From the Pieces, the Big Picture

One of the things I’ve noticed during my years in school both as a student and as a teacher is that most teachers are skilled at breaking a subject into little pieces so that it becomes easier to understand. But I’ve also noticed that there are very few teachers able to reassemble the pieces so the student can make sense of the larger picture.

The entire educational system seems to be set up with this in mind. High school provides a little bit of information about a lot of subjects but gives very little depth. College provides more depth in a specific discipline. But college also opens the student’s mind to the fact that there is more depth in their discipline than they had ever imagined. Graduate programs allow the student to revel in-depth; reading many primary sources in their original languages. By the time a student pursues a doctorate, they uncover more knowledge in one thread of one discipline than they really need. For example, the doctoral dissertation of one of my favorite seminary professors was on donkeys in the Bible; I’d say that’s pretty specific.

But when does the student back away from the detail and look at the bigger picture? Some people do this on their own but, in my opinion, those people seem to be rare. We — all of us — can easily become lost underground searching out the next valuable gem of truth about one subject, but we rarely leave the cavern of our delight to fit the gems back fit into the greater crown of life.

I begin this way because I know it would have been easy to conclude this discussion of James last week, but we need to put it all back together again to understand how the rich veins of truth we have studied fit into their proper place. We want to see the big picture of James’s letter so we can better understand how his words apply to us today.

The first big picture thing that needs to be said is that James did not write a Greek letter; James is Jewish and he is writing a Jewish letter to Jews. This may seem obvious when James wrote, “to the twelve tribes” in James 1:1, but we often miss the importance of those words. As a Jew writing to Jews, James would have employed literary techniques familiar to Jews; not those techniques prominent among the Gentiles. What this means is that we can’t read James in the same way that we read Paul’s letters. Paul wrote primarily to Gentiles and structured his writings as such. James requires different eyes. A good way to understand this is by looking at the only dialogue we find in Scripture directly attributed to James.

We read in Acts 15 about the church leaders gathering in Jerusalem to discuss how Gentile believers should be treated when it came to their conversion and acceptance into the church, which at that time was primarily Jewish. But after Peter went to Cornelius’s house and after large numbers of Gentiles came to believe in Jesus during Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey a problem arose. Some Jewish believers said that the Gentiles must be circumcised and follow the Mosaic laws; others were not so inclined. Imagine witnessing to someone and then saying, “Oh, and one other thing…I have this knife…” I imagine the conversion rate might not be very large.

Ouch…I didn’t need to hear that. By the way…what does this have to do with the book of James?

I’m getting there…patience.

Okay, but…

Patience!

Now, during the council in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas spoke about how God was working with the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-4), then some Pharisee believers said the Gentiles had to follow the laws of Moses (Acts 15:5). Next, a debate broke out between the apostles and elders of the church (Acts 15:6). Peter quieted them and spoke about Cornelius (Acts 15:7-11); Paul and Barnabas spoke again (Acts 15:12). After all had been heard, James spoke (Acts 15:13-21).

How does this relate to James?

You really aren’t that patient, are you?

…

The important part of this is found when we look closely at what James said to the council. Luke records the following:

“Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
“‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Acts 15:13b-21

It looks like an ordinary speech, doesn’t it?

Yeah; it was short and to the point. I like that…hint hint…

Nice. Okay, here’s the really cool thing. Look at the structure of what James said. He began by talking about the prophets then he provides a prophecy. James then states his conclusion as to what should be done. But he doesn’t finish talking. Following his conclusion, James gives some rules and speaks about Moses. His speech is structured something like this:

The prophets — A prophecy — His conclusion — New Rules — Moses

Most people begin with evidence and then provide a conclusion, after which they are usually done. It’s been this way for a long time. This manner of speaking is heavily influenced by the Greeks and it is the way Paul structured his writings; he always starts with the problem, provides reasoning, and then arrives at a conclusion. He might say hello to a few people before closing the letter but he never reengages with the argument; his writing style is linear. But James doesn’t write that way. He places his conclusion in the middle of his argument and neatly places his reasoning before and after it. Look at his speech to the council again:

James begins by appealing to the prophets as a source of authority:

Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

He then provides a prophecy to support his argument (Amos 9:11-12):

After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.

Following this comes James’s conclusion:

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,

Then he provides some very specific rules:

but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

He concludes his speech by appealing to Moses, another source of authority for the Jews:

For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.

This, the only dialogue, or speech, we have of James in all of scripture is structured in a Jewish manner. Today, scholars call this sort of structure a chiasm or chiasmus, (in my posts I’ve called this structure a sandwich because that is easier to understand…besides, who doesn’t like a nice sandwich?). In a sandwich, er…a chiasm, the conclusion is found in the middle and the arguments are layered on the outside; each layer mirroring its opposite. As you see in James’s speech, the prophets mirror Moses, the prophecy mirrors the rules and regulations, and smack-dab in the middle is the conclusion.

But…

I’m almost there…

Okay…

So, if James spoke this way, then isn’t it possible that James wrote this way?

