James the Mediator

We have been exploring James for a few weeks and something jumped out at me in my latest reading. I believe James is writing to Jewish Christians spread throughout the Roman empire. Some of them have land and status; some do not. James is writing to bridge the gap between them, writing to them about the possibilities of growth for the poor if things don't change, but also the necessity that they do.

One of the warnings James gives is in chapter 4. He begins the chapter with cautions about what actually starts all of the quarrelings among them: battles that rage within them. They covet; they desire. He then warns: Your friendship with the world is hatred toward God (v. 4). What they use to achieve status with the world despises God. Rather than achieving status with the world, they are to submit themselves to God. They are to wash their hands! They are are to purify their hearts! (v.8) Notice how James takes purity laws (wash your hands) and applies it in terms of how lives are lived in the context of the great promise of the prophets of a new covenant written on the hearts of people. James is appealing to the law and history of this group of people to establish a new context for their relations. He is mediating.

Then he finishes his warnings with advice: Do not slander one another. He is referring to them all, here, rich and poor alike. Poor, don't speak against the rich. Rich, don't speak against the poor. Why? Because when you speak you judge one another. And when you judge one another, you judge the law. And when you judge the law, you are setting yourself above it. Notice how James has now used the law--the great unifier of the Jewish people in dispersion--and shown how their disunity is a judgment on it.

James creates a new world for his hearers to live in, one that is shaped by their Scripture for them to live out the life of the church.

A Jamesian Reflection on the Old Testament Law

Is the Old Testament law valuable? Can following the law be an important part of the faith of a Jewish Christian? Let me offer some reflections on these thoughts from James.

First, I believe that James writes to Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire in the diaspora. Some are wealthy, some poor; all are Christians. James's purpose in writing to them is to encourage them to get along and help one another out by appealing both to their Jewish faith and the life of the Lord Jesus, thereby saving them (5:20).

In the midst of this, he points that contrary to sin which brings death, God has given us life through the word of truth (1:18) which can save us (1:21). We should not just listen to this word, but do what it says (1:22) because when we listen but do not do, we make the word useless, like when we use a mirror but forget what we look like. This means that without following the word, it is useless to do what it can do; without us following us, it is useless to saving us. James then equates this "word" with the perfect law (1:25), saying the one who follows it will be blessed in what she does. This perfect law is the law that gives freedom.

James then encourages his hearers to speak and act as those who will be judged by this law (2:12). This is the perfect law whose royal form is loving one's neighbour as we love ourselves (2:8-9). Without loving your neighbour, it matters not a hoot whether one obeys the rest of the law; they have broken the whole thing (2:11).

Let me pull this together. I think James is fine with his hearers following their religious practices and the law. However, without inward transformation, these religious practices are useless. (This is what he means by controlling the tongue, which Jesus says speaks the overflow of our hearts.) Inward transformation, however, which is and is enabled by the word planted within us, is the perfect law, the complete law, the purposed law. The purpose of the law is to love one's neighbour as we love ourselves and we should act with this law in mind. This is the law that gives freedom to do just what it asks--not showing favourtism and loving our neighbours. This is our salvation because this is the life of our Lord Jesus--who is glorified.

[I think it will later takes Paul and theologians working out their thoughts on the Holy Spirit who makes this transformation possible because, as Paul and other prophets before him (like Jeremiah) tell us, the law is powerless to bring about this transformation.]

So, the perfect law is good, worth following and obeying and thereby becoming like Jesus in its and his royalty--loving indiscriminately. Anything less is useless.

Keeping Oneself from Being Polluted

James tells us that part of what God accepts as pure and faultless religion is keeping oneself from being polluted by the world (1:27). Christians have often done this by attempting to recreate the world they live in ex nihilo. By this I mean that they have not tried being redemptive figures in their existing culture in order to remake it, but by creating a separate culture. As a result we have Christian wrestling, Christian mints, Christian games, Christian music. This is not a counter-culture, meant to be a critique of the existent culture; this is a separate culture, meant to enjoy all the pleasures of the existent culture with none of the pollution.

But James' words cannot be heeded in this way because the source of sin is not culture. James warns us that we are tempted by our own evil desires, that these desires give birth to sin, and that sin, when it is finished, gives birth to death (1:14-15). The source of sin is not culture; it is us. So, if keeping oneself from pollution is not done by separation, how is it done?

Consider the socio-spiritual rules of disease and illness that Jesus bucked. Being touched by a leper, bleeder, dead body, etc. brought uncleanness according to the law. But when touched by lepers, Jesus did not become unclean; they became clean. When touched by a bleeding woman, Jesus was not defiled; she was healed. When touched a dead girl, Jesus was not polluted; she was restored to life! By the power of God's Spirit in Jesus, sin's contagion was stopped and righteousness spread. Jesus was kept from pollution not in his separation from others, but in his relationship to the Father. Righteousness spread. Jesus kept from being polluted by the world by justifying / rightifying it (making it right).

Likewise for James. Believers are kept from being polluted by the world by entering into the actions of their glorious Lord Jesus (2:1): Not showing favouritism. Just as Jesus showed no favouritism by including the poor, the sick, the betrayer, etc., so do his followers keep from being polluted by showing love to the poor (2:2-7). They are encouraged to speak and act as Jesus--as though the law gave freedom (2:12-13). And in this life of obedience--of rightifying the world, to be rightified (2:24), to find their righteousness and friendship with God (2:23). And yet this is not a salvation by merit because it is only through the word of truth, planted in us (1:21) that God has given us birth (1:18).

James--Practical Theologian

I have been meditating and studying James for a couple of weeks in preparation for our upcoming series. Recently, I have begun seeing James' ability to apply theology to his hearers. Practical theology is best not thought of as a list of dos and don'ts, but as theology that aims to be formative; beliefs about and from God that shape our practices--often dos, but sometimes don'ts--in order to shape our character.

Let me give one example of James' practical theology. James is writing to Jewish believers scattered throughout the Roman empire--a phenomenon called the diaspora. As a result of this scattering, some Jews are poor and without land, while some are wealthy, owning land away from Jerusalem. James starts to address this disparity not by telling all his hearers to share and be nice, but by pointing out the benefit of trial. Trials produce perseverance and perseverance leads to maturity and completeness! As a result, James encourages the poor brother to take pride in his high position--a position that enables maturity to be developed.

James continues by charting the course of the rich: the rich should take pride in their low position. They should do this because without a change of attitude, their doom is foretold: they will pass like a plat scorched by the heat. James has taken and applied Jesus' parable of the sower to the wealthy people in this congregation. Just as Jesus said that those seeds which fell in rocky soil were scorched, so James is warning that without a reversal of attitudes, so will the rich of these churches die and be forgotten. The choice is theirs and James makes sure they realize it: "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."

Notice that James does not give a road map to solving their problems. Rather, he combines the parable of Jesus ("planted") with the OT law in order to lay out for them their choice. How they live out the word is up to them, but James has made all the connections and challenges. He has redrawn the world appealing to their law--taking care of widows and orphans--and by warning them as Jesus had once warned his listeners.