#518. Being slightly terrified of certain books of the Bible.

If you’re a Christian and someone mentions they’re studying the book of James, you have to go a little green in the face and say, “Ugh, James.” You have to commiserate with that person immediately and tell them that you’ll pray for them as they wander through that devastatingly difficult book. Once you’ve done that and said things like, “That book will mess you up,” you can move on to saying the other thing everyone says about James: “It’ll be interesting to see if you think James’ ‘faith without works is dead’ contradicts what Paul says in Romans.”

You might not have an answer for that yourself, but it’s good to at least say that, because you’ll look holy and mildly interested in the book of James.

Despite the bad rap it’s gotten, James isn’t so bad. It kind of reads like a New Testament version of Proverbs with loads of practical advice. It has beautiful reminders of God’s love like 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

And James even sneaks some pretty hilarious stuff in there. For instance, in chapter two, the two people he references as examples of individuals of faith are Abraham and Rahab. One was the father of Israel and one was a prostitute. If he had written it as “Abraham and Moses” we all would have read that verse and thought, “Oh sure, those two guys are all-stars. They’re like the Michael Jordan and Larry Bird of the Old Testament.” But he didn’t. He covered such a wider perspective of life and what it means to be a Christian by saying, “I have two examples of amazing people for you: Abraham and a hooker.”

Plus, James taught me a lot about blogging. Some of my early posts took some cheap shots at people and took shortcuts to easy laughs at other people’s expense. Then I read James 4:11: “Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.” Yikes. I stopped the personal attacks.

And when people hate on the site, my first inclination is to quote Fabulous and say, “Naw, I ain’t had a brush with beef yet, some of ya’ll wake up hatin’ and ain’t brushed your teeth yet.” But then I remember James 5:9, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.” Instead of jumping into a grumble fest and arguing in elaborate detail that I do not in fact suck, I move on by the hate mail, realizing that God is not a huge fan of grumbling. (I’m still working on this one.)

That willingness to get funky with his Old Testament hero selection and the blog advice is enough for me not to get queasy when I hear James mentioned. I’ll probably still pull out a courtesy cringe for you if you mention you’re going to be reading it, but inside I’ll be thinking, “You’re going to love that book.”

Am I alone in this, or are you afraid of the book of James too?

What book of the Bible still strikes terror into your heart at the mere mention?