All posts by Michael O'Neil

About Michael O'Neil

Hi, thanks for stopping by! A couple of months ago a student gave me a cap embroidered with the words "Theology Matters." And so it does. I fervently believe that theology must not be an arcane academic pursuit reserved only for a few super-nerdy types. Rather, theology exists for the sake of the church and its mission. It exists to assist ordinary believers read and enact Scripture in authentic ways, together, and in their own locale, as a local body of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. I love the way reading and studying Scripture and theology has deepened my faith, broadened my vision, enriched my ministry and changed my life. I hope that what you find here might help you along a similar path. A bit about me: I have been married to Monica for over thirty years now and we have served in various pastoral, teaching, missions and leadership roles for the whole of our lives together. We have three incredible adult children who with their partners, are the delight of our lives. For the last few years I have taught theology and overseen the research degrees programme at Vose Seminary in Perth, Western Australia. I also assist Monica in a new church planting endeavour in our city. In 2013 my first book was published: Church as Moral Community: Karl Barth’s Vision of Christian Life, 1915-1922 (Milton Keynes: Paternoster). I can say that without a doubt, it is the very best book I have ever written and well worth a read!

Scripture on Sunday – James 1:23-24

Scripture

Saint_James_the_JustJames 1:23-24
For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 

Having admonished his hearers, James now reinforces his teaching with an illustration which shows how those who only hear the word without doing it are self-deceived. The first phrase repeats the language of verse 22 in the form of a conditional statement: “For if any are hearers of the word and not doers” (hoti ei tis akroatēs logou estin kai ou poiētēs). Hoti often translates as “because” but may also be used in a weaker sense as “for” as most English versions have it. Vlachos (59) prefers to tie logou to poiētēs so that the phrase reads, “if anyone is a hearer and not a doer of the word.” This translation is an even stronger echo of verse 22, though the essential meaning of the phrase is unchanged.

James then provides a simile to show what this person who only hears the word is like (cf. 1:6 where James also uses a simile to portray the one who doubts). “They are like those who look at themselves in a mirror” (houtos eoiken andri katanoounti to prosōpon tēs geneseōs autou en esoptrō). Houtos eoiken (“this one is like”) refers back to the “any” of the first phrase. Although andri usually refers to a man or a husband, James tends to use the word the way other New Testament books use anthrōpos, that is, to refer to human persons in a generic rather than a gendered sense (Vlachos, 29; cf. Brown, NIDNNT 3:686-687). The unusual phrase in this clause is to prosōpon tēs geneseōs autou (literally, “the face of his birth”). The NRSV and NIV ignore the phrase altogether and translate as “they look at themselves.” The ESV and NASB translate “his natural face.” Some commentators, however, see a deeper meaning in the phrase, linking it not simply to their “natural face,” but to their “genesis” in God, the “origin” of their existence in his image. Scot McKnight, for example, suggests that the phrase could take an ontological sense in which it means that the person looks into the mirror and sees the image of God they were created to be, or in a moral sense in which the person sees in the mirror a fallen and sinful person who does not attain to what they were created to be (150-152; cf. Davids, 98; Moo, 84-85). Vlachos notes that verse 24 replaces the phrase with the simple reflexive “themselves,” and so suggests that the phrase is best understood in the sense of their “natural face,” although he also thinks that Genesis 1:26-27 lies in the background (59-60).

In any case, these hearers “look at themselves” in the mirror (katenoēsen gar heauton). The “look” is not a simple or superficial glance, for the words used in verses 23 and 24 (both derived from katanoeō) mean to consider, contemplate, gaze or stare. Nevertheless, even though they carefully examine their appearance in the mirror as they comb their hair or apply their make-up, “on going away” (kai apelēluthen), they “immediately forget what they were like” (kai eutheōs epelatheto hopoios ēn). Hopoios is literally, “what kind or sort of,” and so suggests that the person who only hears the word and does not do it forgets what sort of person they are. That is, the study of their own appearance in the mirror is only temporary, having no lasting effect in the actual activity of the person as they go about their business for the day. As Davids notes, “it is useless” (98). The point James makes is that the temporary nature of one’s study of oneself in the mirror lacks any real or lasting effect.

