18 b.

Der Jakobusbrief

III. Commentary
L.T. Johnson (1995)

1. Praescript (1,1)

“James, slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greetings to the twelve tribes in the dispersion“.

If James is doulos of “God and the Lord Jesus Christ“ then he is certified to readers as one who is himself defined by the measure he applies to them. His life is one of service to God and to Jesus as Lord. He is a reliable spokesperson for God und the Lord Jesus Christ, since he lives out what he preaches. The one who best serves is the one who best represents. Thus the designation supports both the implied author's genuine personal commitment and his authoritative role within the messianic movement (171).

The “twelve tribes in the dispersion“: Readers who accept their status as recipients of this letter accept also this designation; they become the hoped-for restored Israel among the nations. Whoever receives the author's 'greetings' welcomes a self-definition as part of a spiritual Israel normed by the texts of Torah and living service to God and the Lord Jesus Christ (171f).

2. Introduction (1,2-27)

The establishment of the polar oppositions that James works with throughout the composition is accomplished in these opening verses. First is the contrast between two measures, that which comes from God and that which comes from the world opposed to God. The outlook of the world is duplicitous and envious. In contrast, God gives to all with simplicity and without rebuke (1,5); God can even be defined as the giver of every good and perfect gift (1,17). Worldly desire conceives sin, and sin, when it reaches term, gives birth to death (1,15). In contrast, God gives birth to humans by a word of truth and makes them the firstfruits of his creatures (1,18) (175).

The second set of contrasts is between the behaviors consistent with each measure. To live by God's word of truth means to put aside anger in favor of meekness, because “anger does not accomplish God's rightousness“ (1,20). It means regarding wealth and poverty in ways shocking to the world, which uses them as a means of testing worth; before God “the poor brother boasts in his exaltation, and the rich person in his humiliation“ (1,9). It means being driven not by evil desires (1,14) but by the wisdom that comes from God in response to the prayer of faith (1,5-6). Most paradoxically, it means counting trials 'entirely as joy' (1,2), an attitude possible to those who view the world as an open system created by God, in which God will give the crown of life to those who love him (1,12).

The third contrast is between the sham religiosity of appearance and a true devotion “pure and undefiled before God“, which is expressed in honest speech and in care for the dispossessed in society (1,26-27). These are the attitudes and actions that keep oneself “unstained from the world“ (1,27). Mere learning without doing is a form of self-deception (1,8.16) and 'worthless' (1,26) (175).

The feature of chapter one is its emphasis on proper understanding. The first exhortation to the readers is cognitive in character: they are to 'reckon/calculate/consider' the reality of trials in one way rather than in another (1,2). Prior to speech or action is the proper apprehension of reality. The first chapter works through the connections between right perception, right speech and right action (175f).

1,2-8

(2) “My brothers, consider it entirely as joy whenever you encounter various testings, (3) since you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (4) And let endurance yield a perfect product, in order that you might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (5) But if any of you is lacking wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all simply and without grudging, and it will be given to him. (6) But let him ask in faith, without doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is tossed and turned by the wind. (7) That sort of person should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. (8) He is a double-minded man. He is unstable in all his ways“.

The basic thesis that is worked out both in this chapter and in the rest of the composition is faith and its reaching a fullness or perfection through a variety of 'testings' presented by an alternative unterstanding of the world. The rest of the composition will elaborate a series of such 'testings' that challenge faith's perception of reality: testings that arise not only from human passions but from a measurement of reality that is actively hostile toward that offered by faith. The composition will unfold as well the way faith is 'perfected' by proper modes of speech and behavior, especially in the obedience and hospitality of faith shown by the 'works' of Abraham and Rahab (2,20-25); in the 'endurance of faith' demonstrated by Job (5,10-11); in the 'prayer of faith' offered by Elijah (5,17-18). This opening exhortation contains in compressed form each one of these themes: faith's perfect 'work/product', endurance, and prayer (182f).

James' call for a perception of testing as a chance to grow in a commitment is at odds with a world that conceives of life solely in terms of gratification and self-aggrandizement. In the worldview, anything interfering with pleasure is a source of 'suffering', which must at all costs be avoided. The ideal of 'endurance' is not attractive to hedonism, for it assumes an understanding of human character based on something more profound than pleasure, possession, or power (183).

James' real distinctiveness comes in the assertion that human existence is not located within a closed system of competition but within an open system ordered to a God who gives gifts to humanity. This is the theological perspective of 'faith'. And it is this understanding of reality that grounds the positive perception of testing. The 'endurance' here is the demonstration of a community's fidelity to God as the source of its being and worth. The 'perfect product' of endurance is a community that has become what 1,18 calls “a certain firstfruits of God's creatures“. This theological construal of reality is what makes the turn to prayer something other than an arbitrary piece of pious advice. Prayer is the essential conversion for one unable to 'perceive' or 'calculate' life's testings in the appropriate way. It is surely not by accident that Jame's composition begins and ends on the topic of prayer, since prayer is the activity that most fundamentally defines and expresses that construal of reality called 'faith' (183f).

Since this 'measure of reality' (or 'wisdom') is one that is essentially ordered to God, it follows that only God can bestow it when it is lacking. Yet, even to make this turn toward God means at some deep level that one does participate in the construal called 'faith'. Otherwise, one would not pray. When James opposes the manner of praying 'in faith' and 'in doubting' he identifies from the start the reason for his entire exhortatory composition: it is addressed to those who share the community's ethos of 'faith' but do so with a divided mind; they seek to live by two measures at once. These 'double-minded persons' are the particular target of warning. When James suggests that “they should not think that they will receive anything from the Lord“, he suggests that those who share the group's ethos with only half a mind are already half out of the community (184).

1,9-12

(9) “Let the lowly brother boast in his exalted position. (10) But let the rich person boast in his humbling, because like a wild flower he will pass away. (11) For the sun rises with its burning heat and dries up the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance is lost. Thus also the rich person will disappear in the midst of his activities. (12) Blessed is the man who endures testing, because when he has been proven sound, he will receive the crown of life which [God] has promised to those who love him“.

We see that the world is viewed as open to God and human existence as ordered by relationship to God. This measure affects the perception of every circumstance of life. Most especially, it affects the perception of human destiny. 1,12 makes this explicit: God rewards with life those whose endurance of testing has proven them worthy. They have shown by this faithful patience that they 'love God'. And by crowning them with life, God shows himself faithful to his promises. The entire premise underlying 1,2 is thus made clear (190).

The 'boasting of the lowly brother' in the present context makes sense, especially when correlated with 1,12. The 'lowliness' can be seen as a form of 'testing' from the side of the world's evaluation and a 'blessing' from the side of God's election. 2,5 will make precisely this contrast explicit. Therefore, the 'exalted position' can be seen to correspond to the 'crown of life'/'kingdom' promised by God to those who love him (1,12; 2,5). The lowly can boast in this exalted position both now, in terms of their election and inclusion in the people that 'loves God', and in terms of their future gaining of the 'crown of life' (190)

An allusion to the 'wild flower' with a stress on its impermanence obviously calls for the contrast to be made with what is permanent.The contrast is provided by Isaiah 40,8: “The Word of our God remains forever“. The reader of James who catches this allusion is prepared for the stress on “the word of truth“ in 1,18 and “the implanted word able to save your souls“ in 1,21. Once more the contrast between the rich, on one hand, and the lowly/tested ones on the other, turns out also to be a contrast between the two measures of reality, one given by the 'world' and the other given by the 'wisdom from above' (191).

