About two weeks before we
finished reading through and studying Galatians, I began talking to
Jesus about which book of the Bible he wanted me to read through
next. I want this to be different. I only want to go where he leads,
not where I feel like I'm being blown as if on the wind and
definitely not where I lead. My leading only takes me to dead ends
with no future. And so God told me. I felt an overwhelming answer:
James.
I peeked through I and II
Peter anyway, thinking maybe one of those would be a better place to
go (because, you know, I'm a slow learner apparently). I even briefly
considered Acts or Romans (Jesus wasn't really saying James, right?),
but alas, I was drawn back to James over and over again. Are you
sure, God? I don't know much about James! Yes, James is the one.
That was what I felt like he was whispering to me. And so we are
going to start here, with an introduction to the book of James.
I
started by reading through several introductions in several different
Bibles. One was a
Hebrew-Greek Study Bible;
another was a Chronological Bible. I also looked at the introductions
written in a Mom Bible and a copy of The Message. Each one contained
a few things that were the same and acknowledged a few things that
were up for debate by "the experts."
I even read through some commentaries and articles about who James
was and why he wrote this epistle.
Who
wrote the book of James?
There were a couple of guys
named James listed throughout
the New Testament. One was an apostle of Jesus- one of the twelve in
fact. But experts agree that this book can't be written by him as it
was written after his martyrdom in 44AD
(Acts 12:2).
The
only other James who is famous enough to be able to address a letter
as simply "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ"
without any other clarifying statements is James, oldest half-brother
to Jesus (check out Matthew 13:55 to see that reference) and son to
Mary and Joseph. Initially,
James didn't believe his brother's claims to being the Messiah (John
7:5, Mark 6:4). Honestly, if you thought about it, would you? If
either of my brothers tried to tell me that, I'd struggle to believe
it too. I would want to see it with my own eyes. So
no judgment from me on this one! But
that's just the thing, isn't it? Faith is believing without seeing.
Still, Jesus is pretty awesome and understanding of our human nature,
because he actually does show himself to James after his
resurrection.
And
after he saw him resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:7), he changed his
tune! Again, wouldn't you? Paul certainly did after seeing him on the
road to Damascus, remember? But I digress. After seeing Jesus risen
again, James was in the upper room with the other disciples when the
Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1). He then became a leader in the
church in Jerusalem (check Acts 12:17 and look back at Galatians
1:18-19 for references to this fact)
thereby becoming well-known enough to address his letter "James,
a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."
When
was James written? That
isn't entirely clear. Some experts believe that it was written around
the time of the Jerusalem council in 46AD while others believe it was
closer to the martyrdom of (this) James in 62AD. Either way, it was
written in Greek "to the twelve tribes scattered among the
nations" (James 1:1), which implies that it coincides with
events from Acts 8-11 sometime. Jewish Christians were being
persecuted and were, therefore, spread out pretty far from one
another. Acts 7 actually details the death of Stephen at the hands of
Jewish leaders, including Saul of Tarsus who stood by watching in
approval (remember that later Saul becomes Paul). Jewish Christians
were dying. It was a scary time to be a believer.
It's
cool though, that what Satan intended for evil (killing Christians,
and especially
Jewish
Christians,
for their beliefs), God spun around and used for good. The Jewish
Christians were so scared about persecution that they spread far and
wide across the known world. If they hadn't spread so very far and
shared the good news about Jesus's death and resurrection, would we
know about Jesus today or would they have killed off anyone who knew
anything? God used that persecution to spread the good news of the
Messiah.
Just an observation.
What's
the main point of James? Interestingly,
James is full of great instructions for Christians. Some even refer
to it as "the New Testament counterpart to Proverbs." James
spends five chapters explaining that you need to demonstrate your
inward faith with actions on the outside. Keeping your faith inside
kills it. In fact, James 2:17 says, "faith, by itself, if it is
not accompanied by action, is dead." So the main point of James
is to teach us to not just feel our faith but to show our faith
through action!
I
am so excited to dive into this book of the Bible. I can't wait to
see all that God reveals through this study and put that learning
about faith into action (see what I did there? Faith and learning in
action? No? Okay then...). My prayer today is that God speaks through
these pages and reveals more and more of himself to anyone who reads
his messages. I am so thankful that we have the absolute privilege of
studying God's word without persecution unlike the Christians of
James' days. Have a blessed day and allow God to bless someone else
through you today as you go.
Bibliography:
1.
Aust, Jerod, Profiles
of Faith: James- Half-brother of Jesus.
Access Date: June 24, 2016. Website:
https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/profiles-of-faith-james-half-brother-of-jesus
2.
Bible Gateway. Access Date: June 24, 2106. Website:
www.biblegateway.com
3.
Zodhiates, Spiros Th.D., The
Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible.
TN: AMG Publishers, 1996.
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