Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: James 1:1 | Date: November 1, 2020 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

And what we’ll do is we’ll look at James himself and then a survey of his letter to give us a broad overview of where we’ll be going in the coming weeks on Sunday evenings. And I would like, in order to begin, to look at a few selected verses from this letter. First of all, James chapter 1 and verse 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersions: Greetings.” And then drop down to verse 22: “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Then chapter 2 and verse 12: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.” And then down to verses 17 and 18: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But if someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works,’ show me your faith apart from your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this wonderful epistle, unique in many ways, and yet that fits so well with the remainder of the revelation you’ve given to us in Christ. We pray that you will enlighten our minds as we work our way through it, give us an understanding of it, and then we pray that you’ll give us lives that conform to it. To your glory we ask, in Jesus’ name, amen.

James The Man

We don’t know a lot about the life of James, the author of this letter. We have only a few details, but there are some. We are told in Galatians chapter 1 that James was a brother of our Lord. So we have here a younger brother of Jesus. Any of you who are acquainted with Roman Catholic theology at all will be familiar with what they call the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary—that she did not have other children. We have several indications in the New Testament that she did. When Jesus is first announced by the angel to Joseph in that narrative in Matthew chapter 1, you remember Matthew comments at the end of that that Joseph did not know Mary—that is, in terms of physical relations—until after the birth of Jesus.

The clear indication is that there were normal relations after that. And in fact, in the Gospels, we have indication further. In all three of the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—we have this account of Jesus preaching and his brothers and his mother were there to hear him. Matthew chapter 13 remarks the people of the crowd asking, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary and are not his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Aren’t his sisters with us?” So James, then, is a brother of Jesus. Therefore, he grew up in Nazareth like Jesus did. He grew up in a very devout Jewish home.

Some have suggested that in his adult life, James and his brothers would have been followers of John the Baptist. That’s possible. It’s a bit of a conjecture, but it’s a reasonable one. But they were brought up in a devout Jewish home, and it’s likely that James, like Jesus, learned the construction trade as a youth. But we also find in the Gospels that James was not a believer in Jesus until much later. Again, the account I just mentioned a second ago that’s recorded in all three of the synoptic Gospels: we have a brief mention of Jesus preaching to the crowds, and his mother and his brothers show up. And you remember they come to Jesus and said, “Your mother and your brothers are here.” You remember Jesus’ rather strange answer: “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?” And he points to the crowd: “These who do the will of my Father in heaven. These are my mother and my brothers and my sisters.”

But there’s more indication of some distance between Jesus and his brothers at this point because Mark points out for us that his brothers remark about Jesus ministering to the crowds, “He’s out of his mind.” Now, whether they mean that as an excuse because they’re embarrassed for him, or if it’s purely in a pejorative sense—”he’s nuts”—whatever it is, it certainly indicates they did not yet believe in Jesus. And his brothers, James being one of them, was not then a believer in their older brother in recognition of who he was. And in fact, in John chapter 7 and verse 4, Jesus’ brothers, we read, encouraged Jesus to go up to the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, and not to keep his works secret. “Go out. There’s a big celebration out there. It’s a holiday. Go out there and perform some miracles.”

Now, what exactly they meant by that, I’m not sure. Maybe they are looking curiously for more evidence to believe in him, or maybe it’s just they want to expose him as a fraud. But John makes it clear for us in John 7 and verse 5: “His brothers did not believe in him.” And in fact, as late as six months before the crucifixion, James was not a believer. In fact, there’s a reflection of that at the cross as well. In John chapter 19, you remember his brothers are not present at the cross, and Jesus then asks John, one of his disciples, who actually is Jesus’ cousin—Jesus asks John to take care of his mother, Mary. So they are not believers in Jesus all the way up until his death.

Well, then came Sunday. And we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that among the resurrection appearances of Jesus, he was seen of James. And that evidently was the turning point for his brother James and for his other brothers as well. Because we read in Acts chapter 1 verse 14, just a little while later: “All these, [that is the disciples] with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” So his brothers now are joined with the disciples that followed Jesus after his resurrection. They have seen the proof and now they become believers in Jesus.

James then, when we come to the book of Acts, is not a prominent figure in Acts like Paul and Peter are. But we do get the picture in Acts that James is a prominent leading figure in the Apostolic Church generally, and in the Jerusalem Church in particular. For instance, in Acts chapter 12, verse 17, when Peter is delivered from prison—remember the miraculous deliverance of Peter by the angel from prison?—he comes out and he says, “Go tell these things to James, and the brothers.” Tell James and the other disciples. So James now is already that prominent in Acts chapter 12 that Peter’s deliverance should be reported to him.

