The Letter of James. John Paul Heil

This book proposes a new and comprehensive chiastic structure as well as a new unifying theme for the Letter of James. In accord with this structure that organizes its oral performance, the words «worship to live by» express what the letter as a whole is exhorting its audience to adopt. «Worship» includes not only liturgical worship but also the ethical behavior that complements it, so that the result is a holistic way of worshiping God. And the words «to live by» embrace the worshipful conduct by which to live out presently one's birth to a new life as a believer before the final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the future eternal life to be granted at the last judgment as the outcome of such worship. In short, the Letter of James urges its audience to practice the worship to live by now in order to live eternally.