James 2:14 (The Voice)
Brothers and sisters, it doesn’t make any sense to say you have faith and act in a way that denies that faith. Mere talk never gets you very far, and a commitment to Jesus only in words will not save you.
As I began to write this particular post, my daily verse from Thomas Nelson’s latest translation, “The Voice” came into my inbox. I am not normally a big fan of James, maybe because it so often cuts right to the bone. Martin Luther in fact did not really see a need to include it in the Bible. However with any book or verse in the Bible should not stand alone but be taken in context of the chapter, verse and the entire Bible. As Luther took a stance on his interpretation of scripture, he firmly believed that scripture should be used to interpret scripture, thus not allowing any single piece of scripture to stand alone. Each piece of scripture is backed up by other scripture and the Bible as a whole.
You might be wondering if I got off on a tangent at this point, if you recall the title of my post, “Faith growth in times of disparity”. That’s okay, for a moment I thought I had too. For the last eleven weeks, I have had a wonderful opportunity to take part in a course called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). As part of this, I was a Chaplain Intern at a major hospital in Chicago. At times in my life and to be honest even as late as just prior to starting CPE, my faith ran into doubts. However, during the entire experience and beyond, I found that all that I had faced, death, others doubts, lack of acceptance, being taken advantage of, etc. was nothing but faith growing.
While I was faced with many opportunities to doubt it was in those moments that I never doubted. I know that the Spirit took those moments to turn them into good. At least good for me and I am sure others as well. I had nothing but my faith to turn to. Others were counting on me to guide them in their times of troubles and doubts. The Spirit took me by my hand, lifted me out of the the clutches of the doubts of the spirit, the clutches of the devil and made me strong.
Psalm 23:4-6 (ESV)
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
I truly felt as if the Lord was walking side by side me and at times carrying me through all the troubles of the day. It is through these disparities of life that my faith has grown and doubt has been lifted away from me. If life were a bed of roses, how could I learn to strength of my Lord and dependence upon the Lord for all that I do. I could not and that is the entire point. Eventually even the roses begin to wither and die and we must face despair at some point. I find myself grateful for all that I faced and all that I will face because I know I can face anything with Christ.
That’s a good message about the value of suffering. Those that preach the “health and wealth” gospel, I believe, do their followers a grave disservice. No one wants to suffer but like you point out, what a blessing if it leads you to God.
With respect to your comments on James and scripture interpreting scripture, I would add that scripture needs to be read through the lens of the Church in that it (i.e. the Church) is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). For example, I once had a Muslim tell me that the advocate Jesus promised in John 14 was not the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as you and I would interpret it, but rather Mohammed. She was reading scripture through the lens of Islam.
Meaning no disrespect, I cannot help but wonder if Luther’s opinion of James was a result of his trying to make scripture fit his theology rather than making his theology fit scripture. To his credit though, like St. Jerome with respect to the deuterocanonical books of the OT, at least Luther, in spite of his objections, did defer to the Church’s authority that James indeed belongs in the bible.
Pax et Bonum, brother.