Master 275: James 2
There are two goals for this series. First, I want to present some helpful reflections on the book of James. And second, I want to offer some helpful guidance for studying the Bible. (Using the book of James as my example, I want to highlight some helpful points and techniques that could be applied to one's study of other books of the Bible, especially to the other epistles.)
We started out (last time, Master 274) by looking at how an understanding of context can affect how we read a particular passage. For instance, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." (1:2) This sounds like a fairly self-contained thought that we, as readers, can take as an instruction directed at us that we ought to begin applying. But if we're not careful--especially if we're not very reflective--we may end up setting ourselves an impossible or, at least, needlessly difficult task. Learning to be joyful in the midst of trials may turn out to be difficult on even the best approach, but people who take that as a straightforward instruction are likely to set themselves on a course that will only lead to a dead-end. How can we avoid doing this?
It helps to remember that God's instructions always come with a context attached. Here's a really simple example to illustrate. In Matthew 5: 48, Jesus says, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Now you could read that as a straightforward command: Be (morally) perfect as God is morally perfect. But if you just take that command and start to run with it, you'll soon realize that you've set yourself an impossible task. If you try to carry it out you'll fail and either come to the conclusion that God is unreasonable in His expectations or that He must not have meant what He said. But consider this point: In saying that you ought to be perfect, God never intended that you should become perfect just through the application of your own natural abilities and efforts. Being perfect on that basis is impossible. But how does it change your perspective if you come to understand that God intended that God Himself (the Holy Spirit) would be the one that would make you perfect. When the power and resources of Almighty God are brought to bear on the task, suddenly becoming perfect starts to seem possible. Of course there's a whole lot more to the story. I use this example just to illustrate this one point: Context makes a huge difference. The difference between trying to be perfect on your own and trying to be perfect through God's power is huge. But the fact that the Holy Spirit is supposed to be crucially involved isn't obvious from that one verse. It might not be obvious based on that passage taken as a whole. The contextual considerations that need to be brought to bear in order to understand this idea are drawn from the Scripture taken as a whole. That's why study is important for unlocking that larger context.
Now given what I've just said, you might worry that in order to understand one passage you've got to understand the whole Bible--a daunting task indeed. But don't be intimidated. Certainly more knowledge about the Bible as a whole will help you to better understand each of the individual parts. But you don't have to understand the whole thing before you can begin to gain some really helpful and beneficial insights from the various parts. The point is that you should start now, as you read, to pay attention to the context. And you should begin asking questions, as you read, about the author, audience, and situation in which the material is being written.
Let's see now if I can distill what I've said into a few helpful key ideas.
As you study the Bible, it's important and helpful to pay attention to the context, including who is the author, who is the intended audience, and what was the situation in which the letter/work was written.
Also, as you study, especially the epistles, remember that the authors intend to be helpful. This might sound like a really obvious point, but it's important because sometimes their advice, on the surface, may sound counter-intuitive, unexpected, or even foolish. When you come across something like this, you should ask something like the following question: What must be true about God, the world, the author, the audience, humanity, and myself--what must be true about reality in general--in order for this to be a helpful piece of advice? Go back, again, to James' words: "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." On the surface, that piece of advice sounds, frankly, stupid. It's natural to think that the only kinds of people who are happy in the midst of trials are insane people or sadistic people. Think about it. Most people have as a priority in their life the avoidance of trials, difficulties, and suffering. James' words cut in the exact opposite direction of the way in which most people are running their lives most of the time. This is the point at which we can raise a question like: What must be true about God for this to be a helpful piece of advice? Well, it must be the case that God is really, really good. If God is not really good, then it must be stupid to rejoice in the midst of trials. Only if God is really, really good--only if God really is able to bring phenomenally good things out of our trials--only in that case would it make any sense at all to rejoice in the midst of trials.
Once we've reflected that far, we can begin to ask other questions, like: "Do I really believe that God is that good?" "How much time do I spend either avoiding or rejoicing in the midst of trials?" "What does that reveal about my own beliefs about God's goodness?" "Is there good evidence for thinking that God really is this good--that God really is able to bring phenomenally good things out of my trials?" "If there is really good evidence for that, then what do I need to do to adjust my thinking about God to match this evidence?" "What trials am I avoiding that might actually be opportunities for God to bring really good things into my life?" "Do I want God to bring really good things into my life?"
