The Wisdom of James Let us go ahead and take a look at the letter ...

New Testament Bible Content Overview Lesson 18, page 3sins to God. That is a trap! God did not make us to fight sin on our own. We did not drop out of the sky.The stork did not bring you and me to our parents’ house. We were born into families so that familiescould raise us and help us. As Christians we are born into the family of God. We are not meant to be byourselves. You hear this mantra, “God created the light; it was good. God created the land; it was good.God created this; it was good.” You hear “it was good” over and over again until “it was not good” thatman was alone. The whole story you have heard “it was good,” but it stops right there when Adam wasalone. God makes a helper who is well suited to him. We are born into families and into the church.We must confess our sins to each other. It takes a lot of hard work as pastors to create safe structures forthis to happen. It is very important as elders that we give attention to that. James says, “Confess yourfaults to one another and be healed.” Bonhoeffer puts his finger on it in his book Life Together. If youhave not read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, I warn you if you read that book you will never bethe same. It is a short, powerful book. If you are looking for something in your devotional life that willbless you but also challenge you, read Life Together. He says, “He who is alone with his sin is utterlyalone. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because though we have fellowship asbelievers we do not have fellowship as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.”This is a word of rebuke to many of us and many of our churches. We have created pious fellowshipswhere it is impossible to be a sinner. No wonder no one wants to come who does not know Jesus. Theyare not welcome because no sinners go there! The thing about confession is that it is a double entendre.As God’s people we confess two things together all the time. We confess our sins, and we confess ourfaith in the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. We have to do both. If we just confess our faith in theGospel, that is not the full Gospel. The Gospel is, first, the bad news that we are sinners. We need toconfess our sins and confess our faith. James offers a vision of a mutually supportive community wheremembers confess their sins to one another, pray for one another, and encourage one another towardmoral integrity. These are lives of integrity and wisdom.James 2 is a passage that is interesting in relation to Romans 3 and Galatians 2 and 3. This is in terms ofthe way that James uses the story of Abraham in comparison to the way that Paul uses that same story totalk about faith. Let us look together at James 2:14,What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith savehim? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him,“Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, whatgood is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Butsomeone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I willshow you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demonsbelieve that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds isuseless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offeredhis son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and hisfaith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abrahambelieved God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. Yousee that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.As I have argued before, the new economy is an important aspect of life as the church. Faith by itself isnot just sick; it is dead. The wording of this passage makes a lot of Reformed people nervous. That isanother reason why Luther had a problem with the letter of James.Let us look closely at the use of the word dikaioo in terms of “to justify,” and the noun “righteousness”as well. Turn to Luke 7:35. The overarching genre that we are in and the overarching communicative act© Spring 2008, Gregory Perry & Covenant Theological Seminary

New Testament Bible Content Overview Lesson 18, page 4is wisdom literature. You have to keep that in mind. In Luke 7, Jesus teaches wisdom sayings. Verse 33says, “John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a demon. TheSon of Man came eating and drinking, and you say he is a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectorsand sinners. But wisdom is justified by all of her children.” The is the same Greek verb for “justified.”Let us look at how Jesus uses this word here and at how James uses it. It is not used to refer to creditingrighteousness but to its vindication or proof. Its fruit and its children vindicate wisdom. James addressesthe error of equating faith with mere ascent to doctrinal truths like the existence of God. “You believe inGod? You do well. So do the demons.” That is not everything that needs to be said about faith.Paul also teaches that faith’s fruit results in good works. We looked at that earlier in Ephesians 2. It is soimportant to add verse 10 to Ephesians 2:8-9. Paul, like James, talks about the law of Christ in Galatians5 in terms of loving your neighbor and showing the love of Christ. If we look at the WestminsterConfession or the writings of Calvin, they really have helped us understand this relationship betweenfaith and works. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is a lone instrument ofjustification. Yet it is not alone in the person who is justified, but it is accompanied by other savinggraces. The way Calvin put it was that we are saved by faith alone but that faith that saves us is notalone. It is accompanied by fruit and good works.The sense of James 2 is vindication, proof, or evidence, and the context is the genre of wisdom teaching.Remember if you look back at the Proverbs that wisdom teaching in terms of inside the covenantalcommunity assumes that you are already in. Wisdom teaching is a fork in the road. It is between beingwise and being a fool. It is between righteousness and wickedness. It is between good and bad. We arenot talking about getting into the covenantal community. We are talking about how you are supposed tolive inside the covenant community. James writes to Christians. The beginning of his letter says, “Aservant of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” He writes to thecovenant community. It is not about justification as a doctrine that he deals with here. It is aboutsanctification and about living a wise life that shows faith by how it acts.James deploys familiar topics from the Old Testament wisdom tradition to address the threat offragmentation in the community, arising from a lack of integrity. He points out that friendship with theworld is enmity with God. Wealth should be used to build solidarity in the community rather than as aninstrument of oppression for one’s own security. It is interesting that in Jesus’ parables about wealth Hetalks about a shrewd use of wealth in terms of building relationships. Wealth should be an instrument ofsolidarity, not an instrument of oppression or separation. James joins Jesus and Paul in offering strongwarnings to the rich without condemning wealth as such.We should return to the issue of memory verses, and I want to add this one to your list: James 1:21-22,“Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in youwhich can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”Jesus said the same thing. In Luke 8 Jesus said his family members are “those who hear the word of Godand do it.” That is the wisdom James wrote about.© Spring 2008, Gregory Perry & Covenant Theological Seminary