Does the letter of James have a unified theme?
The letter of James is popular and potent, combining vivid and memorable imagery with a directness of control and application. Just it too offers a number of striking puzzles:
- Why does information technology not refer to the basic elements of Christian faith that you might expect, like the cantankerous, the resurrection and the Holy Spirit?
- How can we empathise its structure and catamenia of argument, given that chapter 1 offers an overview of issue, and the following chapters revisit these issues, simply not in the same order?
- How practice we reconcile its configuration of religion and works, which appears at times to contradict comments that Paul makes on the aforementioned upshot?
- What kind of literature is it? It has some hallmarks of wisdom literature, withal includes an eschatological perspective, and corresponds closely with some of the teaching of Jesus—all in the form of a round letter.
- Does information technology accept a unifying theological theme?
Following the ideas of Richard Bauckham, who argues that James is echoing the 'wisdom' teaching of Jesus, I propose that the central confession from James i.17 and James 2.19 that God is one and unchanging offers a unifying theological theme. The unity, or integrity, that God has is the goal (telos) of Christian maturity.
The thought of 'being perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Matt 5.48) is an important theme in the New Testament.
- teleios (complete, mature, perfect) occurs xix times in NT, including James one.iv, 17, 25, three.2.
- teleio (to bring to completion, to stop) occurs 23 times in the NT (including a summarizing of Jesus' work on the cross) and James 2.22.
- telos (terminate, aim, purpose) occurs 40 times in the NT and in James 5.11.
Since word teleios occurs simply once in the trunk of the text, it is worth asking the question: 'What does perfection wait like for James?' Perhaps the answer is 'oneness' or integrity or unity.
The Unity of God
The confession that 'God is one' (from Deut vi.6) was and is central to Jewish belief, and occurs near the middle of James (James ii.xix). This belief is worked out in the notion that God is unchanging (James ane.17, which includes one of the occurrences of teleios in James), since there are not 2 sides to God, a night side and a light side, only ane. Information technology is as well worked out in the idea that it is not God who tempts; God does not (on the one hand) lure united states into evil and so reprimand the states for not doing proficient. His purpose for us is consistent—that we should be perfect.
The Unity of Humanity
The reason why the lowly can avowal and the proud should be humble (James 1.9–ten) is in the face of the great leveller, expiry—we all share a common mortality, and whatever distinction made on the basis of temporary, appreciable features of life which undermines this notion of unity is not to be trusted. The notion of 'favouritism' or 'partiality' (James 2.1, ix) is expressed by the word prosopolempsias which is chronicle to the word prosopon (face), that is, partiality involves looking on the outward (face up) rather than the inward (heart) and separating the two.
The Unity Within and Among Believers
Trust in God is the opposite of being 'double minded' (James 1.7 and iv.viii). And in different ways, there is a clear emphasis on the practical unity of believers, not least in confessing to one some other and praying for i another (James 5.16).
The Unity of Voice communication and Thought
The only occurrence of telieos in the trunk of James comes in relation to the use of the tongue: the ane whose oral communication is under control is perfect (James 3.2). If we speak evil, then we are like a spring that, instead of giving ane kind of water, gives two (James iii.11) and this falls curt of the perfection to which God calls us.
The Unity of Faith and Action
The key accent of James in the section on faith and activity (James ii.14–26) is that the ii belong together. Religion that is real expresses itself in action and that the 2 belong together; for Abraham, 'organized religion was active along with his works' (James 2.22). At that place is no sense here of James opposing the i with the other—rather, the opposite. Interestingly, this is precisely the point at which James over again draws on the thought of perfection, in this instance in using the verb teleio.
The Unity of Present and Future
Many commentators note how unusual information technology is for literature focussing on the importance of wisdom and sharing characteristics of 'wisdom' literature to have an eschatological focus as James does. Merely there is a sense in which James is calling for a unity of perception here. If the futurity shows us what is truthful, then nosotros need to live in the light of this in the nowadays. Any separation of the nowadays appearance of things and the hereafter reality of things is misleading. The futurity stands on the doorstep of the present (James 5.9) as indeed Jesus proclaims in his first preaching.
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