1,13-21

(13) “Let no one when tested say, 'I am being tempted by God'. For God is not tempted bei evils. Nor does he himself tempt anyone. (14) Instead, each person, by being drawn away and lured, is tempted by his own desire. (15) Then the desire, once it has conceived, brings forth sin. And when sin is brought to term, it gives birth to death. (16) Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. (17) Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights. With him there is no alteration or shadow of change. (18) By his decision, he gave us birth through a word of truth, in order that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (19) You know this my beloved brothers. Then let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. (20) For a man's anger does not accomplish God's righteousness. (21) Put aside, therefore, all filthiness and excess of evil. With meekness receive the implanted word that is able to save your soul“.

The biblical tradition establishes humans in relationship with a single, personal, all-powerful God who is Master of the Universe and source of all that is. This relationship, furthermore, is portrayed in narrative and prophecy as intensely interactive, with God intimately involved in the destiny of individual humans. The normative texts of this tradition declare outright that this God did in fact 'test' the patriarch Abraham and all people Israel in the wilderness (203)!

God is neither tested by evils nor himself tests anyone (1,13). The clarity and decisiveness of this statement deserve attention. Part of it simply removes God from the realm of evil: God has nothing to do with it; the other part also removes God from the 'testing game' entirely (204).

Critical to James' argument is the semantic shift in the meaning of peirasmos/peirazein from 'testing' to 'tempting'. The shift is from external circumstance to internal measurement. It is human 'desire' that leads humans to sin and eventually to death. It refers to desire disordered by sinful passion. James will later show how such distorted desire leads to the death of others, in murder (4,1-4; 5,1-6)!

In 1,17-18 James removes God completely from this realm of human passion and destructiveness. He defines God in terms of complete and generous goodness. God is not only associated with light rather than darkness, with stability and consistency rather than with change and alteration, but (as in 1,5) with the giving of every good and perfect gift, rather than with the attitude of grasping that is characteristic of epithymia (desire) (204).

In 1,18 James speaks of how “by his decision“, God “gave birth“ to humans by a “word of truth“. The reversal is complete in every respect, countering the deceptiveness, the drivenness, and the destructiveness of epithymia. God's given birth by a word has a specific intention: that the humans thus given life might represent all creatures before God. The gift (datum) bears within it a mandate (mandatum) (205).

It is to that mandate that James turns in 1,19-21. The first requirement of those who have given birth by a word (that is, had it 'implanted' in them) is to 'receive' that word and allow it to become the norm for their existence, just as it is the basis of their existence and of their future, with its power to “save their souls“. The proper stance for such reception is 'hearing'. James exhorts his readers to be “quick to hear and slow to speak“. Such hearing can only be effective when it is accompanied by meekness. The qualities of 'meekness' and 'lowliness' are opposed to the attitude that James declares is incompatible with the “righteousness of God“, namely human anger. Human wrath does not work God's righteousness because it is associated with epithymia, the self-aggrandizing drive to acquire pleasure and possessions and power, because when such epithymia is thwarted, it generates orgé and orgé leads to murder (see 4,1-4) (205).

1,22-27

(22) “But become doers of the word, and not simply hearers. That would be to deceive yourselves. (23) Because if anyone is simply a hearer of the word and not a doer, this person is like a man noticing his natural face in a mirror. (24) For he glances at himself, and he leaves, and immediately he forgets what he looks like. (25) But the one who has gazed into the perfect law of freedom and has remained there has become, not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the deed. This person will be blessed in everything he does. (26) If anyone considers himself religious without bridling his tongue and while indulging his heart, this person's religion is worthless. (27) This is pure and undefiled religion before the God who is also father: to assist orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unstained from the world“.

James noted that the testing of faith produced endurance and endurance could produce a perfect product: for 'faith' to be real, it must be translated into 'works'; for identity to be authentic, it must be enacted in deeds: it is not enough for one to be an “hearer of the word“ only; one must also become a “doer of the word“ (213).

James begins with a person's catching sight of his 'natural face' in a mirror, going away, and forgetting what he looks like. Only the recognition that James ist playing off a recognizable topos enables us to perceive that the “forgetting what he looks like“ represents a negative moral judgement. He is like a man who heard moral teaching but failed to put it into practice in his behavior. James is thereby restating his proposition that it is necessary to be a doer of the word and not merely a hearer (213).

James shifts the metaphor slightly: In the mirror there is seen not one's “natural face“ but the “perfect law of freedom“. James here makes deliberate connection to “the word of truth“ in I,I8. The word of God received with meekness is “able to save souls“, but it also provides guidance for behavior. It is guidance given not by 'birth' but by the “implanted word“ with which God 'birthed' this community (214).

The logic of this passage makes “the word of truth“ and “the perfect law of freedom“ synonymous. The most obvious way to understand the phrase 'word of truth' is in reference to the Gospel, that is, the Christian proclamation. For James Gospel, Torah and the word of creation, they all represent gifts of God.

As James' argument develops, his understanding of faith/word/law is inclusive. The “faith of Jesus Christ“ and the “law of freedom“ are not in opposition, but represent different moments of the same revelation. Torah as law is given perfect expression by the “law of the kingdom“, which is the commandment of love found both in Leviticus and in the words of Jesus.

James presents four models from Torah for his readers to imitate. In the stories of Abraham and Rahab, they will 'see' the exemplification of the obedient works of faith (2,20-26). In the story of Job, they will 'see' the exemplification of faith's patient endurance (5,10-11). And in the story of Elijah, they will 'see' the power of the prayer of faith (5,16-18). And all of these examples make the same point that James has been developing from the start; that faith, to be perfected, must be enacted.

In 1,26-27 James concludes this opening argument that sets the stage for the essays that will develop these basic points. Once more, we see the emphasis placed upon proper understanding that has run through this whole chapter. The person who 'thinks/considers' himself religous without the corresponding behavior has a religion that is 'foolish/vain'. Such a person wants the profession without the performance. This person wants to talk rather than to listen, wants to 'indulge the heart' rather than look to the needs of others. In James' view, this is the very essence of 'double-mindedness' (1,8). The 'religion' espoused by James is not about cultic purity or ritual separation, but precisely about caring for the needy in their affliction! Thus, James closes with the fundamental contrast between the measurement of the world and God's measurement that has run through the entire chapter. The 'religion' that is “the faith of Jesus Christ“ (2,1) is one that is measured “in God's eyes“, which means precisely to be “unstained from the world“ (1,27) (214).

3. Exposition (2 – 5)

a. The Deeds of Faith (2,1-26)

The prohibition in 2,1 with its formal invocation of the “faith of Jesus Christ our glorious Lord“, clearly marks the beginning of a section that comes to a satisfying end in 2,26 with the conclusion that faith without deeds is dead (218).

The argument from beginning to end concerns the necessity of living out the faith of Jesus in appropriate deeds. In this sense, the point of the discussion in 2,14-26 is not to be found by way of engagement with a Pauline position, but rather by the specific points argued in 2,1-13 (219).

