James is a hard-hitting book. It’s an in-your-face kind of book. He wrote it to shake his readers out of an anemic “faith” that leaves Jesus on the shelf of religious knowledge where he has little to no impact on the way we live.

James isn’t void of theology, or truth about God, by any stretch. Yet his main focus is squarely on how we should live in light of who God is. It’s an eminently practical book, an application-oriented book. From the very beginning of chapter 1, James wades through a pile of real-life issues like suffering, decision-making, money, speech, relationships, temptation to sin, and prayer, showing us what it means to follow Jesus.