Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

oth was callous to a staggering degree. Both could end up in hell, the rich
man because of “untreated” pride and presumption, the poor man because of
“fueled” resentment and bitterness. At least, this is the perspective that James
5:1-11 adds to the present picture, as we shall see in due time.
It should not be necessary to emphasize that only broken hearts can
plumb the depth of mercy received and therefore function as a source of
mercy given. Clearly once a heart breaks and turns into a fountain, the stream
of mercy will flow constantly. All in all, (only) genuine recipients of continuing
mercy will (can) turn into genuine propagators of continuing mercy.
his concludes the analysis of James’ four arguments against discriminating
partiality, the argument from sanctified sense, from the law of love, from the
Decalogue, and from mercy in anticipation of the coming Judgment.
Topical Focus # 11: Place and Function of Case laws
It will pay off to analyze James’ manner of tackling “a ticklish issue” of his day more
in depth, so as to determine whether it, indeed, furnishes us with a model that we can
apply in our day. After all, issues, such as James encountered in his day, are only too
common, and often too perplexing. It appears that James can be of great help, once we
recognize that he himself follows an existing biblical model. This can be found in
Deuteronomy as well as in Exodus for that matter.
In this book it is shown that the Old Testament law-complex consists of two aspects,
the “Constitution” and the “Application of the Constitution.” The constitution
consists of the Ten Covenant Words, or the Ten Commandments. This is the fundamental
law, and, indeed, resembles a constitution of a modern country. The application
of the constitution makes up the remainder of the law-complex. This is the case law!
The following outline of Deuteronomy, initially suggested by B. Holwerda in the
1950’s in his lectures on the Historia Revelationis, is given in support of this.
I. PreambleCovenant Spokesman (1:1)
II. Historical Setting: Recent Covenant History (1:2-4:49)
ple. For Jesus the neighbor is concretely the tax collector, prostitute, debtors, sinner, the sick
and demon possessed. The deeds of love are a.o. table fellowship, forgiveness of sins, release
of debt, almsgiving, healing and exorcism.” I am appreciative of Cheung’s cautionary words
that holiness is not swallowed up by mercy. Still I wish to express some dismay about his
equating holiness with ritual cleansing ands setting boundaries between clean and unclean
people. Biblical holiness is nothing of the sort. With it Cheung puts up a straw man and ends
up, somewhat uncharacteristically, I would say, with a tilt toward mercy at the expense of holiness.
Holiness and mercy, mercy and holiness are complementary concepts. Neither one
should be reduced to the other. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks just as adamantly
against murder (hatred) and adultery (lust), as he does for forgiveness and almsgiving. On
both counts the believer must transcend the righteousness of the Pharisees. One should not
create a disjunction where there is none!
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