New Testament
James
Faith with its sleeves rolled up.
Letter / Wisdom · 5 chapters · About 20 minutes
c. AD 45–60
Overview
James reads more like Proverbs than like Paul: short, direct, unsentimental. Its concern is the distance between what we say we believe and how we actually treat people.
Trials, favouritism, the tongue, money, patience — each subject handled in a paragraph and left with you.
It is a bracing book, and a kind one: it assumes you can change.
What it keeps returning to
Doing
'Be doers of the word' — belief that never reaches the hands is not yet faith.
The tongue
A small rudder steering the whole life.
The poor
God's preference for those the room ignores.
Start here
James 1
Trials, wisdom, and looking in the mirror.
James 3:1–12
The tongue, the spark, the forest.
James 5:13–20
Prayer in every season.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously.”