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CONNIE: What’s the most practical book in the Bible—for daily living? Maybe Proverbs? Or one of Paul’s letters? Join us today, as we consider a book that’s full of good advice for Christian living.

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. And Connie, today my nomination for one of the most practical books in the Bible is the New Testament book of James. It’s just a short letter, but it reads almost like an advice column for people who want to live a successful Christian life.

CONNIE: I understand that the book hasn’t always been a favorite with some of the leading theologians of the world. Is it maybe too practical for some people’s taste?

LONNIE: Well, that’s a good question. What you probably heard is that Martin Luther once called James “an epistle of straw,” and I’ll have more to say about that in my message later today. But briefly, I think that Luther was put off by James because of the works-centered background that he came out of. He brought a necessary new emphasis on salvation by faith. So he didn’t have a lot of use for James’s exhortations to good works.

CONNIE: But the book does help bring an important balance into our lives—if we take it to heart. It’s James that reminds us that if we have faith, we need to demonstrate it by how we live.

LONNIE: Exactly. And he was writing to some people who faced particular challenges as they tried to live out their Christianity in a sometimes hostile world.

CONNIE: Dealing with persecution and suffering is one of the issues that comes up in the book—in fact it’s one of the major themes, as Dr. Pedrito Maynard-Reid shared when Ken Wade spoke with him recently.

KEN: I want to welcome Dr. Pedrito Maynard-Reid to our program today, Dr. Maynard Reid is the vice president for spiritual life and mission for Walla Walla College, and he also works in the theology department there at the college. Welcome to our broadcast today.

PEDRITO: I am delighted to be here.

KEN: I think our listeners will pick up on a bit of a Jamaican flavor to our program today. Dr. Maynard-Reid, as we look at the book of James is there an overall theme, something that kind of holds it all together, pulls it together?

PEDRITO: Yes, James is a very practical book, in a matter of fact it is called the wisdom book. It falls into kind of the Old Testament wisdom literature, and James wants to reach a particular audience as a good pastor, by focusing on a theme that I believe is a theme of suffering. His congregations, his audience, are people that are suffering, thus he begins his book after a little introduction with, my brothers and sisters if you face trials, if you face struggles, there is joy and there is hope. He end’s the book and he says, be patient, in chapter 5, and there’s so much suffering, and everything that comes within those five chapters seems to be dealing with some sort of pain and suffering that is caused by economics, by violence, persecution, there is something that is happening by people talking, by using their tongues, and in some instances hurting other people.

KEN: So you are saying that you’ve classified this as sort of wisdom literature, so there will be lots of practical bits of counsel?

PEDRITO: Very much. It’s not just bits and pieces thrown in there without any purpose. It’s like my mama; she always had these Jamaican sayings that when she’s talking to me she’d bring in a piece of a Jamaican saying and throw it in there that by itself doesn’t mean a lot, but in the context of what she is trying to tell me it makes a who lot of sense.

KEN: So as we look at this book, we know that some people like to play James of against Paul. Does understanding the theme of James help us to see why they shouldn’t be played off, but maybe are complementary?

PEDRITO: Yes! As a matter of fact, people that do that, even Luther many times, I think made a mistake by just taking some of the verses from chapter 2:14-26, and just played it against Paul, forgetting the verse 14 is a continuation of the first part of chapter 2. As a matter of fact, the whole thing begins in verse 27 when it says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to visit the orphans, the widows in their distress, and then he goes on into the first part of chapter 2 to talk about people who are hungry, naked, need clothing, then he comes into verse 14 and he say’s, if you say you have faith but you’re not helping these brothers and sisters who lack daily food, then what is the use of you’re faith. So the depression on faith and works is in a social context, while Paul’s discussion on faith and works is in a theological context with those who wish to keep the law.

KEN: It’s completely different questions that are being asked and…

PEDRITO: …totally different, same words, but different questions.

KEN: So, James’s response is more so not that you’re going to work in order to save yourself, or earn points with God, but that because you are a Christian you are going to do certain things.

PEDRITO: That’s right. It is very similar to when Jesus in His last parable said, in as much as you have done unto the least of these my brethren; you have done it unto me. He say’s, when the king is coming in all His glory, He is going to separate the sheep from the goats based on how they responded socially to people. So, because you know Christ you’re going to do these natural works, just having faith isn’t good enough.

