“Which of the two did the will of his father?” (21:31)
“[Do] and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not [do].” (23:3, RSV, modified)
“They do all their deeds to be seen by others.” (23:5, NRSV)
We may well hear echoes of this teaching in James’s exhortations to be “doers of the word” and a “doer of work”—works that exemplify the “perfect work,” “perfect law,” and the “royal law.”
Verse 27 sums up the point of the first chapter of James: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
This brings us to James 2. The second chapter is chiefly concerned to explicate the second commandment of the famous Great (or Double) Commandment (Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–29), whereby one is to love God with all that one is and all that one has (Deut 6:4–5) and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self (Lev 19:18). The partiality described in James 2:1–13 fails to fulfill the second commandment, which is quoted in James 2:8. Although the remainder of the chapter (vv. 14–26) defines genuine faith, the focus remains on what it means to fulfill the second commandment. To fulfill “the royal law” (James 2:8) is to fulfill Leviticus 19:18, a commandment that lay behind much of what Jesus taught, either explicitly or implicitly.6
Failure to fulfill the second commandment has implications for the first commandment, to which allusion is made in 2:19: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” The mere belief, or faith, that God is one hardly fulfills the obligations to love one’s neighbor and, harking back to James 1:27, hardly fulfills the command to “visit orphans and widows in their affliction.”
To support his argument, James appeals to the example of Abraham, who was “justified by [his] works [ex ergōn edikaiōthē], when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar” (2:21). His willingness to obey God demonstrated that his faith was genuine. His “work” in Genesis 22 (where he showed that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac) fulfilled the statement of Scripture in Genesis 15:6 (James 2:23). We suspect that James had in mind Abraham’s example of faith early on. We may hear an allusion to it in 1:3, where James declares that “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness,” which in turn will lead to perfection (1:4).
James’s understanding of Abraham’s faith was not unique. A similar argument is found in 1 Maccabees, a book (composed c. 100 BC) that narrates the Jewish revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 BC. Abraham, his faith and his righteousness are cited by the leader of the Maccabean revolt. On his deathbed the priest Mattathias exhorts his sons,
Now, my children, show zeal for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of our fathers. Remember the deeds of the fathers, which they did in their generations; and receive great honor and an everlasting name. Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness? (1 Macc 2:50–52)
According to Mattathias, Abraham was found “faithful” when he was “tested” by God’s command to offer up his son Isaac (Gen 22). Abraham’s faithfulness (i.e., his faith in God) “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” This last part of v. 52 is an unmistakable allusion to Genesis 15:6, which both James and Paul quote in their respective arguments. The argument of James, however, parallels some of the argument in 1 Maccabees 2 more closely than does Paul’s argument. In James and 1 Maccabees, the claim is made that Abraham’s faith in God was witnessed in his willingness to offer up his son. It was this faith that was reckoned to him as righteousness. The overlap in the scriptural appeal of 1 Maccabees and James helps us understand more clearly the differences in the respective arguments of James and Paul.
Both James and 1 Maccabees argue that genuine faith takes action, or, to put it the other way, action demonstrates the reality of faith. For Mattathias, true faith was demonstrated by zeal for the Law of Moses. For James, true faith was demonstrated by fulfilling the “royal law,” that is, loving one’s neighbor as one’s self (2:8–20). A faith that does not produce “works,” that is, works of mercy toward those in need, is a dead faith (James 2:24–26). In the section that follows we shall see that this teaching does not contradict Paul’s teaching about justification apart from works of the Law.
The Message of Paul: “No One Is Justified by Works of the Law”
Before examining Paul’s teaching, it will be helpful to review his relationship to James, as Paul himself describes it and as it is described by the author of the book of Acts. The evidence suggests that although Paul respected James, the brother of Jesus, there were some tensions.
In Galatians 2:9, Paul refers to James as one of the “pillars” of the Church. “Pillar” here may carry temple connotations, as when the word occurs in reference to the pillars, or upright frames, in the wilderness tabernacle (e.g., Exod 26:15–37; 27:10–17; 35:11, 17; 36:36, 38; 38:10–19; 39:33, 40; 40:18). Some scholars suspect that the early Church viewed James, Peter (or Cephas) and John as pillars of the new temple. Richard Bauckham has argued that the leaders of the Jesus movement were called pillars as part of the “early Church’s understanding of itself as the eschatological Temple,” on analogy with the Qumran community, which also saw itself as a spiritual temple.7
In Christian tradition, Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his Church (Matt 16:18), Jesus himself is the foundation (1 Cor 3:11) or cornerstone (Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:4, 6–7), and Christian believers are themselves the building blocks of a living temple (1 Pet 2:5; Hermas, Visions 3; and Similitudes 9). Some of this imagery is itself based on the temple imagery found in the Old Testament Scriptures, especially in reference to the promised and awaited eschatological temple: stones and foundations (Isa 54:11), cornerstone (Isa 28:16; Ps. 118:22; both quoted in 1 Pet 2:6–7) and pillars (Prov 9:1). In post-New Testament traditions, James is himself called the “Rampart of the People” (according to Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.7), a title probably based on Isaiah 54:11–12 and likely also part of the imagery of the eschatological temple.
Being regarded as one of the “pillars” of the early Church testifies to the esteem in which James was held. The book of Acts also testifies to the esteem of James, as well as to his leadership. We see this when James directs Paul to purify himself and pay the expenses of four men who are under a Nazirite vow. Not only do we catch an important glimpse of James’s continuing leadership and authority, we may also discover how it is that James was able to reside in Jerusalem while others, like Peter and the original apostles, found it necessary to relocate.
When Paul returned to Jerusalem in 58 AD, in time for the Feast of Pentecost, he visited James and “all the elders” (Acts 21:18). Paul related to them what he had experienced in his recent travels and missionary activities, for which James and his colleagues expressed joy (21:19–20). But then James had advice for Paul on how to conduct himself (21:20–25). James told Paul that by doing what had been suggested, “all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law” (21:24).
The author of the book of Acts has labored to show that Paul and James held to essentially the same view with respect to the crucial question of circumcision and law. Fair and careful reading of Paul’s letters suggests that the portrait in Acts is accurate, even if vague and incomplete in places. But one important point of comparison remains to be considered. Did Paul and James differ over the place of “works of law” in the life of the believer? It is time now to turn once again to the letter of James.
In his polemical and at times heated letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul emphatically gives expression to his view that no one can be justified by works of the Law:
We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even