James: Mirror for the Soul: Lessons from the Epistle of James

The Epistle of James displays a striking familiarity with Jesus' mind and a profound grasp of Jesus' teachings. Even James's style, beautifully concise and poetic, is modeled after Jesus' sayings. This should come as no surprise. James was the slightly younger brother of Jesus. For years they were companions in play and work and every other realm of life. James addresses a question of critical importance in our day, when many even in conservative churches are drowning in self-satisfied pseudoreligion. The question is, what is true godliness. To provide an answer, James reconsiders the virtues emphasized in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He makes godliness concrete by warning us against the many ways our lives might fail to shine with these virtues.