James reflects both features of Hellenistic paraenesis and wisdom instruction, but its contents owe more to the latter. The work can be seen as a "countercultural" wisdom instruction containing various aphorisms, aiming to challenge the hearers' worldview and to reorient them to the values acceptable to God. The concern of perfection comes at the prologue and the epilogue, which forms the
framework from which James is to be understood. The units 2:8-13, 3:13-18, and 4:11-12, which link the seemingly unrelated adjacent sections together, reflect similar arguments. The perfect law of liberty and the wisdom from above, and ultimately God the Lawgiver and the Judge, are the yardsticks by which one's speech and actions have to be measured and judged (1:19-25). The preeminent concern of our author is the importance of the perfect law with its fulfillment bringing about perfection, freeing one from the power of evil desire.

Author - Luke Leuk Cheung
Foreword - Richard Bauckham

"Cheung has mastered both the literature on James and that on the relevant Jewish and Hellenistic backgrounds. He has provided a creative new look at the problems of genre and structure that have plagued the study of James. His contribution is a welcome one, which we will be digesting for some time given the significance of his proposals and the extent of his evidence. This work will be required reading for any future scholar wishing to write on James. Hopefully it will lay to rest some of the misperceptions that have been foisted on James ever since Luther."
—Peter H. Davids, The Vineyard Church, Stafford, Texas
"There are emerging signs of a renewal of interest in James and in the place that this work occupies in our understanding both of early Christianity and of the traditions of Jesus. Yet scholars still find it difficult to describe a coherent argument for the work. Luke Cheung makes an important and original contribution to the appreciation of James by demonstrating the significant role attributed to the Shema in its argumentative structure. He relates the appeal to wholehearted commitment in the Shema to the call to perfection in James (in contrast to 'doubleness'), and in doing so also seeks to clarify the vexing relationship between Torah and wisdom in the work. Readers will find this a challenging and enlightening study packed with detail but revealing a helpful new approach to one of the New Testament's most difficult works."
—Ronald A. Piper, University of St. Andrews

The Weakness of the Law by Jonathan F. Bayes
The Genre, Composition, and Hermeneutics of the Epistle of James by Luke Leuk Cheung
Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission by Robert L. Plummer
The Voice of Jesus by Stephen I. Wright
Eve: Accused or Acquitted? by Joseph Abraham
Secular and Christian Leadership in Corinth by Andrew D. Clarke
Old Testament Story and Christian Ethics by Robin Parry
Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Temple in the Gospel of John by Paul M. Hoskins
God, Pharaoh, and Moses by William A. Ford
Paul and Conflict Resolution by Robinson Butarbutar
Surrendering Retribution in the Psalms by David G. Firth
Saint Paul as Spiritual Director by Victor A. Copan
Word-Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry by Nicholas P. Lunn
Spirit and Kingdom in the Writings of Luke and Paul by Youngmo Cho
Lukan Theology in the Light of the Gospel's Literary Structure by Douglas S. McComiskey
Joseph, Wise and Otherwise by Lindsay Wilson
The Triumph of Grace in Deuteronomy by Paul A. Barker
The Comical Doctrine by Rosalind Selby
'Hell': A Hard Look at a Hard Question by David J. Powys
"But God Raised Him from the Dead" by Kevin L. Anderson
The Significance of Salvation by George M. Wieland
On the Road Encounters in Luke–Acts by Octavian D. Baban
Between Horror and Hope by Sorin Sabou
The Three Gospels by Martin Mosse
When Will These Things Happen? by Alistair I. Wilson