The Book of James – Week 10
Tonight during our small group prayer time at 7:30PM, we will continue a 12 week series studying the book of James. The outline we will be using can be found in a book written by Greg Gilbert and can be purchased online for your personal use. See the link below for tonight’s outline.
James is an intensely practical book, filled with exhortations to Christians about the way they should live their lives now that they have been given new life in Jesus. It is filled with allusions to and quotations of the teaching of Jesus, and it includes more imperatives (commands) per word than any other New Testament book. For these reasons, James has been called “the Proverbs1 of the New Testament.”
James is therefore highly relevant to the Christian life. Unlike many of the other books of the New Testament, James’s aim is not to give a theological pre- sentation of the gospel. Rather, he writes his book to those who already believe the gospel, and his goal is to help them live faithfully as followers of Jesus. There are many different and seemingly disconnected themes in James—per- severance under trial, riches and poverty, wisdom, the danger of the tongue, prayer, and faith and works. But what ties them all together is James’s desire to take the teaching of Jesus and apply it to the Christian’s personal life.
We pray that God will use this study to make a difference in our lives.
Week 1: Overview and The Testing of Faith (1:1–11)
Week 2: The Process of Temptation (1:12–18)
Week 3: Hearing and Doing the Word (1:19–27)
Week 4: The Sin of Partiality (2:1–13)
Week 5: Faith without Works Is Dead (2:14–26)
Week 6: Taming the Tongue (3:1–18)
Week 7: The Cause of Quarrels (4:1–12)
Week 8: Sins of the Wealthy (4:13–5:6)
Week 9: Patience in Suffering (5:7–12)
Week 10: The Prayer of Faith (5:13–20)