In James 1:26-27, James gives us the three points of his “sermon” to former members. The three features of pure and faultless religion are a controlled tongue, caring for those in need, and personal holiness. These are external actions in conformity with the Gospel. Why did James select these three? Why did he feel the need to write about such matters? Why wouldn’t people (his former members) allow the Gospel to be reflected in their actions?
I would suggest one reason: persecution, or at the very least, the pressure to conform. James was writing to the believers who had lived in Jerusalem and had been a part of the church there. Now they are scattered “among the nations” due to the persecution that arose in Palestine. They had experienced persecution, they knew what it looked like, how it felt. Perhaps they had learned how to avoid it by blending in. Think a moment what it means to be a Christian in a hostile environment. Usually, I think of believers meeting covertly to worship together, seeking to hide their meeting from the government and its agents. But what about everyday living? Wouldn’t their attitudes and actions give them away? If one followed James’ admonitions as listed in 1:26-27, wouldn’t that give one away as a Christian? If the instructions in Scripture are intended to point us in the direction of following the example of Jesus, wouldn’t that give us away? Is it not to be as though Jesus were living in your community?
Those who seek to follow in the footsteps of Jesus may want to fly below the radar, but their lives may not make that possible if they take the commands of Scripture seriously. The desire to blend in and not be noticed may have compromised the commitment to obedience of those to whom James is writing. If so, they are deceiving themselves. James mentions this specifically with regard to the first feature (1:26), controlling one’s tongue. This is the third time James has written about self-deception. (See 1:16 and 1:22) James is keenly aware that we are prone to self-deception. Our circumstances may allow us to rationalize straying from the path of obedience in our actions.
What about us? We face a similar pressure, but from a different direction. We do not face religious persecution as such, but there is the pressure to blend in as part of a pluralistic society. We are assured that anyone can believe anything and practice his/her religion as long as it is kept out of the public square. The result is privatization. One’s faith becomes privately engaging but socially and publicly irrelevant. An internal spirituality is the focus and the implications of our spirituality are confined to one’s own personal reality and should not affect or intrude on others. Thus, in the modern West, as William Cavanaugh notes: “religion is identified with an essentially interior, private impulse.”
I am convinced that if James could write a letter to the church in this culture today, he would say essentially the same things. And the problem is not persecution, but the temptation to keep our “religion” private. But to do so is to engage in self-deception.
Why was the early church persecuted? Was it because of “an essentially interior, private impulse?” Or was it because their faith resulted in actions? When we think of the martyrs of the church, did they die because of some privatized faith or because their faith was evidenced by their actions? They suffered because they lived out their faith. As James will tell us in chapter 2, “faith without deeds is useless.”
I do live by the church;
for I do live at my house,
and my house doth stand by the church.
Feste the Clown
Twelfth Night
Act III Scene 1