An Introduction to the Book of James: Part 2 - James Lesson 2

 Welcome to the second installment of our verse by verse study of the book of James. You can turn there with me. Last week we ended 2023 with something of a New Year’s challenge, and at the same time we did a little bit of an introduction to this study of James. We saw last week, in the first part of verse 1, that this letter was written by James. We identified him as the half-brother to our Lord Jesus Christ. James did not come to faith until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Having been an eye-witness to the resurrected Christ, James came to faith and quickly rose to a position of prominence in the first church in Jerusalem. 

 We saw him as a fitting New Year’s challenge because of the way he identifies himself in the first part of verse 1. He calls himself “a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” James was a man radically transformed by the work of salvation. He was a man who quickly matured in the faith and was used of God as an important leader in the early church. He was humble, as he did not list his kinship to Jesus, or his accomplishments as a prominent pastor to identify himself. He calls himself a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 We saw that this is the most common term that identifies the Christian and defines the nature of a true saving relationship to Christ. He is Lord, we are His slaves. English translators shy away from the use of the word “slave” but that is what the word “doulos” means. It identifies us as one who belongs to Jesus Christ by virtue of the fact that we have been purchased with His blood. As His slaves we have no rights, no possessions, no will or ambitions of our own. We exist for His purposes, to carry out His will, and to do the work that He, as our Master, has commanded us to do. Our New Year’s challenge is to live as Christ’s slaves.

 Now that we know who wrote this important book of the New Testament, we find here in verse 1 the identity of those to whom it was written. James wrote “to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.” Who are these twelve tribes and how did they become to be dispersed abroad? Most of you know who these people are. The fact that they are people who belong to the twelve tribes tells us that they are Jews. They are descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and Jacob’s twelve sons.

 James is writing to a Jewish audience. James was raised in a Jewish home. James was a Jew who had been trained in the religion of the Jews. The Jewish influence is seen repeatedly in this book as it contains at least 40 direct references or allusions to the Old Testament. 

 James isn’t just writing to every Jew. He is writing to a specific segment of the Jewish population. James is writing to Jews whom he considered to be “brethren.” These were not brethren in the sense that they were Jewish. They were brethren in the sense that they were Jews who had come to faith in Jesus Christ and were part of the fellowship of Christian brotherhood. He calls them “my brethren, brethren, or beloved brethren” many times. Look at verse 2, 16, 19, 2:1, 2:5, 2:14. There are more.

 By the time James writes this letter, the church had become quite large. Most scholars date the writing of James between 44-49 A.D. The early chapters of Acts show us that the growth of the church beginning at Pentecost and in the subsequent months and years was explosive. Literally tens of thousands had come to faith in Christ, almost exclusively out of Judaism. 

The book of Acts also recounts for us the response to this rapidly growing church. The established religious leadership of the Jews were not loving what was happening. The Jewish religious leaders were opposing the church early on, and then Herod Agrippa as recorded in Acts 12. This is a pattern for persecution for the next 200 plus years. First the religious leaders of Israel persecuted, then the Roman government. The Jewish religious leaders stoned Stephen to death as recorded in Acts 7. This happened likely before 34 A.D. The persecution initiated by Herod Agrippa in Acts 12 is likely to have begun around 44 A.D., or about ten years after the death of Stephen.

 So, if I were to ask you why these early Christians were dispersed abroad, your answer would be “persecution.” You would be correct. But why were these Jewish converts really scattered. Yes, God used the circumstances of persecution to push them out of Jerusalem and to spread them out into the Roman world, but persecution was only partially the reason for their scattering. The reality is that God was working His plan. The word translated “dispersed” or “scattered” depending upon your translation, is the Greek word “diaspora.” This word describes also what a farmer did with his seed in the field. He scattered the seed.

 That is a fitting picture of what happened to these Jewish Christians in the early church. After they heard the gospel and were born again to a living hope in Jesus Christ, God scattered them. God spread them out like the scattering of seed by a farmer who sows seed in his field. God allowed the persecution to come so that these Jews would have to fulfill the commission that had been given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus had told them in Acts 1:8, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

 The witness of the gospel happened quickly in Jerusalem. Then God used the persecution to send that witness to all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. Immediately following the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7 you read in Acts 8:1, “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” They were scattered into the very areas Jesus said they would go and be witnesses.

 The fact that James writes to the twelve tribes who were dispersed tells us something important. It gives us an important perspective on the nature of God’s plan and purpose for His people. God redeemed a bunch of Jews whom He had gathered into Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. He redeemed them and facilitates the foundational spiritual development they will need to grow in respect to salvation. Then He ordains the persecution that will scatter them like seed throughout the Roman world. Because they will need further instruction and edification, He raises up men like James to write instructions to them on what to expect and how to live the Christian life.

 How different is that from the experience of the average convert today? Today we hear the gospel and we believe and get baptized and join the church and go on with life with few, if any disruptions. We don’t face hatred, or persecution, or the risk of being ostracized from our families or being outcasts from society. The first century followers of Christ trusted in Christ knowing that hard times were going to result from their commitment to follow Christ.

