I’ve started a five week study on the book of James at Hebron New Life. This introduction to James will set the tone.

James was most likely the younger half brother of Jesus, a child of Joseph and Mary. James was not a believer during the public ministry of Jesus. After the resurrection of Jesus he became a follower. He was among those awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Jewish historian Josephus mentioned his martyrdom which occurred around 62 A.D.

The subject matter of James moves quickly from one subject to another and has practical application for today. He encourages, rebukes, and exhorts believers in a series of moral warnings.

James Chapter One –

The four major themes in The first chapter of James are: adversity (trials), temptations, listening vs doing, and true religious worship.

This book was written to Jewish Christians and the first theme is that we should find pure joy in our adversities and trials (James 1:2). Wow! That one is hard to swallow. Why? There is no way anyone can avoid or escape trials, afflictions, and suffering. But for a Christian it is a test of our faith that “can” produce perseverance/endurance and character, if we keep our faith in Jesus. But it doesn’t always work out that way does it? I think we lose sight of the bigger picture. I’m not saying we should do cart wheels when we’re suffering but as we work through things it will produce endurance and endurance will produce “proven” character.

The second theme is temptations and we all suffer temptations; sexual, greed, power, cheating, etc.  James makes it clear that God does not tempt anyone but we are tempted by our own evil desires. Of course the enemy, Satan, tries to pile it on. I Peter 5:8 describes Satan, our adversary, as a roaring lion seeking to destroy us.

The third theme is listening vs doing. As Christians we hear a lot messages and teachings, we read the Bible for instructions about righteous living, and hear from other sources about the right thing to do. But listening and actually “doing “are two different things. I think parents know this all to well in that difficult task of raising children. But we adults do the same thing, in one ear and out the other, often with no affect on our “doing” the right thing.

The forth theme is true religious worship. James puts it very simply, Watch what you say, take care of the oppressed (example of widows and orphans), and keep morally unblemished.

James Chapter 2 –

The four major themes in the second chapter of James are: Favoritism/Partiality, poor vs rich, the royal law, and faith vs deeds.

James is direct in everything he writes, no exceptions here. The first theme is we are not to show favoritism/partiality to those who have a favorable outside appearance; wealthy, well clothed, polished, well spoken, etc. as opposed to poor, not well dressed, unsophisticated, or backwards. That is the wrong type of judgement. John 7:24, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgement.”  I grew up in a working class (poor) family and by the friends and family my grand-parents associated with I learned not to discriminate. In elementary school, for gym time, we often square danced for exercise.  We had to partner up. There was one girl who always was left to the end. She was tall, a little over weight and not pretty. So I decided that every time I got the chance I would choose her. That was something my Christian grand-parents taught me by their actions and not by their words. Have you ever been discriminated against because of your looks or social standing? It’s not right. We must look at the inside and not the outside of a person.

Woven in with the first theme is the second theme the rich (or the powerful) vs the poor (who have no power). I’m sure James didn’t mean all rich people show partiality but just look at the financial scams that have take place, think Bernie Madoff. Take a look who are usually the victims. Most often it’s the poor, or working class or elderly. There’s more about this in chapter five.

The third theme is about keeping the “royal” law; “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you’ve shown favoritism you’ve broken that command. And James goes on to write if you’ve broken one command you’ve broken them all. Sounds harsh. The law and commands are sorta like a contract. If you have broken one element of the contract you have broken the whole contract. Good thing we have God’s grace and forgiveness or we would all be in trouble. But let’s be careful how we judge each other. James writes that it’s more important to show mercy than to judge. Remeber mercy is defined as not getting what we do deserve.

The fourth theme is Faith vs Deeds. This is a tricky one. A person who is justified (saved) by faith must have good deeds/actions that follow. If they don’t, that faith is DEAD. The word in the Greek can also mean “inactive”. My best friend and I retired at the same time. We made plans and promised to see or speak to one another every week and we did for quite a few years. However, as the years went on we spoke and met less and less. There were some good reasons for this but our relationship became “inactive”. We might see or talk only several times a year. Some might say our relationship is dead or on life support. Our relationship with Christ cannot and should not come to a halt and become inactive. The question –  is can we fall from grace? I’ll try to answer that after chapter five.

James Chapter 3 –

The two major themes in the third chapter of James are: Taming the Tongue and Two Kinds of Wisdom.

The first theme is the importance of “Taming the Tongue”. How many of us have regretted something we said? All hands will go up. I remember at a retirement party for a friend I said something a little “off-color” and wanted to reach out and grab those words before anyone heard them. Ever feel like that? Fortunately for me my friend and I had a great relationship and all was forgiven and forgotten.

But the words we say can cause great harm, injure, poison relationships and start a process whereby many people can be harmed. Why do we do this? Many times we just don’t think about the ramifications of what we’re about to say. Sometimes we’re trying to be funny or get attention.

Example, World War I was started by words, in this case words that were in treaties. So in the end, a small quick war over a minor land dispute got turned into a lengthy war that was joined by powers all over the globe due to a variety of existing treaties (words) dating back as much as 75 years before the war started.

James writes about how a small tongue can cause such great damage. His analogy is how a great forest fire is started by a small spark. Marriages and relations are brought to an end, people are murdered, and emotions are damaged all because we cannot control our tongue. The same tongue can praise or curse people. He warns about the great power for misuse and evil. Let’s all step back and think before we talk, after all God gave us one tongue and two ears. We should listen (and think) before we talk.

The second theme is “Two Kinds of Wisdom”. The person who is humble will show their wisdom and understanding by their good life, by mercy, by impartiality, by our peace, by being reasonable, and by our kindness. A wisdom that is not boastful or prideful. There is another kind of “wisdom” that is boastful, arrogant, and selfish. This is often characterized by the “I’m always right and you’re always wrong”.

Since James is writing to Christians he warns them that if you can’t keep your tongue in check, your religion is worthless.

James chapter 4 –