WE SEE SO MANY INSTANCES these days of people saying they believe one thing but not acting in ways that support that belief or, worse, acting in ways that contradict that belief: public politicians talking about remorse but displaying little; private individuals making resolutions regarding what they eat, drink, and say and not following through; an all-time low in ethical behavior that can only be attributed to some kind of national moral “numbness” (to borrow a phrase from David Nystrom in the pages that follow). Belief and practice do not seem to go together in many people’s minds. And they should be seen as a pair.
That’s what makes James such an important letter, for it deals with precisely this problem. And it does so in a sophisticated way. James does not just say, “Practice what you preach,” although that is part of the message. He gives reasons for what he says, and he shows subtle connections between faith, action, wisdom, and what you do in church on Sunday morning that really help sort out the disconnection between Christian faith and Christian living to which our culture seems so susceptible.
Why are we so susceptible? Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death claims that television has created in our culture a low information-action ratio. People are accustomed to learning good ideas, but not acting on them. That is the nature of the way we receive our information through public media. Unfortunately, too many sermons have followed this mode—in the understandable interest of good communication. Since Americans learn this way, let’s teach and preach this way.
The book of James is a good antidote. It calls us to account for a high information-action ratio. As Nystrom expertly shows, James makes his argument using the following propositions:
(1) The Christian life is more than just intellectually assenting to some beliefs. It means acting in ways inspired by and consistent with those beliefs. It means developing a wise lifestyle that makes Christian practice more likely. And it means worshiping in ways that actually have a chance of being translated into action.
(2) There are observable pinch points where the disjunction between faith and practice most often shows up: in times of persecution and trial; whenever we open our mouths and speak with our tongue; in all of our ongoing relationships with other people; and in the perplexing matters that pertain to handling money.
(3) Clear benchmarks can be established that show us when we are doing it right.
Call them community busters. James lists at least three. (1) Our tongues can so easily reveal a discrepancy between faith and practice, particularly when we use it to talk about God’s love in ways that display little love to our fellow human beings. (2) We can talk about treating everyone equally; but when it comes to practice, we so often, even in the church, show favoritism to the rich over the poor. Money is as dangerous a commodity as the tongue, according to James. We easily become inconsistent between what we say we believe and what we do where financial gain is part of the equation. (3) Truth can be taught arrogantly or with humility—the same truth, mind you! Yet it becomes “more true” when taught with personal humility and a desire for peace, and “less true” when taught with an arrogance born of a desire to manipulate. True wisdom comes only when our attitudes and practices match up with the content of what we say.
James is the quintessential New Testament book for our day and age where we see Christianity unfairly caricatured as either moral legalism or pure ethics. James says that Christianity is both, but it is neither if both are not present. Read it and see why.
Terry C. Muck