James seeks to hold the community to its professed ideals. Do the readers claim as their own the “faith of Jesus“ that announced to the poor an elect place in the kingdom? Then they cannot adopt the standards of the world that scorns the poor and treats them with contempt. Do the readers claim as their own the “law of love“ associated with Jesus' preaching of the kingdom? Then they must live out that love consistently and not practice the sort of discrimination against the poor that the very law quoted by Jesus itself condemns. Do they profess to live in a community that shares its possessions? Then they cannot, in the face of dreadful human need, cover up neglect with the camouflage of pious language.

This is the context for James' argument that “faith without deeds is dead“. His implied audience is not like Paul's readers in Galatia, who were proposing to do more by seeking circumcision and observance of law. James portrays his implied audience as one that avoids even the minimum required by its profession of the faith of Jesus (219).

2,1-7

(1) “My brothers, do not hold the faith of Jesus Christ our glorious Lord together with acts of favoritism. (2) For if a man with gold rings and splendid clothing enters your assembly, and also a poor man dressed with filthy clothing, (3) and you look favorably on the one wearing the splendid clothing and say to him, 'you sit here in a fine place', while you also say to the poor person, 'you stand there, or sit below my footrest', (4) are you not devided within yourselves, and have you not become judges with evil designs? (5) Listen, my beloved brothers! Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? (6) But you have dishonored the poor person! Is it not the rich who oppress you and are they not the very ones who are dragging you into courts? (7) Are they not the very ones blaspheming the noble name which has been invoked over you“?

The contrast beween the pure religion in God's eyes and the world (1,26-1,27) is spelled out by the behavior of the messianic community with respect to its poorer members. The opening prohibition simply states the incompatibility of “the faith of Jesus“ – meaning here the measure of life as preached and taught by Jesus – with attitudes of partiality toward the rich. It is the explication of that prohibition that draws readers into a deeper realization of the absolute divide between the two measures (227).

James language invokes the world of Torah. Placing one person in an advantageous position while placing another in a disadvantageous one simply on the basis of their appearance is, by the measure of Torah, already to have become 'respecters of persons' and, therefore, to have become 'unrighteous judges' (Lev 19,15) (228).

Even more than the measure of Leviticus those who show favoritism in the assembly offend against the measure of “the faith of Jesus“. In 2,5-6a, James contrasts the way God has treated the poor and the way James' implied readers are treating them. By the measure of faith, the poor are 'rich' because God has chosen them to be heirs of the kingdom. James' language here seems to echo the beatitudes (Lk 6,20; Mt 5,3). God has chosen to honor the poor by elevating their status: they are rich, they are heirs of the kingdom. One hearing this text read aloud would surely have caught the allusion back to the contrast in 1,9-11 between the wealthy who disappeared in the midst of their affairs and the lowly who were exalted, as well as the clear correspondence between the 'lovers of God' in 1,12 and the 'lovers of God' here in 2,5 (228).

In the contrast of God's honoring of the poor the readers are said to have „dishonored the poor person“. Those who claim to live by the measure of the faith of Jesus are not truly doing so; instead they are actually living by the measure of the world (229).

The absurdity of such behavior for this community in particular is now made explicit by James in a series of three questions. James asks whether it is not the rich people who oppress them, and whether it is not the rich themselves who drag them into law courts for the purposes of oppressing them, and whether it is not the rich who blaspheme the noble name invoked over them (2,6b-7).

The community as a whole has suffered form those 'acts of favoritism', they have suffered at the hands of “judges with evil designs“ instigated by the powerful machinations of the rich. They have adopted the attitudes of the oppressors against their own members! Although they claim to live in a community shaped by the honor of the poor, in their actual assemblies they practice just the same favoritism toward the rich that has been turned against them. The attitudes of 'the world' have infected the assembly. This is indeed “double-mindedness“ (229).

2,8-13

(8) “If you actually fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself', you are doing well. (9) But if you are practicing favoritism, you are committing a sin. You are convicted by the law as transgressors. (10) For whoever untertakes keeping the entire law, yet fails in one thing, has become accountable for them all. (11) For the one who has said, 'Do not commit adultury', also said, 'Do not kill'. Now if you do not commit adultury but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. (12) So speak and so act, as people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. (13) For judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment“.

Although James mentions 'law' (nomos) here for first time since 1,25, it is clear that 2,8-13 is not in the least a transition to another topic than that pursued in 2,1-7. His argument still concerns consistency in living out professed convictions. The designation of the law as 'royal' follows naturally from the characterization of the inheritance as a 'kingdom' in 2,5. Finally, the citation of Lev 19,18 in 2,8 “you shall love your neighbor as yourself“ naturally follows from the mention of those who 'love God' in 2,5 filling out the dominical summary of the law as found in Mt 22,37-39, which combines the commandment of the Shema', “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind“, with that in Lev 19,18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself“ (235).

James began this argument with the measure of the law as consonant with the 'faith of Jesus' and continued it with reference to Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom to the poor. Now James returns to the full understanding of God's measure as expressed in the law of love enunciated both by Torah and by the words of Jesus. This section is to be read as a continuation of an argument about the consonance of profession and practice within the community (235).

The subject is not law but consistency in practice. In the previous section, James condemned those living with a kingdom promised to the poor who, in their turn, shamed the poor. Now he insists that those who claim to live within a kingdom defined by the 'royal law' of love cannot, at the same time, practice partiality. His reasons are rooted in the text of Torah itself. The prohibition of partiality in judgment in Lev 19,15 provides part of the context of the commandment of love of neighbor in Lev 19,18. James understands this law of love to be articulated by its context: “if you really keep the royal law according to the Scripture“ (2,8). And it is this understanding that illuminates his insistence that anyone untertaking to keep the law must observe it entirely. In this case, he means precisely the law of love as articulated by its scriptural context. One cannot claim to love while practicing favoritism in judging, for the prohibition of such favoritism is part of the law of love (235f).

The contrast here is between 'really' keeping the law of love (2,8) and the mere pretense of doing so while disobeying one of its provisions. This would be the same as claiming that one kept the ten commandments if one avoides adultery... even while one commited murder (2,11)! The law, in other words, is not simply a collection of commandments; rather it reflects the will of a lawgiver (4,11-12). The same one who 'says' not to kill is the one who 'says' not to commit adultery. It is clear that the one who convicts and judges is God „the one lawgiver and judge“ (4,12). Nomos here remains the measure by which God makes judgment (236).

2,12 seems resumptive as James exhorts his readers to speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom – which we recognize from the content and from 1,25 to mean the teaching of Torah as given perfect expression by the 'faith of Jesus'. But the notion of being judged inevitably raises the issue of being 'righteous' or 'unrighteous'. Verse 12 also anticipates the discussion in 2,14-26 in which 'righteousness' appears. Likewise v.13, which speaks of merciless judgment of the unmerciful and of mercy triumphing over judgment, points forward to the example of 'merciless' that James will recount immediately in 2,14-16. But at the same time, it connects that 'neglect of the poor' to the merciless 'shaming of the poor' in 2,2-4 (236).

