Preaching James: Walk The Walk

INTRODUCTION

James 1:1

1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

James is a wonderfully practical book that challenges us to live out the Christian faith.  It’s a short book (a short letter really), just five chapters and one hundred and eight verses.  It’s also quite possibly the earliest book of the New Testament, written around AD 44-49.  But big things come in small packages!  James is action-packed, full of wisdom and challenge.  It is also straightforward, honest and often painful Christian teaching.

But before we go any further, just who is this guy named James?  There are four men with the name James mentioned in the New Testament.  There are James, “the son of Alphaeus,” James, “the brother John,” James “the father of Jude,” and then James “the brother of Jesus,” often referred to as James “the Just.” 

It is this last James who is the writer of this letter; James the Just, James “the brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55)” and it almost has to be this James for a number of reasons, among them the fact that this James was also leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15).  

James is described as one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:9), a leader of higher ranking than the Apostles Peter and John.  That’s a pretty big deal to be placed in a leadership position over Peter and John!

So when we read this opening verse and it simply says, “James,” without any other identifier, this has to be “the” James, so to speak, because any other James would have had to distinguish himself, identifying himself as James “the son of Alphaeus,” or James “the brother of John and son of Zebedee.”  

The writer of the Book of James is the James.  This is the leader of the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, the very brother of Christ Himself, the one Paul wrote about going up to see in Jerusalem, the one to whom he refers explicitly as, “James, the Lord’s brother (Galatians 1:19).”

Now that’s remarkable, isn’t it?  The brother of Jesus, His little brother!  Technically speaking, his half-brother, of course.  But James grew up in the same house as Jesus, sat at the same dinner table as Jesus, played in the same yard as Jesus.

Of course, James was not a believer in Jesus as Messiah in the earlier years of Jesus’ ministry.  John 7:5 says, “even His brothers did not believe in Him.”  Not surprising, really.  I mean, how would you react if your brother—the very one you grew up with in the house—began to distinguish himself as Lord and Messiah?!  James did, however, become a believer later, probably at the very moment Jesus singled him out for a special resurrection appearance (1 Corinthians 15:7).

That James believed Jesus to be Lord and God is evidenced in this opening verse where James refers to himself as both “bondservant of God,” and bondservant “of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  This latter descriptor is especially significant.  The word James uses for Lord is the Greek word “kurios,” a title of deity.  It’s the same word used throughout the Greek translation of the Old Testament with reference to the One True and Living God, the title used for “Elohim” and “Yahweh.”  Using the title here in James’ letter, then, is tantamount to saying, “Jesus Christ is God.”

So to whom is James writing?  Well, verse 1 says he is writing to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.”  The Greek reads literally, the twelve tribes, “which are in the dispersion.”  The Jewish people, originally the 12 tribes of Israel, had been dispersed or scattered all over the world centuries earlier by the Assyrians and Babylonians.  Now, in James’ day, Jewish believers find themselves scattered again, this time scattered all over the Mediterranean world, largely as a result of opposition to their faith.  So these are Jewish Christians gathering together in a number of “house churches” outside of Palestine.  

Incidentally, the Book of James is considered one of the more “Jewish” letters of the New Testament, containing direct references or allusions to 22 books of the Old Testament (that’s more than half of the Old Testament books), in addition to more than twenty allusions to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

And while James has first century Jewish believers largely in view, the Bible is applicable to all persons in any age.  All Scripture is God’s Word.  It is timeless, powerful and profitable to all who will read it and receive it’s teachings (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12).

But be forewarned: James is not a book for the weak and timid!  If you get squeamish when someone “tells it like it is,” then James is probably not for you.  If you want someone to sugarcoat difficult truths, then you will wince when you read James.  James is continually “in our faces,” calling for authentically Christian living.  James presents us with a “no-holds barred,” straightforward teaching of Christianity 101.

James addresses issues like spiritual snobbery in the church, worldliness among Christians, and unconcern for the poor and destitute.  He rebukes us for our favoritism and addresses our use of the tongue; how we speak to others, how we speak about others.  He is commanding!

In fact one of the more interesting characteristics of this letter is that it contains over fifty imperatives in it’s one hundred eight verses.  Fifty uses of the imperative mood!  The imperative is the mood of command.  Statements such as, “Do this,” or “Don’t do that,” are not suggestions, but commands.

For example, James says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only (James 1:22).”  Other imperatives include: Don’t show favoritism (James 2:1-4), submit to God, resist the devil (James 4:7), don’t speak evil of another brother (James 4:11), and don’t grumble against one another (James 5:9). 

So the Book of James is about living the faith.  When James uses the word “faith” in this letter (Some sixteen times), he is stressing the practical living-out of Christian doctrine.  His focus, then, is not so much upon our becoming a Christian as it is upon our behaving as a Christian.  It is principles put into practice, or doctrine on display.

As we begin our study let’s see what James teaches about how we are to live when facing the reality of trials and hardships.