September 18th, 2021

We continue on in the Epistle of James, and this week’s reading [3:13-4:10] closely follows the reading of the previous week. And we are nearing the end of this interesting epistle. What is the final message for those to whom the letter was originally written, to those who have been scattered ‘in the dispersion’ (James 1:1)?

Whenever you travel, there is usually an end to your travels. There is a word that comes up several times within the epistle that hints at an ending. It could be considered a completion, a perfection, a fulfillment. It is translated in a variety of ways, and it occurs in a variety of forms. Here are its eight occurrences—as a noun, verb, and an adjective—as well as its context (and the word itself will be in bold, and it will be translated in a similar way throughout the epistle, to help you find it more easily; and the translations themselves will also be somewhat literal):

1:4a     And let endurance have a complete work….

1:4b     …in order that you may be complete and entire, in nothing having lacked.

1:17     Every giving good and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no variation or shadow of turning.

1:25     But the one having looked into law, a complete one, that of freedom, and continuing; this one, not having become a hearer of forgetfulness, but on the contrary, a doer of work, this one blessed in his doing.

2:8       If indeed you complete a royal law, according to the writing, ‘You will love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.

2:22     You see that the faith worked with his works, and from the works that faith was completed.

3:2       For many we all stumble; if anyone stumbles not in a word, this a complete man, able to bridle also the whole body.

5:11     Behold, we esteem blessed the ones enduring; you heard of the endurance of Job; and you saw the completion of the Lord, that the Lord is full of compassion and pitying.

There is an interesting ‘coincidence’ that is somewhat hidden within this work, with the words with which this idea of ‘completion’ is connected. The word starts by being connected to endurance, as a result of enduring something or being patient. And the last occurrence also ends with mentioning endurance right before, the endurance of Job, but the word at this last occurrence is connected to Someone much more important.

The second occurrence speaks to the one who is reading or listening to the words of the text, that the person may be complete. And the second occurrence from the end speaks of a complete man as one who does not stumble in what he says.

The third occurrence is connected to gifts that come from above, from our heavenly Father. And the third occurrence from the end is referring to Abraham and the time of his testing by the Lord, a time when the Lord was significantly involved in his life and would have significant ramifications—when the Lord told him to sacrifice his son. In this situation, the faith and the works go together; it could be said that the faith is ‘concrete’ and finds its ending in the works.

The fourth occurrence of ‘complete’ is connected to the law. And there is a connection to the law in the fourth occurrence from the end.

With these similar connections, there is also a progression toward an end. The movement starts with the person who has been ‘dispersed’, and the movement progresses toward the law (which is not always a negative word!), and this is in the important middle-section of the structure. And rather than having the progression go toward the person who is trying to endure and come to some finality, the writer says that ‘you saw the completion of the Lord’. Next week we will look at the importance of this section in James.