2,14-26

(14) “What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have deeds? Is the faith able to save him? (15) If a brother or sister is going naked and lacking daily food, (16) and if one of you should say to them, 'Go in peace! Be warmed and filled', but does not give to them what is necessary for the body, what is the use? (17) So also faith, if it does not have deeds, is by itself dead. (18) But someone will say, 'you have faith, and I have deeds'. Show me your faith apart from deeds, and by my deeds I will show you my faith. (19) You believe that God is one. You do well! Even the demons believe, and they shudder! (20) Do you wish to know, you empty fellow, that faith apart from deeds in useless? (21) Was not our father Abraham shown to be righteous on the basis of deeds when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? (22) You see that faith was working together with his deeds, and by the deeds faith was brought to perfection. (23) And the Scripture was fulfilled that declared, 'And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness', and he was called a friend of God. (24) You see that a person is shown to be righteous on the basis of deeds and not on the basis of faith only. (25) And likewise also Rahab the prostitute: was she not shown to be righteous on the basis of deeds when she received the scouts and sent them out by another route? (26) For just as the body apart form the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from deeds is dead“.

James opening illustration provides the perfect negative example: the brothers and sisters obviously and desperately in need of food and clothing are dismissed with fond wishes and religious language (2,15-16)! Here indeed is a case of false religion as defined by James 1,26-27, combining self-indulgence, careless use of speech, and a refusal to visit orphans and widows. It is not “unstained from the world“ and not “pure and undefiled before God“ (247).

The faith that declares 'God is One' is not the 'faith' that James sees as adequate. It is a mockery of true faith, a matter of confession but not of genuine 'love of God' (2,5), a fact obvious from the recognition given by demons to the true God even while they shudder in fear (247).

James' own unterstanding of 'perfect' faith is revealed in the examples he cites from Torah. Both Abraham and Rahab had faith that was demonstrated by their actions. The significance of Abraham begins and ends with his faith. James says that Gen 15,6 was 'fulfilled' by the later text of Genesis 22, just as the 'faith' of Abraham in response to God's call in Genesis 12 and 15 was brought to its fullest expression in Abraham's obedient offering of his son. It is in this light that the present translation renders the Greek as “shown to be righteous“ (2,21.24), for the entire line of argument here has involved demonstration: “show me your faith apart from deeds, and by my deeds I will show you my faith“ (2,18) (247f).

The distinctive element on James' treatment of Abraham is his designation of the patriarch as „friend of God“ (2,23). Abraham represents above all the person of faith who is not double-minded, who truly thinks and acts according to the measure of God. If Abraham had been a “friend of the world“, he would not have been willing to offer his son in sacrifice, for he would have viewed life as a closed system in which his furture was determined by what he possessed. Even though Isaac was a gift from God, he was now Abraham's possession and his hope for the future possession of the land. Thinking in worldly terms killing his son when he had no human hope for another was foolishness (248).

Abraham was a “friend of God“ because he measured by God's measure. He viewed the world as an open system in which God gives generously to all without grudging (1,5) and is the giver of every good and perfect gift (1,17) and to the humble gives a greater gift (4,5). If God gave Isaac, then God could give another gift. Abraham's willingness to give back to God what God had given demonstrated and perfected his faith and revealed what “friendship with God“ might mean (248).

The example of Rahab is sketched in only one verse. It is her act of hospitality that is singled out for attention. If James means to include Abraham's deeds of hospitality among those 'works' that demonstrate his faith, the inclusion of Rahab as his partner in illustration would make sense. It would also provide a male/female model of hospitality to match the 'brother or sister' in need (2,15). The examples of Abraham and Rahab together fit the overall argument of chapter two, which concerns at the general level the translation of faith into appropriate deeds, but which at the particular level concerns the way in which the poor are treated within the community. In the examples of Abraham and Rahab the community finds models for its own reception of the poor without discrimination and with effective and not simply verbal care (248f).

Passages such as Mt 7,21 had some target: “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven“ (see also Mt 25,31-46). 1John 3,17f: “If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth“ (249f).

James uses language associated with Paul. Both James and Paul were first generation members of a messianic movement that defined itself in terms of the „faith of Jesus“. And because both Paul and James were Jewish and interacted primarily with Palestinian Judaism, they both instinctively turned to Torah for that explication and found the figure Abraham as open to midrashic exploitation. From within their separate concerns, they developed separate midrashic arguments that converge at the semantic level in intriguing ways, yet diverge at the level of meaning in still more important ways (250).

b. The Power and Peril of Speech (3,1-12)

(1) “Not many of you, my brothers, should become teachers, since you know that we will receive a more severe judgment. (2) For we all fail in many ways. If someone does not fail in speech, this person is perfect, powerful enough to guide the whole body as well. (3) And if we place bits in the mouths of horses in order to make them obey us, we lead their whole bodies around as well. (4) See also how great ships buffeted by severe winds are guided by the tiniest rudder wherever the will of the steersman desires. (5) So also the tongue is a small member, and it boasts of great things. See how small a flame sets such a large forest ablaze! (6) And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is the world of wickedness established among our members. It pollutes the entire body. And even as it is inflamed from Gehenna, it sets aflame the cycle of life. (7) For every kind of beast and bird, of snake and sea-creature, is being tamed, indeed has been tamed, by humankind. (8) But no human can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. It is full of death-dealing poison. (9) With it, we bless the Lord and Father. And with it we curse the people who have been made according to God's likeness. (10) Blessing and curse come out of the same mouth! My brothers, things like this should not happen! (11) Does the spring gush forth both sweet and bitter water from the same opening? (12) Is it possible, my brothers, for a fig tree to produce olives, or for the grapevine to produce figs? Neither does a salty source produce sweet water“.

3,1-2 elaborate the statements found in 1,19: “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger“, and 1,26: „If anyone considers himself religious without bridling his tongue and while indulging his heart, this person's religion is worthless“. The proper and improper uses of speech are of central concern to James. Before this essay, we have seen as negative modes of speech the self-justifying claim that one is tempted by God (1,13), the flattering speech that reveals partiality toward the rich and shames the poor (2,3-6), the careless speech of those who wish well toward the poor but do not help them (2,16), the superficial speech of the one claiming to have faith even without deeds (2,18). After this essay, we shall see these other examples of improper speech: judging and slandering a brother (4,11), boasting of one's future plans without regard for God's will (4,13), grumbling against a brother (5,9). And in 5,12-20 James will develop the proper modes of speech within the community of faith (254f).

James asserts that no one can truly control speech (3,8). Following the logic demanded by 3,2 (“if anyone does not fail in speech, this is a perfect person“) James does not regard human perfection to be possible (264).

James also heightens the tongue's capacity for doing evil. He personifies it, as though it were completely independent of anyone's control: “it boasts of great things“ (3,5)! More than that, he portrays the tongue as a cosmic force. It is a “world of wickedness established among our members“, a fire that is “inflamed from Gehenna“ that also “sets aflame the cycle of life“ (3,6).

James makes failure to control speech the very antithesis of authentic religion (1,26), and his religious framework is that of Torah. Speech is evaluated in relational covenantal terms: human speech and action should be normed by the speech and action of the God who has involved himself with humans.

The essay of 3,1-12 provides three important insights into this perspective. First, the theme of human 'double-mindedness' (1,8; 4,8) is here located in behavior that is 'double-tongued'. But we notice that this is not simply a matter of saying one thing and meaning another. When one uses the same tongue to bless God, yet curse the human person who is created according to the likeness of God (3,9), one betrays in a fundamental way the allegiance by which one claims to live. This is a matter of sin. The theological warrant, that humans “are created according to God's likeness“ is rooted in the tradition and teaching of Torah (264).

