From the Catholic Epistles: Bible Studies

By William Flewelling

The Bible studies I chose to do in answer to the request of my first congregation out of seminary sought to present a serious, somewhat scholarly approach to the interested among my parishioners. In every case, I took a book to study, assuming that it was written to be read from the beginning, and to make sense to the reader in that format. I was most interested in finding what the author or compiler or editor, as the case may be, sought to convey. I have found the studies of value to me personally and felt that they were generally well received as I led them. Revisiting these studies now finds them again of value to me. I hope they prove to be so for you as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504954945

William Flewelling

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois. Led by a request from Mildred Corwin of Manua OH when I arrived there in 1976, I long developed and led a series of bible studies there and in LaPorte IN and New Martinsville WV. These studies proved to be very feeding to me in my pastoral work and won a certain degree of following in my congregations. My first study was on 1 Peter, chosen because I knew almost nothing about the book. I now live quietly in retirement with my wife of 54 years, a pair of dogs and several cats.

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Contents

Foreword

Notes On The Epistle Of James

James 1:1-18

James 1:19-27

James 2:1-13

James 2:14-26

James 3:1-12

James 3:13 – 4:12

James 4:13 – 5:6

James 5:7-20

Interrelatedness In The Argument Of James 1:19-27 And 2:14-26

Notes On The First Epistle Of Peter

1 Peter 1:1-2

1 Peter 1:3-12

1 Peter 1:13-25

1 Peter 2:1-10

1 Peter 2:11-12

1 Peter 2:13-17

1 Peter 2:18-25

1 Peter 3:1-7

1 Peter 3:8-12

1 Peter 3:13-17

1 Peter 3:18-22

1 Peter 4:1-6

1 Peter 4:7-11

1 Peter 4:12-19

1 Peter 5:1-5

1 Peter 5: 6-11

1 Peter 5:12-14

The Church in 1 Peter: The Vocation of Suffering

Notes On The Epistles Of John [1987]

1 John 1:1-4

1 John 1:5 – 2:2

1 John 2:3-11

1 John 2:12-17

1 John 2:18-27

1 John 2:28 – 3:10

1 John 3:11-24

1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:7 – 5:4a

1 John 5:4b-12

1 John 5:13-21

2 John

3 John

Notes on the Letters of John [2009]

1 John 1:1-4

1 John 1:5 – 2:2

1 John 2:3-11

1 John 2:12-17

1 John 2:18-27

1 John 2:28 – 3:10

1 John 3:11-24

1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:7 – 5:4a

1 John 5:4b-12

1 John 5:13-21

2 John

3 John

About the Author

Foreword

When I began my ministry at Hilltop Christian Church in Mantua Ohio in June of 1976, Mildred Corwin asked me if I led Bible Studies. I replied that I would if I could do it my way. And she agreed. Over the Summer, I thought about what I might do and which Book of the Bible I might take up. I decided on 1 Peter because I knew almost nothing about it. I did have some resources on hand – a handful of commentaries plus enough resources to allow me to muster through the Greek text, though with some difficulty. That Bible Study on 1 Peter generated a head of steam that led to a sequence of similar efforts during the time I was in Mantua and then again through much of the time I was in LaPorte, Indiana, from February 1981.

Among those earliest Bible Studies, done in Mantua and continuing to influence my thought 40 years later, I tended to come up with an academic-style paper on some of the results of the studies. I include two of those here, following the 1980 Bible Study on James and the 1976 study on 1 Peter.

After a lapse of several years, I took up a modified approach to doing Bible Studies in New Martinsville, West Virginia in the late 1990s. In this latter case as in the former, I began with my own effort at translation followed by a discussion of what I had found in the process.

The 1987 study on the Epistles of John may never have been presented. The group had fizzled out after several years, but for a while I continued to do up the studies for my own benefit. I believe this study was among those. So this may be its first public appearance.

In the fall of 2008, I noticed that the Epistles of John were appearing in the lectionary that next Eastertide. Being retired by then, I wondered out loud in the hearing of the pastor of the Church I was attending about some sort of study on those letters leading up to that occurrence. Maggie Sebastian, the pastor, quickly agreed. I prepared a new series on the Johannine Epistles and then led a Sunday School class through it in 13 weeks. It will appear to the reader that the questions being met this second time around are slightly different than those of the 1987 study, yielding a different though familiar course through the consideration of the Johannine Epistles. This second run on the Johannine Epistles is included as the last element in this collection of studies I have done, covering all the Catholic Epistles except 2 Peter and Jude.