KEN: So the works that we’re talking about is in the context of meeting the needs, of just being a good Christian in other words.

PEDRITO: Especially people who are suffering, which Luke talks about, Matthew talks about, and what Jesus talks about, meeting people who are on the margins as we like to say.

KEN: Now you brought up also about the tongue, the tongue comes up a lot in James doesn’t it?

PEDRITO: It goes right there in chapter 3 and earlier in chapter 1, and it seems to me as I looked at this that they had a problem in the community there of using the tongue to hurt, that’s why he said it’s like a fire, and there were people that were being hurt. As a matter of fact in chapter 4, it talks about conflicts and disputes, both of us know that conflicts and disputes usually start with the tongue, and a lot of hurt and suffering comes with the tongue, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, that’s not true. James says, what you do with your tongue hurts, and people were suffering because of that.

KEN: So as we wrap up here, I guess you’d say that James is talking about doing good and refraining from doing the kinds of things that hurt other people.

PEDRITO: Absolutely! Whether it be economic, or social in terms of verbal, in terms of violence, in terms of relationships with workers it’s all there, and that is what he is talking about.

KEN: Thank you so much for sharing. I think that you have given us a good overview on the book of James.

CONNIE: Amen! That was the Melashenko Family Singers—including Lonnie Melashenko, of course, singing “Peace in the Midst of the Storm.”

LONNIE: We mentioned earlier that the book of James was apparently addressed to people who were going through a stormy time in their lives—probably directly as a result of being Christians. The Bible doesn’t promise us that we’ll never have to face trials, but it does promise us that God will be with us through whatever hard times we have to face.

CONNIE: Because the book of James focuses on how to live an exemplary and effective life as a Christian, no matter what the circumstances, we’d like to share a book with you today amplifies the same theme. The title of the book is A Religion That Works. It comes from our sister ministry, It Is Written, and we really recommend it because—like the book of James—it’s very practical. Focusing on how to make our religion real, and effective, in the world.

LONNIE: We’d like you to have a copy of this little book, and you can get yours for free, by giving us a call at this number: 1-800-872-0055. Operators are available any time to take your call.

CONNIE: But don’t call right now. We’ll give the phone number, and our mailing address again in a few moments—after we listen to Lonnie’s message for today, “James—How to Be an Effective Christian.”

James—How to be an Effective Christian
Say, have you browsed the self-help section of your local bookstore lately? It’s always interesting to see what the newest ideas are for improving people’s lives. If you check out the bestseller lists, you’ll notice titles like 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace; Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self; A Short Guide to a Happy Life; Life Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters. And of course the longtime bestseller Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

I think we’ll always be suckers for lists of things to do to improve our lives. Because no matter how much you do, how much you have, or what you’ve accomplished—it always seems like there’s more that needs to be done, doesn’t it?

We’ve all heard the story of Alexander the Great, who is said to have bemoaned the fact at age 30 or so that there were no more worlds for him to conquer.

But most of us don’t feel that way. We see plenty of challenges that need tackling. We live in the hope that we’ll be able to get the victory in whatever struggle engages us at the moment. And we recognize that if we’re going to be successful, some of the most important challenges we face lie within our own hearts. “Improvement begins with I,” our mothers were fond of reminding us.

Today as we look at the New Testament book of James, I can’t help but think that if I were visiting a bookstore that had only the books of the Bible on the shelves, James would be in the self-help section. Along with Proverbs, and maybe Ecclesiastes. And if authors were invited to make the rounds of talk shows, I can picture James on the air with Oprah, giving passionate, poignant advice about how to be successful as a Christian.

James would advise us to take the bull by the horns and face life with courage, nourished by the wisdom that comes from the Father above, and strengthened by the thought that God only allows those things to come into our lives that will strengthen us—if we’ll let Him do His work in us.

Usually, when I study a biblical book, I like to sit down with an outline and try to understand the whole flow of thought through the book. But as Dr. Pedrito Maynard-Reid points out in his Bible Amplifier book about James, it’s very difficult to outline this particular book. In fact, he says that consulting major commentaries, you can find the book broken down into anywhere from two to twenty-five different subheads in an outline.

With that in mind, it seems best to me to simply take the book at face value, and read it as it stands—accepting its advice and counsel as wisdom coming from God via one of His great apostles.

