The beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God,” is a positive work of reconciliation. This beatitude is thus an identity-forming announcement. Due to the social dimension of the beatitudes, such reconciliation cannot refer to our relations to God; rather, it concerns relationships among humanity. Striving for peace means one’s desire for harmony and order. This requires dedication to social justice. Peace is an effort to resolve degrading and anguishing conditions arising from national and international injustice, which threatens human society with violence and destruction.
Peace includes striving for justice while making it accessible to everyone and seeking progress without exclusion or discrimination. James was familiar with these collections of Jesus’ sayings; therefore, he adapted and partially recited them for his own persuasive purposes. Justice then, is a function in James as reconciliation, which itself is a role of “loving your neighbor.” The Old Testament, which James and his readers were familiar with, has a vision of God ending all war and bringing peace.
James Fostering Economic Justice
James preserves the ruins of a different kind of battle, communal and nonviolent, where love and purity are the weapons of choice against foreign power and moral deterioration. The practices of peacemaking are confirmed by the fruits that produce righteousness. James clearly wanted social change in his listeners’ attitudes and he desired for them to begin sowing seeds that disarm conflict without any acts of violence. Economic deprivation is a major cause of homicides. Due to the rich oppressing the poor in the Palestine church, the likeliness of the poor to act out in violence increased.
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