay added: ‘It is difficult if not impossible, to extract from it a continuous and coherent plan.’(6)

Robert Tuck, in The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary writes in his introduction to James: ‘The contents are not laid out on any evident plan. St. James writes freely out of the fullness of his heart, touching subjects as they are freshly suggested to his mind, and returning upon them when some new thought strikes him.’(7)

Another writer, WT Purkiser, refers to the often-quoted sayings about the book of James which liken the letter to a string with many beads threaded on it, or pearls being dropped one at time into the listener’s mind, or ‘a chain, each link of which is unrelated to the one before and the one after’.(8)

The inadequacy of the string of beads position lies in the internal evidence that does see structure and unity in the book(9), as well as the historical realities of the time. James lived in troubled times. There was violence and chaos in Palestine at the time of the writing of this letter. The letter itself is full of references to the violent background of the times, and it is hard to imagine that the only preserved document from the pen of James would be a few pages of odds and ends, a loose collection of proverbial thoughts that is more the product of spare time and non-urgent reflection.

No. James is about living in the world as a Christ-follower first and foremost, and not as a Moses-follower. It is about living the peaceful, loving, serving life of a longsuffering and pacifist believer. It calls us to reject violence as the answer to injustice. Instead, James calls on us to care for one another in practical ways. He wants us to do this without being seduced by the world: we must not follow the normal ways of the world when dealing with grievances.

Mistaken view 2: Christian legalism, and Luther’s ‘epistle of straw’

Some see the book of James is a poor sample of real New Testament writing because it is so full of rules and regulations. And if it was indeed written by James the brother of Jesus, the first ‘bishop’ of Jerusalem, then what we see is James’s legalism seeping through at every turn. He seems to want people to keep the whole law, and he makes command after command to his readers. In the Greek language, there is a particular type of verb form that is used for commands: it is called the imperative. James uses more imperatives as a percentage of his total verb usage than any other writer in the New Testament.(10) He comes across as bossy, and legalistic.

Martin Luther is famous for his negative statement calling James an ‘epistle of straw’. Luther disliked this little letter and would have preferred to have had it taken out of the New Testament canon altogether. His complaints were numerous:

1. He found that it did not preach Christ enough. He wrote: ‘Its purpose is to teach Christians, but in all this long teaching it does not once mention the Passion, the resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ.’(11) He also said: ‘In a word, St. John’s Gospel and his first Epistle, St. Paul’s Epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first Epistle are the books that show you Christ and that teach you all that is necessary and good for you to know, even though you never see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore, St. James’ Epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to them; for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel in it.’(12)

2. He was deeply offended by the latter part of Chapter 2 – the section on faith and works. To Luther it seemed to contradict the apostle Paul and his teaching on faith alone for salvation: ‘[It] is flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works.’(13) He attempts to find some good motive behind the non-apostolic letter from a latter follower when he adds that the writer ‘wanted to guard against those who relied on faith without works, but was unequal to the task in spirit, thought, and words. He mangles the Scriptures and thereby opposes Paul and all Scripture.’(14)

3. Luther also disliked some of Chapter 5, and in particular its call to confession of sins to one another, and praying for the sick. They came too close to the two Roman Catholic sacraments of confession to a priest and last rites, which Luther had rejected.

In response to Luther’s criticisms, let us note the following:

1. Yes, it is true that James only mentions Christ by name twice, so Jesus is not much mentioned in this letter. But to be fair, the epistle really does sound a lot like Christ, and his teaching in particular. This makes James stand out more than any other letter in the New Testament for that particular feature. It is the most like ‘the Sermon on the Mount’. It is the letter most like the words and stories of Jesus. A number of writers give details of such a correlation, but even the casual reader will note the obvious similarities: rejoice in your troubles; ask in prayer for what you want with faith; do not seek riches as they pass away like the grass of the field; woe to the rich; love your neighbour – now that sums up the law; show mercy and you will get mercy; blessed are the pure; be a peacemaker; do not be the friend of the world; do not judge one another; don’t worry about tomorrow; and don’t make oaths but let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’, ‘no’ … And they are just the obvious ones. So much of Jesus’ words and images permeate this letter. To say that it is not enough about Jesus is really a cloaked way of saying it does not have much doctrine about Jesus in it. It is definitely more about how we live. But to be fair, what the heck is the matter with solid teaching on how to live? Does every letter have to have doctrinal reflection in it to a large degree? Of course not!

2. Regarding the debate about faith and works, it will be shown in the chapter devoted to that passage that Paul and James do not contradict, but rather complement, each other on their teachings. Paul would never say that your faith could exist alone without the evidence of good works (see Ephesians 2:8–10). And James does not say that a person with good works and no faith is saved. Luther was so passionate about the truth of faith alone that he went to an extreme to defend his view. In his context (his fight with the Roman Catholic Church of the early 1500s), one might understand his situation. But like most good things, passionate advocates sometimes overstate an extreme position in their efforts to get their point across.

3. The two concerns in Chapter 5 need never have arisen. The confession described there is ‘to one another’ and does not mention an ordained clergyman as the one to hear the confession (which is not necessarily wrong anyway). And the prayers for the sick in Chapter 5 are to see God do a miracle and rise up the sick person. They are not prayers for the sick to usher them into the afterlife (and that is not necessarily wrong as well).

Mistaken view 3: Liberation theology that justifies war

The third use of James that has had a more recent history is liberation theology. This is a huge topic and its adherents do not all say exactly the same things, but let me try to sum it up. As I attempt to summarise it here, you will probably see that there are some aspects to liberation theology that actually do make sense.

This particular theology grew up in the 1960s in Latin America. Cruel dictators ran various countries, and they were ruthless and oppressive. Some Catholic priests and other theologians began to develop an argument that Christians and the church had a responsibility from God to fight evil structures, like political, economic and legal systems that oppressed and hurt people. For example Vincent Gallagher contends: ‘Liberation is needed