“Few books have been as controversial and misunderstood as the Letter of James.”[1]
“Little wonder that many Christians have avoided this book in their studies.”[2]

With that as an introduction, we might well ask, “Why study James?”  On the other hand, we might think, “That’s exactly why we should study James!” Instead of dodging difficult or awkward studies, pushing into those parts of the Bible can grow our faith in unexpected ways.  Revisiting favorite familiar passages can be comforting without actually stretching and strengthening our understanding of who God is and what He might be doing in our life and the life of those around us.  In fact, a previous study of James was prompted by a sincere question about the “contradiction” between James and Paul.  Questions and even doubts about our faith are best addressed by inductive study rather than hearsay impressions or judgmental rebuke.

Here are a few reasons we will benefit from a study of this controversial and avoided book.  (Unless otherwise noted, these extracts are from the commentary on James by Douglas Moo[3].)

• • “James is intensely practical…. The Letter of James contains a higher frequency of imperative verbs than any other NT book” (p. 1). Those imperative commands were described by one member of our group as “one punch in the face after another.”  His comments were a large part of the motivation to turn to James for our next study.
  • James is concise. “He rarely develops the points he makes at length, being content to make his point and to move quickly on” (p. 1-2).  That concise treatment can be frustrating and leave unanswered questions.  But (as I have said in the past) a study that answers all our questions didn’t ask enough questions.
  • “James’s lavish use of metaphors and illustrations makes his teaching easy to understand and to remember” (p. 2). We might anticipate that the “easy to understand” commands are not always easy to apply.
  • “James depends more than any other NT author on the teaching of Jesus. It is not that James directly quotes Jesus….  It is, rather, that he weaves Jesus’ teaching into the very fabric of his own instruction” (p. 7).

For those of us who recently went through a study of Hebrews, it will be interesting to note some possible comparisons and contrasts in James.

• • Like Hebrews, James does not follow the expected pattern of first-century letters. “Absent from James are the customary greetings, references to fellow workers, and travel plans that mark many ancient and NT (especially Pauline) letters.  Also missing are references to specific people, places, or situations in the body of the letter” (Moo, p. 6).
  • Like Hebrews, the style or category that best describes James may be “a sermon or homily” (p. 8).
  • Like Hebrews, the Letter of James is written to a group of Jewish believers in “their poverty and oppressed condition” and to “encourage these suffering Christians in the midst of these difficulties… and exhorting them to maintain their piety in the midst of their trials” (p. 24). Like the exhortations in Hebrews, we can learn from James about the difficulties we face today.
  • Like Hebrews, James sees endurance as a key component needed in the Christian life. The writer to the Hebrew congregation extols Jesus as a model for our endurance through testing (Hebrews 12:1-3), and James begins his letter with the assertion that testing itself produces endurance.
  • Like Hebrews, which argues that the ritual Law of the Old Covenant has been satisfied by Jesus, James “reveals little concern about obedience of the ritual law” (p. 31).
  • Unlike Hebrews, the Letter of James shows a “lack of clear organization.” The pastor writing Hebrews moves methodically through the theme of Jesus as a High Priest who completely fulfilled the Law.  James “moves quickly from topic to topic, and the logical relationship of the topics is often not at all clear…. the letter has no obvious structure” (p. 7).
  • Unlike Hebrews, whose authorship has been debated for millennia, the Letter of James was almost certainly written by James, the brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3; 1 Corinthians 15:7, Acts 12:17). “None of the other Jameses[4] mentioned in the NT lived long enough or was prominent enough to write the letter we have before us without identifying himself any further than he does” (p. 10).
  • Perhaps most strikingly, while Hebrews emphasizes the fulfillment of the Law in the life and work of Jesus, the Letter of James is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as emphasizing the importance of the Law.

These introductory comments are not meant to limit or define our time in James.  Rather, they set the stage for us to explore the text together.  A detailed study of James, including our typically lively discussions, will provide the opportunity to learn more about and to draw near to the Brother of James.

[1] Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000), dust jacket.

[2] Craig L. Blomberg, and Mariam J. Kamell, James, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 21.

[3] Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000).

[4] Two were among the twelve apostles: James the brother of John was killed by Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1-2), and James the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3), aka James the Less (Mark 15:40).  An otherwise unknown James is listed to distinguish “the other Judas” from Judas Iscariot (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13).  James the brother of Jesus later became a follower and grew in prominence in the early church (Galatians 1:19, Acts 15, etc.).