281 THE IMPLICATIONS GRACE THE ETHICS JAMES OF FOR OF the passage is that his people can trust God not only to give his wisdom generously but also to right the wrongs that oppression wreaks in this world. This theme appears most strongly again in James 2,1-7 with the au- thor’s frustration at the discrimination his audience is exhibiting, and also in James 5,1-12 with the woe oracle against the wealthy and the encoura- gement to the oppressed to persevere. In a theological framework in which the Lord works to rectify wrongdoing and oppression, the idea that the Lord is near (5,9) would indeed be a comfort—or a warning. Another area of James’ theology is God’s nature as pure, single- minded, and in opposition to all things tainted and duplicitious. We see this first introduced in 1,6-8 with the warning that God will not honor the prayers of the dıcyxov. The problem is simply that they stand in opposi- ¥ tion to God’s nature as the “single-minded” giver. The programmatic statement in 1,27 teaches that God desires worship from those who care for the widows and orphans and “keep themselves unstained by the world ”. Lockett argues that James understands the kosmov as the entire ¥ “ world-system ”, the entirety of a culture’s values in which people are embedded and by which they are unconsciously shaped. This cultural system is, however, one of antipathy to the divine value system 26. In 4,4 James makes his strongest prophetic statement about this when he de- nounces : “adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world (kosmov) is hatred toward God?” Attraction to this world leads repeatedly ¥ to “instability”, chaos, and even death. In contrast, the wisdom of God is described as primarily “pure” in 3,17, and out of this purity the other traits of divine wisdom then flow. Davids contends that the “purity” of 3,17 is a participation in God’s own purity of character marked by un- mixed obedience to God’s commands and service to God alone without compromise to the culture 27. The believer ought to strive, then, for both moral purity from the kosmov and for purity of attachment to God and ¥ God’s ways alone. In this purity each is to endure and hold fast, so that all can win God’s approbation. To summarize, then, James’ main theological points are as follows: God is the generous giver (1,5) before whom all are leveled (1,9-11) and who rewards the faithful (1,12). James 1,17-18 provides the theological underpinnings for all that James later commands: God is the Father who gives manifold good gifts to all, but particularly to his own whom he has chosen through his grace to bring into his new creation. He opposes the proud and the double-minded, and he cares for the poor. Throughout the epistle, God is the just Judge of his people who will judge them based on D. LOCKETT, Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James (London 26 2008) 117. DAVIDS, Epistle of James, 154. 27