Intro to James

James

We are kicking off a new study tonight.

First off, we have gotten each of you one of these journals that you can take notes in week by week.

James is actually the first book of the New Testament written, meaning it was written before any of Paul’s letters or the gospels which will be important in some ways.

It is important to know the timeline because some will argue that James and say Romans or 1 Corinthians contradict each other, but they actually complement each other.

Martin Luther once called it an “Epistle of straw”, probably because he knew that if not understood correctly it would be confusing. The reality is this, Martin Luther didn’t think James shouldn’t be in the bible. But in his context and fighting so hard against works-based salvation was sensitive to people thinking that was what James was communicating.

As we study the book, we will see that is not the case at all. Paul often built large theological cases before laying out practical guidelines such as in Ephesians (1-3) and Romans (1-11), but James just comes out and gives very practical guardrails that are helpful to us.

There are 54 imperatives in James—do this, or don’t do this!

So who wrote it? James is actually the half brother of Jesus.

The scriptures tell us some things about him. For one, he at one point wasn’t a believer:

John 7:5 “5 For not even his brothers believed in him.”

After Jesus reserrected and before he ascended he appeared to James.

1 Corinthians 15:7 “7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”

He was present in the upper room praying

Acts 1:13 “13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.”

He was a leader in the early church

Acts 12:17 “17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.”

He had a close, intimate connection with Christ having spent so much time with him and he was used mightily in the early church.

He was nicknamed Just James in the early church because of his consistent striving for righteousness.

But James was also very pastoral. He is writing this book to the people, the tribes, who have been scattered by the Assyrians, Bablonians and Romans. Because of the captivities, and specifically the scattering of the church after the death of Stephen, they were everywhere.

So this is who the book was written by and who it was written for.

Here is what I would like to do.

I am going to read the book outloud to us. While we are reading, write down on your paper when you see major themes or words. Ideally you would have about 5 of them when we are done. So as were reading, if you see something come up again and again, write it down. Make sense?

After reading—give me the words you wrote down? Lets narrow this down to our top 5.

Faith

Works

Trials

Doer

Tongue

Patience

Write down what you think they mean or describe them.