In the middle years of the naughties of the twenty first century, my daughter Molly Carlson was working for Church Extension, a part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Her work there concerned new church starts and she had a contact from Hilltop Christian Church in Mantua, Ohio. She remembers that Church, being just eight years old, a second grader, when we left. In her conversation with the pastor at Hilltop, it came out that she knew the congregation and gave the name-connection. She reported to me later that the pastor mentioned that a short time before some were remembering the Bible Studies they had while I was there. That being about 25 years later, I was impressed that they were remembered enough to be mentioned in a Church setting, in the hearing of their then-current Pastor.

Important to me, I hope these studies also prove of some value to you, and that you enjoy them.

William Flewelling

Notes On The Epistle Of James

***

Bibliographic References:

Dibelius/Greeven:

Dibelius, Martin; revised by Heinrich Greeven, translated by Michael A. Williams: A Commentary On The Epistle Of James, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1976.

Notes on James 1:1-18 for 5 February 1980

Translating:

1:1         James, of God and of Lord Jesus Christ, a slave:

         to the twelve tribes in the diaspora:

         Greeting.

The only thing we know about the author of this letter is that he is called [or called himself, in the case of a letter written under an assumed name] James. James can claim to have authority for teaching, although he never claims or calls upon his authority directly [since this is a letter addressed generally and not to a crisis as Paul so often writes]; it is clear that the name of James needed no clarification in the early Church. Dibelius/Greeven argue that only James, ‘the brother of the Lord’, who led for some years the Church in Jerusalem [with Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome the major centers of Church activity and leadership before the rise of Islam]. At least his [or similar] authority was borrowed for the teachings to come under the head of these greetings.

Strangely, the only thing we know about the author is that he calls himself a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul also uses this, as do others [eg. Rom.1:1, Phil.1:1, Titus 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1]. He does not call himself apostle, for example. He remains quite general. I would take it as identifying the service to which James is devoted, the power which he interpreted, which was/is his authority.

The recipients are the twelve tribes: a problem – who are they? Is the letter, as some have said, a modestly Christianized tract to the Jews? Have the Christians, understanding themselves as ‘heirs’ [see Paul] and as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem taken up their current status as that of dispersed people, away from their heavenly homeland? Dibelius/Greeven favor the latter. I am inclining toward agreement.

1:2-8

1:2         Regard it as all joy, my brethren [/brothers]

         whenever you are tried by all kinds of trials,

3         knowing that the testing of your faith produces

                  steadfastness.

4         Now, let the steadfastness have full work

         in order that you might be perfect and

         whole/sound/complete, lacking nothing.

5         If someone of you lacks wisdom,

         let him ask of God, who gives to all generously

         and does not reproach,

         and it will be given to him.

6         Let him ask in faith,

         hesitating not at all,

         for the hesitating one is like the rough seas,

         driven by the wind and tossed about.

7-8         Let not such a person, a double-minded man,

         unstable in all his ways, suppose that he might

         receive anything from the Lord.

Greetings [charein] is met with joy [chara], set firmly in the crucible of testing, of trying, of assaying. It is supposed that such events are acting upon the receivers of the letter, upon ‘the twelve tribes of the diaspora,’ however we may wish to understand that term: they – or we, if you like – are set in a passional mode, as receivers of the surrounding world. The basic assumption of James seems to be that the influences of the external world, outside the Church/community, even locally, that place where the pinch of human prejudice and inertia of thinking is strictest, try, test, assay the Christian. Can we properly assume that we have a fundamentally different environment? Or has the Spirit of the Living God enlivened all things in Christ, so that indifference and lowered haughtiness do not conflict, inflicting their presence as a trial of faith?

The joy of being tested thrusts us forward to steadfastness [used in 1:3, 4 and – of Job – 5:11], or endurance. The action desired in the long run is one of continuity and strength; stick-to-it-iveness might be a word to describe the fruit of trial. The fruit does more than just sit there: it works. The author calls us into an attitude in which we live passionately in order to produce steadfastness in ourselves: faith tested is steadfast. Steadfastness working full/perfectly [teleios] for the purpose of bringing the reader to wholeness/perfection [teleios] which lacks nothing; there is to become a finishedness. One must wonder at the scale of such a dream, such a vision of salvation!