Hmm… I'm not sure I'm doing a good job of distilling here. The reason, I think, is that I'm not just trying to give principles but also to illustrate them. If you're not used to studying the Bible, just telling you to pay attention to author, audience, and situation won't make clear to you how these pieces of information are helpful. But hopefully, as you work through the examples I'm giving, you can start to make some of these helpful connections.
So, let's see. Where do we stand?
As you study the Bible, pay attention to context. Think about who the author is, who the intended audience is, and what the situation is in which the author is writing.
As you study the epistles, read the author's words charitably. That does NOT mean that you should ignore or gloss over difficulties and confusing passages. But one thing that you should do is reflect on the author's outlook and worldview. What must the author believe about God, himself, his audience, and the world in order to make the most sense of what he is saying? (You'll still have to decide whether you agree with the author, but at least you'll have more accurately represented what he actually intended to say.) When you do this, pay close attention to the most obvious meanings of what's being said. Especially for Christians who have grown up in the church, it's easy to just interpret texts in the same way that we've always interpreted them. We hear, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," and we can overlook how absolutely shocking that statement is. It may take some mental work to read passages anew.
Finally, as you think about application to your own life, here are two things to keep in mind: (1) Before you think about what the text means to you, figure out what it meant for the original audience. (When interpreting James, you need to remember that he's writing for a first-century Jewish-Christian audience. If you don't belong to that category of people, you need to take that into consideration as you apply.) (2) Don't think just about actions but also about worldview. (Obeying God's commands, for instance, is always connected to being in relationship with Him. If you're not in relationship, obedience doesn't matter. Obeying God's commands is also always connected to being a certain kind of person. If you're not interested in becoming a certain kind of person, obedience doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Don't apply just the required actions to your life but also the worldview, mindset, and outlook.)
Now, hopefully, as I continue to explore James, you'll see me doing all these things. Take another look at James and read through it with all this in mind. See if you notice different things than you did before.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
We started out (last time, Master 274) by looking at how an understanding of context can affect how we read a particular passage. For instance, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." (1:2) This sounds like a fairly self-contained thought that we, as readers, can take as an instruction directed at us that we ought to begin applying. But if we're not careful--especially if we're not very reflective--we may end up setting ourselves an impossible or, at least, needlessly difficult task. Learning to be joyful in the midst of trials may turn out to be difficult on even the best approach, but people who take that as a straightforward instruction are likely to set themselves on a course that will only lead to a dead-end. How can we avoid doing this?
It helps to remember that God's instructions always come with a context attached. Here's a really simple example to illustrate. In Matthew 5: 48, Jesus says, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Now you could read that as a straightforward command: Be (morally) perfect as God is morally perfect. But if you just take that command and start to run with it, you'll soon realize that you've set yourself an impossible task. If you try to carry it out you'll fail and either come to the conclusion that God is unreasonable in His expectations or that He must not have meant what He said. But consider this point: In saying that you ought to be perfect, God never intended that you should become perfect just through the application of your own natural abilities and efforts. Being perfect on that basis is impossible. But how does it change your perspective if you come to understand that God intended that God Himself (the Holy Spirit) would be the one that would make you perfect. When the power and resources of Almighty God are brought to bear on the task, suddenly becoming perfect starts to seem possible. Of course there's a whole lot more to the story. I use this example just to illustrate this one point: Context makes a huge difference. The difference between trying to be perfect on your own and trying to be perfect through God's power is huge. But the fact that the Holy Spirit is supposed to be crucially involved isn't obvious from that one verse. It might not be obvious based on that passage taken as a whole. The contextual considerations that need to be brought to bear in order to understand this idea are drawn from the Scripture taken as a whole. That's why study is important for unlocking that larger context.
