When Piety Becomes Impiety

If being thought generous is more important than being generous, if gaining a reputation for prayerfulness is more important to us than praying when no one but God is listening, if fasting is something in which we engage only if we can disingenuously talk about it, then these acts of piety become acts of impiety.

The fundamental way to check out how sound we are in each of these areas is to perform these acts so quietly that none but God knows we are doing them.

From D A Carson’s meditation on Matthew 6.

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James & the Sermon on the Mount

A few years back I read a passing comment that the Epistle of James has a lot of similarities with Jesus’ teaching, specifically the Sermon on the Mount.  I started to make a list of connections, only to find that Donald Guthrie had already done it.  Not only that, but Dan Wallace posted Guthrie’s table in his introduction to James’ letter.  I thought I’d post it below for those who are interested.   

1:2	Joy in the midst of trials	Matt. 5:10-12
1:4	Exhortation to perfection	Matt. 5:48
1:5	Asking for good gifts	Matt. 7:7ff.
1:20	Against anger	Matt. 5:22
1:22	Hearers and doers of the Word	Matt. 7:24ff.
2:10	The whole law to be kept	Matt. 5:19
2:13	Blessings of mercifulness	Matt. 5:7
3:18	Blessings of peacemakers	Matt. 5:9
4:4	Friendship of the world as enmity against God	Matt. 6:24
4:11-12	Against judging others	Matt. 7:1-5
5:2ff.	Moth and rust spoiling riches	Matt. 6:19
5:10	The prophets as examples	Matt. 5:12
5:12	Against oaths	Matt. 5:33-37

There are more connections between James’ letter and Jesus’ teachings, but there is a particularly strong connection with the Sermon on the Mount.  I’ve said multiple times that James’ letters sounds the most like Jesus of all the NT writers, and this chart provides some strong evidence of this.  Any guesses why this is so?

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