An Introduction to the Book of James: Part 1 - James Lesson 1

As we wrap up 2023 and turn the corner in to 2024 I have decided to use this milestone as an opportunity to return to what we do here at GBC. I have decided to start a verse by verse study of another book of the Bible. For those of you who haven’t been here very long, that’s how we roll here. We typically study through books of the Bible, and not usually at a very rapid pace. We do this because that is the best way to learn what the word of God says to us. This is how we make sure we address the whole counsel of God’s word. This is the best way to gain a full understanding of God’s will for our lives. We just take God’s word verse by verse and seek to understand what was written to the original audience and how that translates to us in our day.

 I have waffled back and forth for several weeks over what book of the Bible I was going to do next. I want to teach the first 11 chapters of Genesis because those chapters are critical to the foundation of everything in the word of God. I want to do that at some point in the future. If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of kids around here again and that study of foundational things from Genesis 1-11 would be very beneficial for them, as well as the rest of us. If you want a proper understanding of the Bible, you must have a proper understanding of Genesis 1-11. We will come back to that at some point.

 But I have decided to take us through the book of James. I have hinted at this on several occasions so it is probably not a surprise that we are going there. What might surprise you is how we are going to start. I typically begin a study of a new book of the Bible by taking at least one Sunday morning to introduce the book. I am going to save much of the introductory material for next week because I also wanted to do a New Year’s message today. Since we are on the verge of a new year, and the new year is a good time for some self-examination and personal evaluation, I wanted to do something of a new year’s challenge to motivate you and spur you on into the new year. The problem was that I couldn’t get comfortable with anything I was looking at as a new year’s challenge, so I turned my focus on the introductory material of James.

 Then it occurred to me that I had, in the introductory material of James, something that would be a good new year’s challenge. Turn to the book of James with me. Look at just the first part of the first verse. “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…” I don’t think it is hard to see how we can get a legitimate and significant and important New Year’s challenge from those words. If you want a New Year’s challenge, there it is. Do a careful and honest self-examination of your relationship to God and see if the testimony of, not just your lips, but also your life, is that you are a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was back in June that we began our previous series on the various aspects of our new life in Christ. In the early parts of that series we looked at the true gospel message and the nature of the true saving relationship with Jesus Christ. The true saving relationship isn’t defined by believing. True salvation involves believing in Jesus Christ but believing in Jesus Christ doesn’t necessarily make one a true Christian. That is because of the nature of Jesus Christ. To be in a relationship with Jesus we must be rightly related to Him. This means that since He is Lord, we must be related to Him as Lord. Lord means “boss.”

If Jesus is Lord, and the Bible clearly establishes that He is, then who are we? What is the most common term by which those who are in this salvation relationship are called? In John 13:12-17, just after washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus said, “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” Jesus calls His followers “slaves.” In Acts 4:29 Peter call himself and the other apostles slaves. The NASB says “bond-servants” but the Greek word is “doulos.” This word is most accurately translated “slave.”

Because Jesus is “kurios” Lord, those who relate to Him will necessarily be slaves. Those who are not related to Him as slaves may believe in Him, but they are not rightly related to Him. They may know who He is, and believe a lot of facts about Him, but if we are not related to Him as Lord and live as His slaves, we are not related to Him in a saving relationship.

What did Paul consider himself to be in his salvation relationship with Jesus Christ? He was a slave. The translators translate the word doulos as servant or bondservant most of the time but the word Paul used is doulos, or slave. Peter, John, and the rest of the Apostles knew themselves to be slaves.

The word doulos and douloi, the plural form of doulos is found just about 150 times in the New Testament. This is the most common word used to describe the Christian’s identity in the salvation relationship to Jesus Christ. That makes sense if you understand Jesus as Lord. If you have a “kurios” Lord, then everyone else in relationship to the Lord is going to be a slave. One is Lord, the many are slaves.

If you truly understand the nature of your relationship with Jesus Christ who is Lord you understand that you are a slave of your Master. Just like a slave on the slave market, you were bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

If you are a true Christian you are not your own. You belong to Jesus Christ by virtue of His purchase of you. He shed His blood to redeem you. He owns you and you are His slave. A slave had no freedom, no rights, no will of his own. A slave lives totally under the control of the will of another. A slave lives in absolute submission to the will of his master. No other metaphor better describes the relationship between Jesus and His true followers.

 This is what James calls himself in James 1. He is a “bond-servant.” He is a slave. He is one whose life is under the complete control of another. Here it is interesting that he says he is a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. This tells us that he has a good theological grasp of the deity of Jesus Christ. Unless Jesus is equal with God James is making a huge mistake with this declaration. What did Jesus say about serving two masters? Jesus said that it couldn’t happen. No one can serve two masters. He will love the one and hate the other. James makes the statement here that he has two masters. He is a slave of God and he is a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can say this because his theological understanding of Jesus Christ is solid. He knows that Jesus Christ is God.

 We could stop here. This description James uses of himself is New Year’s challenge enough. Are we slaves of Jesus Christ? Does our level of devotion to Christ reflect that of one who lives only to please his Master? Do our personal interests take a back seat to the interests of our Lord? Do we live to do the will of our Lord? Or do we simply give lip service to the one who is Lord? Do we live for our own interests? How much do we really live as a slave of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ?