This isn’t even in the equation today. In many cases we were told that if we would believe in Jesus our lives would get better. We would find purpose. We would be fulfilled. We would be happier. Jesus is marketed by many who preach a false gospel as the One who solves all their problems, and provides them a life of health and wealth and makes all their wishes come true. Can you imagine the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel flourishing in Jerusalem in 45 A.D.?

 How different would the Christian life look today if we were reading James’ letter as a bunch of Christians who were being dispersed by persecution? What if, when we became followers of Christ, we immediately had to start running for our lives? If this was the case today I think we would have a completely different perspective of the Christian life. This was the reality for first century Christians. This was the reality for Christians who suffered persecution at the hands of the Romans during the first and second centuries of the church. A great read for every Christian is Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. You can get a really good understanding of what James’ audience experienced from reading about the persecutions in the early years of the church.

 The twelve tribes dispersed abroad had a completely different understanding of the Christian walk than do those who are part of the church in the western world today. They believed and were converted, and lived the Christian life in a completely different paradigm than we know. They had a completely different set of challenges, a vastly different understanding of what it meant to be a Christian than what we understand today.

The twelve tribes dispersed abroad understood that the Christian life isn’t about making us happy, comfortable, and satisfied. The Christian life isn’t about making life better so that this life is an easy street that ends with eternal glory in heaven. That is the way Christianity is marketed and sold in America today, but that only works in America. It would not have worked in first century Jerusalem. It doesn’t work in communist China. It doesn’t work in the Muslim world where you are killed or excommunicated from your family and community if you embrace faith in Christ.

 There is something historically true about Christianity that is not clearly understood by the church of our culture. Salvation is primarily and fundamentally for the glory of God, not for the temporal benefit of man. God saves us, not so He can make us happy. God saves us so that we can be used of Him, however He sees fit to use us, for the advancement of His kingdom and the work that brings Him glory. I will remind you of something I said a few weeks ago and have said over and over through my years of preaching. We exist for God’s glory. God does not exist for us. Our chief end is to glorify Him. His chief end is also His glory. He will share His glory with no one. No one deserves the glory that is due to Him.

 We follow Christ in a culture that does not understand this. We follow Christ in a culture that believes that we are the chief end of God. Somehow we have come to be convinced that we are so valuable to Him and He so desires fellowship with us that He has made a way for us to be saved. The fact is, according to the Scriptures, that we are saved for His glory. And if He is glorified in bringing persecution so that we are scattered, so that the gospel is spread, so that more are saved for His glory, then this is what He has the right to do as our Sovereign God. We are slaves. He is our Master.

 If the conditions of becoming a follower of Christ were the same in the Western world as they were in first century Jerusalem, the church would not be three miles wide and a half an inch deed. I doubt that many people in America today would be calling themselves Christians in public if we knew it would mean arrest, imprisonment, or even execution. But if that was the case, I know we would have a pure church.

 This is the context for the next verses. James will go from addressing these Christians who are dispersed by persecution to telling them to consider it all joy when these difficult things come. How do you consider it all joy when you face persecution that scatters you all over the world? You only do that if your greatest concern is God’s glory, not your own happiness, comfort and satisfaction. Otherwise it will never be joy for you, it will only be grief.

 I have a challenging question for you today? Who would you consider to be more blessed as Christians, those who were scattered from first century Jerusalem because of persecution, or the average Christian in America today? Which one is in a better position to be able to consider it all joy when encountering various trials? Which one is likely to be more successful in obeying the command to consider it all joy when encountering various trials? Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus repeated His pronouncement of blessing. He went on to say “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil because of Me.” (Matt. 5:10-11) Who would Jesus say were the more blessed Christians? Do we think like that? Have we been taught to believe that?

 I would submit to you that comfort, prosperity, trouble free living as a Christian is not so much a blessing as it is a burden. Comfort and prosperity and problem free lives are the cause of so much confusion and blindness in the community of Christians. We confuse our comfortable, prosperous, trouble free lives with blessings, when they are, in reality, the very things that keep us from depending upon God and being devoted to living for His glory, no matter what might come our way. When everything is easy and good we find ourselves completely satisfied with ourselves. We are not God-focused. We are not dependent. We are not trusting. We are not desperate for God. We will not find His grace sufficient when things are only good, always easy, and exceedingly comfortable.

 My friends, I would submit to you that those who were scattered abroad were truly blessed of God. They had to come together into a unified community of people who depended exclusively on God and one another. They had to be willing to sell all they had and give generously to meet the needs of others. They had to be willing to pray and plead with God to protect and provide for their needs.

 You may be thinking that we may never face persecution, therefore we may not ever experience the blessings of being dispersed or scattered. I would remind you that it may be closer than you think. I have shared this, and will continue to point it out. I first heard this from John MacArthur and I don’t remember many things I hear from anyone but this stuck because it is so obviously true, and so clearly evident in our culture today. There are five steps a culture goes through on the way to outright persecution of Christians.

