SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Mar 20, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 12.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.

By F. D. Starr

James.

THE name of this book in the Spanish version is Santiago. The introduction begins: "Santiago, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." The name Santiago, with which most of us have become so familiar in recent years, is merely the Spanish for James, or rather, Saint James.

This book was written about A.D. 60, nearly thirty years after the commencement of the new dispensation, and it will be noticed that the twelve tribes were then still recognized as the people of God. All the faithful belong to the Israel of God, and are, in God's estimation, genuine Jews, as is stated in Rom. 2:29: "He is a Jew which is one inwardly, . . . whose praise is not of men, but of God." Inasmuch as the twelve tribes are all recognized here, it would be useless to talk about searching for the ten lost tribes, as some do, for none of these tribes are lost, but are all accounted for here as well as in Rev. 7:4-8. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29.

There were at least two apostles by the name of James, as will be seen by the enumeration given in Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19. James the brother of John was executed by Herod sixteen years before this epistle was written. So James the son of Alphæus who wrote this epistle was without doubt the person who presided at the notable council held in Jerusalem, which event occurred just midway between the death of James the son of Zebedee, and the writing of the letter now under consideration. At that council James gave the sentence, as appears from Acts 15:19. If Peter was pope at that time, as is claimed by so many millions, it seems strange that at that time, more than a score of years after the time that he is said to have taken the papal chair, not Peter, but another apostle should be the one chosen to give sentence at this universal church council. The supremacy of Peter certainly does not rest upon a very scriptural basis.

The supreme thought in this letter of James' seems to be that faith without works does not avail anything. Some think there is some discrepancy between the words of James and the teachings of Paul on the subject of faith and works. But this is a misconception. While James shows us how vain it is to hope to be saved by an inactive faith, Paul, on the other hand, proves to us how unsafe it is to trust to works for salvation. Another has aptly stated the matter thus: "Some may say it is exalting our own merits to expect favor from God thru our good works. True, we can not buy one victory

with our good works; yet we can not be victors without them." "True grace, which is of inestimable value, and which will endure the test of trial and adversity, is only obtained thru faith, and humble, prayerful obedience." "There is no other way, but to trust and obey."

There is a dead faith, such as demons possess, and there are dead works, such as are performed by the unregenerate. Heb. 9:14. But we want neither the one nor the other, "but faith which worketh by love." Gal. 5:6. What a striking lesson on mortality is given us in chapter 1. "As the flower of the grass he shall pass away." That is the sentence written on every brow. O, that we could all realize how short is our brief stay here in this world. The same thought is taken up and emphasized in chapter 4: "What is your life?—It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Mortals listen! Do you realize how fast this vaporous existence is evaporating? How suddenly some of our fellow creatures have been snatched away from before our eyes! But how reluctant we are to perceive that the same might easily be our fate.

In chapter 2 we read: "If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well." Some say to fulfil means to abrogate, to set aside as no longer binding. This is the application they make to our Saviour’s words in Matt. 5:17, claiming that He, by fulfilling His Father’s law, did set it aside as no longer binding upon us. If this is so, then the golden rule mentioned by James is to be set aside too. And he says we will do well if we fulfil that law. But will we be doing well, doing a good work, if we set aside the command to love our neighbors as ourselves? Think of it! What a diabolical suggestion! But that is the exact equivalent to setting aside the Father’s law, the Decalogue. In Gal. 6:2 we are told to "fulfil the law of Christ." Does that mean that Christ’s law is to be made obsolete, no longer binding? It does if fulfil has that meaning in Matt. 5:17. Strange perversion of truth!

Let none of us pass carelessly by the instruction of chapter 3 in regard to the tongue, and let us learn to be more careful in the use of that little member. How true it is that "death and life are in the power of the tongue." Prov. 18:21. Our tongues should not be silent, however, for "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." Prov. 25:11.

That this is an epistle for the last days is seen by chapter 5. The rich have "heaped treasure together for the last days," or, as the Revised Version renders it, "in the last days." How the accumulation of wealth by a few men looms up before us as a prominent sign of the times. Who can fail to understand from this where we are in this world’s history? On the other hand, the poor are oppressed, and in many instances, defrauded of their rightful earnings by the hands of Greed and Luxury. What shall we do about it? "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." James 5:7. Do you believe "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh"? Verily so it is written, and so it becomes our duty and privilege to believe and to prepare for that grand and solemn event.

The book of James is indeed one replete with practical instruction on practical points of vital godliness. Let it receive the careful study that it so richly merits.