The text turns us to the sort of virtue which is to be considered: wisdom. If this is lacking, call on God. The verb in question, leipo, is the same as in v.4, linking the lack or falling short ‘in nothing’ to ‘wisdom’ in particular.

Notice the flow:         joy is in trial of faith

                           testing of faith yields steadfastness

                           steadfastness is given full work

                           toward perfection, lacking in nothing

                           if lacking in wisdom – ask God.

Thus far, we are unraveling the content of joy: joy comes through trial, works through steadfastness toward perfection, finding the lack by asking God – and the specific lack is wisdom. Wisdom, in the biblical sense, is a divine attribute, to be given as grace.

Wisdom is given of God to supply a lack which is overcome in the completeness wrought by steadfastness, the faithful fruit of trial. At least within the context of wisdom, God is seen as generous and not one to reproach the seeker; God is gracious and graciously gives when asked. We are active in asking and passive in suffering the passional testing/trial of faith. The double sidedness of this comes suddenly upon us. And the theme of asking continues as being in faith – that which by testing yields steadfastness. ‘In Faith’ is contrasted with ‘hesitating’; although the specifics of ‘in faith’ are not strung out for us, we may take a sort of inverted image of ‘hesitating one’ to hint out direction. [This is an approximation since it is mirrored darkly.] Indeed, hesitation is linked to rough seas, a boat tossed about, driven randomly and out of control by the wind. The hesitating person is called double minded [dipsychos: of divided loyalty, perhaps of ‘double’ soul!] and hence unstable, with no solid ground or principle to found his person, his action, his hope. From such a multi-mindedness, no real asking is possible; there is a single-mindedness to faith which founds itself upon our Rock, our God.

1:9-11

9         Let the humble brother boast in his height

10         and the rich in his humbling

         for as a flower of grass, he will pass away/disappear.

11         For the sun rises with scorching heat

         and it dries up the grass

         and its flower falls away

         and the beauty of its countenance/face/appearance perishes.

         Thus the rich in his pursuits will wither away.

James opens up a contrast, using a brief chiasm to establish centrally in this short passage: humble – height::rich – humbling. High standing is the provenance of the humble, the very ones who see not the grandeur of his unassuming humility. Humbling is the provenance of the rich, the successful, the well-to-do whose pursuits are like a flower, a beauty spread upon the countenance of their lives; humbling dries up the grass, withers the flower, perishes the beauty, ends the pursuits as by the scorching sun of the Palestinian summer. [In Palestine itself, the image to accompany the sun would be the East Wind, hot and dry off the desert, drying terribly the fullness of the flesh – and the flower of the field.]

The theme here is not ethical, purely: ethics id derived from eschatology in which salvation in its finality is flowering. [For now, we are in a ‘here already but not yet’ situation: sort of like a mother-to-be who is near term and can easily talk of the child as if s/he were present, even though the babe has not yet arrived. In a sense, the faith-filled are pregnant with the fullness of time, the dawning of salvation; delivery comes at the Lord’s good and appointed time. Quoting J. Gerald Janzen in a paper Eschatological Symbol and Existence: Habakkuk 2:2-4: Eschatological existence is existence in time, toward an appointed time. It is such for God as well as for the people of God. Faithfulness is the moral and spiritual character of such existence, and patience is its exercise. … Eschatological existence is too much for the sluggard, whose fatal flaw lies not in laziness nor in fear, but in the weakness and the attenuated reach of the temporal imagination. But the temporal imagination is the symbolic imagination. For it is to the symbolic imagination that the vision of salvation is addressed – that vision whose rhetorical form and dynamic itself abides in and partakes of the eschatological reality which it annunciates.] And, eschatologically, we find the expected reversal of the pious poor, the humble who do not realize they are humble because they never worried about a misplaced pride, but found their loving themselves being done for the sake of God, before whose holiness they bow. The major difficulty with this thrust, so vital to Christianity, is its reversal of modes of thought from the ethical detail to the eschatological landscape – with a great scope. In a way, it is forest and trees problem. One can only bow to grace as faith opens broad perspectives. For myself, Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest for the Historical Jesus served to blast away the conventionality of the goodiness of tame Christendom in order to show forth the goodness of the Christ’s Faith. [However, it was not in full agreement, but through the power of idea to open the imagination, finally, at the age of 27.]

1:12-18

12         Blessed man is he who undergoes trial

         for, becoming approved/genuine, he will receive

                  the crown of life

         which he* promised to those loving Him.

