Introduction to the Letter
These are difficult times. In some ways, we have never experienced a time like this: a pandemic and global economic crisis. Racial tension and the calling into question some of our social fabric over such issues as police brutality. Climate change. Loss of jobs. Loss of mobility. Loss of friends and loved ones through sickness, distance or even death.
These are indeed difficult days.
Hardships produce something in us that should be the longing of all of our hearts: maturity.
But we must remember that this is not the first time in history there have been difficult days. If we look back at what those born in the early 1900s had to face, we realize that many have struggled through a lot more than have we.
And right in the first few verses of James chapter 1 we see that, as Christians, we may indeed want to and need to embrace difficult times. Hardships produce something in us that should be the longing of all of our hearts: maturity. What a peculiar people that would embrace difficulties because it would help them to become all that they were intended to become!
In the very first verse of this wonderful letter, James tells us so much about what is to come. Here are a few glimpses: James: Who He is James was the brother of Jesus. Can you imagine having to grow up with Jesus as your big Brother? Would your mom, Mary, treat Jesus any differently than she would treat you and your siblings? There must have been a high level of sibling rivalry in that household.
James knew that the story of God and His people was on full display through Jesus
We know that during Jesus’ ministry, His family was not always pleased with the way Jesus conducted Himself. No doubt it brought some level of embarrassment to the family. The gospels tell us that there were times when they begged Jesus to come home to rejoin the family business. We might guess His answer to that: “I have a different family business to take care of.”
It was not until after His resurrection that things changed. We learn that Jesus went to James and showed him who He really was. James was convinced. He had met the risen Lord Jesus Christ face to face. And everything changed. James became an apostle and the first leader of the church plant in Jerusalem. This church would be the heart of the early Christian movement, and for the first number of years, make all of the crucial decisions as this new movement got its legs. And James was the leader of all of this. Jesus: Who James Thinks He Is It is clear what James thinks of Jesus. From sibling rivalry to servant. He was not a slave, but a servant. He owed his very being to Jesus. He would willingly submit because Jesus was indeed God. He was divine. He was Lord and King. He was Leader. He was the promised Messiah. He was… the ultimate big Brother. Now all of James’ life would be dedicated to telling others about who Jesus really was, and to helping others hear that Jesus was the fulfillment of all that the Jews had longed for during their history. Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for, who would redeem His people and set them free. The Jews: Who James Writes To James was a Jew through and through. Of course he was Jewish in nationality and culture, but he was a Jew in the way he thought and the expectations he had. His conversion to Christianity did not make him less of a Jew, but more of a real Jew. And he was now determined to help others to see what he had seen: the risen Jesus and who He was.
All of his life James had been taught to build his life on a firm foundation. The book of Proverbs— the wisdom literature—was crucial to this. But now he was able to make sense of his Brother’s teaching, and put it into context. Jesus had not been teaching something that stood in opposition to all that they had been taught in the synagogue, He had come to fulfill it all.
And James wanted his fellow Jews to understand… and to live it out.
But now the Jews were facing hardships in so many ways. What was worse, those who had heard the message of Jesus and had decided to live in the way of Jesus were persecuted and displaced from their homes, their families, and their livelihoods. These were indeed difficult days.
But James knew that the story of God and His people had not been disrupted by Jesus, but was on full display through Jesus. There was not a new story to be told, but a continuing story that now had purpose and fulfillment. The Qumran community told the story with an emphasis on the covenant between God and His people. The Rabbis interpreted the story with an emphasis on the law. But James knew that the story was true if told in the light of Jesus and His teachings. And that is what he wanted to communicate to all of God’s people, including us.
The Letter: What He Says As with any letter, sending greetings is of course polite and the thing to do. But for James it was also to identify with the reader, and to assure the reader that what was to come had the utmost importance.
For too long he had seen the pharisees believe the right things but act in opposite ways. It was time for God’s people to act out what they said they believed. It is much better to put into action all that you say you believe, even if others see you as a peculiar people.
This letter not only informed the early church, but has as much to say to us today as it did to God’s people then. We have been shaped by our culture and the world’s view of what makes life to the fullest. But James encourages us to step back and to put into practice the teaching of Jesus if we really want to live. Life is not based on the comforts of the world, nor the social structures. Life is found in the life and teaching of Jesus, who was the fulfilment of all that the Jews had been promised. He indeed was and is the Way, the Truth and the Life.