Roger Olson on Authenic Christianity

Culture,

OlsonRoger has posted a good little list on his blog about what constitutes authentic Christianity. The first item on the list is negative: that is, it stands as evidence against authentic Christianity…

The very first thing I look at is how much the church reflects the culture around it. I don’t mean in its facilities; I mean in its ethos. In America that means: To what extent does the church reflect consumerism, materialism, competition to “get ahead” of others, “success in life” as defining status, tolerance and self-esteem as goals, and “American exceptionalism?”

Another item on his list is certainly challenging:
True community manifested by sharing lives and property is another mark of corporate Christian authenticity. By “sharing property” I don’t mean communalism or collectivism but the practice of taking care of each other, hospitality, holding loosely to “personal property” so as to meet the genuine needs of others in the church.
What do you make of his list?

The Promise and Peril of Theology

Theology,
Milan-Cathedral
Milan Cathedral

Of all disciplines theology is the fairest, the one that moves the head and heart most fully, the one that comes closest to human reality, the one that gives the clearest perspective on the truth which every disciple seeks. It is a landscape like those of Umbria and Tuscany with views which are distant and yet clear, a work of art which is as well planned and as bizarre as the cathedrals of Cologne or Milan … But of all disciplines theology is also the most difficult and the most dangerous, the one in which a man is most likely to end in despair, or – and this is almost worse – in arrogance. Theology can float off into thin air or turn to stone, and worst of all it can become a caricature of itself.

Karl Barth, cited in Busch, Karl Barth, 244.

Scripture on Sunday – James 1:22

Scripture, , ,

Saint_James_the_JustJames 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

James continues his instruction from the previous verse where he exhorted his listeners to “receive with meekness the implanted word.” Not only is his community to open themselves up to the word of God, but they are to be careful to “do” the word.

This is an idea with a long history in the Jewish tradition. When Israel came out of Egypt they were thirsty in the wilderness after days without water. When they came to the spring of Marah, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. In desperation Moses cried out to the Lord who showed him a log or a tree which Moses threw into the spring with the result that “the water became sweet” (Exodus 15:22-25a).

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer” (vv. 25b-26).

In this story the Lord uses the Israelites’ thirst and experience at Marah as an object lesson that they should listen to and obey God’s voice. The following statement has a doubled emphasis on listening and doing, giving ear and keeping all the Lord’s commandments, together with the promise that such faithfulness will result in divine blessing. This pattern of doing God’s words is repeated in the covenant ceremony in Exodus 19:4-8 and 24:1-8, and in the descriptions of covenant blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15 (see also: Deuteronomy 29:29; 31:12; Joshua 1:7-8; 23:6; 2 Kings 17:34, 37; cf. Romans 2:13: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”). Scot McKnight (147-148) suggests that since Torah and “do” (‘asah) appear together so often in the Hebrew Bible, we ought to see in James’ instruction a distinctively Christian form of Torah observance.

More directly, the call to do the word echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:21-27 and Luke 6:46-49 (see also Luke 11:27-28; John 8:31-32). Jesus’ parable of the builder distinguishes between those who simply hear his words without doing them, and those who hear and do his words. The difference between the builders is only finally observed when the storm arises and the one who has done what Jesus says stands firm.

Thus James instructs his community to “Be doers of the word and not merely hearers” (Ginesthe de poiētai logou kai mē monon akroatai). Although most English versions translate the particle de as “but,” it may be better to read it as “and,” thus emphasising the continuation of thought of this verse with what James has just said in verse 21 about receiving the word. The imperative ginesthe may be understood in the sense of “become” doers or “continue being” doers of the word. If James’ exhortation in verses 19-21 is directed to a divided community riven with strife and malice, it may be better to read the first sense. Poiētai usually means to make, construct or compose something, but here is likely a Semitism based in the tradition of “doing the Law” (so Vlachos, 58).

What, precisely, does it mean to “do the word”? Initially it simply means to enact it, apply it and obey what it says. This is more easily understood when a direct command is in view. Much of Scripture, however, does not take the form of command, and so a broader interpretation of “do” is appropriate. The community of God’s people is to inculcate the vision and ethos of Scripture, obey the specific commands of Scripture, embody the values of Scripture, and take its place in the ongoing narrative of Scripture.

