obedience and hospitality of faith shown by the “works” of Abraham and Rahab (2:20–25); in the “endurance of faith” demonstrated by Job (5:10–11); in the “prayer of faith” offered by Elijah (5:17–18). This opening exhortation contains in compressed form each one of these themes: faith’s perfect “work/product,” endurance, and prayer. It remains to the rest of the chapter to work out the conceptual understanding of this thesis more fully. The content of James’ first exhortation, furthermore, is scarcely