Okay. I see where you’re going. That makes sense.

Good. So now, let’s return to the book of James. But instead of looking at each verse let’s step back and look at the layers of James as we’ve gone through them. They are listed below and I’ve labeled each layer to indicate which ones match. For example, Layer 1 matches Layer 1’. (That’s what all the smart people do…they use the single quote mark [‘] to indicate the matching layer…smart people…hrmmm!).

Layer 1 — James 1:1 – Greetings to the dispersed (diaspora) believers (Jewish Tribes)
Layer 2 — James 1:2 – 8 – Suffering and wisdom
Layer 3 — James 1:9 – 12 – The glory of humiliation
Layer 4 — James 1:13 – 16 – Temptations come from our own lust and passions
Layer 5 — James 1:16 – 18 – The good and perfect gift from above
Layer 6 — James 1:19 – 21 – Be slow to speak
Layer 7 — James 1:22 – 25 – Be a doer, not only a hearer of the word
The Center of the Sandwich — James 1:26 – 2:13 – True religion is taking care of the poor, loving your neighbor, and being impartial
Layer 7’ — James 2:14 – 26 – Faith must be accompanied with works
Layer 6’ — James 3:1 – 12 – The dangers of the tongue
Layer 5’ — James 3:13 – 18 – Wisdom is the good gift from above
Layer 4’ — James 4:1 – 12 – The passions that war within man
Layer 3’ — James 4:13 – 5:6 – The subtle sin of arrogance
Layer 2’ — James 5:7 – 12 – Have patience in the face of suffering
Layer 1’ — James 5:13 – 20 – How to live in community as the gathered ones, the church (ekklesia)

Interesting.

Exactly! Just like his speech to the council in Jerusalem, James organized his book as a chiasm. Knowing this helps us see what James was emphasizing.

James wrote to the dispersed Jewish believers (Layer 1) and told them they would find their new community in those gathered around them, the church (Layer 1’). He wrote them about their struggle with all the various aspects of life (Layers 2-7 and 7’-2’) and in the very middle of his message he told them that their religious systems were replaced with taking care of the poor and the widows and in being impartial to any who would choose to join their gathering of believers. I realize this may sound like a fairly simple message, but for those Jewish believers who had been dispersed to distant lands, this message helped them find new religious roots as they now lived separated from the rigors of the temple and its system of sacrifices and festivals.

These three main markers (Layers 1, 1’ and the Center of the Sandwich) help us understand all the other layers in his letter: suffering and patience (Layers 2 and 2’), humility and pride (Layers 3 and 3’), temptations and passions (Layers 4 and 4’), the gift from above and wisdom (Layers 5 and 5’), being slow to speak and the dangers of the tongue (Layers 6 and 6’), and doing and hearing balanced with faith and works (Layers 7 and 7’). All of these topics are read in the context of Jewish believers living away from their true home.

But this message is not only for first-century Jewish believers. The Lord told Abraham that he and his descendants were strangers in a strange land (Genesis 23:3-4). Moses named his first son Gershon because he had been a stranger in a strange land (Exodus 2:22). Stephen (Acts 7:6) and Peter (I Peter 2:11-12) spoke of believers as strangers in a strange land. Paul echoes this idea when he says that our citizenship is found in the household of God, not in this world (Ephesians 2:19-20). And Jesus said that he and his disciples were not of this world (John 17:16).

We might not think of ourselves as strangers in a strange land, but that is who we are and, sadly, however, most of us think we have found our home here. We find our most profound comfort in the place where we have put down roots. Home, for many of us, is that place where we sleep at night, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In reality, we are all living in a hotel room and our check-out time is coming. Sure, some hotel rooms are nicer than others, but they are just temporary residences; hotel rooms. Who spends money and time decorating a hotel room? Who forwards their mail to a hotel room? Who calls a hotel room home? We might call it our “home away from home,” but it isn’t home; it’s temporary. Some of us have spent a great deal of time and money on our houses, cars, jobs, vacations, and everything else, but they are all just pieces and parts of our hotel room.

In point of fact, we have never actually been in our true home, but we have been told about it. Jesus said that after leaving earth he is going to his Father’s mansion to prepare our true home for us. This is why James’s letter, written to the early Jewish believers, is particularly pertinent to us today. James’s audience was waiting for a return to their home and he tells them — us — to endure persecution, to seek true wisdom and glory. He reminds us that it is only God’s wisdom from above that can enable us to conquer our own sinful nature. He reminds us that we can only hear God’s wisdom if we temper our reactions and listen to him carefully. And he reminds us that putting our faith into action means we take care of the poor and the widow and impartially love others.

As you can see, the treasures in James’s short letter really shine when we step back and read it through the eyes of those fellow believers some 2,000 years ago. And, when we step back from our own lives to take a bigger look at the collection of exiles living away from their true home, we might just realize that those first recipients of James’s letter will be there at the front door awaiting our arrival. I find that to be quite encouraging and something to look forward to; meeting our brothers and sisters when we all arrive home.