It may be, however, that James has an even sharper perspective. Verse 18 indicates that the community has been brought forth by the “word of truth,” that is, the gospel, and it may be that James intends that his hearers be doers of this word specifically. Davids suggests that it was a simple transition in the early church from thinking in terms of “doing the Law” to “doing the Word,” especially when Jesus’ teaching was understood as a new kind of law. Thus for Davids, James is calling the community to obey the gospel, which primarily has to do with Jesus’ ethical teaching (96; cf. Matthew 7:24 “the one who hears these words of mine”).

Those who merely hear the word without doing it “deceive themselves” (paralogizomenoi heautous): their faith is not authentic, but pretense, or at least, as yet immature and not fully formed. Such people may believe they are Christians, and so part of the eschatological community of God’s people, but in James’ view, they are mistaken, or more strongly, self-deceived. They are presuming on God. That the self-deception has to do with eschatological salvation seems likely given the call to repentance in verse 21. They have not actually received the saving word or carried repentance through to its conclusion. They are like Jesus’ builder who builds on the sand and so whose house collapses when the storm of judgement is unleashed. For James, this teaching must be taken with utmost seriousness: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

In this text, then, we have a foreshadowing of the theme that James will develop more fully in 2:14-26, that is, faith without works is dead. James has already acknowledged that his listeners have been “born again” through the gospel, but also allows no place for complacence or presumption. True faith is active, issuing in a life of persevering obedience to the will of God, resulting in the realisation of “the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” (v. 12).

Calvin’s “True and Sound Wisdom”

Theology,

Calvin holding InstitutesNearly all the wisdom we possess,
that is to say, true and sound wisdom,
consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

So begins Calvin’s monumental Institutes of the Christian Religion. In tonight’s class we have our first seminar based on the opening chapters of Book 1. By the end of the semester we will have worked our way through Book 1 and into the first chapter or two of Book 2 (except for the chapter on the Trinity: we will keep that for next semester so the students have something to look forward to!).

I wonder how this cohort of students will respond to the great Swiss Reformer? In the past, I have had some students appreciate him, some despise him, some find him difficult to read and comprehend, and some argue that they should not have even to read him.

I have encouraged to class to engage him rigorously, carefully and with due respect. I consider the Institutes to be the most important Protestant theology yet penned, because it gathered and systematised the thought of the early Reformation in its most complete and exalted form, and set a pattern for theological reflection and exposition that continues until this day. That does not mean, of course, that we must adhere to all of his positions. We are free to question his proposals, dispute with him, even reject him if we believe we have sufficient grounds. The problem too often, however, is that we think we can dismiss Calvin before we have read him, listened to him, heard him, understood him. In such cases our rejection says much more about us than it does about him and his work.

Back to Calvin’s opening words: what does he mean? I think I am still learning the depths of this seemingly simple statement. For Calvin, we live and move and have our being in God (cf. Acts 17:28). Every moment of our existence is lived in the immediate presence and under the immediate rule of this divine sovereign. If this is the case, then “true and sound wisdom” is learning to acknowledge and accept this as the reality of our existence and to live in its light. That is, we are learning to be God’s creatures, and so to acknowledge God as Creator, Ruler, Sustainer and God. We are learning to take our place under his reign, and so find ourselves lifted up and freed.

This knowledge becomes the “law of our creation.” In knowing God we come to know ourselves, our place in the cosmos, the fundamental principle of our life, the goal and telos of our existence. So thus, we might begin to gain wisdom. The great tragedy, of course, is that this is precisely what we refuse to do.

Besides, if all men are born and live to the end that they may know God, and yet if knowledge of God is unstable and fleeting unless it progresses to this degree, it is clear that all those who do not direct every thought and action of their lives to this goal degenerate from the law of their creation (I.iii.3).

Finally, it is also worth noting that Calvin’s goal is wisdom – sapientia – rather than abstract knowledge. He is not interested in a philosophical or speculative knowledge that seeks to understand all mysteries but does not issue in a life of love and reverence towards God.