Second, when James says that the tongue is “inflamed by Gehenna“ (3,6) he points to the cosmic dualism underlying the 'two ways' of disposing human freedom. The rule of God in the world is opposed by the work of the devil. This theme is developed more fully in the call to conversion that will immediately follow this discourse on speech (3,13 - 4,10). The central religious polarity in James is between the “wisdom from above“ that leads humans into “friendship with God“ and the “wisdom from below“ that manifests itself in a “friendship with the world“ that is also enmity with God (3,13-16; 4,4). All human activity, including speech, is defined in terms of these two allegiances. This understanding shapes all of James' sayings on speech (265).

Third, James places human speech within the context of God's word. The readers are reminded in 1,18 that they have been given birth as a kind of “firstfruits of creation“ by “the word of truth“. And in 1,21 they are told to “receive with meekness the implanted word that is able to save [their] souls“. Human speech is qualified by reference to the creative and saving word of God. God's word shapes a form of identity and behavior not measureable by the world and its 'wisdom' (265).

c. Call to Conversion (3,13 - 4,10)

(13) “Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good manner of life let him demonstrate his deeds in wisdom's meekness. (14) But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. (15) This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but one that is earthbound, unspiritual, demonic. (16) For where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every kind of mean practice. (17) But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then it is peaceable, gentle, open to persuasion. It is filled with mercy and with good fruits. It is not divided. It is not insincere. (18) But the fruit that is righteousness is sown in peace by the makers of peace.

(4,1) From were do wars, and from where do battles among you come? Is it not from your desires that are at war among your members? (2) You desire and you do not have: so you kill. And you are jealous and cannot obtain: so you do battle and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and you do not receive because you ask evilly, so that you might spend it on your desires. (4) You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world is established as an enemy of God. (5) Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit which he made to dwell in us crave enviously? (6) Rather, he gives a greater gift. Therefore it says: 'God resists the arrogant, but he gives a gift to the lowly'. (7) Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. (8) Approach God and he will approach you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you double-minded! (9) Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. (10) Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you“.

A powerful call to conversation reveals itself in the heart of this composition. It is a prophetic indictment and challenge, which in its structure and its themes provides the fullest statement of James' theological convictions and their moral implications (287).

3,13 - 4,6 forms an indictment and 4,7-10 responds with a call to change. The entire passage contains a contrast between above and below, and between exaltation and humbling. There is first the contrast between a “wisdom from below“ (earthly, unspiritual, demonic) and a “wisdom from above“ (3,15-17). From 1,5 an 1,17 the reader recognizes this “wisdom from above“ as the wisdom that comes from God, as the “word of truth“ that comes from God (1,18) and, as 'implanted word' it is to be received in 'meekness' (1,21).

Second, there is the contrast between the 'arrogant' whom God resists and the 'lowly' to whom God gives gifts (4,6). Such language clearly suggests, in the first case, a movement from below upward in self-assertion and self-aggrandizement and, in the second, a posture of meekness ready and able to 'receive gifts'.

Third, there is the double command (in 4,7 and 4,10) to 'submit' and to 'humble' oneself before God, together with the assurance in 4,10 that the Lord will respond: “he will raise you up“.

These contrasts between lower and higher, between rising up and putting down, help define the religious framework for James' moral exhortation. The only wisdom that is 'true' is that which measures reality by the God who is the giver of all gifts (1,5.17; 4,6) and who is able to “save and destroy“ (1,21; 4,12). This is the God who made a spirit (pneuma) to dwell in humans (4,5). Will the human spirit live by the wisdom that comes from God, or will it live according to an earthbound, unspiritual, demonic spirit, sponsored by the devil (3,15; 4,7)? Ethical dualism - reflecting the choices made by human freedom - is placed by James within this religious dualism.

In order to describe life lived by the measure of a wisdom that is 'from below', James employs the Hellenistic topos on envy (phthonos) (287).

The ancient moralists were precise in their dissection of vices and virtues. When they considered the logic of envy as it was displayed in real human behavior, they saw that it lay behind every sort of rivalry and competition. In the moral literature, envy is cinsistently associated with hatred, malice, hybris, ill will, ambition, and above all arrogance. It is envy that creates desires to have and possess (4,2). Envy recognizes no bounds to its ambition. The result? Social upheaval and unrest, battles and wars (3,16; 4,1) and murder (4,2). Killing the competition is the ultimate expression of envy. This is the true face of arrogance that God resists (4,6). And this is the wisdom of the world that sees reality as a closed system, so that even prayer to God is carried out for the purpose of achieving desires (4,3) (288).

James' readers are not those who live completely by the measure of the world. But they are those who are 'double-minded' (4,8). They want to live within God's measure but also to act by another measure. Using the language of biblical prophecy, James charges them with 'adultery' from their covenant with God (4,4). James rebukes them for failing to live by what he clearly regards as a shared understanding: that friendship with the world means enmity with God (4,4).

James' ethical and religious dualism here is complete. Even someone who 'chooses' to be a friend of the world is already established as an enemy of God (4,4). In 1,27 the religion that was “pure and acceptable to God“ meant being “unstained from the world“. In 2,5 those who are poor in the world's view are chosen by God to be heirs of the kingdom. In 3,6 the tongue is “established as the world of wickedness in our members“. James' call to conversion is directed at those double-minded people who want to be 'friends with everyone', who want to live by God's measure and the world's measure simultaneously. The one who is “wise and understanding“ must “demonstrate his deeds in wisdom's meekness“ (3,13), not by the violence inherent in the logic of envy (288f).

By calling these double-minded people 'adulteresses' (4,4) James has used the language of the prophets, who imaged the people's relationship with Yahweh in terms of marriage and considered apostasy from convenant as an adultery (289).

Submitting oneself to God, humbling oneself before God, 'approaching God', are all gestures that effect “friendship with God“, for they depend on a construal of reality opposed to that given by the world governed by envy. This construal regards human life as placed within an open system, one drenched by gifts from God, one that bestows being and identity and worth not from what humans can seize and control but by simple 'reception in meekness' of what God implants in us.

The act of repentance is a matter of 'purifying the heart' from its double-mindedness (4,3), of seeing reality as the 'wisdom from above'. The gift of simplicity is enabled by the God who gives to all simply and without grudging (289).

d. Examples of Arrogance 4,11 - 5,6

(11) “Do not slander each other, brothers. The person who slanders a brother or judges his brother slanders the law and judges the law. But if you are judging the law, then you are not a doer of the law but its judge. (12) There is One who is the lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But you who are judging your neighbor, who are you?

(13) Come now, you who are saying: 'Today or tomorrow we will go to a certain city and we will spend a year there and will make sales and a profit'. (14) You are people who do not know about tomorrow, what your life will be like. For you are a mist which appears only for a moment and then disappears. (15) Instead, you should say: 'If the Lord wills it, we will both live and will do this thing or that thing'. (16) But now in your pretentiousness you are boasting. Every boast of this sort is evil. (17) Therefore it counts as a sin for the person who understands the proper thing to do and yet does not do it. (5:1) Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming to you! (2) Your wealth has rotted, and your clothes hove become moth-eaten! (3) Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have built up a treasure in the last days. (4) Behold! The wages of the laborers who have harvested your fields – the wages of which you have defrauded them – are crying out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. (5) You have lived luxuriously upon the earth, and you have taken your pleasure. You have stuffed your hearts for a day of slaughter! (6) You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. Does he [God] not oppose you“?

