Early Christianity changed the world partly through its generosity to the poor, the Jerusalem church selling possessions so no one went without after Pentecost. Consider Paul’s instructions for the Corinthians’ own collection for the saints.

Your actions betray you: what we do reveals what we actually believe far more than what we say. Consider James’s rebuke of a church showing favoritism to the rich while dishonoring the poor.

The best news the world ever had came from a graveyard, as someone once said, meaning the resurrection. Consider Paul’s triumphant conclusion to his resurrection chapter, the last trumpet and death swallowed up in victory.

James addresses the sins of religious people, a different target than Corinth’s idolatry and immorality but no less dangerous. Consider James’s test for true religion: a bridled tongue, care for orphans and widows, and a life unstained by the world.

Have you ever felt your sins are so bad God couldn’t possibly save you, or swung the other way and assumed grace means your sin doesn’t really matter? Consider Paul’s own testimony as the foremost of sinners to show how grace marks the difference between both errors.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going, though we’re always quicker to think of ourselves as the tough ones. Consider James’s warning against being a hearer only, someone who looks in the mirror of God’s word and walks away unchanged.

The damage of using God’s word wrongly is devastating: it destroys families, destroys churches, and keeps people on the road to hell, even though that same word is good and life-giving when used rightly. This opens 1 Timothy 1 with Paul’s warning against false teachers, and what actually produces real love instead.

How should we respond to trials? With cool heads and open hearts to God’s word, which is exactly the opposite of our instincts under pressure. Consider James’s call to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

The Hebrew mind was already prepared for bodily resurrection, pointing back to Enoch, who walked with God and simply was not, because God took him. Consider Paul’s teaching on what kind of body we’ll actually have in the resurrection.

Have you ever felt hurt and confused when friends seemed to be excluding you, keeping secrets, making plans without you? Consider James’s reminder that every good gift comes from a Father who does not change, especially when our trials tempt us to doubt that.