Driving Music

Culture
Jimmy Fallon gave a credible performance of "Old Man" as and with Neil Young.
Jimmy Fallon gave a credible performance of “Old Man” as and with Neil Young.

See the clip here

Yesterday and today I was in the car for between seven and eight hours, driving down to Cranbrook and back. I was there to participate with the pastors and leaders of our churches in the Great Southern and had a really nice time with them. Our topic was “Spiritual Formation as the Task of the Church.” Perhaps I will blog about it sometime. These pastors and leaders are doing a wonderful and important job in their small town churches.

At times on a long drive I have listened to audio books or even lectures. This time, though, I followed my usual practice of choosing some music. My choice always depends on the kind of mood I am in. This time, I think I was in a folky kind of mood. This is what I chose:

1. The Essential Simon & Garfunkel – Probably not the best for long distance driving, but some great classics here, as well as some very mellow folk-poetry. Favourite track: I am a Rock.

2. George Harrison, Let it Roll – a posthumous collection of his post-Beatles work, except for three live renditions of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun, and my favourite track, Something. Shame it didn’t have a few of his Wilbury contributions.

3. Les Miserables, The Original London Cast – It still grabs me everytime. This most powerful of musicals is an artistic rendition of divine grace embodied. I think that is what Hugo intended, and the songwriters have done his literary masterpiece justice with this musical-dramatic masterpiece. Favourite track: sorry, can’t choose just one; I Dreamed a Dream and Bring Him Home for pathos and beauty, and One Day More for dramatic and creative mastery.

4. Bob Dylan, Tempest – From the beautiful voices of the London cast to Dylan, who can’t sing to save his life, and never could. Now, after five decades of abusing his screech, it’s worse than ever, but I still love his work. This 2012 album continued his late-career renaissance, and includes his 14-minute tribute to the loss of the Titanic, and a poignant tribute to John Lennon. Favourite track: Tempest, with Duquesne Whistle a close second.

5. Neil Young, Harvest – The 1972 classic blues-rock album bristles with amazing tracks. My favourite? Why choose just one? Today is was probably Heart of God, but could just as easily have been Alabama or Out on the Weekend or Harvest or Old Man or…

6. And as I made it back to the city – Creedence Clearwater Revival, 25th Anniversary Collection – only got to about track 10 before I made it home, but more blues-rock, this time more upbeat. Favourite track: Someday Never Comes.

Next time I have a long drive on my own, I am thinking I might pull out Rolling Stone’s Top Ten Albums of all time. Or maybe better, my own Top Ten… I wonder what would be on that list? Beggars Banquet, IV (Led Zepellin), Beatles for Sale (Rubber Soul? Hard call, this one; just about everyone says Sgt Pepper is the greatest album of all time; … nah), Highway 61 Revisited (or Blood on the Tracks?), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Hotel California, Tapestry, Songs in the Key of Life?

What would be on your list?

 

Scripture on Sunday – James 1:21

Scripture, , , ,

Saint_James_the_JustJames 1:21
Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

After my conversion, the church I attended used the King James Version of the Bible and this became one of my favourite verses. The quaint terminology, rhythmic cadence, and almost absurd weightiness of the language made it memorable: “Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” It still makes me smile. Nonetheless, the language needs updating, and even the NRSV might be clearer; the NIV reads simply, “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent…”

The commentators are divided on whether this verse better belongs with verses 19-20 (e.g. Davids and McKnight) or with verses 22-25 (e.g. Moo and Vlachos). This may indicate that it is better not to divide the passage here, but to consider verses 19-27 as one overarching unit with several subsections. James’ use of “my (beloved) brothers and sisters” in verses 19 and 2:1 may be the best marker of what he intended, given he often uses this phrase to introduce a new section (cf. 1:2, 16, 19; 2:1, 2:14, 3:1, 3:10b(?), etc). There are certainly connections both with the previous section, and with that to come. The “implanted word” (Logos) recalls the “word of truth” in verse 18, as well as foreshadowing the instruction in verse 22 to be “doers of the word.” The exhortation to “receive with meekness” may echo the command to be “quick to hear” in verse 19, and several commentators suggest that the evil (kakias) spoken of in this verse is best understood in terms of malice, and so parallel to the anger of verses 19-20 (see, for example, Vlachos, 56; McKnight, 142).

