James and Peter Overview

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As I have explained in the past, one of the reasons I am doing this blog is I am curious to see what kind of messages one might get from reading the bible. What might one learn as a take-away. Here is my quick summary of the good and bad from James and 1 & 2 Peter.

I'm continuing my efforts to organize and categorize the items here. Coming up with the right categories is more difficult than I had expected, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I will start with the categories that have all good items, next show categories with some good and some bad items, then finish with categories with all bad items.

Good

--Anger and Communication--

J 1:19 Be a good listener and be slow to anger

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;"

--Authority--

1P 2:13 Follow all rules of earthly government

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution..."

1P 5:2-3 Leaders should lead by example, and shouldn't be in it for personal gain.

"shepherd the flock of God...not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock."

--Interpersonal Conflict--

1P 2:1 malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander are all bad things.

"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."

1P 2:12 Act in an honorable manner even in the face of slander.

"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

--Lies, Selfishness and Jealousy--

J 3:14 Lying, selfishness, boasting, and jealousy are bad

"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth."

--Love--

J 2:8 Love your neighbor

"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well."

1P 4:8 Love has the power to repair rifts caused by sin

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins."

--Meekness, Pride and Humility--

J 3:13 Show your works through meekness

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom."

J 4:6 pride is bad, humility is good.

"Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"

--Patience--

J 5:7-8 patience is a virtue

"Be patient, therefore, brothers...8 You also, be patient..."

--Thoughtfulness--

J 3:10 Be careful what you say, you can do a lot of damage with a thoughtless word

"From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so."

--Values--

1P 3:3-4 spend time developing a good personality and not just outer beauty

"Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-- 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

1P 3:8-9 sympathy, love, humility, turn the other cheek

"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling...

1P 4:9-10 Help each other out

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another..."

2P 3:14 Be good and at peace at all times

"Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace."

Good and Bad

--Faith--

J 1:6 Skepticism is bad

"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."

J 2:14 Do good works, faith is not enough

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?"

J 5:16 Prayer is powerful if you are righteous enough

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

1P 1:8 believe in Jesus despite a lack of evidence

"Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him..."

--Prejudice--

J 2:3-4 Don't treat poor people worse than you treat rich people.

"if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place,"while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"

J 2:7 Rich people are blasphemers

"Are [rich people] not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?"

1P 4:3 Sex is bad, drinking is bad, and all non-Christians do it

"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry."

--Suffering--

1P 3:17 Do good, even if you risk personal suffering

"For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

1P 4:1,13 suffering (for Christ?) makes you sin free

"...for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin"

"But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings..."

1P 5:9 If you are suffering, you are not alone

"...knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."

Bad

--Apocalypse-- 

J 5:3,8 the end is near!

"...You have laid up treasure in the last days."

"...Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."

1P 4:7 the end is near!

"The end of all things is at hand..."

--Fear--

1P 1:17 You should be ruled by fear

"conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile"

--Justice--

J 2:10 All crimes are equal

"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it."

1P 2:18 Slaves, respect your masters even if they are unjust to you

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust."

--Knowledge--

2P 3:8 God can't tell a day from a millenium

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

--Marriage--

1P 3:1,5 wives submit to your husband no matter what they do

"Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands..."

"For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands"

--Obedience--

1P 1:14,22 Obedience is of supreme importance

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance"

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth..."

2P 2:9-10 lust and lacking obedience are the worst offenses of the unrighteous

"...and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority..."

--Sexuality--

J 4:4 You are evil people (probably should reference whole section)

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

1P 4:3 Sex is bad, drinking is bad, and all non-Christians do it

"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry."

2P 2:2 sensuality leads to blasphemy

"And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed."

2P 2:9-10 lust and lacking obedience are the worst offenses of the unrighteous

"...and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority..."

2P 2:18 bad people use sex to trick believers away from the faith

"...they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error."

--Slavery--

1P 2:18 Slaves, respect your masters even if they are unjust to you

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust."

