Overview of the Book of James

The overview of the week for this Sunday is the book of James, written by the half -brother of Jesus.

James is one of the earliest of the New Testament books, and the theme is

Christian living. James is a book about how Christians are supposed to live, and that's essential in order to understand what

James says in chapter 2 of his letter, especially in verse 24, when he says, You see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.

So this confuses people because James seems to come right out and say that we are saved by faith plus works.

And as you know, the core Christian teaching of the gospel is that a person is saved by grace through faith, not of works.

Paul makes this very clear in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, also in the book of Romans, in particular chapter 4 of Romans.

And many throughout church history have compared James chapter 2 to Romans chapter 4.

And on the surface, it seems that Paul and James are at odds with one another.

But as Bible believers, we know better than that, that the scripture does not contradict itself.

So the key to harmonizing this supposed conflict is to understand what the two authors are doing.

Why is James writing versus why is Paul writing? Paul in Romans is writing to explain the gospel and how to be saved.

James is writing to explain how saved people are supposed to live.

So after all, you have to consider Jesus talked about this, how in the Sermon on the

Mount, Matthew 7, 15 through 23, that there is such a thing as a false profession of faith.

So if somebody says they have faith, but there's no evidence of that. If they don't have any works, if they're not producing good fruit, then their faith is really a dead faith.

And James makes it clear that a dead faith saves no one. So James is not really a theological book.

Paul in Romans, that book is theological. James, this is more of a practical book.

It contains moral and ethical teachings that demonstrate Christianity is not just a belief that we assent to in our mind.

It can also be called a religion because it involves what we do. As James says, we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Otherwise, we deceive ourselves. I'll close with what James says in chapter one, verse 27.

He says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this to visit widows and orphans in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.