279 THE IMPLICATIONS GRACE THE ETHICS JAMES OF FOR OF brought into this by the very creative word of God. The flow of the text clearly links the logos with the law in 1,22-25 and declares it something not only given and implanted (1,18.21) but also something that needs receiving and obeying (1,21-22) 18. Because God is the one who willingly chose to redeem his people, he also is the only one with the right to judge. James makes this very clear throughout the epistle. God is described as the “One Lawgiver and One Judge ” in 4,12, the only one with the right to judge people’s actions. There he places the eıv into the preliminary emphatic position, focusing ü the attention upon this singularity: God is not only one, i.e., undivided and indivisible in his role as Lawgiver and Judge, but more importantly he is the only one who stands in those roles 19. This role as Judge is the only characteristic of God that people are warned against imitating. Just as one cannot replicate the Lawgiving, one logically also cannot replicate the Judging, since no one has the power “to save and destroy” 20. Chapter 2 makes quite clear that people instinctively fail to judge along God’s standards, for God has chosen (ejelejato) 21 the “poor in ß ¥ the eyes of the world” 22, a rather poignant reminder to the very people whom God chose according to 1,18. The audience, however, prefers the wealthy and the beautiful, thereby proving themselves “judges with evil thoughts ”. Ultimately, God judges with what might be a surprising amount of grace, as is proved in 2,12-13. There the audience is told first to James sees several purposes for the logov : by it the people were (re) ¥ 18 born (1,18), it was implanted in them in this rebirth process but they still need to somehow “receive” it (1,21), and ultimately it then requires active obedi- ence (1,22-24). Without obedience, the receiving is questioned and the im- planting denied, thus calling into question the very rebirth process itself. Likewise, within the hearing/obeying pericope of 1,22-25, James makes a smooth transition from logov to “law” (nomov), which then carries the dis- ¥ ¥ cussion onward into chapter 2. MOO, James, 199 , calls this “the unique right of God himself”. 19 This warning may have had initial foreshadowing in 1:19 when James 20 warns his audience to be “slow to anger, for your anger does not produce the righteousness of God”. Presumably the audience fails to become angry about the correct things, but instead works out their own selfishness and greed when they are angry. Gossip, slander, and complaints against one another are all problems throughout the epistle and give further evidence of a judgmental attitude revealed through speech. BADG, 305, notes eklegomai may have a reflexive note to it: “to pick ߥ 21 out someone or someth., choose (for oneself)” and “to make a choice in ac- cordance with significant preference, select someone/someth. for oneself”. The translation offered here for t√ kosmw views it as an ethical dative. ¥∞ 22 See the discussion of the options in BLOMBERG – KAMELL, James, 112-113.