JAMES SERIES

James 1:1–4 CSB

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings. 2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

James is the in your face no holds barred apostle he says in essence if you're going to be a Christian be a real one. This book the epistle of James thus explains what practical Christianity looks like it's about living out your faith and everyday situations with everyday people and doing it victoriously as we're about to see James opens this book by talking about trials that affect every area of our life and then he exhorts his readers to stop whining and keep going because there's a crown waiting for each of us not only in heaven but here on earth then as will continue to move through the book James tackles discrimination in the church and tells God's people to stop honoring the wrong folks some for instance had rewarded the rich and ignored the poor even as the ones they were honoring were awaiting their day of reckoning as the ones they were ignoring where God's Kingdom priority James also warns believers to watch their tongues and to quit living by earthly wisdom he urges God's people to quit fighting and fussing with each other to submit themselves to God James says that if God's people will get right with God they will have his power at their disposal but if we aren't using our faith it's dead or useless. James was over the Christians in Jerusalem or the church in Jerusalem and Palestine. An early history of the church says that James was such a man of prayer that his knees had large and thick calluses, making them look like the knees of a camel. It also says that James was martyred in Jerusalem by being pushed from a high point of the temple. Yet the fall did not kill him, and on the ground he was beaten to death, even as he prayed for his attackers.

There is several different James mentioned in the New Testament but church tradition and theologians all say and give account that the James that wrote this epistle is James the half brother of Jesus. As we move into the first verse James 1.1 we see it says;

·     "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings."

·     Reading James’s introduction to his epistle helps us to understand something of the self-perception of this man. James, a servant of God (Jas. 1:1), isn’t much of an introduction, especially in comparison with other literature of the day, and yet it speaks volumes about the author. The word servant literally means “slave.” Or bondservant which is a voluntary slave. James viewed himself as the property of God. His self-understanding was born from the deep conviction that life is intended to be defined in relationship to God and to His purposes. In my opinion we have to come to this self-understanding in our own life, we have to understand that we are property of God and our life is intended to be defined by our relationship with God because once we understand that our entire life is literally for God's purpose we  then understand what James is spelling out in this book it is one of the more practical books on how we live for Jesus. The use of the title Lord  is noteworthy because although Jesus is mentioned only here and one other place in the epistle, the attitude and perspective of this letter is charged through and through with the concept of Jesus as Lord we already see a theme as James is establishing that his life is literally lived for God he is a slave for God his life and his purpose revolves around his relationship with the Lord and now we see that he makes mention to the lordship of Jesus and this is very important as you've might be heard me say before there's a difference between a savior and a Lord you can have a savior without having a Lord,[explain Lordship].

So James is a bold man of God prayer warrior who is a bondservant or a volunteer slave and hes about to really drop some wisdom in James 1:2 2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,  

A trial is a divinely ordained difficulty that God causes or permits so that he may grow us and conform us into the image of his Son  Christians in crisis are actually undergoing extreme makeovers. Hardships can transform us into something beautiful. That is cause for unspeakable joy—not because of the pain but because of the purpose behind it. In God’s providence, you have bad days on purpose. God uses trials to develop us spiritually.

What James is not saying is be joyous when you're facing a trial don't be happy about having a problem at work or have an issue when family or whatever the trial may be what James is saying is that when we understand that we are sold out to God that we are literally God's bond servant his volunteer slave and the our life is 100% about him and his will and his purpose then we understand that when the trial comes God is developing us and maturing us in the trial so have joy in knowing that God is bringing you closer to him through this trial have joy in knowing that he's taking you a step deeper and he's getting you one step closer to being more like him no don't take joy in the fact that something is going on in your life that is a trial but take joy in the fact that you have God to walk you through the trial take joy in the fact that as God is walking you through the trial he is preparing you for his purpose for his will for his way he's preparing you to be more Christ like and what we know and understand is that the joy of the Lord is not for the good times the joy of the Lord is for when the trials come and you can take joy in knowing that you're not going to walk through it alone that the trial is not going to be something that you're going to have to face by yourself that is when the joy of the Lord comes because you know that not only is he going to walk you through it but as he's walking you through it he is preparing you for his purpose before promotion comes opposition