Acts chapter 15, we have that famous theological controversy in the council at Jerusalem where they have to decide this matter of the role of the law. Can a person become a Christian without keeping the law of Moses? What of circumcision? What of the food laws? And there’s a big controversy over that. It has to be settled that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And they settled that in Acts chapter 15. And in that whole scene, James appears as the one leading the entire council. He’s very prominent and presiding over it. In Acts chapter 21, then, we find again Paul meets with James to tell him about his Gentile ministry. There’s some cooperation with him. Perhaps at this point they have an agreement concerning James and his ministry primarily to the Jews and Paul’s ministry primarily to the Gentiles.

As we’ve seen in our Wednesday night studies in Galatians, we have in Galatians chapter 1, Paul telling of the events of his life in those first years after his conversion. And we read in Galatians 1 verses 18 and 19 that he spent two weeks in Jerusalem with Peter. And during that time, he says he met with James, the Lord’s brother. And he also refers to James as an apostle. So now we have James, the Lord’s brother, who was not a believer until the resurrection, now has a place of prominence in the early church, and in fact himself has become an apostle, called of Christ to represent him. In Galatians chapter 2, Paul refers to James as a pillar in the church at Jerusalem. And then he refers in chapter two to certain people from James coming to discuss some theological matters. And whoever these people from James are, whether they’re representing him personally or not—and there is some question about that—the fact that they were from James gave them some standing and they were to be heard. So James then is a leading figure in the early church and we see that through the book of Acts and it’s reflected again then in the Galatians epistle as well.

Well, next question then: what was James like? What kind of guy was he? And everything we know about James—and we have only what he writes here, the few indications that I’ve outlined a moment ago, and then a few threads from early church tradition—but everything we know about him is that he was a genuinely and outstandingly godly man. His epistle, as we will see more this morning and as we go through it in coming weeks, his epistle is all about practical godliness—how to live in a way that is pleasing to Christ.

And for all of James’ stature in the early church—keep in mind he is our Lord’s brother, he is an apostle, he’s a leader in the Jerusalem church—for all of his stature in the early church, notice how he self-identifies in chapter one in verse one: “James, a bond slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I suspect if you were the Lord’s brother, if you were an apostle and you were about to write a letter to tell people how to behave, you’d pull some rank. Am I right? But none of that. He doesn’t say, “James, a brother of our Lord and apostle.” What he says is, “James, a bond slave of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.” His brother is now not only one in whom he believes, but believing in him, he has come in submission to his Lordship. And that’s how he identifies himself as he opens the letter, showing the genuineness of his faith.

And then we have in the early church a few more threads primarily from Eusebius, the early church theologian. James evidently had a nickname. He was called James the Just. Here was a man you could depend on to be doing what is right always, calling it by the numbers: James the Just. Eusebius tells us also that James used to enter the temple alone and be found resting on his knees and praying for forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became as hard as those of camels because of his own constant bending forward on his knees in worshiping God and begging for forgiveness for the people. So here’s a man who’s known not only as James the Just, but he’s known as “Old Camel Knees” because he spends so much time on his knees in prayer.

Josephus, the early Jewish historian, tells us that in AD 62, as we reckon the dates, James was martyred by Jewish leaders. Many Jewish leaders had come to faith in Christ; that had stirred quite a controversy, and the Pharisees came and stoned him as they had done with Stephen before. Eusebius tells us that as he was being stoned, he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Where do you think he got that? And he tells us that as he continued to pray for his persecutors, praying out loud for them as they were killing him, one of them evidently didn’t want to hear his prayers and just came and clubbed him in the head and brought about the end.

James The Letter

Well, so much then for James the man. Now, James the letter. This letter is the earliest of our New Testament epistles. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians come within a couple of years later, but this is the first of our New Testament epistles, probably 15 years before the death of James, somewhere in the mid-40s when this was written. You’ll notice in chapter 1 verse 1 that we read that he’s addressing the letter to the 12 tribes in dispersion. So he’s writing to a Jewish audience. The letter was written in Greek, not in Aramaic or Hebrew, and so it is Greek-speaking Jews, so probably outside of Palestine, probably north and east of Palestine in Syria, which again gives some indication of the wide influence of James in the early church.

