Taking the Epistle: James

The final seven letters of the New Testament are called the "General Letters", because they appear to have been sent not to specific churches but intended for a much wider readership. It seems that, rather than being letters, they were circulars or broad memoranda!

The first of these begins with a greeting from the author who calls himself James, as if this is sufficient identification. From this the NIV compilers deduce that it was most likely to have been James Carpenter (or alternatively, James of Nazareth), Jesus' brother in the family of Joseph, on the grounds that the apostle James was already martyred and the other two characters named James in the NT are not well-known enough to have been able to assume that the readers would know which James they were. (I suppose it's possible that this was an entirely different James who just didn't make the final edit, but whom everyone knew about back then - but it seems unlikely!)

I find two themes as being strongly emphasised in this letter, and those are submission to God and the importance of action in conjunction with faith. I find this interesting because, recalling that "Islam" translates into English as "submission", I compare the themes here with some of the themes in the Qur'an and find it oddly similar. This is not to say that James presages Islam, but rather to observe that there are similarities of thought here, and the common roots in the Abrahamic tradition show through.

In James' focus on the importance of actions, it is tempting to suggest that he is standing opposed to Paul's theology that it is by faith alone that we are saved. If the identification that this is James, brother of Jesus, is correct the this would appear to be a flawed argument. According to Acts, at the Council of Jerusalem James was one of those who spoke up to endorse enthusiastically Paul's position, tying it in to Old Testament prophecies.

It seems that the actual understanding is somewhat different: faith, by its nature, gives rise to action and to good deeds. Remembering the "fruits of the Spirit" that Paul highlights, it seems to follow that someone imbued with faith, who possesses these fruits, would naturally act - and thus by their deeds, their faith would be known. James writes "But someone will say, 'You have faith, I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." (2:18) Which pretty much translates into the modern vernacular as, "Actions speak louder than words". James sums it up that, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (2:26)

One of the key passages about "actions" concerns speech, and James directs us that, just as a large ship is steered by a small rudder, so we can be steered wrongly by letting our mouths run away with us! If we speak falsely, says James, we are led astray - "It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." (3:6)

James goes on to say, "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." (3:9-10) Just as Paul warns against spreading slander and advocates kind words, here James reinforces that message by reminding readers that we should see in those around us a representation of the divine: as Jesus says in the parable of the sheep and the goats, "whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". Here, James implies that this is true also for the ways in which we speak about other people - if we lie about them, or curse at them, or spread rumours or half-truths to cast them in a bad light, then we are treating Christ in the same way.

Keeping our tongues in check is a repeated theme in the letter. Earlier, in chapter 1, James writes that "Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak" (1:19) and adds, "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." (1:26)

James is not very specific about what actions are important, limiting his comments to

James 1:22-25

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.

His other remarks are to castigate those who make themselves rich by exploiting others and not paying a fair wage (yes, I'm looking at Walmart and a lot of multinational companies when I mention this!) - the passage is James 5:1-6.

He also makes it clear that favouritism is outlawed in the church, and distinguishing between believers on the basis of wealth is contrary to the Golden Rule, "love your neighbour as yourself".

James concludes that, "... judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who is not merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement!" (2:13)

On submission to God, James also covers a number of themes. The word that is repeatedly used in the NIV translation is "perseverance". In the opening passage, James uses it to refer to the troubles that the early Christians would have to face from persecution. So the first theme is submission to the troubles that come from believing and professing that belief, and as has been discussed in the other Letters, this is seen as submitting to God's will. James views it as a test of faith.

He also calls for patience in persevering - in knowledge that good things will eventually come: "See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." (4:7-8)

Two other themes of submission to God arise in James. At the very end of the letter, James advocates turning everything over to God through prayer - troubles, joys, illness, and health.

The other almost echoes the Buddhist thesis "the source of suffering is desire". Here is the full passage:

James 4:1-12

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you— who are you to judge your neighbour?

This has three sections, each of which speaks of a different form of submission to God. The first is touched on already in my remarks - submitting one's desires to God. Here, James points out that seeking to satisfy transient pleasures is ultimately unsatisfying (and for that reason, God won't answer that kind of prayer). Such desires also lead inevitably to conflict between people (James goes for hyperbole when he talks of killing, although greed can certainly induce murder in extreme cases).

The next theme of submission is one of being humble before God and accepting his power over us; James says that if we do this, then God's power being upon us will cause the devil to flee when we resist the devil.

An interesting point about the emphasis here in submitting to God's power, and one where James most clearly seems to be at odds with Paul's instruction, is the passage about grieving, mourning, wailing and "changing joy to gloom". The footnotes explain that these refer first to repentance from sin, and secondly to humbling ourselves before God - the Greek is an immediate instruction to do it without delay. But I cannot help but compare it to Paul's castigation of those who make a false piety from asceticism (for example, in Colossians) and his constant celebration of the joy that the Spirit is supposed to bring. James seems to take a different view, and encourages the self-denial that Paul thinks is a sign of a lack of faith.

The final theme of submission is submission to the judgement of God according to the law. This does not appear to be the same as the Mosaic law of the Old Testament, but rather to the overarching divine law brought by the Spirit and by Jesus - the law that is summed up by the Golden Rule. A Christian who sets himself or herself up as an authority to declare others "good" or "bad" is acting against this law, and is (according to James) directly taking to himself or herself powers that rightly belong only to God. This echoes Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged".

In a very broad sense, and not talking about the specifics, I feel as though these themes echo those that I found when I was reading through the Qur'an - again, the emphasis on right action, and on submission to God's will (the word Islam meaning "Submission", I seem to recall). Obviously, this is based on a very imperfect recollection of a translation into English of the Qur'an, so this is only a tentative suggestion.

I have one further observation on James. Namely, that the author clearly loved wordplay and literary flourishes - occasionally, I feel, to the detriment of clarity. The best example is from his discussion of not judging by wealth: "The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower." James seems to enjoy these kinds of inversions and contradictions (I recall from a biography of Karl Marx that he also liked playing with that sort of form). So the NIV compilers offer a long footnote trying to unravel what James means by the second phrase where perhaps James was just a little over-enthusiastic with his literary flourishes!