This section is an unit because an identifiable thematic thread can be seen to run through it. Whether those addressed are 'brothers' (4,11), or are 'those who say' (4,13), or are 'the rich' (5,1), their behavior is attacked by the author. The kinds of behavior condemned are clearly identifiable as manifestations of arrogance. Slandering and judging a neighbor (4,11), pretentious boasting that tomorrow's activities can be secured without reference to God (4,13), living luxuriously upon the earth while simultaneously condemning, and murdering the innocent (5,5-6), are all activities that demonstrate the arrogance that 4,6 declares God as opposing. The section follows the call to conversion in 3,13 - 4,10 with three specific examples of arrogance, which are connected to that earlier section by James' final rhetorical question in 5,6: “Does he [God] not oppose you“ (292)?

Consistent with the ethical and religious dualism that has structured his entire composition, James here opposes three forms of arrogance that illustrate “friendship with the world“, operating within the logic of envy, to the reality of the living God who 'opposes' such human arrogance (4,6). The three examples do not appear to have much in common. But a closer look reveals that in each case, James opposes a form of human pretension with a reminder of God's claim on creation (305).

In 4,11-12 the 'brothers' who slander each other are accused of placing themselves in the position of being judges, even of the law given by God! James reminds them that the one who gave the law is alone able to 'save and destroy'. The reminder deflates their pretensions: 'who are you'? In 4,13-17 the entrepreneurs who assume the security and predictability of their projects for gaining wealth are directly accused of a boasting that is 'evil'. Their pretension is countered by the reminder that they cannot secure their very existence: “you are a mist that appears only for a moment and then disappears“ (4,14). In 5,1-6 the heedless luxury of the rich that is won by the oppression of the laborers and ultimately by the condemnation and murder of the innocent is countered by the reminder that God hears the cry of the oppressed and is preparing a day of slaughter in which the wealth of the rich will stand in testimony against them (306).

Reading 4,11 - 5,6 in this fashion reveals its thematic unity and the logic of its literary placement. In the middle of James' call to conversion from “friendship with the world“ to “friendship with God“, he asserts that “God opposes the arrogant“. These three examples build on that declaration and demonstrate it so that the final question: “Does he [God] not oppose you?“ provides an appropriate closure.

The examples move progressively from 'the brothers', whom we assume to be within the community, to 'the rich' who are the outsiders for this community (2,2-7). There is also a progression in the demonstration of arrogance, from the secret speech (slander) that judges another, to the public boasting that launches public projects, to the systemic corruption of the society and the destruction of the innocent. Corresponding to these degrees of influence is the weight of condemnation, from the reminder of who is the judge and lawgiver, to the declaration of behavior as evil and sin, to the threat of condemnation in the day of judgment (306).

In 4,11-12 James begins with a straightforward prohibition of slander. He draws a fascinating conclusion, “the person who slanders a brother or judges his brother slanders the law and judges the law“ (4,11). The conclusion is based on several premises. The first is that slander by its very nature involves a secret judging (and condemnation) of an associate. In the most obvious way, to presume the right to judge and condemn another is to claim a privileged position of superiority over them. But the superiority is not real: no one has appointed me as judge of my brother! Why do I assume that position? Here is where the logic of envy helps make sense of slander. Slander serves the double function of lowering my neighbor and elevating me; it takes away status from another and gives it to me. It is the perfect example of life as competition. Slander is, therefore, a form of arrogance that seeks to assert oneself by destroying another. It is a form of arrogance that can exist between those calling themselves 'brothers' because slander is evil speech done in secret (306f).

Lev 19,16 prohibits such speech against a neighbor. To disobey this law against slander is, therefore, to place oneself in a position of superiority to the law: it is for me to pick and choose which of the commandments I will take seriously. I can claim to be a 'brother' and to live by the royal law of love (2,8), while still engaging in secret speech against my associates. James identifies this form of arrogance precisely: “you are not a doer of the law but its judge“. And he counters such arrogance by the crisp reminder that the One who gave the law is also the judge of all humans. The final contrast in 4,12 serves to state the truth of the matter that slander serves to camouflage: the God who gave the law and who judges according to the law (2,12-13) is “able to save and to destroy“. In comparison with this, “who are you?“. As always in James, the theological statement serves as warrant for moral exhortation: it is because God alone has power of life and death that God alone has the right to reveal the law and judge by the law. Any human seizure of that right is revealed as pitiful pretension (307).

James characterizes the arrogance displayed in 4,13-17 as the quality of the boaster. At the most obvious level, the traders are criticized for their arrogant assumption that they can depend on the future. But at a deeper level they share the outlook of the 'world' expressed by envy: that having is the same as being and that 'selling and getting a profit' is a way of securing their own future. James' first response to them is a common one in the wisdom tradition; how can these entrepreneurs plan their selling campaign for a year, when they cannot even guarantee they will see tomorrow? The awarness of human existence as a “mist that is here and gone“ encourages an appropriate modesty concerning human projects and plans (307).

James challenges the very view of reality assumed by such “friends of the world“. Their speech betrays a perception of the world as a closed system of limited resources, available to their control and manipulation, yielding to their market analysis and sales campaign. When James recommends that they say “If the Lord wills it, we will both live and do this thing or that thing“, he is recommending a different understanding of reality. He challenges their construal with the perception given by faith and friendship with God: that the world is an open system, created by God at every moment, and infinitely rich in the resources provided by God for humans to exist and prosper in cooperation, rather than in competition. And within this understanding, their pretension and boasting is the symptom of something evil (4,16) (307f).

In 1,9-12 James spelled out the basic principles governing faith's perceptions of wealth and poverty, of suffering and success. It spelled them out in terms of paradox and reversal. The lowly were to boast in their exaltation, the rich in their humiliation. Those who endured trials would find reward with God. And those who lived by their wealth, rather than God's word, would pass away in the midst of their affairs. The failure so to think about one's life and the failure so to speak with reference to God's will is, for one living in the community of faith, 'to understand the proper thing to do and not do it'. James considers this in religious terms as sin (4,17). This statement serves as a hinge between the examples. It applies to the 'sin of omission' of the entrepreneurs who refuse to take God into account when they plan their futures. It will apply to the case of the rich, who refuse to take God into account as they omit to do what the law plainly demands, namely providing wages for their workers (308).

5,1-6: The rich are to “weep and wail“ over the miseries that are coming upon them (5,1). James describes the fate of their wealth: it has become rotted, moth-eaten, rusted (5,2). They had, according to the logic of envy, identified themselves with their possessions. They have been willing to do anything to get more possessions, including fraud, violence, and murder (5,6). They thought that by so doing they were building a nest egg for 'their last days'. And with bitter irony, James agrees: they have laid up a treasure for these last days (5,3), but they are to be days of judgment, indeed of slaughter (5,5). And the very possessions in which the rich had sought security symbolize their own fate: their precious metals have rusted, and “their rust will be a testimony against [them] and eat [their] flesh like fire“ (5,3) (308)!

The attitudes and actions of the rich perfectly exemplify the logic of envy and arrogance as James sketched them in 3,13 - 4,6. We see that the rich devoted themselves to an exploitive relationship to the earth, living to fulfill their own desires for pleasure (5,5; compare 4,1). And to enable this, they have been willing, in complete disregard for the law (Lev 19,13), to deprive their hired laborers of the wages that were owed them (5,4). James' language in 5,6 suggests the sort of judicial procedure mentioned in 2,6: the rich use the law courts to perpetuate their fraud and 'condemn' the poor. And consistent with the biblical tradition, James recognizes that such fraud is a form of violence and murder: to deprive the poor of their wages is truly to deprive them of the means of life: “to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood“ (Sir 34,22) (308f).

Here is the logic of envy worked out in action, as James sketched it in 4,2: “you desire and you do not have: you kill“. Here also is the ultimate arrogance: the rich assume the divine prerogative to judge and do so unjustly (“you have condemned the righteous person“). They arrogate to themselves the divine power to “save and destroy“ and use it to destroy (“you have killed the righteous person“) (309).

Here James matches violence for violence, not from the side of the oppressed, but from the side of the God who has “heard he cries of the laborers“ (5,4). It is the willful denial of this God's power and authority that has enabled the rich to make “friends of the world“ and exploit its systems to their own pleasure. But from the perspective of faith, James asserts that God's power is more real. The world is not a closed system available to human control. It is an open system answerable to the God who creates it. And in contrast to those who are “judges with evil designs“ (2,4), this God judges without partiality and on the basis of human deeds (2,12). The rich who have oppressed the poor will experience in their own flesh how God opposes them (5,3.6). They will discover indeed how “judgment is merciless to the one who has not shown mercy“ (2,13) (309).

e. Patience in Time of Testing (5,7-11)

(7) “Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Look! The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and late rain. (8) You also be patient! Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is near. (9) Brothers, do not grumble against each other, so that you are not judged. Look! The judge stands at the gate. (10) Brothers, take as an example of suffering and patience the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. (11) Look! We call blessed those who have endured. You have heard about the endurance of Job. And you have seen the result accomplished by the Lord, for the Lord is rich in compassion and is merciful“.

These verses bring to expression two themes. First, just as 4,13 - 5,6 filled out the negative side of the reversal sketched in 1,9-11, so do these verses fill out the positive side as sketched in 1,12: those who endure to the end are blessed. Second, the theme of God's judgment, which underlay so much of James' exhortation (1,12; 2,12; 3,1; 4,12) is here brought to clear expression in terms of a vivid expectation of the parousia of the Lord. The two themes are interrelated (312).

James' language concerning 'Lord' is ambiguous, in some places seeming to apply to God and sometimes possibly to Jesus. But in this section 'the Lord' whose arrival is awaited is Jesus. The assertions that the parousia tou kyriou is 'near' (5,8) and that “the judge stands at the gate“ (5,9) should be taken as straightforward statements of conviction. When the language here is taken together with all the other evidence, the most sensible conclusion is that it reflects a genuinely first generation Christian sensibility (322).

The hope is real that God will oppose the wicked and reward the righteous. The first part of the hope is expressed in 5,4-6; the second is asserted in 5,11: “we call blessed those who have endured“, a statement that recalls the macarism of 1,12: “blessed is the man who endures testing because when he has been proven sound he will receive the crown of life that [God] has promised to those who love him“. But before this hope is realized, the condition of the community of faith remains one of suffering, because of the cognitive dissonance between the conviction that “God opposes the arrogant“ and the experience that the arrogant condemn and murder the righteous ones. God will take care of the future; but how should the community act in this in-between time (323)?

James' fundamental exhortation is placed in 5,8: “strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near“. The language of the 'heart' expresses human disposition: “indulging the heart“ was the opposite of pure religion acceptable to God; “stuffing the heart“ (1,26) was the expression of self-indulgence leading to oppression and murder (5,5); “bitter jealousy in the heart“ was symptomatic of friendship with the world opposed to God (3,14); therefore, “purifying the heart“ was the necessary gesture of conversion to cease form double-mindedness (4,8). Now James enjoins on the entire community that they 'establish/strengthen' their hearts in the proper perception of reality and the proper behavior that follows form that perception.

Positively, they are to 'be patient' (5,7). They are not simply to endure their suffering; they are to adopt the same attitude toward their oppressor that the judge does, who waits for the proper time of intervention. The readers are not to usurp God's functions in violent retaliation for the violence done to them. Nor are they to “grumble against each other“ (5,9). The classic ploy of oppressors is to divide in order to conquer; the constant temptation of those oppressed is to turn on each other in abuse. Oppression done to us does not justify oppression done to each other. James reminds the readers that they can also “fall under judgment“, which lies so close at hand (5,9). They are to strive to create a community of solidarity that alone can effectively resist, with its peaceful cooperation, the insidious effects of oppression from outside (323).

Finally, James commands them to “take as an example“ the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord (5,10). By so doing, he strengthens his readers' understanding of themselves as a prophetic community whose “friendship with God“, expressed by solidarity with each other, stands as a witness - and often a suffering witness – against those “friends of the world“ who seek to eliminate the other through competition and violence (323f).

James proposes as his third model for imitation from Scripture the 'prophet' Job (5,11). God rewarded the one who, despite his suffering, stayed loyal to God. 5,11 contains the sense that in the suffering of the righteous one, God is working purposefully. In the context established by James, the readers are to grasp that the judgment so to be dreaded by the wicked as a day of slaughter is to be one anticipated by the righteous as a day of “blessedness“, when the “crown of life“ will be given to those who love God (1,12), because the God who creates, sustains, reveals, saves and judges, is “rich in compassion and is merciful“ (324).

f. Speech in the Assembly of Faith (5,12-20)

(12) “But above all, my brothers, do not take oaths, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor any other sort of oath. Rather, let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you do not fall unter judgment. (13) Is anyone among you suffering? Let that person pray. Is anyone feeling good? Let that person sing. (14) Is anyone among you ill? Let that person call the elders of the assembly, and let them, after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, pray over the person. (15) And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. And if the person has commited sins, he will be forgiven. (16) Therefore, confess sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. A righteous person's prayer is able to have a strong effect. (17) Elijah was a human like us in nature. Yet he prayed fervently for it not to rain. And it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six month. (18) And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain. And the earth produced its fruit. (19) My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, (20) let him know that the one who has turned back a sinner from his erring way will save that one's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins“.

The final section of the letter is a unified discourse on the positive modes of speech in the community . The topic is speech: how can the tongue be used not for the destruction of humans, but for the building up of a community of solidarity (326)?

5,12 is not an absolute beginning, for it is a negative command like those in 4,11 and 5,9, which also dealt with speech. In 4,11 James condemned slander and placed such behavior under God's judgment. In 5,9 he condemned grumbling speech against each other, placing it also under the threat of judgment. Now in 5,12 he forbids oaths, once more invoking God's judgment. There is certainly continuity between these commands. But 5,12 marks a beginning for its primary significance is positive rather than negative. The opposite of slander and grumbling is silence. The opposite of taking oaths is plain speech (326).

At the conclusion of his composition, James returns explicitly to the ways speech can function positively within the community of faith. Speech can be an instrument of peace, cooperation, and solidarity (340).

