Module 35: Christian Experience Part 3
James - Christ and His Ethic; and Philemon - Christ and Social Relationships; and Jude - Christ the Perfect and Perfecting Lord
James Chapter 2
Part B: FAITH AS A PRINCIPLE OF ACTION TOWARD MEN - 2:1-2:26
B.1. The Failure - 2:1-2:11
1. Judge not - 2:1-2:4
1 My brothers, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, "Sit here in a good place;" and you tell the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit by my footstool"
4 haven't you shown partiality amongst yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
2. "Ye Despise the Poor. Theirs is the Kingdom" - 2:5-2:7
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn't God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonoured the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
7 Don't they blaspheme the honourable name by which you are called?
3. The Positive Statement "If ye fulfill" - 2:8-2:11
8 However, if you fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself," you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
B.2. The Correction - 2:12-2:25
1. Injunction to act as those to be judged by the Law of Liberty - 2:12-2:13
12 So speak and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.
13 For judgement is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.
2. The Profitlessness of Creed without Conduct - 2:14-2:20
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you tells them, "Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;" yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
18 Yes, a man will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
3. Two Illustrations - 2:21-2:25
21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected.
23 So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith.
25 In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
B.3. The Principle. The Central vein of the Epistle - 2:26
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
Footnotes
- Verse 2 (synagogue)
- or, meeting
- Verse 8
- Leviticus 19:18
- Verse 11
- Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18
- Verse 11
- Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17
- Verse 23
- Genesis 15:6