Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

with the office. It possibly went hand in hand with a callous disregard of
these responsibilities, and a blatant oblivion of these dangers. In this scenario
James would shield the covenant community against “brothers” who would
wish to be the biggest fish in the pond. This, just as indisputably, would derail
the ministry and outreach of the Church (See Zodhiates, II, 74-76; Moo,
1985, 119; Phillips, 96).
In both instances these would-be teachers are supposedly poles apart
from men like Paul who is a slave of Christ in both word and deed, and regards
himself as “the chief of sinners,” “the least of the saints,” and “the bottom
rung of the apostles.” An aggressive, oppressive, self-seeking and selfserving
attitude has taken the place of self-denial, and a proud, high-handed,
self-promoting and self-gratifying attitude has been substituted for selfsacrifice.
Sooner or later this will prove to be deadly. With the self in the
center, the aim is by definition man-centered and happiness-oriented. This invariably
translates into hate, conflict, war, destruction, and death, the radical
opposite of self-denial and self-sacrifice. The latter have a God-centered and
holiness-oriented aim, which invariably translates into love, harmony, peace,
prosperity and life (See my Sovereignty and Responsibility, 29-30, 145-146,
for this twofold phenomenon).
To provide a broad-based biblical rationale for this very real twofold
pattern, which is universal in nature and pertinent to the understanding of
Section III and Section IV of James, I insert a topical treatment from a metaphysical,
epistemological and ethical perspective on what appears to constitute
the basic building blocks of all of human society, namely the ubiquitous
one-and-many spheres and the equally ubiquitous authority structures. This
treatment goes to the heart of the various problems James tackles in the last
two sections of his Epistle. But first two introductory observations!
The author, first, diagnoses the twofold root of these problems as “envy
and selfish ambition” and, then, identifies this twin evil as the source of all
conceivable kinds of “chaotic disorder and vile practices” (Jam. 3:16). The
disorder is evidenced in pernicious quarrels and insidious infightings which
turn the covenant community into a murderous battleground (Jam. 4:1-2). The
practices are undermining brothers and sisters by speaking against them, in
one’s heart and behind their back, privately and publicly (Jam. 4:11), talking
and acting as if humans have the future by the tail without bothering to make
the slightest reference to God (Jam. 4:13), turning a blind eye to the needs of
the covenant community and omitting (refusing?) to go all out for the neighbor
(Jam. 4:17), tyrannizing the poor to the point of annihilation (Jam. 5:1-6),
and, finally, grudging and grumbling against oppressive events and cruel
people (Jam. 5:9).
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