I found this among some of my papers from college. This was a term paper I wrote for Early Christian Writings. Some call him the practical apostle because he takes a stand for being efficient and consistent in life’s dealings and conducts. James, although he does not refer to his own brother Jesus but twice, he does so in a most reverent and respectful way. Although brothers would know each other so well, James shows no familiarity in his writing because he refers to Jesus as Lord and Christ. He relates his brother to God and implies equality with the Almighty. If Jesus were not who James said he is, this would be blasphemous. James must have known who Jesus really was because as a Jew he knew the law concerning blasphemy.
Since James is called the practical apostle, naturally his book is the most practical of all the Epistles in the Bible. If the book of James could be renamed, it might be called “A Guide to Christian Life and Conduct.” If the New Testament had a book of Proverbs then James would be it. This small book is filled with moral precepts and guidelines. There are a lot of quotations and references to the Old Testament, and probably the most famous one is from Leviticus 19:18, which James calls “the royal law” (2:8). It states, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” James states the ethics of the Christian faith, and is full of figures and metaphors. Dramatic in style, James compels his readers to really think about doctrine and deeds, and how they go together as a vital part of the Christian faith.
Some say that there is a conflict between James and Paul, but only a superficial reading of the two authors would render such a claim. Paul talks about taking the gospel in; James talks about taking it out. Paul saw Christ in heaven making our righteousness. James saw Him on earth telling people to be perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect. Paul dwells on the source of our faith; James talks about the fruit of our faith.
James was always concerned with prayer. His letter opens and closes with tremendous encouragement to pray (1:6; 5:14-18). Furthermore, James begins and ends with prayer (1:5-8; 5:13-18). Although prayer is one of the easiest topics to talk about, it is among the hardest to practice. People said that James had camel knees. What a testimony. I wish I could say I had camel knees. James seems to be emphasizing the importance of prayer in his life, and the importance of prayer in the lives of the believers. Right after his conversion, he instantly became a praying man and was made the bishop of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:13-21). His mission in life became winning the Jewish people and helping them believe in Jesus as their Messiah. At the end of his life in A.D. 62, the religious leaders and priests in Jerusalem murdered him. Tradition tells us that he was forced to the top of the Temple and commanded to blaspheme the name of Christ. Instead, he boldly proclaimed the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. He was the tossed off the roof where he met his death. Historian Josephus writes, “When, therefore, Ananus was of disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
The book entitled Jesus Freaks dramatically recalls the scene.
“James looked down from where he stood, balanced carefully at the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem. Far below, he could see that the streets were filled with people. It was Passover, and Jews from all over the known world had come to the Holy City. A hand grabbed his arm, pulling him off balance. “Get on with it!” a voice threatened. Behind him, a safe distance from the dangerous ledge, stood the chief priest, scribes, and Pharisees. “Deny that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah! Before all these people, deny that Jesus was the Son of God and that He was resurrected from the dead,” they demanded. He had obviously known Jesus and walked with Him for many years. He had seen Jesus alive again after His crucifixion and resurrection. James risked another glance at the street below. Many of the people down there knew him. For thirty years, he had been the bishop of the church at Jerusalem. During that time, he wrote a book of the Bible, the Epistle of James. He had openly preached Jesus as the Messiah and the resurrected Son of God on almost every street corner. How could he deny what he had seen with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, and touched with his own hands: his risen Lord? Through his preaching, his prayers, and his example, James converted many people to Christ. He was on his bare knees often, worshipping God and praying for forgiveness for the sins of the people, that his knees became numb and calloused, like the knees of a camel. This also earned him the nickname of “James the Just.” He was respected by everyone, even those who opposed what he taught and believed. Feeling threatened by the rapid growth of the church, the chief priest, scribes, and Pharisees came up with a plan. They would force this well-known church leader to deny his faith before the multitude. But James refused to cooperate. From his place at the top of the temple, he preached with more boldness than ever. Every person in the crowd below looked up as he proclaimed, “Jesus is the promised Messiah! He is sitting at the right hand of God, and shall come again in the clouds of heaven, to judge the quick and the dead!” When the crowd below saw his courage and heard his bold words, they loudly praised God and magnified the name of Jesus. Enraged, two or three of the religious leaders jumped forward and pushed James off the temple roof. Miraculously, James was not killed by the fall; only his legs were broken. Then the priests, scribes, and Pharisees said, “Let’s stone the ‘just man’ James.” They picked up rocks to stone him to death. James, kneeling on his broken legs, prayed, Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” One of the priests, when he heard James praying, begged the others to stop, saying, “What are we doing? ‘The Just’ is praying for us. Stop the stoning! Stop the stoning!” While he was shouting this, another man ran up with a big, heavy stick in his hand and struck James in the head. James died instantly from this blow, still in prayer.”
James calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ.” He happily and proudly accepts this label as a description of his relationship with Jesus. He shows real humility when referring to his brother during his earthly life. For example, James mentions the name of God seventeen times, but he names Jesus only twice. You see James was strongly opposed to and jealous of Jesus up until the point of the crucifixion, but after the resurrection, he had a special meeting with the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:7). This fact adds to the validity to James’s testimony about the deity of the Lord.
James tells us that his letter is written, “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (1:1), to those who lived outside of Jerusalem. Just like the book of Hebrews, it is addressed to the Jewish believers in Jesus.
After a short section of greetings, James jumps straight into what he set out to right about. He realized that Jewish Christians everywhere were going through severe persecution and testing of their faith. So he begins the meat of his letter by telling them about how they must meet temptation and trials, and he tries to comfort and encourage them.
James tells his readers to “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (1:2). He goes on to say later that “blessed is the man who perseveres under trial” (1:12). I think the point he’s trying to make is that without temptation we would be gutless and weak. The person who knows no testing is weak. Without testing, there would not be the joy of overcoming. I know personally that when I have resisted temptation the satisfaction is very rewarding.
In verse 22, James tells believers to not only listen to God’s word, but to also put it into practice. Of course at that time James was referring to the Old Testament, but certainly the New Testament can also be applied. James has this thought, if you don’t prove your faith by your actions, then what good is that faith. We can not be just satisfied with hearing the word, as the Jews mostly do, but we need to go on doing what it says. James gives his readers four verbs dealing with the Word of God. In verse 21 he says to receive it, Verse 23 tells us to hear it, He says in verse 22 to do it, and verse 25 tells us to examine it.
James instructs Christians to keep faith and works in their proper place. Jesus has already done our salvation. What we do is proof of it. The idea is that believers should show the faith that they have. Just as a body without a spirit is dead, so faith is dead without action (2:17).
James also touches on the matter of favoritism. Christianity is a brotherhood that is not supposed to show favoritism. I think the world totally ignores this command from James. The world worships the successful, the strong, and the wealthy, and looks down upon the poor people. James says if we do this we sin and break the law of God, which says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
James takes things even further and addresses the question about sin. He says that whoever obeys the whole law and only makes one mistake is guilty of everything (2:10-11). He calls that person a lawbreaker.
Next, James qualifies a perfect person by him who controls his tongue (3:2). He wants believers to remember that the tongue can be used to testify for Christ and praise His holy name. It is the tool the Holy Spirit uses to amplify the Lord (3:9-10). He makes it perfectly clear that Christians should not praise God and then curse people who are made in His image. Think about it, harsh words have destroyed homes, hurt friendships, divided churches, and sent an untold multitude to ruin and despair. There are a lot of people out there who claim to be Christians and make no effort to control the tongue. May it not be so!
