An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 236: Deeds, not Faith. Makes a change (James 1-5)

James 1-5
Deeds, not Faith. Makes a change.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

James 1

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations”

Previous epistles have been named after the recipient, this one is named after the author, one James. Possibly this is the same James named as an apostle, as yet we are not told.

The gist of this chapter is that temptation is actually a good thing because it tests faith. The trick is not to give into it because then God will be happy with you – “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him”. Note that James hedges a bit, in that whatever God does, or what is done for God, is by definition good – “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man”.

Although it’s a bit vague in terms of what to avoid – “all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness”, what it does specifically tell the believers to do don’t seem too egregious or strange  - “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” and “to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”. These seem okay to me. James also speaks of being doers and not just listeners and warns against people thinking that they are religious but lying to themselves about it.

Last thing is that James’ writing style is a bit more poetic than the pretty flat style of Paul, but also less high-flown than Timothy in the last book. Or, perhaps, it’s the translator of this book, who knows? Either way, so far it’s quite readable. Oh yes, the recipients seem to be widespread, as James addresses the “twelve tribes”. So, like Timothy, he’s talking to the Jews rather than the Gentiles.

James 2

“My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.”

This first line seems strange by itself – don’t have the faith of Jesus regarding persons? But as we go on what James is saying here is that if you respect people based purely on their outward appearance and wealth, then you do not have proper faith. It’s a little convoluted to start with, but James spells it out quite plainly later on. James says that it is unfair to treat “a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel” who comes as your guest better than “a poor man in vile raiment”, because God has “chosen the poor of this world rich in faith”. Which, unpicked, seems to mean treat all people as people regardless of wealth and station, although perhaps in reality this is a bit problematic. James says that “ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin”, in other words, it’s a sin to respect people (implied based solely on them being rich). It makes more sense, however, to turn that around and say don’t hate people just because they’re poor. I seem to recall elsewhere Paul saying not to hate people just because they happen to be wealthy – people can’t necessarily help the financial circumstances in which they find themselves, for good or bad.

The chapter then goes on to discuss works vs. faith alone. Here, again, James departs from Paul (who felt that faith was more important than good works and good works were just an afterthought because it’s good to help people anyway). James, on the other hand, is quite clear that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. He opines on this at some length, drawing examples from Abraham and Rahab (so, like Timothy, providing scriptural references that his audience will be familiar with), and upbraiding those who send away a cold or hungry “brother or sister” with just empty words of comfort – “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?”

Which, again, seems pretty reasonable to me.

James 3

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”

This chapter warns James’ readers about what they say. He draws a nice metaphor about how a small tiller can steer a large ship, and how a small bit in a horses mouth can be used to steer the whole horse, therefore a relatively small organ like the tongue can cause a lot of mischief.

His point is that the tongue (for which, really, we can read as speech in general) ought not to be used for praising God one moment and cursing mankind the next, just as fruit trees don’t bear different fruit or “so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh”. What he’s arguing against really is hypocrisy, and even makes that plain – “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy”.

James 4

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”

James largely warns against pride in this chapter, because “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble”. There are a few verses at the beginning, as with the heading quote, about earthly desires leading to strife, but the main part of the chapter warns his readers that no-one should take too much credit for their life, since God is the ultimate arbiter of fate and luck. Don’t assume too much but rather accept that things will happen if God wills it – “ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that”.

Some of this brings to mind some of the actual gospel teachings, but also sounds like two other major religions as well, the whole concept of desire leading to strife is quite Buddhist whereas the idea of assuming that your life is at the whim of God has more of an Islamic feel to it. I guess all roads lead to the same ideas in the end.

James 5

“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

“Hide” a multitude of sins? Perhaps a translation artefact, as I would have thought that “erase” or “forgive” would be better. “Hiding” merely implies that the sins are still there but out of sight and I would have thought that the sentiment was that the sins were absolved.

The book of James ends very suddenly, on this note. The last chapter starts with wishing woe to the rich in a bit of fire and brimstone – “Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.” After this, James goes on to talk about the power of prayer to accomplish things from healing the sick to making it rain, and also for his readers to be patient waiting for the “coming of the Lord” and the inevitable retribution against nasty rich people.

And that’s it for James. I quite liked this one, it was fairly concise and the messages were clearly put but also the language was poetic enough to carry it along. It helped, also, that the general concepts were not particularly disagreeable. I would argue that one doesn’t need God or Jesus to consider such things as helping people in need as being a good action, but perhaps in the time and place that this was written it was a new and radical concept.