--Stacking the Deck--

J 1:13,17 God takes credit for good and distances himself from bad

"Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one."

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

J 3:15 God gets credit for good things, absolved from bad things

"This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic."

2P 1:3-4 God is the source of good stuff, bad stuff is from earth

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness...escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire"

--Wealth--

J 5:4-6 All rich people are evil

"the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud... You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence...You have condemned and murdered the righteous person..."

1 Peter 5

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Shepherd the Flock of God (v. 1-11)

The elders are encouraged to lead the flock of God willingly, not through compulsion. Don't do it for gain, but to help people. Don't be a domineering leader, but instead lead by example. If you are younger, you should humbly follow the elders. If you are suffering, know that it won't last forever and there are other people all over the world dealing with similar problems.

If I wanted to really get nit-picky, I'm sure I could find some stuff to complain about here. But I think a fair reading of this section is pretty much all positive. Only lead if you really want to, not for personal gain, lead by example. Younger people listen to the elders. If you are suffering know you aren't alone. Really seems like a bunch of good stuff to me.

Final Greetings (v. 12-14)

Just a goodbye, nothing much here

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

5:2-3 Leaders should lead by example, and shouldn't be in it for personal gain.

"shepherd the flock of God...not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock."

5:9 If you are suffering, you are not alone

"...knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."

1 Peter 4

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Stewards of God's Grace (v. 1-11)

Jesus suffered and so should you, for if you suffer in the flesh you will cease from sin and you will live the rest of your live for the will of God rather than for human passions.

Here we go again, suffering for sufferings sake. Jesus suffered so you should too, what the hell kind of message is that? Futhermore, what does this even mean? From v1 "for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin". does suffering in the flesh not mean what it sounds like? Because I'm pretty sure that every suffers in some manner. Some people have chronic pain and suffer all the time, is it impossible for them to sin?

Guzik argues that we are talking about suffering for Jesus' sake. If you suffer persecution for the sake of Jesus, it will change your outlook on sin. He also quotes Grudem who said "Whoever has suffered for doing right, and has still gone on obeying God in spite of the suffering it involved, has made a clear break with sin." I don't see any reason to think this is true. I guess it falls back to the definition of "suffer for Jesus" and we are open to the no true Scotsman fallacy, but I find it hard to believe that suffering for Jesus would keep your from sinning forever.

We are passed the time of doing what the gentiles what to do (living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry). When you do not join them they will malign you.

So much wrong in so little space. First, he is implying that all outsiders do these things all the time. Second, he's saying that sex and alcohol are inherently bad. Taken to extreme they can cause some problems, but they can be very good things. And why would they malign you for not joining in? Sometimes people can be a bit pushy trying to get everyone in the party to have a good time, but I don't think they'd malign them. I suppose people would argue that times were different back then.

They will be judged by Jesus, who judges the living and the dead. The gospel is preached to even the dead, so that even though they have already been judged in the flesh, they might live in the spirit as God does.

This is interesting, the gospel is preached to the dead as well. They are talking about dead people who were judged, it sounds like they were judged poorly (last verse we were talking about people who died in the great flood) and yet there is the hope that they will live as spirits the way God wants. Where are these spirits? I think it's pretty obvious that the view of the afterlife from these people is much different from what we think of today. Clearly you can't be Godly if you are being tortured in hell, and if you are in heaven you are already being Godly. I'm guessing their image of the afterlife is more like Sheol.

I honestly tried really hard to find an answer to this in the Christian commentaries. Guzik said nothing useful, I looked at Gill's and came across a wall of text. If you scroll down to verse 6, there is just a huge paragraph which seems to go on and on about all of the groups of dead who this verse does not apply to. I could try reading it again to better parse it, but fuck it, this particular chapter of the bible has be doing enough of that already.

The end is near, so before that happens you should continue to love each other and be hospitable to each other. You all have gifts, use them to help one another.

This is generally a message of generosity, which is good, but it is also saying the end is near, which was obviously incorrect.

