Overview of the Letter of James

The letter of James is filled with advice about facing the trials of life, coping with poverty, the desire to be rich, controlling the tongue, making plans for the future, and so on. This makes it attractive to the pragmatic person, or to someone with a dislike for doctrine. But if we treat this letter as a do-it-yourself manual of living, we run the risk of knowing a lot about Christian practice but little about God himself. In the end God will be as distant from us as when we began, and our practice may end up as a legalistic checklist of dos and don’ts. James is both doctrinal and practical in the sense that true knowledge of God informs and guides all practice in the Christian life. Tony Bird has done a great job in keeping that balance and applying what it teaches.