It seems that the world today is war weary. People have asked time and time again, “How can we stop wars?” James would tell us that we first need to answer another question, “What causes wars?” One cause is the world’s desire to get what does not belong to it. The problem is selfishness. Think about the reasons wars are fought. Most of the time wars are fought over land or a certain body of water. Two or more sides end up wanting to possess it and battle takes place. The winner gets the prize. Another reason this world has seen so much trouble is that many people fail to pray, and if they do, often it is with the wrong motive. God promises to answer prayer, but he will not do it on the basis of selfish gain or pleasures. Some people try to pray for a nice car or boat or a million dollars, and the wonder why God did not give it to them.
A lot of it boils down to lust. In the first 5 verses of chapter 4, James mentions the word lust. Dr. Benjamin Jowett, a British educator and theologian, defines lust as “anything that steams the windows of the soul and blurs our vision.” This word lust can very well be translated “pleasures”. We must remember that overindulgence in pleasure is sinful.
The first lust that James deals with involves “fights and quarrels among you” (4:1). Just take a look at the newspapers today, or turn on the news. The second lust causes “battle within you” (4:2). When pleasure has its own way with us, that means war within ourselves. Third, James says in verse three, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”. When we take pleasure too far, our prayer life is effected. We turn the rushing rivers of the Christian life into a stagnate pond. Fourth he says, “You adulterous people” (4:4). When people become friends to sin and worldly pleasures, they become enemies of God. Jesus said himself, “You can not serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Then James does a wonderful thing for us. He presents to us a cure for it all. He simply says to submit to God (4:7). Just when you and I have gone and really messed things up, James says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you (4:8). We also should come with a pure heart. We do that by “(humbling) yourselves before the Lord” (4:10). James teaches that if we remember that we are sinners and are humbled, God will lift us up. We are to surrender ourselves to God and not live for the devil. He teaches that when the devil is resisted by those who have given themselves to God, he flees.
James turns towards the rich in chapter 5. He warns them, “You have hoarded wealth in the last days” (5:3). The banks accounts of the rich are indeed full in these days, and sadly, many are charged with fraud and injustice. People will do anything to make a buck. I’m not saying that it is a sin to be rich; it is when you love that money more than God that it becomes sin. Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. For the most part, the problem comes when people think they do not need God. Take Ted Turner for example. The man is super rich, and when he was approached about Christ’s sacrifice for him, he said that he did not want Christ to die for his sins. So many people reject the Savior.
James goes on to give his readers some advice. If anyone is in trouble, he should pray. I love his simplicity. If anyone is happy, he should sing. If anyone is sick, he should send for the elders of the church and let them anoint him with oil (medicine) and pray for him (5:13-14). James adds, “The Prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (5:15). If anyone has done something against another, he should confess his wrongdoing to that one (5:16). Elijah’s mighty prayer is an example to us, for “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (5:16).
James closes his letter rather quickly, but on a high note. He teaches that it is with the gracious act of a Christian who finds someone wondering from the truth and converts that person. Although only God can save a soul, He chooses human beings as instruments to accomplish it.
Not all people through the ages have accepted the words of James as being valid. The canonical status of the letter of James was questioned until the church realized that the author was almost surely the half brother of Jesus. Martin Luther, although he did not question the genuineness of James, he did find fault in its usefulness in comparison with Paul’s epistles, because it says little about justification by faith, while elevating works. I say we do works not to be saved, but we do works because we are saved.
Out of the four men with the name James mentioned in the New Testament, only two have been proposed as the author of this letter: James the son of Zebedee and James the half brother of Jesus. Since the son of Zebedee was martyred in A.D. 44 (Acts 12:2), it is unlikely that he wrote it. That leaves the brother of Jesus, the James that I have presented in this paper.
Bibliography
What The Bible Is All About – Henrietta C. Mears (1998)
Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible – Dr. Tim LaHaye (2000)
Ryrie Study Bible – Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Th.D., Ph.D. (1978)
The New Complete Works Of Josephus – William Whiston (1999)
Jesus Freaks – DC Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs (1999)
This is my translation from the Hebrew text.
