#518. Being slightly terrified of certain books of the Bible.
Apr 9th by JonIf you’re a Christian and someone mentions they’re studying the book of James, you have to go a little green in the face and say, “Ugh, James.” You have to commiserate with that person immediately and tell them that you’ll pray for them as they wander through that devastatingly difficult book. Once you’ve done that and said things like, “That book will mess you up,” you can move on to saying the other thing everyone says about James: “It’ll be interesting to see if you think James’ ‘faith without works is dead’ contradicts what Paul says in Romans.”
You might not have an answer for that yourself, but it’s good to at least say that, because you’ll look holy and mildly interested in the book of James.
Despite the bad rap it’s gotten, James isn’t so bad. It kind of reads like a New Testament version of Proverbs with loads of practical advice. It has beautiful reminders of God’s love like 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
And James even sneaks some pretty hilarious stuff in there. For instance, in chapter two, the two people he references as examples of individuals of faith are Abraham and Rahab. One was the father of Israel and one was a prostitute. If he had written it as “Abraham and Moses” we all would have read that verse and thought, “Oh sure, those two guys are all-stars. They’re like the Michael Jordan and Larry Bird of the Old Testament.” But he didn’t. He covered such a wider perspective of life and what it means to be a Christian by saying, “I have two examples of amazing people for you: Abraham and a hooker.”
Plus, James taught me a lot about blogging. Some of my early posts took some cheap shots at people and took shortcuts to easy laughs at other people’s expense. Then I read James 4:11: “Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.” Yikes. I stopped the personal attacks.
And when people hate on the site, my first inclination is to quote Fabulous and say, “Naw, I ain’t had a brush with beef yet, some of ya’ll wake up hatin’ and ain’t brushed your teeth yet.” But then I remember James 5:9, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.” Instead of jumping into a grumble fest and arguing in elaborate detail that I do not in fact suck, I move on by the hate mail, realizing that God is not a huge fan of grumbling. (I’m still working on this one.)
That willingness to get funky with his Old Testament hero selection and the blog advice is enough for me not to get queasy when I hear James mentioned. I’ll probably still pull out a courtesy cringe for you if you mention you’re going to be reading it, but inside I’ll be thinking, “You’re going to love that book.”
Am I alone in this, or are you afraid of the book of James too?
What book of the Bible still strikes terror into your heart at the mere mention?
Comments
Huh, yeah, Revelation, hands-down. Try getting over those rapture movies AND being moved to Montana with a whacko church because of the ‘prophecies’ of the pastor’s wife. It wasn’t a cult…barely. Revelation scares the crap out of me.
Rahab is awesome. One of my favorite people in the Bible. Along with her son.
Originally, i would have agreed that Leviticus kinda scared me, but not anymore. I listened to it being preached through at my church to a bunch of High School students. (that’s right, the youth pastor taught a SERIES on Leviticus!!!) It’s all about Holiness. Check out how many times it says, “Be Holy, for I am Holy.”
One cool side note, in order to teach on the offerings, our youth pastor threw a $20 t-bone steak on a BBQ and let it go…burnt offering unto the Lord…no one will forget that lesson.
Check out his blog – http://www.thebiblesherpa.com
Systematic Theology–the process by which we attempt to put God into a box.
If we didn’t put all of our nails down in Romans and reinterpret the rest of the Bible through that narrow understanding, then we would have no reason to think James and Paul contradicted each other.
James? Really? I’m down with James…but have you ever read and studied Nehemiah? Pretty much devalues everyone without a pure ancient Hebrew bloodline. I mean, even “believers” who weren’t of Hebrew blood got shunned or stoned out of society. I know it had the thing about the restoration of the TRUE Israel, and the use of a pagan kings riches to rebuild the temple, but it’s really a downer for anyone who only had one Hebrew parent…or none. DOOMED.
I defenitely agree with Josefin. Jesus said (ok, no bible with me, this is probably a very loose paraphrase) that the law was summed up this way: love God, love your neighbors as yourself. If Christians always followed that, then there wouldn’t be any theological arguments to see just how much we can get away with. Somehow it always seems like it should apply to someone else though…
I’m not trying to sound all spiritual or anything here, but I have found that at one time or another every single book of the Bible has terrified me. In each one I have come face to face with God- His holiness, His grace, and TRUTH. This is always a very scary thing. I’m still a teenager, so I really don’t want to know what it will do to me after a few more decades.
Thanks for the blog Jon, always very entertaining and thought provoking. =)
I love James! I never knew people were afriad of it…. Revelation is what scares me.
James is probably my favorite book of the Bible, actually. When I was a kid, my mom made me memorize James 1:19-21 because I was always angry. It was more helpful than I had anticipated as a kid, and it has really solidified my love of James, and my recognition of the importance of learning Scripture and keeping it in my heart.
Anyway, James is good. I’m afraid of Song of Solomon.
(Totally kidding. I’m getting married in four months, and really looking forward to reading it with my hubby. Is that weird?)
I love James, he’s my homey! I actually memorized the first chapter of James, so I can have it all the time (especially since the whole book just up and fell out of my old Bible because I wore out the binding there). Hebrews, however, makes my brain hurt.