James’ first instruction is not a grammatical imperative although it functions like one. “Therefore, rid yourselves” (dio apothemenoi) does suggest that this instruction is predicated upon what has come earlier, probably in verses 19-20, but also reaching back to verse 18. The participle apothemenoi literally means to “put away” or “lay aside,” and is often used in the sense of removing one’s clothing (cf. Acts 7:58). The image is common in New Testament exhortations to lay aside pre-Christian patterns of behaviour. Thus, in Romans 13:12 Paul calls on the church to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.” This pattern of “putting off and putting on” is found also in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians, the believers are to put of the old self and put on the new self (4:22-24; cf. v. 25), while in Colossians they must put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk, and put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love (3:8-14). The author to the letter of Hebrews exhorts his readers to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” so that they may be freed to run the race set before them (12:1). Finally, Peter also instructs his hearers to “put away” all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, and to hunger for the word of God that they may grow up into salvation (2:1-2). All these texts show that this was a common theme and metaphor in early Christian teaching.

James calls upon his readers to rid themselves of “all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness” (pasan rhyparian kai perisseian kakias). Rhyparian continues the clothing metaphor, its cognate being used for the shabby clothing of the poor in 2:2. The adjectival form is also used in Zechariah 3:3-4:

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ And to him he said, ‘See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you in festal apparel.’

It is impossible to know whether this text stands behind the common New Testament usage, but its context is suggestive. Joshua the high priest must take off his filthy clothes and be clothed with “festal apparel” (“pure vestments” [ESV]) in order to stand before the Angel of the Lord. The change of clothing is a symbol of his cleansing from sin, and so the change of status given him. The metaphoric use of the term also indicates that the concern of the writer is with moral filthiness. The “rank growth of wickedness” (perisseian kakias) is literally, “abundance of evil,” although as already noted, it may be better to understand kakias as malice (cf. vv. 19-20; 1 Peter 2:1). This translation would suggest that James’ admonition in verses 19-20 were not simply general advice, but specific instruction directed toward disunity and anger in his community. The NRSV correctly picks up the “middle voice” of the participle: “rid yourselves,” which indicates the believer’s responsibility for a deliberate and decisive repudiation of all these things.

Repentance in the New Testament, however, is more than simply repudiation. Not only must the believer turn from that which is evil; they must also turn toward and embrace that which is good. Thus the second part of the verse—“and receive with meekness the implanted word” (en praútēti dexasthe ton emphyton logon)—provides this balance in James’ teaching. Praútēs (meekness, gentleness or humility) stands in contrast to the anger and refusal to listen of verses 19-20. Instead of an aggressive or demanding disposition, James’ hearers must adopt the meekness that characterised Jesus (Matthew 11:29) and so “receive with meekness” the implanted word. Vlachos (57) suggests that the aorist imperative for “receive” (dexasthe) be interpreted in parallel to apothemenoi as a “true middle” with the sense of “open yourselves up to” the word of God, and so once more affirming the believer’s responsibility. The imperative calls the community to a humble listening to and hearing of the word of God (“be quick to hear!”), which must be welcomed and embraced if it is to work powerfully in one’s life. That this word must be “received” and is also “implanted” in us, shows that it is a work of grace to which we are called to respond, one of the good and perfect gifts which is from above (v.17), and for which we are allowed to pray (v. 5).

How is this word implanted? That it must be received suggests that it comes from without, most likely through the preaching and teaching ministries of the church. In verse 18 James showed us that our “new birth” was occasioned “by the word of truth,” which as we noted then, is an expression synonymous in the New Testament with the gospel. James says more: this word “has the power to save your souls” (ton dunamenon sōsai tas psychas humōn). Believers are to “open themselves up to” this word, maintain a continual openness toward it, so that its power might be continually at work within them. Although we are already born again or brought forth by the word of truth (v. 18), we are still awaiting the completion of our salvation, which in James refers to deliverance from the eschatological judgement which is yet to come. The same word by which we were brought to new birth is the same word by which we grow and by which we finally will be delivered. When James says that our soul will be saved, he likely is referring to our whole person, and not simply to some immaterial aspect of our being.