Now given what I've just said, you might worry that in order to understand one passage you've got to understand the whole Bible--a daunting task indeed. But don't be intimidated. Certainly more knowledge about the Bible as a whole will help you to better understand each of the individual parts. But you don't have to understand the whole thing before you can begin to gain some really helpful and beneficial insights from the various parts. The point is that you should start now, as you read, to pay attention to the context. And you should begin asking questions, as you read, about the author, audience, and situation in which the material is being written.
Let's see now if I can distill what I've said into a few helpful key ideas.
As you study the Bible, it's important and helpful to pay attention to the context, including who is the author, who is the intended audience, and what was the situation in which the letter/work was written.
Also, as you study, especially the epistles, remember that the authors intend to be helpful. This might sound like a really obvious point, but it's important because sometimes their advice, on the surface, may sound counter-intuitive, unexpected, or even foolish. When you come across something like this, you should ask something like the following question: What must be true about God, the world, the author, the audience, humanity, and myself--what must be true about reality in general--in order for this to be a helpful piece of advice? Go back, again, to James' words: "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." On the surface, that piece of advice sounds, frankly, stupid. It's natural to think that the only kinds of people who are happy in the midst of trials are insane people or sadistic people. Think about it. Most people have as a priority in their life the avoidance of trials, difficulties, and suffering. James' words cut in the exact opposite direction of the way in which most people are running their lives most of the time. This is the point at which we can raise a question like: What must be true about God for this to be a helpful piece of advice? Well, it must be the case that God is really, really good. If God is not really good, then it must be stupid to rejoice in the midst of trials. Only if God is really, really good--only if God really is able to bring phenomenally good things out of our trials--only in that case would it make any sense at all to rejoice in the midst of trials.
Once we've reflected that far, we can begin to ask other questions, like: "Do I really believe that God is that good?" "How much time do I spend either avoiding or rejoicing in the midst of trials?" "What does that reveal about my own beliefs about God's goodness?" "Is there good evidence for thinking that God really is this good--that God really is able to bring phenomenally good things out of my trials?" "If there is really good evidence for that, then what do I need to do to adjust my thinking about God to match this evidence?" "What trials am I avoiding that might actually be opportunities for God to bring really good things into my life?" "Do I want God to bring really good things into my life?"
Hmm… I'm not sure I'm doing a good job of distilling here. The reason, I think, is that I'm not just trying to give principles but also to illustrate them. If you're not used to studying the Bible, just telling you to pay attention to author, audience, and situation won't make clear to you how these pieces of information are helpful. But hopefully, as you work through the examples I'm giving, you can start to make some of these helpful connections.
So, let's see. Where do we stand?
As you study the Bible, pay attention to context. Think about who the author is, who the intended audience is, and what the situation is in which the author is writing.
As you study the epistles, read the author's words charitably. That does NOT mean that you should ignore or gloss over difficulties and confusing passages. But one thing that you should do is reflect on the author's outlook and worldview. What must the author believe about God, himself, his audience, and the world in order to make the most sense of what he is saying? (You'll still have to decide whether you agree with the author, but at least you'll have more accurately represented what he actually intended to say.) When you do this, pay close attention to the most obvious meanings of what's being said. Especially for Christians who have grown up in the church, it's easy to just interpret texts in the same way that we've always interpreted them. We hear, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," and we can overlook how absolutely shocking that statement is. It may take some mental work to read passages anew.
Finally, as you think about application to your own life, here are two things to keep in mind: (1) Before you think about what the text means to you, figure out what it meant for the original audience. (When interpreting James, you need to remember that he's writing for a first-century Jewish-Christian audience. If you don't belong to that category of people, you need to take that into consideration as you apply.) (2) Don't think just about actions but also about worldview. (Obeying God's commands, for instance, is always connected to being in relationship with Him. If you're not in relationship, obedience doesn't matter. Obeying God's commands is also always connected to being a certain kind of person. If you're not interested in becoming a certain kind of person, obedience doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Don't apply just the required actions to your life but also the worldview, mindset, and outlook.)
Now, hopefully, as I continue to explore James, you'll see me doing all these things. Take another look at James and read through it with all this in mind. See if you notice different things than you did before.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 5:52 PM
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