 That would be a fairly significant New Year’s challenge, and we could stop here, but we won’t. There is more to be gleaned from this introductory statement in James. So who is this man James? How did he come to write this letter? How did he come to be a slave of God and of Jesus Christ? As we answer these questions we will see how he further serves as a good New Year’s challenge for us.

 There are a few possible identities of the man who bore the name James. There was a man named James, the son of Alphaeus, who was one of the Twelve. He drops out of the biblical record completely, so it is unlikely that he is the one who wrote this letter. Because he was one of the Twelve he went on to have a ministry as one of those sent to preach the gospel. He will rule in heaven as one of the Twelve over the nation of Israel and he has a wonderful place in eternal glory, but we don’t know much about him. It is unlikely that he is the author.

 Another possibility is James the brother of John. These two men were sons of Zebedee and they were given the name “sons of thunder” by Jesus. While John lived a long life and went on to write a considerable part of the New Testament, his older brother James was martyred by King Herod. The record of his death is found in Acts 12:1-2. This happened probably around A.D. 42. His death occurred too early for him to have written this letter.

 Because the man named James that wrote this letter was so well known that he only needed to identify himself with his name, the James who is the most likely candidate to have written this letter was James the half-brother to Jesus. Jesus was Mary’s firstborn. She had other sons and daughters after giving birth to Jesus. Turn to Mark 6:1-6. James was the oldest of the step siblings to Jesus. Paul mentions James in Galatians 1:19 and specifically identifies him as “the Lord’s brother.” Galatians 2:9 identifies James as being a reputed pillar of the church, along with Peter and John.

 The biblical record of James in the New Testament is very interesting. He was, during the earthly ministry of Jesus, not a believer in Jesus. Despite having grown up with Jesus in the same family, James was not convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. I am guessing that this was something Mary did not commonly assert to the rest of her children. She knew this to be true because this had been told her by the angel Gabriel. She was probably a wise mother, not wishing to show a lot of favoritism. John 7:5 says of Jesus, “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” James was not a disciple of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. He didn’t even believe in Jesus.

 So how does he go from not believing in Jesus to becoming one of the reputed pillars of the church? Turn with me now to Acts 1:12-14. Here we have Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers together with the followers of Christ who were assembled in the upper room. What has happened? The brothers of Jesus have come to believe the truth concerning Jesus. They have become convinced that He is their Messiah. They have chosen to be with the Apostles of Jesus Christ. James has become a redeemed follower of Jesus Christ.

 What happened to convince James and his brothers of this truth? It was the fact that they were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus. Because they were with the disciples who were gathered in the upper room in Acts 1, I think they must have been among the group who were present when Jesus ascended into heaven as recorded in verses 6-11 in Acts 1. Paul mentions specifically that Jesus appeared to James in 1 Cor. 15:7. The scriptures do not tell us for certain, but it would have been reasonable that if his brother was being put to death, James would have been there with his mother when Jesus died. He saw Jesus die and was thoroughly convinced that He was dead. He later saw Jesus alive and knew He had been resurrected from the dead. Being a witness to the resurrected Christ convinced him and he was converted and became a follower of Christ.

 Not only did James become a follower of Christ, he became a prominent leader in the church at Jerusalem. In fact, he is the one who presides over an important church counsel in Acts 15. The church was flourishing. By the time of Acts 15 it may well have been that close to 20,000 people had come to faith in Christ. In a very short time James had matured in the faith and was playing a prominent role in the leadership of the church.

 By the way, he was not a Apostle. He was present when the Apostles chose a replacement for Judas, but James wasn’t even considered. Although not chosen as an Apostle, James still flourished spiritually, matured quickly, and rose to prominence among the first church in Jerusalem. If there is any conclusion we can draw from the biblical record of the life of James, it is that he was an example of a radically transformed man.

 Here is the next point of a New Year’s challenge. As you look at your own life and evaluate where you are in your relationship to God, and assess what you might need to be improving for the next year, it might be that the most important place to start is in your relationship to Christ. James gives us ample evidence that the life of a follower of Christ is a radically transformed life. Is your life a living testimony of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ? If not, you don’t need to make a New Year’s resolution to try harder. You need to make a confession of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

 Why would I think there was the need to extend a challenge like that in church? Especially a church with as faithful and committed as this church family appears to be? Because I can’t possibly know for sure about any individual’s relationship with Jesus Christ. There are many imposters in the church. There have always been tares sown among the wheat in all churches. Satan’s most effective strategy has never been to convince people to hate God. His most effective strategy has always been to convince people they are in a right relationship with God when they are in fact lost.

 James knew this. In fact, the purpose of this letter was to help Jewish “believers” figure out whether or not their faith was real. We will get into a little more of that next week, but this letter is a lot like 1 John in that it gives us the basis for examination and evaluation of the reality and validity of our faith. Careful examination of our own hearts and lives is something we should never fear. If our faith is real and our conversion is valid, we will see the evidence and we will be convinced. If the evidence is lacking, we should certainly be concerned.