13         Let no one being tested say

         ‘I am being tested by (i.e., from) God’

         for God is unable-to-be-tempted of evil’

         He Himself tests no one.

14         Now, each is tested by means of his own desire,

         being lured away and enticed.

15         Then, the becoming-pregnant desire gives birth to Sin;

         the Sin, being full grown, breeds Death.

16         Be not deceived, my beloved brethren/brothers

17         every good given and every whole/sound/complete gift

                  is from above,

         coming down from the Father of lights

         in the presence of whom there is no variation

                  nor turning shadows.

18         Willingly, he bred us/gave birth to us by word of Truth,

         that we might be a certain first fruit of His creatures.

*Some MSS read ‘the Lord promised;’ some others read ‘God promised.’ The best guess from the data is he, unspecified but obviously, from context, God.

Trial returns to us. Remember: trial of faith was linked above to joy. Now it is Blessedness which comes by trial. The patterns are:

joy:         trial – steadfastness – perfection

blessedness:         trial – approval [becoming genuine] – crown of life given.

The parallels are too obvious to be missed in the eschatological fervor of the teacher writing the letter. They continue in their reference to God: first as one generous and not reproachful; now as one giving according to promise to those who love him [i.e., are single minded, steadfast and not double minded, tossed about wildly.]

Trial and testing come not from God; there is another element which, in James’ thought, arises to grant trial: The Enemy [unnamed in that mode]. Here, that Enemy is identified as epithumia – i.e., desire, longing – particularly sexual lust although it can bear positive connotations in the New Testament [eg., Mark 4:19; Revelation 18:14; Philippians 1:23; Luke 22:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:17]. Epithumia or desire lures away, entices: that is the trial of the sort James envisions. Epithumia, when indulged, becomes pregnant and gives birth to Sin which in turns grows up to breed Death. This is a negative thrust in living, according to the view of James. It is definitely shown in this brief to be counter-productive of the religious core which peeks at us from the heart of fire – for so it seems to be from our opening glimpse.

Countering deception – obviously deception of desire which seduces us into producing Sin which breeds Death – stands God; it comes as gift from above [anothen: the pun on this word, by the way, is that it also means ‘again’, a fact which John uses in the words of Jesus in the 3rd Chapter of his Gospel]. God, for James, has been shown to be:

generous and not reproachful to those who are

         single minded;

gives according to promise to those who love Him.

Now, God is the source of all good giving, of every whole/complete/sound gift. The whole … is teleios – the same as in v.4 where it deals with the product of steadfastness, a product which lacks in nothing, particularly not in wisdom. There is a striving toward the appointed fulfillment. Notice again the active and passional sides of the activity of salvation/wholeness: these are the themes of eschatological existence – the shared power of action and the shared power of passion, running or acting toward God’s appointed moment and waiting, suffering the thrusts of this moment while pointing toward the fulfillment appointed. The powers stir in us.

God is the Father of Lights, not varying, not having turning shadows. The drive of God is permanent, set upon the fruitfulness of His creation. In James’ eyes, this is in steadfastness, shared and in firm concentration on that which is firm and not deceptive. God acts willfully, through the word of Truth [full of Christological suggestion] to bring to birth/breed for the purpose of First Fruits, a certain first fruit of/among His creatures. This is the positive thrust of the Christian Life.

James has been surprising in the beginning; I did not expect what I have found, probably because I have read too many other people’s opinions. Luther, for example, did not think much of James at all. Perhaps we can find Luther’s concerns – legitimate in themselves – recontexualized in this study.

Some thoughts for consideration:

1. Faith takes a very central place in this opening section, particularly in vv.3ff. For the sake of our study, if not beyond, how does James seem to be defining faith? [Remember, James is not Paul, nor does he address the same problems Paul addresses. Do not import Paul into James!]

2. Joy, blessedness are both linked with testing of faith, a trial which comes from within. What sort of spiritual force does James seek to lift up for our practice?

3. James [and much of the New Testament, really] has been interpreted from the perspective of ethics – what we should be doing to be good and saved [whatever various people mean by that: it is often not at all clear]. We have suggested that ethics is secondary, at least in this opening section. How does this sift the force of our coming to Faith and to Faithfulness?

4. What does James see God as being like? This is also very central to tonight’s section. We will have to wait to see how it progresses through the letter.

