Adult Bible Study Online

Living responsibly

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Lesson text: James 4:1-12
By: Omar Eby
Email: ebyo@emu.edu

Mowing the lawn, reading the newspaper, even going to church, I find the hard pebbles of this piece of James’ epistle an irritant in the mind. James, the commentators tell us, addresses Christians in general, “recalling them from worldliness” to the moral demands of the faith. These only 60 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In that lapse of time Paul’s teaching about faith versus works gets distorted. What would Bishop Saint James say to us these twenty-one centuries later? Should we care?

An elder said: “The Mennonite (7/8/08) had many articles about peace; such matters are good,” he agreed, but added, “in their place.” Then he declared, “First we need an intimate relationship with God.” But “living responsibly” as a Christian does not place the metrics of faith and works on a continuum. Such is not what James’ epistle is about. Rather: “Faith without deeds is dead” (2:26 NIV).

Do the recent Mennonite Central Committee personnel overseas statistics hint that the current “me” generation is not “living responsibly”? That same issue of The Mennonite reports that in 1985, 496 MCCers worked overseas; in 2008 only 245. One delegate says, “We [MCC] are cash rich, but people poor” (p. 19). Or does the younger generation fresh out of college with enormous debts, settling into good jobs instead of volunteering with MCC, reflect the attitudes and nudging of their parents? Or do we keep ourselves blind from the world’s needs? Or find it easier to give money than our sons and daughters to work in those places where the world bleeds? Would the military draft aid recruitment of peace workers?

James asserts, “A friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (4:4 NIV). What is “the world”? Cocktails at nightclubs? Investment houses on Wall Street? Texas college students who want legislation that grants them the right to bear arms on campus? Christian Zionists who bless the CIA’s ongoing attempts to destabilize Iran in order to keep Americans safe from the threat of nuclear weaponry and also seize their oil fields?

“Who am I to judge my neighbor?” (4:12 paraphrase). Not I, but the words and life of the bloodied Lasmb who turned the kingdoms of this earth upside down. He judges the envious and the violent, some of whom are my neighbors when not myself?

This message relates to the Adult Bible Study. For additional information on Adult Bible Study or Adult Bible Study Teacher, send email to info@mpn.net. To order either publication call Mennonite Publishing Network at 1 800 245-7894.