James 2:14-26: Introduction

James 2:14-26 is one of the, if not THE, Bible passage used for justifying a belief in works salvation. I do not believe in works salvation myself but have often struggled with this passage. There are several commentaries on the Epistle of James sitting on my bookshelf and their explanation of this passage leaves me flat. Even those commentaries that reject works salvation seem to be working from the same set of premises their opponents hold.

In this passage James brings up three well known passages from the Old Testament: the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) which states God is one, Abraham placing Isaac on the altar for sacrifice, and Rahab the harlot saving the Jewish spies. No one ever seems to spend much time reading the Old Testament passages quoted by James to see what the benefits of these actions, if any, were. The truth is these passages do list blessings and those blessings appear to be temporal (in time). It requires treating these scriptures in an allegorical manner to read eternal salvation into them.

To keep the other posts in this series to a reasonable length I am going to provide some material here in the introduction to refer back to as need be. Also, I will be using the King James Version (KJV) but I am NOT a KJV only person. I performed some Bible searches using the Blue Letter Bible which defaults to the KJV and I decided to just roll with it.To keep the other posts in this series to a reasonable length I am going to provide some material here in the introduction to refer back to as need be. Also, I will be using the King James Version (KJV) but I am NOT a KJV only person. I performed some Bible searches using the Blue Letter Bible which defaults to the KJV and I decided to just roll with it.

What Was Bothering James?

James 2:14-17 hints at some of the lousy things going on within the Church in Jerusalem:

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

So there were believers starving in the Jerusalem Church and they weren’t being helped. It’s easy for us to sit back 2,000 years later and be critical of the Jerusalem believers but remember they were under terrible pressure:

Acts 12:1-5

1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

Of course I’m not making excuses for them either but I have wondered at times how the contemporary church would react in the same situation.

What Is Love?

The congregation in Jerusalem needed to act in a loving manner but what exactly is love? We often think of love as being an attitude (a noun) but that is a very Greek mindset. From what I can determine the Jewish mindset makes love an action (a verb). Of course actions flow from mindsets but to truly love I think you need both.

Here is a quote from the Judaism 101 website regarding Love and Brotherhood:

The Talmud tells a story of Rabbi Hillel, who lived around the time of Jesus. A pagan came to him saying that he would convert to Judaism if Hillel could teach him the whole of the Torah in the time he could stand on one foot. Rabbi Hillel replied, “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it.” (Talmud Shabbat 31a). Sounds a lot like Jesus’ “Golden Rule”? But this idea was a fundamental part of Judaism long before Hillel or Jesus. It is a common-sense application of the Torah commandment to love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18), which Rabbi Akiba described as the essence of the Torah (according to Rashi‘s commentary on the verse).

The true difference between Judaism and Christianity lies in Hillel’s last comment: Go and study it. Judaism is not content to leave love and brotherhood as a lofty ideal, to be fulfilled as each individual sees fit. Judaism spells out, in intricate detail, how we are meant to show that love.

Sure, modern Jews think this way but what about the ancients?

Titus 2:3-4

3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

Here the Apostle Paul emphasizes love as an act not just an attitude.

We in the West (Europe, North America, and Australia) are so saturated in Greek thinking that we sometimes misunderstand what the Bible is trying to tell us. We will almost always think of “love” as an emotion. I think this quote captures how we think of love very well:

For those who feel more comfortable using the contemporary word emotion, we’ll continue our analysis using the phrase “emotions or passions” (EorP), as long as we remember that the older idea of passions is really what the Stoics have in mind.

Now the four most common accounts or definitions of EorP provided by the Stoics include:

1. An excessive impulse.
2. An impulse that ignores reason.
3. A false judgment or opinion.

A fluttering of the soul.

True love, biblical love, is not an emotion or passion (EorP). It is a way of life.

I think I am going to stop there for today. I have plans on writing three or possibly four more posts on this topic going forward. However, I am traveling next week so don’t expect any more installments for at least two weeks.