Guzik says that if you believe that you live in the last days, then it is appropriate that you should give yourself over to prayer. However, he hilariously ignores the fact that 2000 years have passed and the end has not come.

Gill talks about a few different ways to interpret this, from the perspective of a single person, the end is death. It could be various states, or the world, or the universe. He said those could be said to be "at hand" because "because that was the last time, and the last dispensation of things", so I guess he's saying that God has come down directly for the last time so any time after that counts as "at hand", seems very shaky to me. But then Gill gives everything away by saying the following:

whereas they knew not the exact time when it would be, they frequently spoke of it as near, in order to stir up the saints to the more diligent discharge of duty, and fervent exercise of grace

And that is really the whole damn point, isn't it? The religious leaders of the time were talking about the apocalypse to manipulate people, and the same thing happens even today.

Love one another earnestly, as it covers a multitude of sins.

This confuses me somewhat, I like that the message is to love one another, that's good. But reasons are important, and it seems to be saying that you should do it to cover up sins, which love is good at doing apparently. I suppose another interpretation could be that the covering of sins is the rationale for giving the instruction and keeping the idea in our heads, but we shouldn't love each other because it covers sins. I'm not really sure how much I like that explanation, but it is all I can think of, and it is the only way I can reconcile loving earnestly and "because it covers sins".

Guzik's take on this is that love will heal wounds caused by sins. For example, if I have sinned and caused a rift between us, love has the power to heal that rift. I actually like that interpretation.

Show genuine hospitality to one another and use your personal gifts to help one another.

This sounds good.

Suffering as a Christian (v. 12-19)

Rejoice if you share Christ's suffering, but none of your should suffer for doing bad things. "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and God rests upon you"

This is the same old thing, suffering itself is talked about as a good thing. You are blessed if you suffer for Christ. I am fine with putting yourself in danger of suffering for the sake of Christ. And if those people wind up suffering they have done a great thing by risking danger for their morals. But the fact that they actually had to suffer should be seen as a bad thing. Necessary perhaps, but the actual suffering should not be a positive.

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

4:8 Love has the power to repair rifts caused by sin

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins."

4:9-10 Help each other out

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another..."

Bad:

4:1,13 suffering (for Christ?) makes you sin free

"...for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin"

"But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings..."

4:3 Sex is bad, drinking is bad, and all non-Christians do it

"For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry."

4:7 the end is near!

"The end of all things is at hand..."

1 Peter 3

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Wives and Husbands (v. 1-7)

Wives should "be subject" to their husband, even if he doesn't obey the word. They should see your good conduct and be won back over to the lord. You should submit to your husband as Sarah obeyed Abraham.

Nothing surprising here, just the same misogyny as we've seen a number of times. I wonder, if you are a good Christian woman, how do you wind up being married to a man who isn't? Did she choose poorly when marrying (or possibly did her father choose poorly) or has a good husband fallen away from the faith? At any rate, this is ridiculous as usual, is the wife supposed to submit no matter what? Does this include if he is beating her? It's also interesting why the wife should do this, she is supposed to submit and be good so that her husband can be saved. All of the focus is on him, it really shows where society was at the time.

From Guzik: "This submission isn’t a reward for the husband’s good behavior, it is commanded by God as the proper order for the home." I'm not sure what to add here, these ideas from the bible are clearly holding us back as a society.

Then I saw this from him "Wives may want to shape their husbands - either to Christ or in Christ - through their words. Peter reminds them that God’s plan is that wives impact their husbands not through persuasive lectures, but through godly submission, chaste conduct, and the fear of God." I had to go back and look at the verse again, and sure enough it says that women should win their husbands over without a word. Guzik seems to interpret this to say that women should shut up. And you know, this seems to be consistent with other teachings of the bible.

Don't focus your attention on your outward appearance, you should develop your inner beauty.

This is good advice, of course the text is talking about developing spiritually, but I think it is easy enough to take it as developing a good personality in many other ways as well. 

Husbands should understand and honor their wives, for they are weaker than you.

