D. Eschatology

is the “Judge . . . standing at the door”? And while James uses “Lord” (kyrios) as a designation of Jesus in four verses (1:1; 2:1; 5:7, 8), the other ten occurrences of the title (1:7; 3:9; 4:10, 15; 5:4, 10, 11 [2x], 14, 15) all pretty clearly refer to God the Father. Thus the traditional OT title “Lord” no longer refers unambiguously to Yahweh. These texts imply (in an early and unformed way) what Richard Bauckham has labeled “christological monotheism”: there is, indeed, one God and one Judge; yet Christ somehow shares in this divine identity.98

D. Eschatology

As we mentioned earlier, one of the chief characteristics of the Letter of James is its extensive borrowing from both Jewish and Greek moral teaching. But James gives these admonitions a distinctive focus by placing them in the context of early Christian eschatology.99 Future eschatology is clearly the dominant perspective in James. He frequently warns believers about the coming judgment in order to stimulate them to adopt the right attitudes and behavior (1:10–11; 2:12–13; 3:1; 5:1–6, 9, 12). He also reminds them of the reward they can look forward to if they live pleasingly for the Lord (1:12; 2:5; 4:10; 5:20). In keeping with early Christianity generally, James insists that the day of judgment and reward is imminent: “the Lord’s coming is near”; “the Judge is standing at the door” (5:8, 9). Some think that the early Christians held a view of imminence according to which they were certain that Jesus would return within a few years or decades at the most. But the language need not be taken so strictly. The sense of “nearness” that James and the other early Christians had stemmed from two convictions: (1) now that the Messiah had come and the new age had dawned, the end of history was the next event in the divine timetable; and (2) that culmination of history could happen at any time. James, in other words, motivates his readers to godly living, not by insisting that the Lord would come at any moment, but by reminding them that he could.

Though future eschatology is the dominant perspective in James, the present eschatological nature of Christian existence is not ignored. The assertion that “God [has] chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in

98. R. Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). See also, e.g., Schnelle, Theology, 619. In a similar vein, McKnight (42–43) notes the ambiguity in James’s use of “Lord.” 99. For this theme, see esp. Penner, Epistle of James; T. C. Penner and R. W. Wall, “James as Apocalyptic Paraenesis,” ResQ 32 (1990): 11–22.