A Review of Joyce Meyer’s “Ephesians” and “James” Bible Commentaries
Words about the Word
The epistles of the New Testament have always been problematic for me, because of their knotty language. I really need a translator (a good guide) to suss out what some of the writing is getting at, and particularly with the case of Paul. I find Paul to be incredibly verbose, writing as though he’s trying to impress someone important, so I honestly have trouble with his words. Well, Joyce Meyer has come to the rescue. She’s starting a new series of Biblical commentaries, and her take on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is one of the books, with the book of James, written by Jesus’ brother (or half-brother, depending on what you believe) as the other volume in the series to get the commentary treatment.
How do the books work? Well, each book is divided into chapters based on a theme. A choice quote or quotes from the letter (aka Bible book) — presented in chronological order as it appears in the letter — is used, with the Amplified Bible proving to be the source text. Then Meyers steps in and does her unpacking for each section of verses being quoted from, and there’s usually a question that allows readers to reflect on how the passage relates to them is included.
So how do I feel about these works? So far, I’m divided. Meyer clearly knows what’s she’s talking about, albeit it is from a very conservative, evangelical standpoint. However, Meyer does have deficiencies as it’s clear from reading these books that she hasn’t studied the languages on which these books have been based. Instead, she heavily relies on the Amplified Bible translations, which are a troublesome chore to read because they’re full of parenthetical statements and alternate synonyms of words used, so Meyer has her biases in selecting from translated versus original texts and the astute progressive reader would be one to be aware of them.
If I can continue to speak in generalities of these two books, I found that the questions Meyer asks of the reader are very surface based and don’t really invite any opportunity to reflect deeper on the source text — which is something I’ve seen done in other books of this ilk. Basically, what you get with Ephesians and James is the Joyce Meyer Show. (Questions asked of the reader include, “Do you know who you are in Christ” and “Are you using the gifts that God has given you for the benefit of the kingdom?” I’m not sure how these questions really dig all that deep.) These books are largely her own interpretations of the Biblical books in question, with no ifs, ands, or buts. In these volumes, Meyer talks a lot about being true to God’s Word and not being inerrant to the Biblical texts. I had a bit of trouble with that, because — you know — the Bible can be interpreted in any way you want to, really, so one person laying claim to what is “correct” and “true” is a bit of a foolish endeavour. Meyer spends some time wringing her hands over the fact that there are thousands of denominations of Christianity all with their own flavours. I wish she had spent more time trying to hold hands more with all these various branches of Christianity and treat them all as being “right” in their own way, rather than trying to hammer home her own views that hers is the only true flavour of evangelicalism. (Which points to a larger problem I have with evangelicals, that they always must be right, but I digress.)
I don’t want to be too critical of these books, though, because I did find them useful. Even though there were points in these books where I clearly didn’t agree with Meyer — the fact that she considers things in today’s word as “lifestyle choices” that are really sinful behaviours in her view is telling — it was useful to read these books and get an opinion out of them. (That is, if you are aware of the author’s biases and are on guard not to agree with them full-on.) After having read the Ephesians book, I really began to understand why evangelicals feel the way they do, because the first half of that book of the Bible is all about God’s grace for the human sinner. You begin to get a sense of the appeal of Christianity for a certain segment of the population, and this understanding forms the basis of a great way to have a dialogue with people who are of the same religion but have different beliefs than you do. I suppose that the thinking goes if you start editing the Bible, you also risk editing the bits about how God loves each one of us — Jesus’s crucifixion as a blood sacrifice be damned — and maybe that’s where people start to get cagey about us progressives bringing the scissors to certain texts.
In any event, I found that I liked the James book better because, unlike Paul, James wastes no time getting down to the prescriptive. None of the lovey-dovey stuff about God’s love, and instead just pertinent things that the average Christian can do. Now, the book does begin a bit with some advice for dealing with trials, and I think Meyer kind of glosses things over by what is meant by a trial, because surely one wouldn’t look at a death in the family, say, as a means of making you stronger and being all the better in the end because God willed it. (In fact, to be honest, Meyer only uses the trail of childbirth as an example, so maybe even she had trouble with this text to a degree.)
In the end, even though I had issues with these Biblical commentaries, I did find things that were useful in them. I do think they could have gone into things a little more in depth — I’m now coming to understand how Meyer has written more than 100 books (by writing them quickly) — but as short, little declarations on what it means to be a certain kind of Christian, they work. I think they’d make great gifts to the new evangelical Christian who is still coming to terms with their newfound religion. There’s stuff to admire about these books, even if you don’t subscribe to Meyer’s worldview at all. I’m glad to have read them. I come away from them with something — a new understanding of why certain Christians are the way they are — at the very least. And that’s something, shrug.
Joyce Meyer’s Practical Insights for Everyday Christian Living: Ephesians, A Biblical Commentary and Practical Insights for Everyday Christian Living: James, A Biblical Commentary will be published by FaithWords on March 5, 2019. These books were provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
