Jesus warned his followers that those who want to help others to see their sins and flaws, need to make sure they do so with the right spirit.
I’ll teach you!
Two tests of faith
To illustrate his point about the relationship between faith and works, James calls to mind two characters from the Old Testament: Abraham and Rahab.
The triumph of mercy
James is correcting the worldly thinking which is influencing his distant Christian friends. They are living in Jewish communities where too much respect is paid to the rich and the poor are too easily dismissed.
The missing cross
Although he doesn’t mention it directly, what happened on the cross to the Lord Jesus feeds into the ideas which James presents in his letter.
Science and the Creator
How did the world begin? Was it simply the result of the forces at work in the universe? How did we begin?