 James does not speak of the doctrines of salvation such as the atonement, or the crucifixion, or the resurrection, or regeneration. James is writing to “brethren.” He assumes that these people already understand those things. James is writing to challenge those who have believed in the message of the gospel to examine their lives against the evidences of the transforming power of the gospel. 

 In this book we will see the evidence for the transforming power of salvation. The transforming power of salvation will change the way we respond to suffering, and temptation, and respond to the word of God, and love. A life transformed by the gospel will produce good works that verify the validity of faith. A transformed life will control the tongue, acquire godly wisdom, avoid worldly indulgence, live in trust and dependence upon God, patiently endure hardship, walk in truthfulness, be marked by prayerfulness, and demonstrate true faith. There is your 10,000 feet overview of the book. The entire book is a description of a truly transformed, regenerated, born again Christian. Our New Year’s challenge will last until we are finished with the study of this letter.

Measure the reality of transformation in your own life against what is evidence in the life of James. He went from a self-righteous, lost, deceived, and unredeemed Jew, to a follower of Christ who became an influential, prominent, important leader within the church. And this happened in a relatively short amount of time. I would say that this provides the grounds for our next challenge for the new year. What kind of spiritual progress are you making? If you are thoroughly convinced of salvation, what does the progress of sanctification look like in your life?

If you were to chart the spiritual progress in your own life, what would it look like? I think we all would admit that our progress looks a little like a roller coaster. Hopefully it is more like the little kiddy coaster than the giant crazy ones. Hopefully there are small drops and big gains. What do you need to be doing to accelerate your spiritual growth? I pray that none of you are simply coming on Sunday and waiting for me to feed you all the spiritual nourishment you need. I hope you are in the word of God every day. I hope you are searching out the truth of God’s word for yourself. I hope you are pursuing a deeper understanding of the word of God and the nature and character of God and your salvation.

If you are not already involved in a plan to systematically read through the Bible this next year, then get involved in one. We don’t demonstrate our love for God and ignore His word on a daily basis. If I say I love my wife, but never show any interest in what she is saying to me, she gets offended. She doesn’t believe I love her. I am not showing her I love her. I would challenge you to show God that you love Him by picking up His word and reading it. Show Him you are interesting in what He has to say.

 James grew extensively in his understanding of the teachings of his brother and his Lord. You will see as we go through this letter that James was deeply and profoundly influenced and impacted by the teachings of Jesus, especially the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. In some ways this letter is an exposition and application of the truth found in Matthew 5-7. In the same way James grew from studying the words of Christ, which is the word of God, you will grow if you devote yourself to the study of the Scriptures.

 I want to point out something else from this first part of verse 1. I think it is important to notice what isn’t there. James doesn’t identify himself as the brother of the Lord. He doesn’t identify himself as the prominent leader of the church in Jerusalem. He doesn’t call himself an eyewitness of the resurrection. He doesn’t tout his credentials, his experiences, his accomplishments, or his relationships. He shows us the most important quality in a follower of Christ. He demonstrates humility. I don’t say that just because of what isn’t here. I say that on the basis of what is here. He is a slave of God and of Jesus Christ.

 Humility is the most important aspect of the Christian’s life. Humility is the soil from which every other Christian virtue grows. To be humble is to have a proper understanding of who God is, and who we are in relation to Him. Any time pride becomes a problem it is because we have forgotten who is God and who is not. Because humble people understand who they are in relationship to God, they also understand who they are in relationship to others. They understand the principles put forth by Paul in Philippians 2:3-8.

 To truly be humble is to consider myself as nothing so that God may be all in all. There is no such thing as a proud slave. A slave, by definition, must be humble. A slave must be willing to live only for the will of his master. A slave must be willing to put selfish interests and self-will aside. A slave must be willing, as did Jesus, to take up the bowl and towel and wash the feet of others.

 Being a slave of Jesus is to be like Jesus. Jesus is Lord. But Jesus did not come to serve, but to be served. He came to meet needs. He came to save.

 So, the New Year’s challenge is simple. Can you write what James has written, putting your name in where he has written the name “James?” Can I write, “Brad, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ?” If not, then what must change? What should I be focusing on in 2024 that would make me less a servant of self and more a slave of God and a servant to others? I know that growing in my understanding of humility, and watching for and repenting of all vestiges of pride must always be at the top of my priorities.

 The New Year’s challenge will continue on through the year as we look at the text of the book of James and see the evidence of a life transformed by the work of salvation. The study of James will challenge us, convict us, and hopefully cause all of us to make a number of spiritual course corrections. My prayer is that this will help accelerate the spiritual growth of some of you. My prayer is that this study will help anyone who has been deceived concerning salvation to come to the knowledge of the truth. My prayer is that the study of James will bring spiritual growth to you and me, and glory to God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 As the basis for your New Year’s evaluation, look at the evidence of a transformed life. Look at the progress you are making in the work of sanctification and God’s work to conform you to the image of His Son. Look carefully for the evidence of pride and repent by cultivating attitudes of humility. If these become your plans and goals and what you seek for the New Year and beyond, you will become more and more of a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Let’s pray.