This Covenant experience will guide participants in a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Bible over twenty-four weeks. Unlike the learning participants may have experienced in other groups, this in-depth study of the whole Bible emphasizes the biblical concept of
covenant as a unifying pattern through all the books in the Old and New Testaments. It underscores the unique relationship that God chooses to have with us as God’s people. This relationship is grounded in the faithfulness of God’s love and on our ongoing commitment to stay in love with God while we share signs of that love with others.
The cohosts for the twenty-four video episodes are Reverend Shane Stanford, senior pastor at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and Reverend Christine Chakoian, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest, Illinois. They will meet with a different biblical scholar in each video episode.
Each video in the coming weeks features a conversation between the hosts and a biblical scholar around the Covenant table. Their conversation is a model for the kind of learning dynamic that is central to this study.
This is Episode 15 Additional Video: James and Paul
Martin Luther thought the book of James was an "epistle of straw" because: (1) it barely mentions Jesus; and, (2) James says you are saved by faith manifest in works--not one without the other--and Luther wanted to hold on to that piece of Paul that it is by faith alone that we are saved. Even in the New Testament there is conversation among the apostles/writers about issues like this. Like any good conversation there are important points to be made on both sides. At the end of the day, neither Paul nor James would say that faith is just a matter of what you believe--faith is a matter of your whole orientation toward God and neighbor. Life would look much the same for Paul and James but the language they use differs. James misunderstands Paul if he thinks that when Paul talks about belief he's talking just about things you believe. When Paul talks about faith he is talking about a total orientation of the self toward God and that necessarily includes what you do with your life. James and Paul would both have us love God and our neighbors with our whole hearts.
Running time: 3:22
Individual video episodes are
available to purchase for streaming to computers and mobile devices from http://www.covenantbiblestudy.com/Shop.
In
addition to the twenty-four episodes of streaming video (more than seven
hours of video) are twenty additional streaming videos and ten streaming
storytelling videos from http://www.covenantbiblestudy.com/Shop.
To
stream a purchased video, login with your cokesbury.com user account, click on
My Cokesbury.com, and select Downloads/Subscriptions.
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Questions? Visit http://www.covenantbiblestudy.com/Shop
for more information.