5. How do we balance passion and action in our living of the faith? What is it that molds it all?

6. How important is imagination to the grasping of life? and of salvation?

Notes on James 1:19-27 for 12 February 1980

Translating:

19         Know, my beloved brothers:

                  Let every person be quick/swift into the hearing,

                                             slow into the speaking,

                                                      slow into anger

20                  for anger of a man does not work for Righteousness

                                    of God.

21                  Therefore, putting away/stripping off all impurity

                                    and evil increase,

                           in humility receive/accept/welcome

                                             the implanted word,

                                    that having power to save your souls.

22         Become doers or the word and not only hearers,

                           deceiving themselves,

23                  because if anyone is a hearer of the word

                           and not a doer,

                  that one is like a man noticing

                           the face/countenance/appearance of his birth

                                    in a mirror.

24                  For he observes/considers himself

                                    and he leaves/goes away

                           and immediately he forgot of what sort

                                    he was.

25         Now, the one looking into perfect/complete/whole

                                    law,

                           [into] the one of liberty and remaining,

                           becoming one, not of hearing

                                    of forgetfulness

                                    but a doer of actions:

                           this one shall be blessed in his doing.

26         If anyone thinks [himself] to be religious,

                  not controlling his tongue

                  but deceiving his heart –

                  of such, the religiousness is futile.

27         A religion, innocent/pure and clean/unstained

                  before God and Father is this:

         to care for orphans and widows in their

                  afflictions/tribulations;

         to keep himself spotless/undefiled from/away from

                  the world.

Tonight’s text is marked by imperative. It opens with the imperative ‘Know’, and that sense of importance never leaves the passage, even in the causative clauses [because/for …]. In moral terms, this imperative reduces to ‘you better watch out … Santa Claus is coming to town!’; that is, when religion is seen the way it is often seen, particularly in the seemingly activity-and-goodness oriented interpretations of James, then moralism of a rather weak nature [its usual, natural state] and a week kneed rush to be founded on good deeds will follow, rather busily and tinselly and hollowly. Do not, however, think that I find ‘good works’ disparaged in James; rather the ‘works’ are brought into the workings of the religious scene.

The ending of last week’s text left us with a certain first fruits of his creatures – which is ourselves, brought to birth by the word of truth. Words are spoken and heard; the word of Truth is spoken actively by the Father of Lights: notice how the speaking gives birth to the first fruits. Recall also that Faith, without hesitation, a single-mindedness which brings blessedness thrust through the earlier text, pointing us to tonight’s Know. What is the force of knowledge in Faith? or is the connection to be found in joy [Faith tested – steadfastness – wholeness] and in blessedness [trial – become genuine – crown of life given]?

If we can take as the fundamental perspective that which we tried to outline last week, then the imaginative, responding faithfulness with God is the characteristic of the fire of James expressed herein. James, it would then seem, seeks to broaden perspectives within the workings out of faith. Could it be that he is writing in the aftermath of Paul [say 80-ish in the first century], and quite independent of the major Pauline thrust [as is likely: note also that the heirs of Paul were massively incapable of nurturing his fiery vision of the faith and faithful living], and that he takes the contracted, even atrophied vision of his own day and place and sought to stretch it in the warm passion of the faith as he, perchance, was grasped by it?

Know –know a bunch of things, but first know that hearing is fundamental, more fundamental than speaking or anger. Hearing is to be done swiftly, but speaking and anger are slow. The balance is Righteousness of God – a clearly Pauline echo from the past, an echo which is strangely weak to the context. It has been suggested that this is a formulaic echo from prior decades, an echo which has come to sound good but to lack punch. Perhaps the Know! command is one to stretch the relaxing vision of the Church; but then James has a long and firm reputation as a purely practical man with no real theology [I recall a similar verdict, from which we had to withdraw, given to 1 Peter] and we must hold off going against such a strong tradition.

Positively, we have quickness to hear and Righteousness of God. Negatively, we have speaking and anger; for positive results, they are assigned to the realm of slowness, of lethargy. Recall the negative double-mindedness and the positive steadfastness from last week. Are we beginning to find James to be one using stark contrasts to polarize the values of his hearers and stretch their hearts to the broad positives – positives which bear a markedly passional nature?

Negatives are stripped away, like soiled – stained and impure – clothing; these are impurity and evil increase. The positive is received/accepted/welcomed; this is ‘the implanted word, that having power to save your souls.’ Notice the word [logos] returns. Received words are heard. The word of truth begets first fruits for and from God. The implantation is received in humility: there can be no other way. Humility is the stance before God, a stance which underlies the full treatment, beginning from Faith in v.3, and the chiasmus in vv.9-10. Humility is the ground of receipt – as opposed to grasping.