This verse, then, is a call to repentance—a life of continual repentance, which includes a decisive turning away from all the kinds of evil that characterised our pre-Christian life, and a humble, voluntary openness and submission to God through his word. This is not to be understood as a dour or joyless life, but as a life lived in accordance with God’s good and perfect purpose, a life, James will go on to explain, of liberty, generosity and moral integrity.

Karl Barth Special on Logos

Theology,

 

 

life-and-select-works-of-karl-barthI already have all of these in real books, but it is a very good introductory special for those who want or like digital versions. There are selections from across the decades of Barth’s career, from the early 1920s through to a few final pieces from shortly before his death in 1968. Some of them are major works – The Münster Ethics (1928), Barth’s Gifford lectures The Knowledge of God and the Service of God (1937-1938), and Theology and Church, a collection of essays from 1920-1928. Others are occasional pieces, including lecture series, sermons, short theological pieces, and Barth’s tribute to Mozart, with whom he carried on a life-long love affair. Also included in the set is the massive biography by his friend and student Eberhard Busch, which I have reviewed in three posts under the title of Karl Barth, A Remarkable Life.

 

The books are available from Logos.

Scripture on Sunday – James 1:20

Scripture,

Saint_James_the_JustJames 1:20
… for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

My treatment of verses 19-20 argued that James’ concern is primarily spiritual, that he is issuing once more a call to humble submission before God in the midst of trials. More needs to be said, however, lest we miss James’ evident concern with the state and conduct of the community to which he is writing. Even if our anger is directed toward God, often the more immediate object of our anger are those persons whom we believe are responsible for our hardship. Behind the immediate object of our anger stands God, the ultimate object of our anger. These two objects of anger are closely related. The angry person inevitably upsets the community, introducing dispute, conflict, judgement and jealousy, all of which are contrary to the righteousness of God. The story of Cain in Genesis 4:1-8 illustrates the dual nature of anger. Cain burned with fury against God but could reach only Abel. His brother then became the immediate object of his wrath, issuing ultimately in violence and murder. In the story God warns Cain saying, “Why are you angry? … Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Examination of the broader context of James indicates that perhaps within the community itself, some members were cursing others (3:9-10), that there were quarrels, fights and disputes among them (4:1), with some speaking evil of and judging others (4:11-12). McKnight (135-139) may be correct in his assertion that this is the primary issue at stake in the community, with some of the poorer and unjustly treated members of the community seeking to bring about justice for their own cause by striking out in anger against the rich who oppress them. For McKnight, this strife consisted at the very least in verbal assaults, but very possibly also led to physical violence between some of the members. That it may also have led to murder in the community (137-138), is to take James 4:2 too literally.

Many texts in the Hebrew wisdom tradition draw attention to the need for great carefulness with respect to speech (see, for example, Proverbs 12:13-14a, 17-19; 13:3; 18:21; cf. especially Sirach 5:11: “Be quick to hear but deliberate in answering”). The same is true with respect to anger (Proverbs 14:29; 16:32; 19:11; 22:24-25; Ecclesiastes 7:9). Some texts draw the two themes together:

Proverbs 15:1           
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Thus James’ admonition has ample precedent in the Old Testament. It is also the case that he would have learned the same lesson from Jesus. For example, Jesus’ teaching on the righteousness which surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees clearly warns his followers concerning the very real dangers of angry speech (Matthew 5:20-26). Human anger does not produce the kind of righteous character, behaviour or community that God desires. Some of James’ community may indeed be crying out for justice against those who mistreat them, but the way of anger, insult and violence will not establish divine righteousness (cf. James 3:18).

 

The Main Thing

Uncategorized

the-main-thing__mediumFritz Barth died on February 25, 1912. Karl Barth’s father, himself a theology professor, was only fifty-five. Among his last words were:

The main thing is not scholarship, nor learning, nor criticism, but to love the Lord Jesus. We need a living relationship with God, and we must ask the Lord for that.

(Busch, Karl Barth, 68)