Chapter 2 and verse 1 speaks of these people that he’s writing to as brothers in the faith. So they’re not just Jewish readers, they’re Jewish believers, early Jewish Christians that he is writing to. And in fact, this term “dispersion” that we find in verse 1 did come to be used in a Christian sense—not just the Jews who are scattered or dispersed outside of Jerusalem and outside of Judea, but Christians who, because of persecution, were scattered away from Jerusalem. And this is initially how much of the gospel spread. We will find a record of that as we saw this past Wednesday evening in Acts chapter 11, where because of persecution, they were scattered. Same word here of dispersed. They were of the dispersion. And that may then give us indication of the time of James’ writing of this letter, during that time of persecution reflected in Acts chapter 11.

Well, the fact also that he can refer to them then as Jews in dispersion, or Christian Jews in dispersion, reflects then that James does not have—as so many of Paul’s letters were—he’s not writing to a mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles. But James is primarily writing to Christian Jews. It’s a Jewish congregation, men and women who are Jewish but believe in Jesus. So they’re Christians, but they are still Jewish in culture in the early years of the church. In fact, there are some interesting marks of the Jewishness of James’ letter. Not only chapter 1 and verse 1 that I mentioned, where he speaks of the dispersion, but also chapter 2 and verse 2: he refers to their meeting place, not as a meeting place in general, but the word he gives it is a “synagogue.” “When you come together in your synagogues” is the word that he uses here. Chapter 2 and verse 21, he refers to Abraham as “our father.” Interestingly, in chapter 5 and verse 4, he refers to God as the “Lord of hosts,” Lord Sabaoth. It’s the only time that title is used in the New Testament. It’s used throughout the Old Testament: the God of Hosts, the Lord of Hosts. It’s a military designation. God is not, as some people have mistaken, not “Lord Sabbath.” Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. He’s the leader of all the hosts of heaven. Kind of a military designation. We sing it in our Reformation hymn: “Lord Sabaoth is he, Lord of hosts, Lord Almighty,” I think New International Version translates it. Well, it’s the only time in the New Testament we have that. And again, reflecting the Jewishness of this letter. And throughout the letter, there are references to the Old Testament. And much of what he writes here sounds like Old Testament prophets exhorting the people in how to behave and bringing them to repentance and so on.

Now, with all of that Jewishness in the background, and the Jewish distinctiveness of James’ letter, some have said that there is little distinctively Christian about the letter of James. There’s little about his letter that’s distinctively Christian. Now, I want to say there’s something about that that’s right, but I want to say, first of all, that’s wrong. And let me give you some reasons for that. It has—and I won’t go into long detail in this—but it’s long been noted, first of all, that James, in writing this letter, seems to have a heavy dependence upon Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. No less than 10 correlations have been noticed. Not usually quotations exactly, but at least allusions to the Sermon on the Mount. I’ll just give you one. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount at the end of chapter 5, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” James reflects that: “Let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Many of those correlations show some conceptual dependence at least on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

I’ll look at this in some detail when we get to the heart of James’ argument in chapter 4, the mid-section, and the latter section in chapter 2. James chapter 2 verses 14 and following—and that is despite the reputed disagreement between Paul and James—in fact we will see that Paul and James teach the exact same thing. James is fighting off one enemy primarily, while Paul is fighting off a different enemy primarily, but both teach exactly the same thing, and there’s a strong cohesion of their teaching with the Apostle Paul.

More than that, let’s look at some of the distinctively Christian teaching that’s reflected in James’ letter. Chapter 1 and verse 1, he calls himself a bond slave, not only of God, but a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your Trinitarian overtones, you have the deity of Christ as Lord, and James as in submission to Christ as he is in submission to God himself. Chapter 2 and verse 1 speaks of the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. “I believe in Jesus Christ.” Not only is he believing in him, he is believing in Christ as Lord, and not just as Lord, but the Lord of glory. I don’t know how you get more distinctively Christian than that. In chapter 5, verses 7 to 9, we have James writing, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of our Lord. The coming of the Lord is at hand. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.” So we have the distinctive Christian teaching, not only of the day of God, or the day of the Lord when God comes in judgment, but it’s filtered through his understanding now of Christ as the judge in his return at the end as judge.

