James II

So, we move to look at the second Chapter of James, albeit of course that Chapters did not exist until 1560, in an English translation of the Geneva Bible.

Last week, we looked at the first Chapter of this book from purportedly the half-brother of Jesus, written possibly as early as 49 CE, or as late as 85 CE, after the death of James.

Dichotomy between Faith and Doing

We are presented with a scenario where our outward dress, our appearance, is an indicator of success, and how does our faith respond to that?

There is a book, written in the 19th C, where, on a Friday morning, a man out of work appears at the front door of the local minister while they are preparing for that Sunday’s upcoming sermon. The minister listens to the man’s helpless plea briefly before brushing him away and closing the door. The same man appears in church at the end of the Sunday sermon, walks up to “the open space in front of the pulpit,” and faces the people. No one stops him. He quietly but frankly confronts the congregation — “I’m not complaining; just stating facts” — about their compassion, or apathetic lack thereof, for the jobless like him. Upon finishing his address to the congregation, he collapses, and dies a few days later. The next Sunday, the minister, shocked, possibly ashamed, presents a challenge to the church: “Do not do anything without first asking, ‘What would Jesus do?'” This challenge is the theme of the novel and is the driving force of the plot. It, a century later, heralded those colourful wrist bands with the letters WWJD. What are your thoughts about such a question?

Another story relates to Mahatma Gandhi. One Sunday, he went to a nearby church to attend services. He decided to see the minister and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines. But when he entered the auditorium, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go and worship with his own people (“with his own kind”). He left and never came back. ‘If Christians have caste differences also,’ he said to himself, I might as well remain a Hindu’.

James is quite up front with the issues facing the local Jews here. He even associates with this form of response to the Commandments, and given Love on Another is a key one for Jesus, I am sure we might agree. It is common to both atheists and believers – love the person in front of us. How do we relate to those of another faith or of none?

Some on social media asked recently, what on-liner would you say to others to persuade them to believe in God? There were many instances of ‘God loves you’ and ‘God saved you’ etc. Then one person wrote: “How are you today?”… It was relational, not confrontational; it develop a connection with the other person; it was about kin_ship.

James then turns the attention back to faith.

Here, it starts to get a bit muddied by later church arguments. The underlying issue here is how are we ‘saved?’ I am personally not keen on the word ‘saved’, if only because of the raft of “Keegan nets the rebound” jokes. How about using the word ‘relationship’?

Are we in relationship with our God by faith or by what we do, or both? It has been said, that those who are Catholic may associate with the faith and works, whereas Protestants believe by ‘sola fides’, they are in relationship by faith alone. It appears that the church has created a dividing line, a division. Some might argue cogently that God loved us first, and our response is through faith which then leads to what we do. This is a more graceful – in more ways that one – approach. It’s not an ‘Either Or’ but an ‘And’.

If James did write this letter, in the earliest suggested time period, he was trying to encourage those Messianic Jews, those Jews that believed in Jesus as the Messiah, to keep the faith. James is arguing that surely if we have faith then the resultant outpouring will be in what we do. If we keep our faith a secret, even only reveal it in small glimpses on a Sunday morning between 11-12 <choose what day and time you might attend a service>, but it is not seen at any other time of the week, what use is it? I might counter that, as what of those who, due to lack of mobility, or a nearby church, they are unable to attend a place of worship : their faith is still vibrant. They may well write letters/emails, or ring up folk, for that is all they can possibly do.

James concludes, at what has become the end of the chapter, by saying “faith is dead without good works”. We might be careful to define what constitutes good works and how we evidence that when observing others.

What might we conclude?

Surely, this is a far more complex issue than can be addressed in 26 verses; like Chapters, also a later typographic addition to the text. We are human beings: who we are is key as this is our heartbeat, our internal driving force. What then results, comes from within. We may look at another and think that they do little in the local society, but to comment upon their relationship with God?, that is surely up to God. Their very being may be so closely connected: we may not know.

This Chapter has created waves throughout church history, and we may wish to tread carefully. We may look at our own ‘being’: how do we look after our ourself; our relationship with God; and how does that relate to our care for others. Recall that commandment ‘Love One Another’ starts from within.