Hope From James for a Broken Divided Church Today
“The glory that you have given me (cf, 17:5) I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:22-23)
The God of the impossible (Matt 19:26) can bring together in uncompromising fellowship for the salvation of the world come believers as divided as classic Pentecostals, fundamentalist cessationists, infant baptisers, adult Baptists, Calvinists, Arminians, Catholics and symbolic Eucharistic practitioners, amillennial, dispensational and rapture teachers, Christian Zionists with “replacement theory” scholars etc. This is the seemingly impossible obstacle facing the Church in Perth. “But God, rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4) has been opening up new and unexpected insights on purely supernatural unity from the life and ministry of James.
Lessons from James
Whereas Paul is a favourite of Evangelicals, especially via his teaching justification by grace only, the difficult teaching of James, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24) led Luther to declare James to be a “right strawy epistle”. Even though “Jesus” appears only twice in this letter (1:1; 2:1), the gracious “Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7; Phil 1:19), has been opening up profound insights from this neglected writing. An unbeliever during the days of the Lord’s earthly flesh (John 7:5), James became an important apostolic figure through a personal resurrection appearance of the Saviour (1 Cor 15:7). Sovereign grace led this physical brother of Jesus to become the leader of the Jerusalem Church, the historic mother of all the faithful (Gal 4:26; Rev 21:2). The pivotal Jerusalem Council, with its assembly of apostles, elders and the whole Church (Acts 15:6, 22), deliberated before the Lord as to the relationship between Gentile believers and Jewish followers of Jesus, “zealous for the law (of Moses)” (Acts 21:20). The latter “worshipped God in Spirit and truth” (John 4:24) whilst practising circumcision, keeping Old Testament feasts, obeying food restrictions and so on. It was “from James” (Gal 2:12) that a delegation visited the churches of Galatia and provoked an open clash between Peter and Paul. This transpired after Peter witnessed the miraculous outpouring of the Spirit on the Gentiles as he had seen it at the Day of Pentecost (Acts 11:15). Adherence to the Law of Moses was so enculturated in first generation Jewish Christians, that only after an inspired prophetic declaration from James (Acts 15:16-17, drawn from Amos 9:11-12) was the whole Church and its leadership persuaded to open the gospel of grace to the Gentiles. With such an established apostolic-prophetic pedigree, we must listen to James intently.
City Elders in the Assembly
James writes a “general epistle” (with 1, 2 Peter, 1,2, 3 John and Jude). Unlike Paul’s letters to particular congregations, he writes to the whole Church; “To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion/scattered all over the world” (James 1:1). This is indisputable, but what is often overlooked is that, whereas the majority of our English versions read, “if a man…comes into your assembly” (James 2:2), a literal translation is “comes into your synagogue” (ASV, CJB, Darby, EXB, JUB, OJB, TLV, WEB,YLT). The Holy Spirit was not embarrassed to inspire (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21) James’ preference for an Old Testament model of understanding the church/ecclesia of God. This has dynamic implications for Christian unity that have largely escaped us today.
Given James is called a “pillar/key leader” of the Church (Gal 2:9), the scope of his teaching is global (cf. Eph 4:8ff.). This implies, in line with my previous paragraph, that the exhortation, “ Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:13-16), is not limited to a local congregation. For the sake of universal Christian order, especially at the city level, we must apply it much more broadly. (This insight first came in dialogue with a friend seeking to call together a city-wide eldership of mature Church leaders over 70 years of age to pray with younger men/women for their growth in grace.) There are even more powerful unity implications from James and the Jewish/Jerusalem Church.
Old and New Wineskins
Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians often think of themselves as “new wine” as over against the older denominations. This ignores that Jesus walked in S/spiritual peace (Acts 9:31 cf. Eph 4:6) with an Early Church embracing conscientious keepers of the Law of Moses (cf. for Paul, Acts 18:18; 21:23), as well as those who were free to eat whatever was not prohibited by the Spirit (Mark 7:19) and “considered all days alike” (Rom 14:5). (Sunday was not the only holy day!) All these groups had rich fellowship together in Christ, and did not exclude others as heretics. How was it possible that the old cloth held together with the new garment and the old wineskin did not split off from the new skins (Matt 9:16-17)? They were all following Jesus as they understood him in the New Testament as the Son of God in the fullness of the power of Spirit of the Father (Acts 1:8; Rom 1:4). The God we worship through Christ is the God of active miracles! The arrogant contemporary Western Church must return to the catchcry of an era when believers across Europe were slaughtering one another, and this prophetic truth went forth: In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity/Love (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things).
To Conclude
Whilst struck by the simplicity and wonder of these revelations I must conclude on a more sober note lest I be guilty of the very idealism making practical Christian unity impossible today. Despite the blessings of growing up in a household with a sinless brother, James needed a miraculous visitation of the risen Christ to bring him to faith. This however was not the end of his testimony to Jesus. Whereas his first born bother (Rom 8:29), was not thrown down from the pinnacle of the Temple until a “more opportune time” (Luke 4:9-13) in Satan’s scheming, that is, the cross, James needed to be martyred by being thrown down from the top of the same Temple. Cast down by fanatical keepers of the Law of Moses he sought so ardently to honour (A.D. 62). In this way he was “counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.” (Acts 5:41 cf. 2 Thess 1:5). If the splendours of the Early Church, including her famed mutual generosity (Acts 2:42-47; 5:32-37), needed persecution to attain to that poverty requiring physical relief from the Gentile Churches (Rom 15:26), this exhibition for the glory of the Lord is the unparalleled wisdom of God beckoning the Western Church today (cf. Rom 11:11ff.). All I have written so far is humanly impossible. Thankfully, the Lord of the One Church prayed, ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36) and concluded. “It is finished” (John 19:30).