Boasting is typically forbidden behaviour.  The thing boasted about can disappear in a flash. Then what?  Giving God or anyone else a hallel (from the Hebrew verb halal, he praised) is also highly recommended.  It brings honour to God when someone boasts about divine attitudes and actions.  Compliments of our peers are also highly valued.  Here are a few examples.

• Mary is a poet whose work you should read
• I yell to God for help and he answers me
• The elders will vindicate the righteous person

When you have only two witnesses

Since the word for boastful pride – alazonEIa – appears only twice in the New Testament we have to carefully draft the lexicon entry for it.  When the translation varies we have one simple problem, but when the writers diverge significantly, as do James and John, we have some explaining that goes beyond translators’ preferences.

Let us read James 4:16 as “you boast in your boastful prides” and 1 John 2:16 as “boastful pride is not of the Father”.

Conversely we could propose that James 4:16 says “you boast in your arrogances” and 1 John 2:16 says that “arrogance is not of the Father”. 

There is something shady with making plurals of concepts like hatred, honesty, righteousness or gentleness. How many kinds of hatred might there be? How does that matter to those charged with guarding society from hatred?  Is there a version of gentleness that people need to be aware of? It is highly improbable that arrogance or empty boasting comes in designer or perpetrator versions.

We are not covering for the bigoted Pharisees

Since we are not writing lexicons, but rather interpreting a pair of sentences, we can extrapolate from the theological priorities of our two writers. James, a Pharisee and strict follower of Moses, has an interest in labelling behaviours for the purpose of indicting people. The law of Moses is not setting anyone free from their trespasses and violations. John, a dedicated companion and witness of Yeshua’s majesty, has an interest in setting buoys to help people steer clear of the rocks that can stymie Christian growth.

If James were telling his audience about the Advocate they have in heaven one might understand the dire consequences of “arrogances”, or deeply entrenched arrogance. Is God counting sins? The raised head of arrogance or boastful pride grieves God, and we can be sure that our resident Help, the Holy Spirit, is always pointing the way to the healthy patterns of living the eternal life God gives.

It is not only the racist, “small government for a huge country” club that looks back for the time they want to bring back.  All the religious movements of the last three centuries have either fabricated a conversation about what God takes pleasure in or they have presumed not to take ancient writings as settled spiritual nourishment.  They all major in minors: patriarchy, misogyny, food and drink, impoverished observances and rituals, shadows instead of substance.

We cannot improve the church

We can make ourselves grow at a faster rate by being more diligent to study God’s word and work for others’ advancement.  We can lose weight, gain weight, stop behaviours, start behaviours, fast or feast.  The church will always be an organism with weeds and grain.  The church will always be a graphic representation of God’s Son in his incarnate majesty, composed of both divinity and humanity. Since we are incapable of making one lock of our hair black or white it is futile to talk about bringing back the church from some kind of catastrophic fall.  Nothing prevails against the Church.

MAGA is a dying dog

Used to be great? What happened? Someone will have to explain what is great about males circling wagons to deny women to their place in society. The Taliban will never be the benchmark for a decent society, no matter what miracles or how many wise prophets they pull out of their hat.  Some nations and tribes would like us to believe that their thousands of years were not sufficient to put a cap on hate, corruption and bigotry.  When the record smacks of conspiratorial malevolence three strikes are too many, and another kick at the can for any such perpetrator is not in the cards.  We do not imagine Israel revisiting Sinai or the Plains of Moab to rewrite the covenants.  Americans have shown that they are not ready to stand up for their Constitution. The greatness that comes out of looking back had to be catastrophic.

Many believers have been bullied into believing that the Mosaic law and the arguments of the Pharisees are paramount.  Christ has certified that Moses had no heavenly bread and that both Moses and the prophets lose their edge with his arrival.  So let us visit again the typical approach to righteousness. We will never have any righteousness for which we can take credit.  Righteousness, whether our status or behaviour must be attributed to Christ’s intervention and gift.  We must lay to rest the anxiety surrounding proving to God and our fellow pilgrims that we are obedient to the Law. Since the Law did not give us righteousness we should not expect it to maintain the righteousness that comes to us as a gift.

No debt we can pay

“Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.”

Romans 4:4, NASB

Do we owe our fellows a show of loyalty to Moses and the prophets?

Grace sits opposite debt.  Ofeilema is “what is owed”. The gift does not arise because of a need to have a performance of any obligation.  We can surmise that this saying of Paul is not a polemic against James, but Paul was  personally familiar with James’ bullying of the church. God did not need to see works to justify Abraham, therefore Abraham was not made just by works.  His works are like ours: good and bad.  He was not a sinless man, just a man  justified by grace through faith. James demands a show of works while never acknowledging the atoning and forever efficacious sacrifice of Christ.

Do we owe God obedience to Moses

We can get ourselves bogged down in the hundreds of demands and prohibitions of the law and not show the excellence of Christ, which we must all admit is a deep seated love. Loving the Law does not bring peace. Genuine peace arises beyond our understanding, and is the foundation of God’s  mercy and grace.  We can keep festivals, sabbath days and be loveless. We can eat vegetables and shun deeds of kindness to undeserving people. If there is a royal law it must be the one that reflects the very heart and soul of God in love’s supremacy.

Even the most unprincipled people claim works as righteousness

Ignoring all the evidence from Abraham , David and the prophets we dare to say

• righteousness is through compliance with statutes and judgments
• righteousnessness IS compliance with statutes and judgments.

Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness  (Romans 4:9b)

τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἡ πίστις εἰς δικαιοσύνην.” (Romans 4:9b, MorphGNT)

Not reading Romans 4:9b as FAITH IS RIGHTEOUSNESSNESS is the result of corrupt intent to propose that Christ cannot be greater than Moses. The fact that Christians have survived all attempts to silence the message of salvation testifies to the simplicity and clarity of grace and righteousness as gifts.

August 25, 2023

When Israel revamps its judicial system Moses (you may have thought that he was dead) will open one eye and say “Do I know you?” There would be no avalanche of despair, no hurricane of outrage, because Moses has long been a shaky booth for his most dedicated followers.  The recent large public demonstrations against the Likud coalition government are the symptoms of a global fear of tyrants posing as democratic and benevolent beacons.  Israelis are not going to watch the commonwealth created by Mosaic law disappear into an abyss of inclusive politics.  The signs are multiplying that Israelis are fed up with a dozen parties pushing ultra patriot and ultra religious beliefs towards the centre of public life.  The commonwealth of 12, 10, or two tribes really died a long time ago, but the Balfour Declaration resurrected the dreams of European powers. Is it not incredible that after 75 years the state of Israel has been unable to create a stable society with both Mosaic Law and democratic institutions? It surely is. Let the kissing begin: bye, bye, Israel commonwealth.

6) Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, 7) Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, 8) Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest. 9) How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 10) A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest– 11) Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.(Proverbs 6:6-11, NASB)

Proverbs

Who might the wise man have had in mind? Obviously someone who thought that human governments were the slippery slope. We have never been as organized as the ants are and as long as organization of our food and housing are the subject of unresolved debate and official minority opposition the ants will put humans to shame. Republicans, fascists, all kinds of patriots, and religious bigots will never have the privilege of saying honestly and factually “The smaller the government footprint the better the lives of all the people”. They are mentally and physically lazy, definitely not ants.