Saturday, March 26, 2022

Patrick J. Hartin on James 1:5


 

Wisdom is not the abstract Stoic notion, but is practical in the concrete biblical perspective of knowing how to lead a life following God’s law. According to the Scriptures, God is the source of all wisdom: “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord” (Prov 9:10). “Indeed, though one be perfect among mortals, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be lacking, that one will count for nothing” (Wis 9:6). Wisdom is the gift required for perfection, wholeness, completion. James instructs his hearers/readers that if they lack wisdom they are to ask God in faith. This reflects the Q saying of Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matt 7:7; Luke 11:9). For James, a lack of faith in God is the cause of unanswered prayer. James coins an innovative word “of two minds” (dipsychos, literally “double-minded”) demonstrating a divided demonstrating a divided loyalty, as Jesus notes in the Sermon on the Mount, “No one can serve to masters . . . You cannot serve God and mammon” (matt 6:24). This becomes a central theme in the letter culminating with a call to choose between friendship with God and friendship with the world (4:4). It also reflects Jesus’ “two paths tradition” found in Matthew 7;13-14 (and later in Did. 1;1). “But he should ask in faith, not doubting,” echoes Jesus’ characteristic teaching of unwavering faith in prayer: “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Matt 21:21-22; Mark 11:23-24). (Patrick J. Hartin, “James,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 1801)