Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

We are familiar with the search for peace during a conflict. There are conferences taking place today trying to solve conflicts between various factions within countries as well as those between countries. Often when we read about such dialogues we have a great deal of scepticism about the outcome and we suspect that the aftermath will not involve a real change of circumstances for those affected by it. Paul and the Ephesians lived in an empire which claimed to have brought worldwide peace. The Roman empire was proud of its pax romana which had been forced on to all the subjects of the empire. Yet it was resented because it was a deprivation of liberty and many attempts were made to escape from the grip of the empire. Biblical peace No doubt Paul was very thankful that he could speak about the provision of real peace which had been brought about by Jesus, the accomplisher and the announcer of peace. In this section of his letter, Paul deals with the two conflicts that had affected...

I suppose it could be said that the recent delivery of the Budget by the Chancellor was not an expression of wisdom. It could also be said that President Obama’s comment a while ago that Isis were an insignificant organisation when he pulled American troops out of Iraq is now seen as a foolish statement. Perhaps we might say the same of Margaret Thatcher’s comment that there is no such thing as society. The outcome of those decisions is chaos and terrible disorder at many levels. James is contrasting true and false wisdom. Normally, when we think of wisdom we have in mind an ability to know what is best to do in a given situation. Yet Biblical wisdom is more than knowing what is the right thing to do in a situation. Instead, it describes a way of life and in the Book of Proverbs we see that true wisdom is contrasted with foolish behaviour. Is it possible for a wise person to become foolish? The Bible says that it is, and its example is the wisest of the kings of Israel, Solomo...

This passage has been used as a football, kicked back and fore between individuals who try and imagine that James is disagreeing with Paul about how a person is justified before God. With regard to what is said here about Abraham and Rahab, we can assume that Paul was aware of what James had written because this letter was one of the first of the New Testament letters to be composed. Paul may even have read it when it reached the synagogues in Damascus where many Christians had fled after the persecution connected to the death of Stephen. Yet Paul made no attempt to have the letter of James removed from Christian circles; indeed, he spoke highly of James in his letters. It is also important to remember that James wrote this section to deal with an area of pastoral concern and not as a contribution to the local theological society. It is important for Christians to remember four things when they hear this suggestion about the alleged contradiction between James and Paul. First, be...

James was obviously concerned about the way some of his readers were speaking to and about one another. His section on the misuse of the tongue extends into chapter 4 and there he writes about quarelling (v. 1), wrong prayers (v. 3), evil speaking about one another (v. 11) and about making assumptions about future intentions (v. 13). James has already spoken about the tongue in this letter. In 1:19, he had told his readers that they should be 'slow to speak', and in 1:26 he had said that a person who could not control his tongue was deceiving himself about being a true Christian, which is a very startling statement. Such a warning clearly shows the danger of wrong speech and it is obvious that James wanted to look at it in depth, probably because as a pastor he wanted to help his readers in a spiritual way. If it was possible to deceive yourself, it would mean that the individual had a faith that was dead, the topic that James had dealt with just before he spoke here a...