A Commentary on James

Common sense is not all that common especially in its sanctified form. But the letter of James to the dispersed Messianic believers of his day is full of it. Sceptical about his half-brother Jesus before his death he became his devoted slave after his resurrection. No wonder he led the Jerusalem church through its major crisis. Though he wrote in excellent Greek he thought like a Hebrew sage in circular rather than linear fashion (as in the book of Proverbs) returning repeatedly to such basic topics as wealth prayer and speech. His favourite words are the verb do and the noun doer. So faith is something to be done not just thought or felt. Without being acted upon it is dead. It cannot save. Like love it must work. This emphasis on faith-works is not contradictory to Pauls censure on law-works but a vital and complementary balance to the New Testament concept of faith.