The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude

Book excerpt: This is a Bible commentary for the Epistle of James and Jude. The Epistle of James is a general epistle and one of the 21 epistles in the New Testament. Framing his letter within an overall theme of patient perseverance during trials and temptations, James writes in order to encourage his readers to live consistently with what they have learned in Christ. He condemns various sins, including pride, hypocrisy, favoritism, and slander. He encourages and implores believers to humbly live by godly, rather than worldly wisdom and to pray in all situations. The second epistle discussed in this book is the Epistle of Jude, which is the penultimate book of the New Testament as well as the Christian Bible. It condemns in fierce terms certain people the author sees as a threat to the early Christian community, but describes these opponents only vaguely. According to Jude, these opponents are within the Christian community, but are not true Christians: they are scoffers, false teachers, malcontents, given to their lusts, and so on.