 One, you remove the standard of right and wrong in the culture. Our culture did that when they removed the Ten Commandments from the public square. Two, you begin to call evil good, and good evil. We now celebrate aberrant lifestyles as good, and we are critical of those who hold up God’s standard of morality. Three, you demand tolerance for everything that God calls wrong. The battle cry of the LGBTQ+ culture is that they not only be tolerated, but celebrated. Four, you demonize those who are intolerant. Today, those who take a stand for the Bible are considered intolerant. Every viewpoint is acceptable to everyone, except the viewpoint of the Bible. It is easy to see that the culture is quick to make biblical Christians the bad guys. Once we are sufficiently demonized in the eyes of the majority, it is an easy step to step five, persecution. Christian pastors were arrested and jailed in Canada in recent years because they chose to obey God rather than man. Christian pastors in some parts of the United States faced the same threat. Persecution may be closer than we think.

 I don’t tell you that to scare you, or trouble your hearts, or cause you needless anxiety or worry. I tell you that because we must have the right perspective on the Christian life. We must have a biblical perspective on the Christian life. We must have a “God must be glorified” perspective on the Christian life. James is going to help us grow and strengthen in our “God must be glorified” perspective on the Christian life.

 I told you last week that the book of James is a series of tests by which we must evaluate our actions to see if they are actions consistent with true saving faith. We will see next week that our response to trials reveals the truth concerning the value and validity of our faith. Down the road, in this study, we will see how our response to temptations will reveal the truth concerning the validity of our faith. Our response to the word of God, the way we love others, the righteous works we do, the way we control the tongue, and it goes on and on all the way through to the end of this book. 

 What we are going to see in our study of James is that the tests of true saving faith are not related to what we believe. They are related to how we live, and how we respond to the things that life throws at us.

 People in our culture today, those who identify themselves as Christians, and truly believe they are saved, have somehow come to think that the true test of genuine salvation is not in how they live, but rather what they believe. James will help us understand that right believing never stops at simply believing. Right believing will always result in right actions and right responses. The work of genuine salvation never affects only the head. The work of genuine salvation always transforms the heart and the head and changes the way a person lives. Genuine salvation results in responses that are God-honoring.

 We are going to find again and again in our study of James that true saving faith will be characterized by responses that make no sense to the unbelieving world. True saving faith makes followers of Christ stick out as aliens and strangers in this world. True saving faith produces very peculiar people, from the standpoint of the world.

 This does not mean we will be perfect. We will not always past every test with a perfect score. James does not describe perfection. He does describe direction. James shows us what the true Christian life looks like in various situations and we are examining our own lives to see if what we find is a genuine desire to become what is described.

 I want to draw your attention to the final word of verse 1. James writes to these dispersed members of the twelve tribes, “Greetings.” This is the Greek word “chairo” (kairow). As a salutation it means “joy to you!” His initial greeting to a bunch of Christians who have been literally running for their lives is “joy to you.” Is that how the world responds to such treatment? Is that how the majority of those today who call themselves Christians will respond to such treatment? I doubt it.

 So where does James come up with this stuff? He got it from the teachings of Jesus. Turn to Matthew 5. Jesus is preaching the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 5. I say He is preaching the gospel of the kingdom because Matthew tells us in 4:23 that this was what Jesus was preaching. Included in the gospel message was of 5:10-12. Read these verses.

 Look at verse 12 again. See the first word in verse 12. Jesus is clear regarding our response when persecution and hatred and ill treatment comes from the world. He says we are to “rejoice.” That word “rejoice” is the same Greek word James uses in James 1:1 that is translated “greetings.”

 If we put together what we have learned from last week and today, we can come up with an insightful and very challenging translation of verse 1. It could easily and accurately read, “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who were dispersed abroad, scattered like seed, the seed of the gospel, because of hatred and persecution of the world…joy to you, rejoice. You should rejoice because Jesus promised that you are blessed and your reward in heaven is great.”

 That requires us to understand the Christian life from a completely different paradigm than we get from the modern church in America. It requires that we understand the truth of the Christian life from the perspective of those first century followers of Christ. This requires us to view salvation as a means to glorify God, not a means to make man happy, comfortable, and satisfied.

 Most outlines of James don’t include a test from verse 1 but I believe it is very evident. Most outlines tell us that the first test is the test of trials. Verse 1 is just a salutation. I think verse 1 actually contains the first test. It is the test of our response to persecution. Will we rejoice when persecution comes? The only way any of us will rejoice in persecution is by seeing salvation as the means for bringing glory to God. Our desire in salvation is eternal life. Eternal life is a benefit of salvation but our desire is to be God’s glory. When our desire is God’s glory, then we rejoice even if we are being dispersed abroad by those who want to destroy us.

 Let’s pray.