In the final chapter of A Theology of James: Wisdom for God's People, Christopher Morgan draws out "four broader aspects of James's message that are particularly timely for today's church." He is speaking with particular reference to the "evangelical" church and, as you will see, to the Reformed wing of things at one particular point. And it seems to me that he was seeing things aright when he wrote in 2010. His word has not become less timely ten years hence. The chapter from which these applications come is titled "James for the Twenty-First-Century Church." Here are, in summary, those four aspects, with my brief comments added.
First, we need to align with how "James views truth holistically. His holistic approach can serve as a helpful corrective to our contemporary false dichotomies or polarizations. Many evangelicals today have a tendency to separate such things as love for God and love for others, faith and works, evangelism and social ministry, and theology and practice. In contrast, James sees that these things function together."
Next, from "James we also learn that Christianity brings a reversal of values. Reflective of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, James notes this reversal in a number of areas. . . . Churches and church leaders have a tendency to reflect the society around them, but James presses us to think and act differently. After all, we are a part of a new society, the community of Jesus."
Third, Morgan points out the right emphasis of the importance of covenant theology among the Reformed, but he likewise brings in a right word of correction: "I fear that we do not sufficiently stress the importance of covenant faithfulness. The covenant is a helpful paradigm for understanding biblical theology, but it also makes demands on us. James continually presses the importance of our faithfulness to God."
Lastly, he stresses James' view of the church. And, in my judgment, this is one of those areas where we need the greatest reform. Evangelicals have not done well with thinking through a healthy ecclesiology; instead, we've often adopted the world's models and methods for running the church. But what we need to do in repentance, according to Morgan, is take care to think about "what the church actually is" from the book of James. The church, according to James, is "an eschatological covenant community that exists in the already and the not yet and thus displays . . . the arrival of the kingdom through its relationships to God, among its members, and to society."
Now if there is one thing the evangelical church doesn't do very well—it is being distinct, you know, salt and light. She's lost her saltiness. At least here in America, she blends right in with her environs and tastes like everything else. James calls this "friendship with the world" and "enmity with God" (4:4). She's specialized in being so much like the world for decades now, and her impotence is on full display for those with eyes to see. But if she is going to recover the full-orbed gospel and bring kingdom norms to bear for the sake of potent witness to the kingdom of God, she is going to need to display how the city of God differs from the city of man. James, Morgan stresses, helps us a great deal here.
—Christopher Morgan, A Theology of James: Wisdom for God's People (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: R&R Publishing, 2010), 187-189.
