My earliest memory about the letter of James comes from a time in a high school Bible class when the teacher said that James, Hebrews, and Revelation were hotly contested during the time when the New Testament was being compiled by the church. In college, I heard a similar story. And since that time I’ve read that Martin Luther, in some of his earliest writings, also doubted whether the letter of James should be part of the New Testament.
My second memory about the letter of James comes from my time in seminary. The New Testament Survey professor said that the letter of James had no central organizing thematic principle. But then he proceeded to give us the assignment of outlining this mish-mash of a book. Although, he also said that as long as we were consistent with our own outline, whatever we came up with would be acceptable.
These two events have helped make the letter of James a subject of continual interest to me. The fact that the letter of James could have been left out of the Bible intrigued me; I wanted to know why some people considered the letter of James to be inferior and uninspired. And then when that seminary professor said there was no structure to his letter, I mentally sparred with him. You see, I believe that the Bible, and each of its constituent parts, has been inspired by God. And since each book is God-inspired there must be an order to each part as well as to the whole. So, if some considered the letter of James to be “without a structure,” by my way of thinking it was only because they hadn’t seen the structure yet, not because it wasn’t there. Suffice it to say, for someone like me, both of these events have conspired to make the letter of James a source of interest to me — but for all the wrong reasons.
In my folder of notes on the letter of James is one heavily marked-up outline, at the top of which I’ve written the phrase, “not just a puzzle to unpack, but a person to know.” For years I had been approaching the letter of James as a conundrum to solve — an object to carefully unearth so I could find what his letter was really about; in a word, the letter of James was a challenge. But, as I have continued to work through the letter of James to seek its structure and purpose, I have realized I have been avoiding the real reasons to study scripture; to know Jesus better, to become more like him, and to become a better citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
When I realized I had missed the point of why I study scripture, I was initially tempted to toss all of my notes in the trash. By making the letter of James an object to study, analyze, and unpack I had relegated it to the realm of the intellect and the mind and bypassed the heart and the soul. Certainly, it is true that we are to be transformed in our thinking, but we are also to allow God’s Spirit to transform our hearts as well. Or, as another seminary professor once said to me, we should allow scripture to work through us as we work through it. For me, intellectual pursuits can often construct walls around my heart. But, even though I was tempted to toss my notes in the trash, I didn’t.
While I realized I may have missed the point by solely studying scripture I realized that we are told to search the scriptures — to engage it with our minds — so as to understand what God’s word says. By studying scripture we avoid treating it like a Biblical fortune cookie. God doesn’t ask us to just open the Bible and let the pages fall where they may so that he can speak his will to us. God brings order, not chaos. Genesis records that God brought order out of chaos when he created the natural world; in like manner we should expect that God has also brought order to the supernaturally formed scriptures. And, if we do not see this order, it is not God’s fault, it is ours; either we are blinded by our own sin, or we have not spent the time necessary to actually study the Word.
This dual tension is important to realize anytime we open the Bible. We are to study his word, but we are also to allow his word to work through us and change us. There is much I wish to write, and will write, over the next few months about the content and structure of the letter of James. At times it may appear to be merely intellectual, but the intellectual is just the first step. The study of the Holy Spirit-inspired letter of James does not end when we think we have finally solved the riddle of its structure; that is just the beginning. Our ultimate purpose for studying the letter of James must be that we would know Jesus better, become more like him, and become better citizens of the kingdom of heaven. It is my hope that in the coming months, this study of James’s letter will do just that.
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