If we're talking about books with hard/scary teachings, how about Joshua. I know it looks easy — it's narrative, lots of military stuff, has a nice sounding hero in Joshua, but that thing is scary. We're talking about God telling them to exterminate everything in Canaan, and so they're out there killing old people & babies. That's one scary book.
pinalki: a Middle Eastern predecessor to the Panini.
I love James myself.
Numbers, tho. My word. Is it a sin to replay The Office while I read it? I know even Numbers serves some purpose for my sanctification, I just don’t have a clue how. Not one clue. (get it?)
How can y’all not like Leviticus? All that ‘don’t have sex with your aunt’s husband’s daughter’s sheep?’
LeGITicus.
You know Luther wasn’t a big fan of it either. Earlier, James kind of “snuck” into the Canon (of course God’s providence got it in, but God had to kind of give it a kick in the butt to get it on in there).
The Gospel of Judas, now that is book that should scare the poop out of you that the goofballs of the Jesus seminar give it any weight.
I don’t know if James strikes fear in me, but…
When I was fourth grade, I memorized the whole book of James (KJV style, ultra conservative school) and then had to recite one chapter at the end of year awards program. At the time, I didn’t have any problem with the memorization. My brother who was in first grade also memorized the whole book as well. He got to recite another chapter with the other student in his grade. It wasn’t so bad, but I don’t remember a word of it.
Me too. Revelation. Hands Down!
I love the book of James and demonstrated this by giving my second son the middle name ‘James’. Our other son’s middle name is ‘Luke’. If our third child was a boy he would have had the middle name ‘Roman(s)’. Luckily we decided to give our third child (a daughter) a fruit of the Spirit for a middle name – ‘Joy’.
I don’t know how a comment about scary books of the bible turned into a comment on middle names. lol
How timely. I am about to begin a study of James. I’m not scared of it, though. I’m looking forward to the reminders of how I should be living my Christian life. I need to be convicted like that and actually welcome it. Stumbling upon this post just as I’m about to embark on that book is a positive thing… I’ll be reading it even more closely now!
James is great, one of my favorites! In our PC world it’s refreshing to be instructed succinctly, without apology. If James were alive today he would be a football coach, no question.
James is my favorite book… I didn’t realize people didn’t like it.
Hebrews kinda freaks me out. Who doesn’t love verses like 10:31: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (I thought being in God’s hands was a good thing). Oh and let’s not forget 12:29: “Our god is a consuming fire.” Mmm, peace to my soul right there.
And then all the tricky “if’s” and “how much more so..’s”
Gotta love 2:3 “how shall we escape if we negelect so great a salvation.” and 4:1 “let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to come short of it.”
Not exactly comforting, huh? I do agree with previous posters, I don’t understand it so I am afraid of it. Now whenever they quote from Hebrews at church my hubby gives me a look.
song of solomon. it’s not inherently bad or anything, but there’s some things you don’t say in sunday school, especially if you’re the teacher.
thanks to one of my high school youth pastors, I have always really loved James – he told us it was his favorite book of the bible a few times so being the easily influenced person I tend to be I entered it being like wow – cool stuff…
I will be honest – psalms can be really scary for me sometimes … they are so human and so emotional and so many of the things I fear to be.
Revelation. Definitely my #1 scary book.
I’ve never really had a problem with James though.
I find Jeremiah and Lamentations and Isaiah also kinda scary. I mean, they’re really long books and not so easy to understand…
I love the book of James. I revisit it fairly often. Great morning reading, when I am preparing for action.
but i LIKE James! i vaguely remember telling someone i James was my favourite book…i weally weally like James…
now Lamentations is another story..it is so…depressing! and Chronicles..all those people! names and names and then some more names! and there are two of them! 1&2 chronicles!
i was about to add Joel, but theres a verse there i really dig so..:P
however! Paul and i don't seem to see eye to eye
still don't discriminate against his books though 
At one point before I committed my life to Christ, I was curious about the Bible and was attending church. I read Leviticus…I was upset by it, I thought, no one told me I wasn’t supposed to eat pork, sacrifice, etc….and hey wait.. No one else is doing this either. Are they frauds? Did I miss something?
Luckily, I got up the nerve to ask a pastor. His answer didn’t make me feel any better or really explain much, but he asked if I had read Matthew. Then it ALL changed.
I still avoid Leviticus when I can.
My fear of James is more man-made. My Eighth Grade Bible teacher at the Christian school I attended spent most of that year teaching us James verse-by-verse. He was a kind man, but had one of those stiff, military approaches to teaching. I still vividly remember watching a fellow student attempting to snooze, while my teacher walked around the room saying “Consider it pure,” and then leaned into my classmate’s year to yell, “JOY!!!!!” Even today, whenever somebody begins to recite that verse, I automatically sit up, become more alert, and pay attention.
a few months ago, i felt like God was telling me to read james, like all of it.
i didn’t know why until i finished. so i guess most of the time, i don’t like reading james because he’s right, and i don’t like being wrong about m’self (which is something i’m growing okay with)
Romans, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of Calvinism, and I'm always halfway-afraid when I read it it's going to turn out that I'm wrong for not being in agreement with Calvin.
You can imagine from that (well, maybe) that I'm not really afraid of James at all. In fact I've still got a good few pieces of it memorized.
That could be an interesting post topic- being afraid you'll have to turn Calvinist/arminian/creationist/pentecostal/(insert theological identity here)