The book of James and the LRC

[ZNPaaneah]

Why I love the book of James. The book of James is written “to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad”. This book is written right at the beginning of the New Testament, the transition from the Old Testament to the New. Imagine how disruptive that is, to once feel that you were God’s special, elite, chosen race and now all of a sudden you have to reject much of what you gave your entire life to for so many years. You didn’t eat with Gentiles before, now you do. You used to teach that the proper ground to worship God was in Jerusalem, now you realize it is in your spirit.

Witness Lee taught that writing to these believers indicates James was not clear on the New Testament. I would completely disagree with this. Instead I would say that this verse indicates James burden is with those having trouble making that transition. You can imagine that if you came out of a group as abusive as the Old Testament where they literally crucify trouble makers, stone them and excommunicate them all the time, that there might be some with the burden to help those having trouble with this transition make it. I feel the burden of the book of James and the burden of this forum are the same. Posting on this forum is not evidence that you cannot make the transition from the LRC but it is evidence that you have a burden for those making this transition.

Then James says “count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations”. This is my experience on this forum. How many different or diverse experiences do we get to hear. Experiences going all the way back to Mainland China in the 1930s to the present. Experiences within the LRC and experiences of those leaving or wanting to leave. It is a joyful experience if you know one thing: “that the trying of your faith worketh patience”. This is a virtue that is greatly undervalued in our society. Nobody extolls patience, and as a result we rarely ever see a “perfect work”. If you want to have a perfect work, a work that is entire and wanting nothing, then you need patience. This to me is the first lesson from James that I take away from my experience in the LRC. The LRC, like the Old Testament, wasn’t a perfect work, it was incomplete. But you couldn’t get to the New Testament without first having the Old Testament, and I am not going to get to the New Jerusalem without first having gone through the LRC, so these experiences are working patience. You can’t be an expression of God without it.