"마음에 심긴 도를 온유함으로 받으라"

"Humbly Embrace the Implanted Word": James 1:21b as the Theological Focal Point in the Epistle

'Faith and Work' is not the only, and perhaps not the main, theological thread in the letter of James. Recent scholarship pays more attention, in their seeking any theology of James, to chapter one rather than two. The legacy of James chapter one for its foreshadowing function to the rest of the letter enhances the plausibility of the theological significance of 1:12-15 in which the salvation is depicted in terms of the conception and the begetting, and more importantly with the verses 18 and 21 as its grand conclusions. This article seeks the deeper meaning and its full implications of the phrase, τὸν ἔμϕυτον λόγον first of all in the literary context and secondly in light of its possible backgrounds such as 1Peter 1:23-25, Isa 40:6-8 and Jer 31;33, the new covenant. Conclusively, this paper reaches to the conviction that James 1:21b can serve as the sum of its theology('implanted word') and the foundation for the following various ethical paraenesis ('humbly embrace it'). The 'implanted word,' in light of 1:12-15 and 18, is the will of God involving both his sovereign desire to save us and his laws to guide us to bear the fruits of the righteousness. This seed('spora') of the Word of God, by itself entails the power of God to save the people born of 'the word of truth'(1:18). And at the same time, James encourages the 'dia-spora'(1:1) to bring out the life of the seed/word through the much emphasized 'endurance,' only to reach the fullness of its goal, which means also the fundamental cure for the 'divided heart.'