I always say we had the greatest discussion every each week, and today’s discussion was no exception!
Jo Ann, Karen, Dan, David, Diana, Dave, Robin, Merrill, and Nadine attended. It was Nadine’s first time joining us and it was great to have her!
My husband Dan wrote a summary below of what went on:
We read through the entire third chapter of the book of James in the New Testament. We discussed the admonition as to the importance of controlling “the tongue”, and that teachers should do so especially since they “…will be judged more strictly”. Dan brought up the saying from chapter two of the book of James “faith without works is dead”, and the idea found in chapter three of judgement. Part of the reason we decided to read the book of James was to hear a different voice in the New Testament after reading Paul’s letter to the Romans.
We got into a discussion of books that were included in the New Testament that said they were written by the apostle Paul, but most likely were written by later believers in Jesus. David discussed the practice of writing letters “in the name of” someone other than the actual writer, and compared it to the Talmud where the phrase “in the name of” is frequently used, without controversy.
From Jo Ann:
In addition to what Dan has summarized we noticed that James suggests being good. From there, we talked about people we have encountered who are Jewish who strive to live good lives. We thought about how sometimes not all Christians do good or are good. (Of course, not all Jews are good or do good either.)
It was mentioned that it seems like our temple clergy always is so positive!
I don’t remember why, but Jo Ann and Dan showed off some of their sign language skills.
Please feel free to respond and add more to this, since there was a lot discussed that was likely left out of this summary. Only two more chapters left in James!
Please feel free to respond to this, since there was a lot discussed that was likely left out of this summary.
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