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                            Studies _in the_
                           Epistle _of_ James


                          _First published as_
                      PRACTICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS
                            OF CHRISTIANITY


                            A. T. ROBERTSON
    Late Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Southern Baptist
               Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

                        _Revised and Edited by_
                            Heber F. Peacock

[Illustration: ]

                             BROADMAN PRESS
                         _Nashville, Tennessee_

                               421-06232

           _Library of Congress catalog card number: 59-5861_
                Printed in the United States of America
                              5.AT58K.S.P.




                                Preface


In August, 1912, it was my privilege to deliver a course of lectures at
the Northfield Bible Conference. There were many requests for the
publication of the addresses. I shall never forget the bright faces of
the hundreds who gathered in beautiful Sage Chapel at 8:30 on those
August mornings. In August, 1913, the lectures were repeated at the New
York Chautauqua and at the Winona Bible Conference. There were renewed
appeals for publication, but it was not possible to put the material
into shape because of my work on _A Grammar of the Greek New Testament
in the Light of Historical Research_.

I have expanded the lectures a good deal and have added some
introductory discussion about James himself. I have in mind ministers,
social workers, students of the Bible, Sunday school teachers, and all
lovers of the Word of God and of rightness of life. Technical matters
are placed in parentheses or in footnotes so that the reader may go on
without these if he cares to do so. There is a freshness in the Greek
text not possible in the English, but those who do not know Greek may
still read this book with entire ease.

I do not claim that these addresses are a detailed commentary on the
Epistle of James. They are expository talks based, I trust, on sober,
up-to-date scholarship and applied to modern life. It is the old gospel
in the new age that we need and must know how to use. There is a
wondrous charm in these words of the long ago from one who walked so
close by the side of the Son of man, who misunderstood him at first but
who came at last to rejoice in his Brother in the flesh as the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is immensely worthwhile to listen to what James has to
say about Christianity and the problems of everyday life. His words
throb with power today and strike a peculiarly modern note in the
emphasis upon social problems and reality in religion. They have the
breath of heaven and the warmth of human sympathy and love. Except for a
few quotations from the King James Version, Scripture quotations follow
the American Standard Version.




                       Preface to Second Edition


The welcome accorded this interpretation of the Epistle of James makes a
new edition necessary. Opportunity is thus afforded for weeding out
misprints. Prof. S. L. Watson, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has kindly
verified all the references in the book. The words of James strike a
peculiarly modern note during these days of war.

                                                                A. T. R.




                                Contents


  I. James, a Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ               1
  II. To the Twelve Tribes Which Are of the Dispersion                 28
  III. Joy in Trial                                                    33
  IV. The Way of Temptation                                            48
  V. The Practice of the Word of God                                   60
  VI. Class Prejudice                                                  75
  VII. The Appeal to Life                                              91
  VIII. The Tongues of Teachers                                       104
  IX. The True Wise Man                                               124
  X. The Outer and the Inner Life                                     140
  XI. God and Business                                                158
  XII. Perseverance and Prayer                                        177




                                   I
          James, a Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ


                        The Brother of the Lord

It will be well to put together the bits of information about James, or
Jacob,[1] as he is called in the Greek. They are not very numerous, and
yet it is possible to form a reasonably clear picture of his
personality.

It is here assumed that James the author of the epistle is James the
brother of the Lord (Gal. 1:19). It is hardly conceivable that James the
brother of