Reading James will also remind us of the corporate dimension to our faith. This is not a letter to be read and applied individually in the privacy of your own home. I should apply what it says to my own life but I should also, all the more, see it as something written for whole churches to hear and put into practice together.
We shouldn’t just be looking at the state of our individual hearts. Rather, the question we need to ask is whether our local church congregation is characterised by true, living faith or are we a people of mere lip service to Jesus? Is our church humble, reliable, prayerful, compassionate? This means that a church may appear to have all of the right doctrines, may be lively in worship and active in evangelism but like the church in Sardis that John has a letter from Jesus to, then the risk is that we are part of a dead or dying church. James’ letter should be seen not just as a wake up call to individuals but to churches as well.
Faithroots 