Speaking of wisdom—that’s one of the first subjects to come up in the book. If you’ve ever sat down to write an important letter and wondered just how to begin, maybe you can sense James empathizing with you. In chapter 1, verse 5, he gives the advice that he must have followed when deciding how to write this letter: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (NIV).

But the advice doesn’t stop there. You need to not only ask—you need to know just how to ask—not some formulary prayer, mind you. What you need when you’re asking is faith.

But what, exactly, does that mean? Is James telling us that if we just believe hard enough—you know, hold your breath, strain at it, close your eyes, and make yourself believe kind of faith—that God will reward you for that?

That’s an interesting, and important, question in the context of the book of James. Many great Christian theologians have struggled with just what James means by faith. In fact, it was Martin Luther who was so put off by James’s comments about faith and works that he called James “an epistle of straw.” Luther, of course, was the great champion of salvation by faith alone, apart from works. It was important for him—coming out of a background where works of penance had been very important in his quest for closeness with God—to make sure that people didn’t fall back into the trap of trying to earn salvation by their works. So he quoted mostly from Paul’s letters and relegated James to a spot somewhere on the edge of the dustbin—just about to fall in.

But rather than toss out one Bible book in favor of another, we ought to hear James out. What does he mean by faith? And what does he mean by works? Listen to James 2:14 in two different translations:

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”—that was from the King James Version. Now, consider how the New International Version has rendered it: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?”

Notice the substitution of the word “deeds” for “works.” It’s just as good a translation of the original Greek word, but it makes the text a little less controversial. Rather than opposing faith and works, it simply points out that what we do—our deeds—are an important part of demonstrating our faith. Consider also verse 17: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”—King James Version. “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”—New International Version.

I’m comparing these translations simply to demonstrate that changing the way we translate a single word can defuse the apparent conflict that Luther saw between James and Paul.

James wants us to know that our actions, our deeds, are an important part of living the life of faith. And that’s probably why his book is so full of practical advice about how to live the Christian life.

The times in which he was writing his “advice column” were times when such advice was much needed—times that would try men’s and women’s souls. When persecution was coming at Christians from all directions—both from their Jewish forebears in the faith, and from pagans and government officials. No wonder he begins his letter with that famous passage about trials and testing: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4, NASB).

It would not be easy for James’s readers to live out their faith. But live it out they must, if it was to prove genuine, and to have an impact for the better on the world around them.

So, what kind of advice did he give?

In 1:12 and following, his advice is to “keep your eyes on the prize.” That is—when undergoing trials, remember that at the end you’ll receive a crown of life. Don’t blame God for what’s happening to you, but trust in Him to see you through. God is the one who sends good things into our lives. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (verse 17, NKJV).

James also strongly emphasizes the importance of what we say, along with what we do, as part of our religion. “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (1:19, NRSV). “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless” (1:26, NRSV). “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell” (3:5, 6, NRSV).

And it’s not only what we say to each other that is important. What we say to God is powerful as well. It is James who advises us to pray for and anoint those who are sick, reminding us that “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (5:15, 16, NRSV).

Want to know how to have a more powerful prayer life? James brings up the problem of unanswered prayer in chapter 4: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. . . . Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (4:3, 4, NRSV). James recognizes that we must live in the world, but he points us to something higher. Our friendship is to be with God, not with the things of the world. So, if you’re praying for a Porsche, well, maybe you need to reconsider who and what you are worshiping, and reorganize your priorities to put God first.

Christianity is a very practical thing to James. It takes action to better the world. Seeing a poor person, the true Christian doesn’t just pronounce a benediction or say a prayer and hope for the best. It is our responsibility to extend a helping hand.

James appeals over and over again for us to put our faith into action. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom” (3:13, NRSV).

Being a Christian involves living well before the world—despite the times of trial that the first readers of this epistle were facing. Despite whatever trials I may be facing today. Through it all, the goal is to live patiently, in expectation of the return of Jesus—like a farmer waiting patiently for the seed he has planted to yield its fruit: “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near” (5:7, 8, NRSV).

Ah, my friend. That’s what it finally comes down to, isn’t it? Living in this world, but with our hope, our eyes, our entire beings, focused on the world to come. But in the meantime keeping our eyes open to the needs of the world around us.

James calls us to a balancing act. He exhorts us to be truly effective Christians. To keep first things first—to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” but not to become so heavenly minded that we’re of no earthly good.

To reach out to the world to come. And all the while, to reach out and touch the world around us, for Jesus.