Hearing is, of course, a passional activity: it is done to us. It is also an activity, something we do – as the gospel makes clear. That is precisely the rub: it is convenient to let hearing become mechanical and very, very passive so as to forestall inconvenient involvement with the fruits among His creature, ourselves. The straight-laced defense of mere hearing was [and is] strong, so that the complementary half of hearing [as opposed to mere hearing] is called in by name: doing. The interest is Positive Direction, Positive Movement.

Half-hearing – the passional half without the active – is called here just ‘hearing’ and complemented with doing. [Does Faith, as we shall find later, betray a stagnant state for James’ church – not as we saw suggested above – which is weakly passional without the active thrust which is its natural, complementary component?] This hearing is not in itself Positive Movement. Such a hearer sees/notices the face/countenance or appearance of his birth [genesis] in a mirror. Face/countenance or appearance [prosopos] is the same as the beautiful face of the flower about to whither in 1:11 – with which the rich being humbled are compared. That was precisely the point which hinted to us the eschatological, age-change-in-process nature of James’ work, setting ethics in a strongly subsidiary position to the imaginative force of salvation. [Note: there is a great deal of difference between moving toward salvation mechanically by good works and doing good works while living out the mystic aura of salvation-at-work.] The rich, it might seem, are shallow without the [unassuming and hence real] humility of the contrasting number [1:9]. Here, too, it is the face of his own birth [genesis – beginning] which is seen in a mirror [i.e., not directly]. Birth [a different word] is given by the Word of Truth – which is heard but not done: it is incomplete, seen as in a mirror as the image/reflection of the word of truth, not the word itself. [There is also the desire become pregnant, giving birth to Sin, which, full grown, breeds Death. What do we make of that close connection? We assume, of course, that James had some semblance of an idea as to why he was doing what he was doing in writing this letter.]

Notice what the hearing-and-not-doing-one does: he looks and leaves, and leaving, ‘immediately he forgot of what sort he was.’ What is missing but a foundation of some sort – any sort? Or does he simply look, shrug and retreat into more comfortable, more immediate [i.e., at hand, to be taken purely at face value, obviously valuing only the obvious and the conventionally pleasant] fantasies which may be sort of shared in an exchange of mirror glances? A glance, after all, is all that is needed when the depths are absent. What sort of person could ‘forget what sort he was’?

The contrast again turns from non- [hence negative] action or movement to positive action or movement. The law is heard, and when law is looked into and is perfect/complete/whole [teleios – there seems to be a sense of this being important: we saw it twice in 1:4, again in 1:17, here – and we will again in 3:2, connected with Positive Movement in a religious – and, derivatively, an ethical – sense], when it is the law of liberty/freedom and remaining [can one be at liberty without remaining and being kept?], then a man who looks and sees and becomes a doer of actions shall be blessed in his doings. First: doing is contrasted to ‘hearing of forgetfulness’. And forgetfulness is that drugged, dopey state of nascent nothingness where dreams are formless and nothing concrete is felt or thought; forgetfulness is unconscious, and lost. Second: we find blessed [makarios] again, having seen it before in 1:12, in the case of trial leading to becoming genuine and to the reception of the crown of life. Blessedness here is in doing; the second side of action [the complement of passion] is the rest of blessedness. Could it be that this trial in 1:12 [and in 1:2, for that matter] is the passion of action: the two molding together in a divine balance?

We have seen the pattern of: [1] hearing the implanted word; [2] becoming doers and not only hearers; and now [3] the nature of the religious person. First we had potential power to save; then we had blessedness in doing; now we move on in vv.26-27. The whole stands under the rubric: Know.

Again, we have the negative movement first: the tongue is not controlled [but see 1:19 – slow into speaking!]; the heart is being deceived [is this the ‘hearing of forgetfulness’ returning in a new guise?]; the religiousness is futile [he immediately forgot …].

The Positive Movement is set out strongly. Religion is the element to be considered [is this a building-up process, where hearing leads to fulfillment in doing, and the two together point toward fulfillment in the religious? – point, that is, so as to not bog down in the merely ethical building-up into a somewhat hollow salvation by our own hand – saved from God, perhaps?]. Religion is to be properly characterized by innocence/purity [katharos] and clean or unstained [amiantos] before God. These reflect [though not very much verbally] standard Old Testament approaches, particularly to the cult. But for James, religion is