Same old thing, wives have to submit, husbands have to 'honor'. Problem is, honor can mean almost anything, so ultimately the man can do whatever he wants. "I beat my wife to teach her what is right so she will act properly in the future, in this way I have honored her." 

Suffering for Righteousness' Sake (v. 8-22)

You should all have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil.

Other than the unity of mind, I like all of these things. Unity of mind might sound good on the surface, but it is important for everyone to think for themselves.

It is better to have a good conscience and suffer for doing good than to do evil.

Usually I am against the ideas of suffering offered up in the bible, but that is because the suffering itself usually takes center stage. Here, we aren't talking about suffering for its own sake, we are talking about doing good in the face of evil and if suffering happens, so be it. This is a good message, stand up for your principles even if you face negative consequences.

Jesus also suffered, he died and was revived in the spirit, then he went to talk to spirits in prison because they did not obey. When Noah was preparing the ark, God waited patiently to save those 8 people while he flooded the rest of the world. Baptism corresponds to this even.

So yeah, this last paragraph is a little hard to parse. The punctuation is all weird and the ideas jump a bit. It goes from Jesus to Noah's ark to baptism without catching a breath. I don't really get the whole thing, but I think the basic idea is that Jesus suffered so you can too. If I'm wrong here feel free to correct me.

Guzik suggests that Jesus is talking to spirits who have been imprisoned since the great flood. He is preaching to them because they didn't have a chance to be saved back then. That makes a little bit of sense, I guess the prison is supposed to be hell, or purgatory, or something. Too cryptic to be useful as far as I'm concerned. 


For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

3:3-4 spend time developing a good personality and not just outer beauty

"Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-- 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

3:8-9 good values

"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling...

3:17 Do good, even if you risk personal suffering

"For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

Bad:

3:1,5 wives submit to your husband no matter what they do

"Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands..."

"For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands"

1 Peter 2

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A Living Stone and a Holy People (v. 1-12)

If I'm understanding this correctly, this section is a metaphor of the building of the church. The congregation are the living stones and Jesus is the cornerstone.

Seems like a fine metaphor to use, when we talk about creating any group we talk about building it, building a community for example, why not use the metaphor of actually building with stone? There are a couple of verses I wanted to single out and discuss.

v1 "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."

We are off to a good start in this chapter, here's a bunch of things that are bad for you, and bad for the church if you are a part of it, don't do these things. The only thing I will add here, is that it might be tempting to complain that this is obvious, but I think that would be misguided. Even if something is obvious to you, there is value in having it pointed out. Perhaps you know something is bad, but you might do it anyway without thinking about it too hard. Then if someone makes a point of it you might reevaluate and correct your own behavior.  

v12 "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

I'm honestly not even really sure what to make of this one. We start with a command to be honorable, which sounds good. But then these people are going to call you evildoers anyway. Alright, fair enough, there's a group of people who are going to hate you anyway, but even in the face of that you should be a good person. But then it says they will see your good deeds and glorify God. It would seem to me that they can either call you an evildoer or they can recognize your good deeds and glorify God, but how can they do both? Perhaps it has something to do with that "day of visitation". I don't really know what that means, is that when they die? Maybe that is supposed to be when Jesus finally comes down to those people personally. Actually that kinda makes sense, the command says be good around people even when they treat you like crap, eventually (once Jesus helps them see the light) they will reflect on their interaction with you and view you favorably. I wonder if I'm on to something here, I'm curious what the Christian commentaries will say.

Guzik seems to generally agree with this idea, cool.

Submission to Authority (v. 13-25)

It is the will of God that you be subject to human institutions as well as to God. You should do good and silence the ignorant people who speak against Christians.

This is interesting, it says you should follow human leaders. It would wonder how you could follow this verse if the human institution and the word of God were in conflict though. Obviously you would expect that the answer would be to listen to God, but how do you then follow this instruction. I suppose perhaps it lies in the meaning of "be subject...to every human institution". It would appear to me that this means to follow every rule, but is there another meaning that I'm not seeing? 

