Summary: Bible - Book of James

The GIST

The letter of James is the most practical book in the New Testament and, for some readers through the centuries, the most awkward. In five short chapters it has almost nothing to say about doctrine and a great deal to say about behavior: how to endure hardship, how to listen, how to treat a poor visitor and a rich one, how to control the tongue, how to pray, how to wait. Its central conviction is stated bluntly. Belief that does not show itself in action is not real belief. "Faith without works is dead."

The author introduces himself only as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," writing "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad." Tradition identifies him as James the brother of Jesus, the leader of the church in Jerusalem. The letter has the form of a Jewish letter to communities living in the diaspora, and in substance it is closest to the wisdom books of the Old Testament, such as Proverbs, with strong echoes of the sayings of Jesus. It moves quickly from topic to topic, and scholars disagree about whether it has a planned structure or is a string of short essays. What follows takes it in order.

What It Says

Trials, wisdom and temptation (1:1 to 18). James begins with a startling instruction: "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." The reason is that tested faith produces endurance, and endurance, allowed to finish its work, produces maturity. Anyone who lacks the wisdom to see things this way should ask for it: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." But the asking must be wholehearted. The doubter is like a wave driven by the wind. "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

A first word about wealth follows. The poor believer should take pride in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, since the rich man will fade like a wildflower in the heat. Then James distinguishes trial from temptation. No one should say that God is tempting him. People are lured by their own desires; desire gives birth to sin, and sin, full grown, to death. What comes from God is the opposite: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."

Hearing and doing (1:19 to 27). The next paragraph opens with a proverb worth memorizing: "let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." Human anger does not produce the justice God wants. The word is to be received humbly, and above all acted on. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." The person who hears and does nothing is like someone who glances in a mirror, walks away and forgets his own face. James then gives a definition of religion that leaves little room for evasion. Religion that does not bridle the tongue is worthless. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

No favoritism (2:1 to 13). James paints a scene. Two visitors arrive at the assembly, one with a gold ring and fine clothes, the other poor and shabbily dressed. The first is shown to a good seat. The second is told to stand, or to sit on the floor. To behave like this is to judge by evil standards. "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?" And it is foolish besides, since it is the rich who drag believers into court. Favoritism breaks the royal law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and to break the law at one point is to be a lawbreaker. The section ends with a warning and a promise: judgment will be without mercy for the merciless, "and mercy rejoiceth against judgment."

Faith and works (2:14 to 26). Here is the passage that has made the letter famous. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" James gives an example drawn from ordinary need. If a brother or sister has no clothes and no food, and you say, go in peace, keep warm, eat well, and give them nothing, what use is that? "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

He imagines an objector who wants to separate the two, and answers with a challenge: "shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Mere correct belief proves nothing. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Two examples from Scripture follow. Abraham was justified by what he did when he offered Isaac on the altar; his faith and his actions worked together, and his faith was completed by his deeds. Rahab was justified when she sheltered the messengers and sent them away safely. The conclusion: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

The tongue (3:1 to 12). Not many should want to be teachers, James says, since teachers are judged more strictly, and everyone stumbles in speech. He piles up images of small things with great power. A bit turns a horse. A small rudder steers a great ship through strong winds. A little fire sets a great deal alight. "And the tongue is a fire." Humanity has tamed every kind of animal, "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." With it we bless God and curse people made in God's likeness. "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter from the same opening.

Two kinds of wisdom (3:13 to 18). Who is wise? Let him show it by a good life and by gentleness. Where there is bitter envy and ambition, the so-called wisdom is earthly and even devilish, and brings disorder. "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits."

Quarrels and humility (chapter 4). "From whence come wars and fightings among you?" From desires at war inside you, James answers. People want and do not have, and so they fight; they do not have because they do not ask, or they ask with selfish motives. Friendship with the world is enmity toward God. The remedy is a series of sharp commands. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." And: "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." Humble yourselves, and he will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another or set yourselves up as judges, for there is one lawgiver and judge.

Then a word to those who plan confidently: today or tomorrow we will go to such a city, spend a year there, trade and make money. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. "For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." They ought to say, if the Lord wills. The chapter closes with a definition of sin by omission: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

The rich (5:1 to 6). The fiercest passage in the letter sounds like one of the Old Testament prophets. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." Their wealth has rotted, their clothes are moth-eaten, their gold and silver are corroded, and the corrosion will testify against them. The wages they have withheld from the workers who mowed their fields are crying out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. They have lived in luxury and condemned the innocent.

Patience and prayer (5:7 to 20). To the believers James says: be patient until the coming of the Lord, as a farmer waits for the early and the late rain. Do not grumble against one another. Take the prophets as examples, and remember "the patience of Job." Do not swear oaths; "let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay."

The letter ends with prayer for every circumstance. Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. Cheerful? Let him sing. Sick? "Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Believers are to confess their faults to one another and pray for one another. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Elijah was a human being like us, and his prayer stopped the rain and brought it back. The last sentence, with no farewell, commends anyone who brings a wanderer back from error.

Why It Matters

James insists that religion is tested in conduct, and especially in how the powerless are treated. Its concern for orphans and widows, for the badly dressed visitor and the unpaid laborer, has made it a key text for Christian teaching on poverty; a recent papal document cites its scene of the two visitors in calling the church to be a place where the poor have a privileged place.

Its teaching on faith and works has been argued over for centuries. Set beside Paul's statements that a person is justified by faith and not by works of the law, James's words that a person is justified by works "and not by faith only" look like a contradiction, and some scholars think the passage was written in response to Paul or to people misusing him. Martin Luther found the letter hard to reconcile with his understanding of the gospel, called it an epistle of straw, and moved it toward the end of his New Testament, though he did not remove it. Catholic and Orthodox interpreters have appealed to it against simplified versions of faith alone. Many Protestants answer that the two writers were addressing different errors: Paul opposed the idea that works earn God's favor, and James opposed the idea that faith can exist without changing how one lives.

The letter is also the chief biblical basis for the anointing of the sick. For Latter-day Saints, its verse about asking God for wisdom has special importance in the story of Joseph Smith.

Its path into the Bible was slow. It is seldom cited by early Christian writers, was classed among the disputed books by Eusebius, and gained general acceptance only in the late fourth century. On authorship, the traditional attribution to the brother of Jesus is defended by some, while many scholars regard the letter as written in his name by a later author, pointing to its polished Greek. Dates proposed range from the middle of the first century to the middle of the second.

Who Should Read It

Read James if you want Christianity with its sleeves rolled up. It is direct, vivid and easy to remember, and it speaks to believers who suspect that their faith has become talk. Much of it is plain moral sense, said memorably.