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Introduction and Greeting

James 1:1-2

The writer introduces himself as "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". The name James is a translation into English of the Greek "Iakobos", taken from the Hebrew Jacob (Yaakov). It was a very popular name among the Jews, and four men of that name are mentioned in the New Testament as being close to the Lord:

1. James the apostle, son of Zebedee and brother of John (Matthew 4:21). He was killed by Herod in the early part of AD 44 (the date of Herod's death), probably before the book was written.

2. James the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3). He is almost unknown except that he is in the list of the apostles.

3. James the father of Judas, not Iscariot (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13). He is even more obscure, for this is all we know of him. There is a remote possibility that he might be one of the other two mentioned above.

4. James the half-brother of the Lord. The Lord Jesus had four half-brothers, sons of Mary and Joseph: James, Joses, Simon, and Judas, as well as half-sisters (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3). Apparently they only came to believe in Him after His resurrection (John 7:5, Acts 1:14), in the case of James possibly because of His appearance to him after the event (1 Corinthians 15:7). He is almost surely the writer of this epistle, being the brother of Jude (Judas) who wrote the epistle of that name (Jude 1:1), and was regarded in his time as one of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15:13, 21:18, Galatians 2:9, 12). He was well known, and is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus and early Christian writers, being notable as a very Jewish Christian. He is extremely strict in style yet modest, since he doesn't mention his physical relationship to Christ in his letter.

This is probably the first book of the New Testament to have been written, it is calculated between AD 45 and 48. Possibly for this reason it has a strong Jewish flavour: there are frequent references to the law, which is called "the perfect law" (1:25), "the royal law" (2:8), and "the law of liberty" (2:12), portions of which are cited as instruction in righteousness for those who are under grace.

James introduces himself as a bondservant or slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the same way as Paul did later (Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1). James came to know the Lord Jesus not only as his blood brother but as his own Saviour, and then he became His bond slave.

Notice that he uses His full name, the Lord Jesus Christ:

• Jesus was His human name, and James knew Him as Jesus, his half brother; but Jesus is not just a name, but means Saviour because He would save His people from their sins.

• James also came to know Him later as Christ, the Messiah, God's anointed Envoy and Servant who had come from heaven and had given His human life for the sins of the world.

• James then accepted the deity of Jesus his brother, as the only begotten Son of God, difficult as it was for him to do so, and therefore calls Him Lord in this letter. The word Lord (kurios) is frequent in the LXX for Elohim and Jahweh. The Romans applied it to the emperor in their emperor worship. James correctly puts God and the Lord Jesus on the same level as equals, honouring the Son just as he honours the Father (John 5:23), and therefore not contradicting the statement that "no man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).

The letter is addressed to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. The expression twelve tribes has the meaning of fulness and completeness, a unity. Although traditionally the phrase meant the nation of Israel (as in Acts 26:7) it does not have that meaning here. The nation of Israel contains much in parallel with the church of Christ, and it is the latter which is meant here.

Those of the nation of Israel which were scattered abroad in the Dispersion (Diaspora) inherited their Jewish nationality from their parents, and belonged to the twelve tribes. They had been driven out of their land because of their sin of infidelity to their covenant with God, and were dispersed over the world, but mostly in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea. Those who were able to would come back from every nation to Jerusalem for the Jewish feasts, as on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). They were known as the Jews of the Dispersion.

Some people speak of the "ten lost tribes of Israel," but no tribes really got lost. God scattered them throughout the world. They did not all settle in one particular country: even now they are on every continent of the world.

Early Christians, most of Jewish ancestry, were also dispersed throughout Judea and Samaria by the persecutions of such as Saul (Acts 8:1), and we read also that they were driven to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. This was a Christian Dispersion, and the people to whom James was writing in those early days would have been primarily these.

At that time the church was made up almost entirely of converted Jews. In this letter there are times when professing Christians or even the unconverted seem also to be addressed, possibly because in those early days the rift between Hebrew Christians and unbelieving Jews was not yet an accomplished fact.

All true believers, Jewish or Gentile, are however the spiritual sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9, Philippians 3:3), and strangers and pilgrims in this world (Philippians 3:20, 1 Peter 2:11), so this letter is no doubt also applicable to us.

The word "greeting" is a rather stilted translation of a word in the Greek which literally means "rejoice" and what follows concerns rejoicing in what would not normally be considered happy circumstances.

We are to count it all joy when we fall into various trials: it is not a question of falling into sin after being tempted, but of having to face problems or tests which are permitted by God for our benefit: they produce patience. Unholy temptations, which come from within and lead to sin, are dealt with later in this chapter, verses 13 to 17.

In principle, when we are having trouble, we shouldn't lament it as if something terrible has happened to us. We are to rejoice and count it all joy that God is testing us in this way! It should be regarded as a challenge which we are quite able to stand, bringing with it a victory which can be won.

The question is often asked, however, whether the Christian is always to experience happiness in all the trials and tensions of life. There is no such promise here. We can only really and truly rejoice when we are fully reconciled to the will of God over our life.

The Christian life is filled with problems for us to solve. They come uninvited and unexpectedly, rarely singly but more frequently in droves. The question is: "What are going to do about them?"

There are various options:

• rebel against them (Hebrews 12:5), and defiantly endeavour to battle through by our own power.

• lose heart and or give up under pressure (Hebrews 12:5), which is just a kind a fatalism. It leads to questioning even the Lord's care for us.
  grumble and complain about our troubles, and we are warned against this in 1 Corinthians 10:10.

• we can indulge in self-pity, thinking of no one but ourselves, and trying to get sympathy from others.

• we can be exercised by the difficulties and perplexities of life (Hebrews 12:11), acknowledging that God allowed them to come upon us for some good purpose which we may not understand very well just now, and be happy to allow God to work out His purposes in our life. This is when we can count it all joy when we fall into various trials.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,