λογἰζομαι (logizomai) can be taken a number of ways
- to determine by a mathematical process (reckon, calculate, count, take into account, evaluate, estimate, consider)
- to give careful thought to a matter (think about, consider, ponder, let one’s mind dwell on)
- to hold a view about something (think, believe, be of the opinion)
Paul and James had two different reasons, two different audiences they were addressing.
Paul (Romans) had the Gentile Catholics in Rome who were losing confidence that they were really the Church. He wanted them to “hold the view” that they were acceptable to God, being that they, like Abraham, took God at his word as delivered to them by the apostles, of whom Paul was the chief apostle to the Gentiles. He maintains that God holds this view about them, so they should give no credence to the Jews who claim ancestry and religious practices performed are what require God to accept you. (different kind of “work” than what James lists).
James’ readers are Jews who are beginning to see the “free and easy life” of being Catholic rather than the old Jewish requirements. His challenge was to show that faith dwells not simply in the intellect, but in the whole of the soul, which also includes the will. There is the understanding that I choose to believe what Jesus reveals, and it is Good to be united to Him (intellect) and there is Love for Jesus (appearing in the Will). The Will is not at rest until one is united to what one loves, so this Faith, in the whole of the soul (understanding and will) results in the will “moving” or “animating” the body to do the works which join me to the Beloved. Abraham picked up his things and left for Hebron, the place God would show him, to be where his Beloved Friend of the Promise would be awaiting him. But James is speaking (hypothetically) of a person who says he has faith, but just sits there, not jumping up to unite to his true Love. His “faith” is not Infused in his soul, not fully saturating all of his soul, not in his will. You are not a friend if you don’t go and be with your friend. Abraham was with God, and God, looking at him,** reckoned,** “This is my friend, I will be a faithful friend to him in my understanding and in my will”.
But with the “hypothetical” man of faith, he never came to be with the God he has “faith” in, so when God looks, he does not see this “hypothetical man” and has no one in his presence to justify. James wants his readers to fall in love with God, and not see him as a single portion of a multi-faceted world, that you will give some thought now and again.