James' hope is based in the distinctive form of the gifts given humans by God. God brings humans into being in the first place by a “word of truth“ (1,18) with the purpose of creating a community of “representative creatures“. This word has been 'implanted' in us and can become active as a force for good when “received with meekness“; it can “save souls/lives“ (1,21). James' language about this “word of truth“, corresponds closely to his language about the “wisdom from above“ that comes from God and is expressed in deeds of peace and righteousness (3,13-18), as well as to his language about “the spirit God made to dwell“ in humans that is to seek peace through meekness and lowliness, rather than crave enviously and arrogantly (4,5-6) (340f).

James' prohibition of oaths is the encouragment of plain speech in the community of faith: “let your 'yes' be yes, and your 'no' no“. It is a call to simplicity and truhtfulness. If a person's 'yes' reveals the affirmation of the heart and the commitment of the hands, then it can be trusted. In the same fashion, if a person's 'no' defines the boundaries of consensus and commitment, then it is equally to be trusted (341).

James places such speech in the first position because it is fundamental to every other sort of speech and action. Otherwise, the prayer in distress, the song of praise, the call for help, the confession of sins, the correction of the neighbor, can all become distorted, deceptive, and destructive, instruments of manipulation and competition. James forbids oaths because he desires a community of solidarity based in mutual trust; such trust is possible only where speech is simple and unadorned with false religiosity (341f).

James turns next (5,13-16) to prayer within the community as an expression of truth. The person who is suffering should not say “I am being tempted by God“ (1,13) or seek to retaliate against the source of distress (5,7) but, instead, let his “cries reach the ears of the Lord of armies“ (5,4), for the Lord is the one who for the lowly “gives a greater gift“ (4,6). The person who is feeling good should give expression to that truth by song, recognizing God as the generous giver (1,5) of every good and perfect gift (1,17), as the one who is, above all, compassionate and merciful (5,11) and the source of authentic human blessedness (1,12) (342).

Sickness is a profound threat to the identity and stability of a community. Sickness is not the same thing as sin. Nor does James suggest that sickness derives from sin. But sickness is analogous to sin in its social effects. Therefore the healing of the sick person and the healing of the community must take into account the spiritual dimensions of this threat. The way in which James has intertwined the healing of illness and the forgiveness of sins testifies to his grasp of this reality.

Sickness presents a profound challenge to the community of faith: Will it behave like friends of God or like friends of the world? According to the wisdom from below, the proper result of fierce competition is the survival of the fittest (342).

It is not by accident that James here for the first time uses the term ekklesia, for it is the identity of the community as community that sickness threatens. Will the community rally in support of the weak and show itself to be “merciful and rich in compassion“, a community based in solidarity, or will it recoil in fear and leave the sick person to progressive alienation? We notice first that James empowers the sick themselves with respect to the community. When they are ill, they are to summon the elders (5,14). James then enjoins the elders to pray over and anoint the sick person in the name of the Lord. In the elders, the ekklesia is to respond to the weak member and overcome the alienation and inertia with which sickness threatens the life of the group. The community, through its elders, shares its faith by gathering together and supporting the sick person both physically and spiritually in the time of crisis (343).

In the actions of those gathered around the sick person, we recognize the practices of early Christians, rooted in the tradition of Israel and in the ministry of Jesus. “If this person has commited sins, he will be forgiven“ (5,15). James applies this not only to individuals but to the community as such: “Confess sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed“ (5,16). A community is healed as ekklesia when, in trust and vulnerability, it is able to pray and confess sins together. Such speech establishes the community as based in “the word of truth“ and restores it from whatever alienation has affected it from the sickness and sin (343f).

James shares the gospel tradition's confidence in the power of prayer to heal both individuals from their illness and communities form their alienation: “the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up“ (5,15). This is a confidence in prayer and faith that resembles Jesus' own: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you“ (Mt 7,7). This saying of Jesus is echoed earlier in James: “Let him ask of God, who gives to all simply and without grudging, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith“ (1,5-6) (344).

It is in connection with this confidence concerning the power of prayer that James points his readers to his fourth example from Scripture: the prophet Elijah (5,17-18). Elijah is used to illustrate the statement, “a righteous person's prayer is able to have a strong effect“ (5,16). In Elijah's case, this is demonstrated by the spectacular effects of drought and rainfall. Such communication is not remarkable in the case of a prophet, who is the Lord's spokesperson. The prophet's entire identity is predicted on the reality of God as giver of gifts.

Two aspects of James' characterization connect Elijah closely to the readers whom James is affirming that what happened for Elijah can happen also for them. The first is the description of Elijah as “a human like us in nature“ (of like passion/feeling to us) (5,17). That description empowers a community that is itself experiencing the same sort of stress and suffering that Elijah did in his battles with the priests of Baal in the days of King Ahab. Elijah did not pray out of a posture of strength: he was beleaguered and isolated when he prayed. That is the lesson to readers who see themselves as oppressed by the powerful (344).

James' second touch is to imply that Elijah is a “righteous man“ (5,16). Elijah was situated over against the powers of his world, as the oppressed poor are situated over against the rich. Yet Elijah's prayer was more powerful than them. This is the lesson to James' readers: the prayer that can raise the sick person and heal the community can also prove triumphant over the powers of evil in the world, for prayer is the openness of the human spirit to the powerful word of God that enables it to work. The prayer of the community gathered in solidarity is already a victory over the world that defines itself by envy and competition. For prayer refuses that definition of reality. Prayer ressists idolatry by insisting on the greater power of what is not seen than that which is seen. The prayer of the community gathered in solidarity triumphs over those forces that seek to divide and conquer, to isolate and eliminate, by insisting together on being 'other' than that world, by seeking friendship with God rather than with that world (4,4) (344f).

James concludes the section and the composition with an encouragment to mutual correction within the community (5,19-20). All humans are capable of self-deception and error (1,7.14.16.22), each person needs the honest assistance of others in the path of righteousness. It is the unterstanding of mutual correction as an act of service that gives it a distinctive character and distinguishes it from mere criticism (345).

The 'truth' here is that of the word, wisdom, and spirit, given to humans by God, for which and to which human freedom is responsible. The correction has as its aim the “saving of the soul“ of the erring comrade. This is the work of “the implanted word“ that is received in meekness (1,21). Just as in the case of sickness, sin within the community has the effect of making the community recoil in self-defense: the sinner becomes increasingly isolated and increasingly alienated. To reach out with the word of truth is to 'save' the other. The effect of such correction is to “cover a multitude of sins“. Such correction will prevent a multitude of sins in the furture, both the sins that the erring member might otherwise commit and the sin of the community that continues to fail in its speaking of truth to that erring brother (345f).

Such is the task of correction within the community of faith. Such is the task that James has performed for his readers. Such is the task to which his composition invites the readers, for the sake of “the noble name that has been invoked over you“ (2,7). A community taking its lead from James can indeed be a “kind of firstfruits“ of God's creatures (1,18) (346).

Bauckham, Richard, James – Disciple of Jesus the Sage, 1999

Johnson, Luke Timothy, Brother of Jesus, Friend of God, 2004 (reviewed quoting from the original text)
— The Letter of James, I995 (reviewed quoting from the original text)