H. The Christian Life

Context of Thought and Theology

on 5:2–3). This is a word that the church in the developed countries in our day needs to hear and take seriously. If those suffering oppression are tempted to radicalize James’s message about poverty and wealth, those of us enjoying a comfortable lifestyle are equally prone to explain away that message.

H. The Christian Life

James’s most important contribution to NT theology comes in the realm of ethics: “no other book of the New Testament concentrates so exclusively on ethical questions.”127 A full treatment of this topic would therefore demand virtually a repetition of the commentary. But a few general issues deserve mention here.

First, as we noted earlier, James’s ethics must be set in the context of his eschatology. His exhortations, while sometimes having the appearance of the timeless, prudential focus of wisdom teaching, are always oriented, at least implicitly, to the “born again” (1:18) but not yet “saved” (1:21; cf. 2:14; 5:20) condition of his readers. He recognizes that his readers will not entirely be able to escape the influence of sin (3:2), but he calls on them to pursue the goal of being “mature and complete” (1:4). Human “dividedness,” the condition James calls dipsychos, “double-minded” or “double-souled,” is the essence of the problem. People tend to be like waves of the sea, tossed and driven one way and another (1:6). This “divided” condition manifests itself in speech, when the same person utters both blessing and cursing (3:9–10) and, in a different way, when the Christian professes orthodox doctrine but does not live an orthodox life (2:14–26). In response to this tendency toward dividedness, James above all calls on his readers to progress toward Christian maturity, toward what Wesley called Christian perfection: “It is purity of intention, dedicating all the life to God. It is the giving God all our heart; it is one desire and design ruling all our tempers. It is the devoting, not a part, but all our soul, body, and substance to God.”128

James’s well-known insistence that believers not just hear but do the word of God (1:22) and his demand for a “faith that works” (2:14–26) reflect the same concern. Obedience to the “law that gives freedom” must be heartfelt and con-

127. W. Schrage, Ethik des Neuen Testaments (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), 226 (my translation); see also Laws, 27. 128. J. Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, para. 27, Wesley Center Online, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/a-plain-account-of-christian-perfection/.