All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 in total
Episode 1: Show me
This first episode introduces us to the main theme of James' letter: what is the right relationship between faith and works?
Episode 2: Which James is James?
There are several people in the Bible named James...which one wrote the letter that bears his name?
Episode 3: Brother from another father
The consensus among Bible scholars is that the author of the letter of James is the half-brother of Jesus. This episode explores what difference it might make to know ...
Episode 4: Church politics: it’s a thing
This episode explores what we know about James from the New Testament, and how that affects the way we read his letter.
Episode 5: You call that ”joy”?
James 1:2-4 speaks of trials as tests of our faith and occasions for joy. How can this be? And what does James mean by "joy"?
Episode 6: Perfection and perfectionism
Both James and Jesus speak of Christians as becoming "perfect," which can be a little daunting--particularly if we already struggle with perfectionism. How should we u...
Episode 7: Let faith do its work
Again, the main theme of James is the relationship between faith and works. In this episode, we look at both James 1:2-4 and 2:14-18 to see how Christians are like tea...
Episode 8: Got wisdom?
James 1:5-8 speaks of wisdom as a gift from God, given freely. But what kind of wisdom does he mean?
Episode 9: Help my unbelief!
When James says that God gives the gift of wisdom, he also seems to say that we have to get the prayer right or we will get nothing from God. Is this what he means? Th...
Episode 10: Of two minds
James 1:5-8 contrasts faith with doubt, saying that a person who doubts is unstable and "double-minded." In this episode, I suggest that "doubt" is not the opposite of...
Episode 11: Like a rock
We've been looking at what James says about doubt, and wondering whether doubt disqualifies us from receiving anything from God. We used the story of the desperate fat...
Episode 12: What matters is what lasts
James 1:9-11 can be a little puzzling: he says the poor have high status and the rich have low status. And he says this in the context of predicting just how quickly t...
Episode 13: What’s your currency?
Every culture has its "social currency," the things that show who's got more status (and who doesn't). One of the problems James sees in the church is that Christians ...
Episode 14: From double- to single-minded
In a previous episode, we discussed doubt as being of two minds. Here, we connect how James thinks about this back to the teaching of his brother Jesus, and will conti...
Episode 15: Trials or temptations?
James 1:13-15 teaches that we shouldn't blame temptation on God. But different translations of the letter give us different readings; the same word can be translated a...
Episode 16: God is light
James 1:16-17 portrays God as the generous giver of good gifts (so don't blame him for temptation!). He also tells us that God is the creator even of the stars we see ...
Episode 17: The devil made me do it?
It's always tempting to blame our mistakes on others, sometimes even the devil. But as we learn in James 1:14-15, it is better to understand temptation as coming neith...
Episode 18: The long view
You knew that sooner or later I was going to have to use a theological word you may never have heard before: that word is eschatology. It refers to how we should under...
Episode 19: Quick to anger, slow to listen (part 1)
That title represents what we often do in relationships: we get angry quickly, and don't listen to each other. But it's exactly opposite of what James teaches in James...
Episode 20: Quick to anger, slow to listen (part 2)
Why do we get angry quickly? Why is it so hard to listen? This episode brings in a bit of the brain science behind out angry outbursts, and ties it back to James' teac...
Episode 21: Quick to anger, slow to listen (part 3)
In this episode, I draw upon some of my own work as a minister and marriage educator to give you some simple, practical guidelines for learning to listen better.
Episode 22: Real righteousness
As we've seen, James 1:19-20 teaches that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. This episode examines the rest of what James says in t...
Episode 23: Finding fruit
In the gospels, we see Jesus using horticultural metaphors (sowing seed, pruning grapevines) to speak of the Christian life. James does something similar in James 1:21...
Episode 24: Gazing in a mirror
James 1:22-24 teaches that we must not only hear the gospel, but do what it says. He uses the metaphor of a mirror: don't we look in a mirror to see what we look like?...
Episode 25: Law and freedom
Depending on our cultural values, we may find it awkward to hold the words "law" and "freedom" together. But in James 1:25, the apostle speaks of "the law of freedom" ...
Episode 26: Freedom isn’t free
In the previous episode, we discussed how the distinction between "freedom from" and "freedom to" might help us understand what James is teaching. In this episode, we ...
Episode 27: Speaking the truth in love, not anger
We've already spent some time with James' teaching about being quick to listen and slow to speak. But the problem isn't just that we don't listen enough or speak too s...
Episode 28: The things we do for status
Chapter 2 introduces one of the major concerns of the letter: in their pursuit of higher social status, Christians were mistreating each other. James 2:1-4 illustrates...
Episode 29: Inglorious glory
As we saw in the previous episode, Christians were showing favoritism toward the rich. In James 2:1, the apostle suggests that if people are doing that, they don't tru...
Episode 30: Changing the way we see
In previous episodes, we've explored the unjust favoritism believers were showing toward the rich. James 2:5-7 unmasks the hypocrisy of this behavior, pushing believer...