James
The Proverbs of the New Testament, written by Jesus's brother.
Who wrote it: Says it is from James, traditionally the brother of Jesus who led the Jerusalem church. If so, the 40s or 50s AD, making it one of the earliest books. Some scholars date it later and think it was written in his name.
What it is
James is addressed to 'the twelve tribes scattered abroad', which most take to mean Jewish Christians outside Palestine, and it has almost no narrative or argument. It is a string of short teachings, closer to Proverbs or the Sermon on the Mount than to Paul. Trials produce endurance. Ask God for wisdom and he gives without making you feel small. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. Don't just hear the word; do it, or you are like someone who looks in a mirror and walks away forgetting their face.
The letter's problem is a church where faith had become talk. James is savage about it. Favouring the rich man in the good clothes while telling the poor man to sit on the floor. Saying 'go in peace, be warmed and filled' to someone with no food. Faith without works, he says, is dead, and even the demons believe that God is one. Chapter 3 is the most honest thing in the Bible about the tongue: a small fire that sets a forest alight, a thing nobody can tame, that blesses God and curses people made in his image in the same breath.
The last two chapters go after quarrels, pride, planning as if you control tomorrow, and the rich who withheld wages; the cries of the workers, James says, have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. Then patience, like a farmer waiting for rain. Then prayer: for the sick, for each other, confessing sins, the persistent prayer of a righteous person has real power. It ends mid-thought, with a line about bringing back someone who has wandered. No goodbye. It just stops.
What is distinctive is how much of it sounds like Jesus. Scholars count dozens of echoes of the Sermon on the Mount, which fits a brother who grew up in the same house. James has been called 'a right strawy epistle' by Luther, who could not find the gospel in it. Others think it is the gospel with its sleeves rolled up.
Verses worth keeping
- James 1:5WEB
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsIf any of you is short on wisdom, ask God. He gives generously to everyone and doesn't make you feel stupid for asking. And you'll get it.
'Without reproach' is the phrase to hold on to. He will not roll his eyes at the question.
- James 1:19WEB
So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSo, my dear brothers and sisters, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Three instructions. Most arguments would end if people managed the first two.
- Gen Zsame meaning, your words
It's the same with faith. If it doesn't produce action, it's dead on its own.
James is not saying works earn anything. He is saying a faith that changes nothing is not faith.
- James 5:16WEB
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSo admit your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you can be healed. When someone who's living right prays and keeps praying, it has real power.
Confession here is to each other, not only to God. That is the harder half.
Read James
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
James 1
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; 10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. 11For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass; and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
12Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. 15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. 16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. 18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. 21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; 24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Questions about James
Does James contradict Paul on faith and works?
James says a person is justified by works and not only by faith (2:24). Paul says justified by faith apart from works (Romans 3:28). They use the same words for different things. Paul's 'works' are law-keeping as a way to earn acceptance; James's 'works' are the actions a real faith produces. Paul agrees faith works through love (Galatians 5:6); James agrees Abraham believed God (2:23). Most Christians think they are attacking different errors. Luther was not sure, and nearly dropped James from his Bible.
Was James really Jesus's brother?
The letter only says 'James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ'. The Gospels name a brother James, Paul met him as a leader in Jerusalem (Galatians 1:19), and he led the council in Acts 15. Tradition has attached this letter to him since early on. Some scholars think the Greek is too good for a Galilean carpenter's son; others answer that he had decades and could have used a scribe. Catholics and Orthodox understand 'brother' as cousin or step-brother, since they hold Mary remained a virgin; Protestants generally take it as a literal brother.
Does James 5 promise that prayer always heals?
James 5:14-15 says the elders should pray over the sick and anoint them, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and if they have sinned they will be forgiven. Some read this as a promise of physical healing; others as being about restoration that may or may not include a cure. Christians who take it most literally still bury people. What the passage does clearly is make sickness a community matter rather than a private one.