There’s more than that. Chapter 1, verse 18: “Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.” Well, that’s the doctrine that we cherish around here of the divine initiative in salvation—of his own will he brought us forth. And it’s through the instrumentality of the gospel. “Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.” And then in verse 21 of chapter 1, he speaks of the “implanted word,” which is just a wonderfully suggestive expression. Speaking of regeneration, he’s speaking of it as a life-transforming work. But it’s a wonderful expression of it as the implanted word, as the word of God has been placed in us with its transforming effects working out. In chapter 1, verse 25, he speaks of the law that we live by as the “perfect law of liberty.” You’ll never find an expression like that in the Old Testament. Here we have him reflecting the law of Christ by which we live, but not only the law and its commanding aspects, but the law and its liberating aspects, enabling us to believe, which is a consistently New Covenant theme. Chapter 2 and verse 5, he speaks of us as heirs of the kingdom. So we have the blessed hope we will inherit the kingdom with Christ, co-heirs with him. Chapter 4 and verse 5, he speaks of the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us. And there you have the teaching of the sanctifying work of the Spirit pursuing us in holiness and so on, and also with its reflecting of Trinitarian theology. So, does James teach anything distinctively Christian? You bet he does.

It is true then to say that James is not given to expounding at length distinctive Christian theology. All of his exhortation that he gives is couched in Christian context. It’s couched in a context that sees life as transformed by Christ in light of the gospel. But his theology that he gives us, as I’ve already alluded to through all of this, is kind of a compressed theology. He doesn’t expound it at length. But neither are these commands that he gives throughout the book bare commands. They are commands that grow out of the gospel of Christ. And yet—and that brings us into sharper focus to the letter—it is Christian behavior, not Christian beliefs. It is Christian behavior that is primarily in view in James’ letter, distinctively exhorting in tone. In fact, commands, imperatives appear more frequently in James than in any other New Testament book.

Often, when I look or think or read through the epistle of James, I think of that black preacher down south years ago. Those guys, I don’t know how they do it, they are often able to capture things in such a crisp and wonderful way. And this one captured the book of James. He said, “There be two sides to the gospel. There be the believing side and there be the behaving side.” And that’s what James is about then: the behaving side of the gospel. The gospel promises transformation. The gospel is good news that we come to Christ and find in him all that God requires of us. But the gospel also promises life transformation and James focuses on that. And so, those verses that I have read earlier: chapter one and verse 22, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” Later in chapter two, “Live as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.” In chapter two, verses 17 and 18, “Show your faith by your works.” That’s the heart of what James is after.

Paul teaches the same thing. In Ephesians chapter two, we have that wonderful summary of salvation by grace: “By grace you’ve been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” And that’s what James is picking up here in his letter. In fact, Jesus does the same in his Sermon on the Mount, and typically Paul in the back half of all of his letters does the same thing. By the nature of it, the kingdom of God has a prominent ethical dimension to it. We enter the kingdom by means of repentance; God has saved us, he’s determined to make us his, but he is determined also to transform us into the image of Christ. And so James focuses on that.

I’ve often been curious to notice some of the titles of commentaries that have been written on the book of James. Let’s try to capture this characteristic of James. And two of my favorites: James: The Behavior of Belief. That’s what James is about. Or James: A Faith that Works. So James then has to do with walking the walk—the practical side, the ethical side of Christian life. What you’re going to find in James as we work through it is some practical… What one man always said, “You’ve gone from preaching to meddling.” That’s what James does. We had a man in our church some years ago who used to like to say the job of the preacher was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted. That’s what James does. And it’s more of the latter, afflicting the comforted. And I think we will have seldom, seldom will we have trouble understanding what James has to say. This is not some mysterious prophecy given in cryptic, apocalyptic terms like we ran into in Daniel. This is very plain preaching in the book of James.

Christian Attitudes

All right, let’s give a quick overview then of James and what we’ll see in the coming weeks. There’s not been a lot of agreement as to how James has structured his letter. In fact, some have said that James didn’t structure his letter at all. Martin Luther, as you know, so famously banished James to the back of the canon, didn’t have wonderful thoughts about the letter of James. He remarked that James just threw things together chaotically. I don’t think that’s quite fair to James. Others have argued that James has a very careful structure, and they work it out with the introduction—in fact, a double introduction—and then the body and the conclusion, and there’s a substructure of the letter, and they don’t need to get into all of that.

The way I think works the simplest is to see that we have basically three sections of the letter. Number one, chapter one, verse two all the way to chapter 2 and verse 13, we have his emphasis on Christian attitudes. And then chapter 2 verse 14 to 26, we have Christian faith. That’s the heart of James’ letter there. And then chapter 3 through 5, we have his emphasis on Christian behavior. All right, chapter 1 verses 2 through chapter 2 verse 13: Christian attitudes. First of all, Christian attitude in trials, verses 1 to 12. That’s what we’ll start with this evening when we come back—how to respond to trials as a Christian should. And then verses 13 and following, how to respond in temptation, understanding the source of temptation, the consequences of sin and the remedy for it and all.

