Unstained: The Book of James

Summer ’24 Sermon Series

 
 

I have a confession to make: I’ve always thought of the epistle of James as a random collection of instructions.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve loved the letter! I just didn’t think there was any coherent structure or “big idea” behind it.

To be fair, I’m not alone. Martin Luther accused James of “throwing things together… chaotically.” But a closer look shows that there is a theme that holds James’ epistle together. Scan the five chapters of the letter, and you’ll see repetition of overlapping ideas like:

-          Single-mindedness
-          Simplicity (as opposed to duplicity)
-          Unwavering purity of purpose

To elaborate, James understands his readers to be surrounded by a world of muck that could easily stain them and pull them down. But the vision he holds out for the Christian is something like an unstained flower growing up from a tar pit: complete refusal to compromise by dipping into the mire.

 

What It Means for Us

This is an important message for the Christian on the North Shore in 2024. There remains just enough possibility of cultural acceptance for Christians that some of us might aspire to “have it all” – to sample from the best of what this world has to offer and to stake a claim on eternal life in the age to come; to store up heavenly treasure and to have what the world considers a “great life” here and now. But for James, that double-minded pursuit is a dangerous one. Why play in the mud at all when God wants to keep us unstained from the world?

 

A Two-Part Request

As we work our way through James this summer, we’d love everyone to be moving along on the same page. That’s hard to do with summer travels and helping out in kids’ ministry! So we’re making a two-part request that will enable us all to stick together:

  1. When you miss a week, go back and listen to the sermon. We are posting all of them on YouTube if you want to watch video or listen on your favorite podcast app if you prefer audio.

  2. We’re handing out 100 scripture journals on June 2nd. First come, first served! If you’ll use it, take one and bring it each week. Instead of following along on your phone, follow along in your scripture journal and take notes. By the end of the summer, you’ll have an annotated copy of James to hold on to or pass along.

 

A Different Kind of Opening Week

Next Sunday, June 2nd, we’re going to kick off our study of this letter a little differently. We’re actually going to read it out loud, start to finish, all in one shot – as it would have been read in the churches that first received it. This will give us an overview of the whole letter before we use the following weeks to drill down more deeply into specific passages.

 

For Supplemental Reading

Throughout our sermon series, you’ll hear us drawing insights from the following:

The Letter of James, Doug Moo, PNTC (2000)

The Letter of James, Scot McKnight, NICNT (2011)

Exalting Jesus in James, David Platt (2014)

The Message of James, Revised Edition, JA Motyer, BST (2021)

You’ll also benefit from consulting helpful texts we’ve used to better understand some of James’ themes and emphases:

Neither Poverty or Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions, Craig Blomberg, NSBT (2015)

Impossible Christianity, Kevin DeYoung (2023)

 

Thanks for praying with us that God will use our summer 2024 exploration of James’s epistle!