"The gravest wrong is constantly done to James, even by evangelical preachers, when they regard James as a preacher of morals who insists on works to save the soul. They imagine that he follows the teaching of the Jewish rabbis. Yet James has just said: “Receive the implanted Word!” (v. 21) and no one receives it except by faith. He has just said that this Word saves your souls, and it does that by faith. Moreover, it is the gravest misconception to imagine that being a doer of the Word is to be a doer only of works. To be a doer of the Word is to do God’s will, and his Word and his will is “that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life” (John 6:40). To do the Word is to believe it for the saving of the soul. The Word ever asks for faith and intends to implant faith. The Sermon on the Mount is often regarded in the same wrong way. It is thought to inculcate law and not Gospel. But its very basis, the Beatitudes, is pure and wondrous Gospel, and its whole framework is the same. Note the Lord’s prayer, seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, the tree that must first be good before good fruit follows, etc. James preaches faith as fully as Paul, and he does so right here."
From: Lenski. The Epistle Selections of the Ancient Church: An Exegetical Homiletical Treatment: A Series of Epistle Texts for the Entire Church Year. 1935/2021 LutheranLibrary.org “Rogate”