Servants should be subject to their masters even if they are unjust. Jesus suffered even though he didn't deserve it, you should follow in his footsteps. It is a good thing if you suffer, you should be like Jesus and do not get angry or threaten in return.

First of all, what does 'servant' mean? It might mean slave, I looked at different translations and some say slave instead of servant. Some say household slaves or domestic slaves. I can't believe I'm going to write this, but the slavery itself is somewhat beside the point here, the bad thing is that the servants are supposed to be good to their masters even if they are unjust. What the hell?

As always, it is interesting to see how a Christian would try to defend something that is so obviously terrible. Guzik says the following "If we must endure hardship because of our Christian standards, it is commendable before God." Here is the good ol' Christian persecution complex again. But I would argue that what he is saying isn't even in the text. It doesn't seem to be talking about dealing with hardship from being Christian, it's just deal with hardship because your master is a piece of shit. Why should you have to take that?

He also quotes Meyer who said "Our case is like that of a criminal who had better bear quietly a sentence for a crime he has not committed, lest by too much outcry he induce investigation into a list of offenses, which are not charged against him, because they are not known." So basically, he's comparing this situation (being a slave with a shitty master) to a criminal who is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, but who should keep quiet because if they investigate too much they will find another crime for which he does deserve to be in jail. What a terrible analogy, the criminal deserves jail, he's just in there for the wrong thing, the slave was just screwed over by the world.

This is great, Gill's take is that the Jews thought that they shouldn't be slaves, and this verse along with others. Wow, so according to him the Jews tried to be anti-slavery and the bible put a stop to that idea. Amazing. If Gill is correct, this would have been a perfect time for an all loving God to jump on this opportunity and say "Yes, you are correct you should not be slaves to anyone. But that goes for everyone, not just you guys." Christians will often argue that slavery was just the way it was back then and it is unreasonable to think he would just put a stop to it. As terrible as that argument is, given this idea from Gill it is that much worse. Here is a perfect opportunity.

Up until the end here, I really though I was going to have a day where all of the summaries were good, and then BAM, right at the end, slavery. You almost got one through bible, you almost made it one day without being horrible.

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Good:

2:1 malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander are all bad things.

"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."

2:12 Act in an honorable manner even in the face of slander.

"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

2:13 Follow all rules of earthly government

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution..."

Bad:

2:18 Slaves, respect your masters even if they are unjust to you

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust."

1 Peter 1

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As usual, when I get to a new book, I check the wikipedia page for any interesting information about it, particularly I look at the dating and authorship. It is a letter from Peter to a number of churches, so the supposed authorship is Peter, although some people argue that someone else wrote it and put his name on it, likely some of his followers after he died. Some suggest it was written in AD 81 during the reign of Domitian, which is after the death of Peter. Others suggest that the book relies on the Pauline apostles which again, is too late for Peter. Others of course argue in favor of Peter being the author.

Greeting (v. 1-2)

Peter says who he is and that he is talking to "the exiles in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Born Again to a Living Hope (v. 3-12)

God provided us with Jesus so we could be saved, have faith in this. The prophets were not working for themselves but for you.

That seems to be the basic message here, although the actual text is quite wordy. Obviously I'm not a fan of the faith message here.

Called to be Holy (v. 13-25)

Through belief in God you can be holy as long as you are obedient and conduct yourself as God wants you to through fear.

Reading that, you might suspect I had trouble summarizing this section. It seemed to me to use a lot of words to say very little, but that seemed to be the basic idea. Obviously I am not a fan of focusing on obedience or fear. There was also one more verse that caught my eye.

v17 "if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds,..."

This isn't necessarily a contradiction, as I suppose you could be judged poorly by God and still be let into heaven, but I thought that only faith mattered, and deeds were unimportant.

For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)

Bad:

1:8 believe in Jesus despite a lack of evidence

"Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him..."

1:14,22 Obedience is of supreme importance

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance"

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth..."

1:17 You should be ruled by fear

"conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile"