{"id":4701,"date":"2009-03-27T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/03\/a-brothers-wisdom-24.html"},"modified":"2009-03-27T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2009-03-27T13:00:14","slug":"a-brothers-wisdom-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/03\/a-brothers-wisdom-24.html","title":{"rendered":"A Brother’s Wisdom 24"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bible.jpg\"<\/span>James reveals an early, if not the earliest, early Christian (post Jesus) understanding of “new birth” and “spiritual formation.” Notice how<\/b> James thinks the community is to be formed spiritually:<\/p>\n

“humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (1:21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice that James urges that the messianists develop a disposition toward God’s word: humility and receptivity and vulnerability. It might be called “let it” disposition: let it do what it can do by letting it do what it can do.<\/p>\n


\nSecond, this “word” is implanted: here we have an early indication of what became the doctrine of the Spirit or the Spirit-in-Word doctrine. The word that has been implanted — look at 1:18 — is a word that is sitting there and ready to come to an active life of transformation.<\/p>\n

Third, this “word” is connected in James to “law” (logos and nomos): cf. 1:22, 25. James’ piety is Torah observance.<\/p>\n

Finally, this implanted word is capable of saving the person’s soul. I’m nervous about words like this because of a history of dualism and even gnosticism, but James belongs to the ancient Jewish world where humans were seen from various angles, one of which was their life-principle angle: the soul. James here is concerned with the whole life-principle of humans being saved. In other words, it is a holism instead of a dualism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James reveals an early, if not the earliest, early Christian (post Jesus) understanding of “new birth” and “spiritual formation.” Notice how James thinks the community is to be formed spiritually: “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (1:21). Notice that James urges that the messianists develop a disposition toward God’s word:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"yoast_head":"\nA Brother's Wisdom 24 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/03\/a-brothers-wisdom-24.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Brother's Wisdom 24 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"James reveals an early, if not the earliest, early Christian (post Jesus) understanding of “new birth” and “spiritual formation.” Notice how James thinks the community is to be formed spiritually: “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (1:21). 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