Chapter one, verses 19 to 27, he has our attitude toward the word. And here he addresses virtually everyone sitting in the pew and says, “It’s not enough to hear the word, you’ve got to do it.” And then chapter two, verses one to 13: our attitude towards others. And here he primarily addresses the church ushers. You have different kinds of people coming in and you treat them partially with regard to how rich they are and how much they can help you. Don’t be doing that. He condemns that. Particularly verse five: “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” So then, our Christian attitudes and what they ought to be.

Christian Faith

Then we come to the heart of James’ letter, chapter two, verses 14 to 26. And here he tells us and argues at some length that our Christian faith ought to be evident in our works. He gives some examples of that: relations to the poor and our generosity to them. Here he addresses something of the deacon board, how we use our benevolence fund, but he also applies it to the individual Christians as well. And he gives us some Old Testament examples of Abraham and Isaac. That’s the heart of the letter, chapter two, verses 14 to 26.

Christian Behavior

And then chapters 3 to 5, chapter 3, verse 1, all the way to the end of the letter, we have exhortations on Christian behavior. Chapter 3, verses 1 to 12, we have him exhorting us concerning the use of the tongue—first of all, for those who would teach, and then secondly, exhorting us regarding certain sins of the tongue and showing us the inconsistency of that. Then chapter three, verses 13 to 18, he addresses again now the congregation at large and he contrasts worldly behavior and heavenly behavior—worldly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. You can tell which kind of wisdom a person has by how he relates to his brother. “You think you’re so wise,” he says, “then why can’t you get along better?” That’s the thrust of verses 13 to 18 of chapter three.

Then chapter four, verses one to 10, he exhorts us with regard to worldliness—its root cause, its consequences, its remedy. He gives us the imperatives. He shows us how worldliness behaves and shows itself in the church. And he shows us in chapter four, verses seven and eight, five different commands with regards to it: “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Chapter four, verses 11 and 12, he again refers to sins of the tongue, specifically here, sins of criticism of one another and backbiting one another. It’s just sinfully presumptuous, he says; who do you think you are to judge your brother? And then chapter four, verses 13 and following, which I think is a fascinating passage. It’s a passage on practical atheism—Christians who act like atheists. They come to church Sunday morning and they confess God and they pray to Him and all of that, but they live as though it made no difference. We’ll explore that at some length. Prepare to be uncomfortable.

Chapter 5 then, verses 1 to 12, he speaks of the problem of injustice and he condemns the rich who oppress the poor and he exhorts the poor who find themselves oppressed and puts it all in gospel context. And then finally, chapter 5, verses 13 to the end of the book: responsibilities with regard to fellow members in the church. If they’re sick, pray for them. If they’re sinning, convert them. A strong emphasis on our mutual relations in the congregation.

Well, that’s a flyover of the letter of James. And those are the issues that he’ll take up to exhort his congregation: how we think, how we think in trials, how we think towards sin and temptation, what we believe and how we show our faith, and how we behave in context primarily with one another. James is—you’ll never think that James is irrelevant. James is one of those letters that’s always relevant to every congregation everywhere. And James simply does not have any room for those who want Jesus as a fire escape from hell, and yet not as someone who will transform their lives. If we truly belong to Christ, it’ll show in the way that we behave, and in particular, the way we behave with one another.

And so in a way, James is like the Old Testament wisdom literature, but he’s also like so much of what else we find in the New Testament, where the writers turn from what we believe to how this impacts life, and that’s what James is all about. And I think let’s look one more time at the verses I began with, so you’ll see in a nutshell, I think, what James is all about and what we’ll be seeing in the rest of the letter. James 1, verse 22: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Chapter two in verse 12: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.” And then verses 17 and 18: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works.” Details of that to come beginning this evening.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we need exhortation. We are too apt to leave our belief as though it is sufficient, as though it makes no impact on life. We pray that you will help us to see that our professed faith in Christ must show itself in order to be genuine—must show itself in how we live. Make that, Lord, true of every one of us, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

To conclude our service this morning, please take out the Blue Trinity Hymnal, open to number 548. Let’s stand together and sing, “More Love to Thee,” number 548.

More love to thee, Christ, more love to thee.
I earnestly pour love, O Christ, to Thee.
Pour love to Thee. Pour love to Thee.
peace and rest. Thou the alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be,
More love to thee, more love to thee.
Let sorrow do it’s work, send grief and pain.
Meet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain.
Then shall my latest breath bliss for thy praise.
Bliss be the pardon of my sin.
Your love to me, your love to me, amen.

You are dismissed.