This is a particularly tall order in light of the scholarship on James that stems from Martin Luther to Martin Dibelius. Both Germans led the way for later commentators to regard the book of James as loosely arranged sayings without a cohesive message.
Varner argues that the peak of the book is James —18, which contrasts heavenly wisdom with earthly wisdom. The section contains anaphoric elements looking back to James 1—2 as well as cataphoric elements that look forward to James 4—5. The section has several elements of a frontground prominence pp. Unlike most commentaries that contain an introduction followed by ongoing commentary on each section of the text, Varner begins with an essay on discourse features.
This is particularly helpful to track the verbal links and grammatical shifts in the book. Varner concludes the volume with two essays. First is his argument that James the Just held the most prominent position in the church, a historical fact that is often forgotten, and as a result the significance of the letter, as the first epistle addressed to the believers, is often understated.
Second, Varner gives a homiletical outline that pastors can use in preaching the book. According to Varner exegesis should lead to exposition, and exposition to preaching or teaching.
The basis of this methodology is the assumption that the author communicated to his readers with a single strategy in mind, not a series of competing ideas. The methodological goal is to keep the larger picture of James in mind as one exegetes the individual passages.
Varner seeks to fit the passages within the context of the entire book by applying discourse analysis to the book. Louis: Concordia, Although an adequate treatment of this issue can only arise from a full exegesis of —26, the following should provide a context in which the issues can be explored by a more in-depth analysis.
But we should not concentrate on isolated statements like these or we may naively conclude that there is an irreconcilable contradiction. In actuality the two writers are not discussing the same subject and thus cannot contradict one another.
What does James say about faith, and what does he mean by works? As we have already seen, he links faith with prayer ; He refers to faith being demonstrated by works Such faith only causes them to shudder. A faith that does not transform the believer is not faith as James understands it because it is a dead faith. It is the kind of faith that responds to the needy by some pious-sounding line but does nothing to meet their needs — That James is not teaching salvation by meritorious works is shown by his clear teaching on universal sinfulness Sin is not only an act of wrongdoing; to know to do good and not do it is also sin To fail in one point of the law is to be guilty of all An author with this deep understanding of sin does not expect people to save themselves by doing some sort of meritorious acts to achieve that salvation.
James looks for deliverance through mercy , and that mercy originates in that sovereignly divine will that leads to our spiritual birth James is simply insisting that faith must be more than barren intellectualism.
Like Paul he expects a faith that works through love Gal. Both Paul and James agree that salvation comes through divine action, not human merit, and that it is appropriated by a faith that must be lived out in obedient lives.
Another solution to the conundrum of their similar language is that when these two speak of justification, they are describing different stages in the life of the believer. James speaks of a time years later when Abraham was willing to offer his son ; Gen — Some authors also stress that Paul uses justification language that refers to the beginning of the Christian life, while James, along with Jesus in Matthew, uses the term for final justification, which will be displayed on judgment day.
Among them is Moo, This is particularly seen in the lack of love shown to the needy poor in — Paul would equally have been horrified by such a callous attitude by one who professed to have faith Eph — It is important to notice the way in which each writer applies the text in Genesis 15 by referring to different events after the statement recorded in that chapter. Thus it is unnecessary for Gentiles to be circumcised to become true believers.
Like Abraham, Gentiles can have faith and a righteous standing before God. This is exactly the context of the problem faced in Romans and Galatians—namely, can Gentiles be genuine believers without circumcision? Yes, affirms Paul, because Father Abraham was just such a believer. There is one final observation that may help us to understand that James was not consciously referring to any Pauline writing about justification in Galatians or Romans.
In light of the above evidence, it is not necessary to see a conflict between these two great leaders on the subject of faith. They each should be read in their own contexts. Rather than seeing them as opponents facing each other with drawn swords, it is wiser to see them back-to- back, each with his drawn sword encountering different opponents.
When one sees James and Paul in this way, their letters then make perfect sense and complement rather than contradict each other. He frequently warns believers about the coming judgment in order to stimulate them to adopt the right attitudes and behavior —11; —13; ; —6, 9, Additionally, he reminds them of the reward to which they can look forward if they live pleasingly for the Lord ; ; ; James, in other words, motivates his readers to godly living not by insisting that the Lord would come at any moment but by reminding them that He could.
Though future eschatology is the dominant perspective in James, the present eschatological nature of Christian existence is not ignored. Wisdom Is the Letter of James to be included in the Jewish wisdom literature found in both the canonical and the later Jewish writings? Some of this literature was read and enjoyed by James and his contemporaries.
While the literature on this subject is extensive, exact parallels and explanations differ greatly. While there seems to be no dependence on Paul, neither are they alien, with Paul taking wisdom further into more ontological realms. Baasland concludes: The lines of wisdom can be traced back to the wisdom literature of the OT.
On the other hand, we see a line in the NT, which originates in Jesus and stretches over the parts of the proclamation of Paul Rom. There is an entire paragraph on the subject of wisdom and it is so prominent that it seems to serve as the thematic peak of the entire book. In other words, James is more concerned with describing wisdom from above rather than theoretically defining it. This description follows closely his emphasis on the two ways, a subject grounded in OT wisdom literature Ps ; Prov It is the stark contrast between these two kinds of wisdom that dominates the paragraph.
The wrong kind, coming from below, is characterized by envy, selfishness, and disorder —16 —the opposite of peace. James then underscores this virtue with his concluding blessing on peacemakers The absence of peace, on the other hand, is obviously the main issue in —3. The community is marked by quarrels and arguments, some of them perhaps even violent.
And James traces these disputes to the characteristics of false wisdom that he pointed out in , namely envy and selfishness He simply approaches the two ways tradition in Hebraic literature as echoed by Jesus and then applies it to the new kingdom inaugurated by his more famous brother.
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