Worthy Week 2 Notes
Preaching Meeting Notes
From Mike
Notes:
Supporting Scriptures:
Use of verb for ‘visiting’
Visiting widows and orphans
The verb to visit is used in Matt 25:36, 43 of visiting the sick. In the present context it can be taken in the sense of “to look after” (REB), “to provide help for,” or “to take care of” (TEV). Care for orphans and widows is considered to be an obligation in the Old Testament (Deut 27:19; Isa 1:17), and this tradition continues in the New Testament (Acts 6:1; 1 Tim 5:3–16).
Keep oneself unstained from the world
To keep oneself unstained from the world: the second expression of true piety. This saying is based on the view that the world is the source of stain and evil and is therefore opposed to God (compare 4:4). The ethical concept of the world as opposed to God is found also in other parts of the New Testament (John 15:18–19; Rom 12:2; 1 Cor 2:12; 1 John 2:15–17). To be truly religious a person has to steer himself away from being “corrupted by the world” (TEV) or “contaminated by the world” (Brc). The phrase may also be rendered “keeping oneself free from the world’s evil” (TNT) or “must … not let this world make you evil” (CEV).
Phrase:
Words:
θρησκεία, ας, ἡ (James 1:26-27)
expression of devotion to transcendent beings, esp. as it expresses itself in cultic rites, worship
Ionian origin and derive from thrēskeuō, “observe religious practices.”
I.—The ritual and liturgical meaning of thrēskeia is its basic and most often attested sense: acts of worship (the term is often in the plural), ritual function, liturgy, religious observance, ceremony, in honor of a divinity, an emperor, a deceased person.
II.—If thrēskeia is often used in a thoroughly material sense, for a purely ritual deed or action, it is normally an expression of an internal piety or a truly religious sentiment.
III.—But in this latter text, thrēskeia is properly understood as being religion pure and simple, or better, the liturgy and rites used in the adoration of God, the cult that honors God.
IV.—Thrēskeia takes on ethical connotations in Jas 1:26—“If someone thinks that he is religious
In defining true religion not by the the precise execution of rituals but by the carrying out of moral obligations and above all by brotherly love, St. James sided with the contemporary religious movement in the direction of the spiritualization of worship.18
Under this head we may group Ac. 26:5 and Jm. 1:26 f. As Joseph. mostly uses θρησκεία (τοῦ θεοῦ) for Jewish worship of God
In Jm. 1:26 f. θρῆσκος means “god-fearing,” “pious,” and θρησκεία means “fear of God”
In terms of these analogies, “the addition (sc. ἐθελο-) … is in contrast to the situation posited by the facts or relationships. Hence it is not just an affected piety. It is a piety which does not keep to the reality and to what is implied in it, which does not keep to the true head, Christ. It is a piety which orders its own nature.”
The adjective religious that occurs only here in the New Testament refers to an outward expression of pious and careful observance of ritual or liturgical practices.
the meaning of religious here is probably “Do you think that you follow [or, serve] God properly?”—in other words, “… do the correct things.”
The Tongue
Most translators, apparently sensing that the word is not in general use, have expressed the meaning without using a metaphor by rendering it as “control.” Tongue stands for speech. In some languages bridle his tongue will be expressed as “control what he says.
In the Bible the heart is considered not only the seat of emotions, but also of will and thoughts. In many cases it can stand for the whole person. Here it is probably best to take it as equivalent to the pronoun “himself”; for example, “he is only deceiving himself.”
The true test of religion or piety is practice, without which it is “worthless” (TEV, NRSV), “futile” (Brc, NEB), or “useless” (Phps).
Social Concern and Moral Purity
yet he goes on to mention two things that are important, namely social concern and moral purity.
The pair can be rendered “pure and faultless” (REB), or both positively “pure and genuine” (TEV, Phps), or with an intensifier “completely pure.
“The deeds that God the Father considers to be …,” “What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine behavior is …”
According to God’s standard
The purity required is not to be judged according to human standards but before God and the Father, that is, in God the Father’s sight and judgment. For this reason TEV has made “God” the subject of this sentence; thus “What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this …
The Word
. A doer, ποιητής, is a Semitic use of the Greek, for ποιητής properly means a maker or composer (Plato Rep. 597; Phdr. 234; Heracl. 2.53; LSJ; Windisch, 11) and ποιητής λόγου a writer, poet, or orator (e.g. 2 Macc. 2:30). The Jews, however, often spoke of doing the law (ʿāśâ hattôrâ: Dt. 28:58; 29:28; etc.), which the LXX translated literally ποιητής νόμου (1 Macc. 2:16; Sir. 19:20; Rom. 2:13). The transition from law to word was easy for one who felt Christ’s teaching was a new law (1:25; 2:8; cf. Rom. 8:2; 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). James calls the Christian to obey the gospel, which in this case means primarily the ethical teaching of Jesus.
1:22 If the Word implanted is dynamic, working salvation, it is imperative that believers do what the Word says (the verse in Gk. reads lit., “Become doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves”). Certainly there is a sense of development or growth here. Being doers of the Word involves becoming,113 but the force here is in being who one is because the Word is resident within. Disciples are to “receive” the Word of God by “being” believers who do what that Word requires. In 4:11 James used a similar phrase, “doer of the law” (NIV “keeping it”), which shows the interchangeableness of Word and law in Christ (cf. 1:25). This matter of being a doer (cf. 2:7; 5:14) captures James’s burden for his hearers.