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"That ye may be blameless and harmless,
"Love your enemies . . . . . that ye may be
the sons of God, without rebuke" (2: 15).
the children of your Father which is in
heaven" (5: 44, 45).
"Shine ye (A.V. margin) as lights in the
"Let your light so shine before men" (5: 16).
world" (2: 15).
"Let your moderation (yieldingness) be
"Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
known unto all men" (4: 5).
go with him twain" (5: 41).
"Be careful (merimnao) for nothing" (4: 6).
"Take no thought (merimnao) for your life"
(6: 25).
"Many walk . . . . . whose end is destruction
"Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that
(apoleia)" (3: 18, 19).
leadeth to destruction (apoleia)" (7: 13).
"If there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
"Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
impute these things" (4: 8).
brother's eye?" (7: 3).
The key that unlocks the Sermon on the Mount, the epistle to the Philippians, and the
epistle of James, together with the epistle to the Hebrews, and the central teaching of the
epistle to the Colossians, is the word "perfect". No one who has comprehended the
distinctive teaching of this word could confuse James' teaching with Paul's basic
teaching of justification by faith, and whoever approaches James not thus equipped, will
fumble on the threshold and mislead all who follow.
Let us not mistake the issue. It is not that James and Paul do not minister to entirely
different companies, under different dispensational terms. This is acknowledged as
self-evident truth. James wrote to the dispersion, the twelve tribes scattered abroad, who
still worshipped in the synagogue (James 2: 2).
James, whose attitude towards ritual was as far removed from that of Paul as the poles
are asunder, nevertheless administers a rebuke worthy of him who spoke of those who
had "the form of godliness, but denied the power thereof". The word translated
"religion" in James 1: 27, is threskeia and refers to external religions observances, or, as
we call it, "ritual", but not in a corrupt sense. James, however, says that "pure and
undefiled religious service" (or ritual) does not consist in external rites and ceremonies,
the products of a dead faith, but that it will manifest the hidden grace of the renewed
heart. This is parallel with Paul's repudiation of external circumcision, but retention and
application of its inner meaning.
We commenced with the intention of putting Rom. 4: and James 2: into the balance
of truth, but so many features and items had to be discussed in order to clear the mind of
bias and provide a key, that our space is already exhausted. As a result, however, we
shall be able to pick up the threads and pursue the theme the better in our next article.