The father of Apostle Judas (not the traitor Judas Iscariot) was also named James (NIV Luke 6:16, Some translations like the KJV incorrectly mention him as the brother). But records of the early Church indicate that none of these James’ wrote this Epistle. They tell us more or less clearly that it was rather authored by a fleshly half-brother of Jesus, named James (Gal 1:19). Indeed, this James was born to Mary and Joseph. It’s worthy to note here that Jude, considered as the writer of the Epistle bearing his name, was also another son of that couple (Jude 1:1, See Grace –Blossom17:Jun’09,Para01). The fleshly half-brothers of Jesus did not really believe in him during the initial days of his ministry (John 7:5). Hence, they must have come into the Truth at a later point of time. James in particular went on to become a significant figure in the first century church (Acts 12:17, 21:18). He played a major role in the deliberations among early Church leaders at the 51 A.D. Council of Jerusalem that discussed whether the Gentiles who had come into the Church through Paul’s ministry need to keep the Law Covenant or not and eventually decided that they need not do so (Acts 15:13-21).
(2) Jewish historian Josephus records that this James died in 62 A.D. He was stoned to death by the Jews and martyred as a witness to the gospel. So, it’s clear that this Epistle must have been written sometime before 62 A.D. Furthermore, scholastic opinion is that James must have penned this epistle before 51 A.D., since he does not mention anything about the Council of Jerusalem, a major event in the early Church that happened in 51 A.D. What supports this argument is the way James begins his letter, essentially addressing it to chiefly Jewish Christians (James 1:1). Only after the Council of Jerusalem, the city’s early Church elders including James came to know that many Gentiles had come into the faith as a result of Paul’s ministries. Hence, it’s possible that James addressed this epistle primarily to Jewish Christians because he wrote it before he came to know about the many new Gentile converts. So this letter must have been composed before 51 A.D. Scholars especially consider the years from 45 A.D. – 48 A.D. as the time of his authorship of this epistle. Many mistakenly assume that James’ teachings on ‘Works’ in this epistle contradict with Paul’s statements on ‘Works’. The reason for this mistake is people failing to recognize the difference between the two. Paul talked about works that people try to do for self-justification in order to redeem themselves from sin and he declared such works to be futile as nobody can attain self-justification on their own. But the works that James talks about are rather works of faith i.e. gospel/church works (See Grace – Blossom24:Jan’10,Paras05,06). Even Martin Luther was ignorant of this difference and wrongfully wondered whether epistle of James should even be part of the Christian Bible. But let us thank God who has given us this epistle as part of His divine revelation. Because, James very beautifully brings out what kind of works we need to do to confirm our faith. We have seen about works of faith in many issues of Grace and Scripture Study but we will delve deeper during this verse by verse contextual study.
(3) Chapter 1: Verse 1 – Even though he was the fleshly half-brother of Jesus, James humbly introduces himself only as a servant of God and Jesus Christ. In concurrence with Paul’s declaration that we no longer know Jesus in the flesh (NASB 2 Cor 5:16), James gives importance only to his spiritual relationship with Jesus rather than his fleshly bond. This serves as a lesson for us too. Indeed, Paul does say that from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh (NASB 2 Cor 5:16). So, once we have come into the Truth, even as we have to perform our duties towards our worldly relations, we have to give higher priority towards our spiritual life. Especially, some our fleshly relations like a brother, a son, a daughter, wife, husband, mother or father might also be in the Truth with us. In such situations, we should refrain from showing any partiality to them and also learn to give lesser priority for our fleshly love for them that might prod us to prevent them from undergoing suffering for Christ’s gospel. We should give importance to our spiritual relationship which is an eternal bond, rather than the fleshly bond. James says that he writes this epistle to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. The Jews were scattered all over the world during those days. But on the Day of Pentecost, Jews from every nook and corner of the world would come to Jerusalem. Likewise on the Day of Pentecost in 33 A.D., the year when Christ was crucified, the Holy Spirit descended upon many such Jews who had come from all over the world, and they became Christians after listening to Peter’s speech and seeing other signs (Acts 2:1-12,41). Such converts returned to their own countries later. Furthermore, in later days, many of the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem were scattered due to the great persecution that broke out against the church after the killing of Stephen (Acts 8:1,2). Thus, James writes this epistle to those Jewish Christians of the 12 tribes of Israel who had been scattered among the nations due to the various aforementioned reasons. James addressing this epistle to the Jews is another thing that makes some question whether it has a rightful place in the Christian Bible. But those skeptics forget the fact that James essentially wrote to the Jewish Christians, not the Jews. That’s abundantly clear because he begins the epistle with the name of Jesus. Also, aren’t Paul’s epistles to the Christians in different cities like Corinth also applicable to us? In the same manner, this epistle of James to the scattered Jewish Christians is important for us too. And that’s why God has allowed it to be part of the Christian Bible.
(4) Verses 2, 3, 4 – Fiery ordeals are guaranteed in Christian life (1 Pet 4:12). These trials might be of many kinds. Some might come due to our gospel works. Some could come upon us due to our sinful flesh. Some might be that of our day-to-day lives. No matter what kind they are, James says that the reason God allows them is to test our faith. During such times of trials, James asks us to be immensely joyful instead of getting distressed. Because, he says that these trials produce perseverance in us. The KJV translates the Greek root word ‘hypomone’ (Strong No: 5281) as patience. It could also be rendered as perseverance, like the NIV does. It is indeed through trials we learn patience and perseverance. Perseverance is very critical for a Christian. God allows trials upon us to make us mature by weeding out our weaknesses. Truly, we have many shortcomings that we are not even aware of. Those inadequacies might be in our gospel works or in our biblical knowledge or even in our flesh. To make us aware of those shortcomings and to help us overcome them, God permits trials upon us. Therefore, we should not be grieved by those trials and withdraw from our spiritual pursuit. Instead, if we patiently endure them and persevere, we would realize what our weaknesses are and become mature, complete and more perfected individuals as we attempt to overcome those shortcomings. Yes, it’s true that we can never achieve self-justification or perfection in the flesh. But we do need to recognize all our flaws, repent, confess them and intensely try to overcome them (1 John 1:7-9). We also need to perfect our spiritual race of sacrificing for the Gospel. That’s why James says that when perseverance finishes its work in us we become mature and complete, not lacking in anything. Paul too corroborates this when he says that all the hardships that God sends upon us are like the disciplines a father enforces on his children and so even as they might seem painful at first, they would eventually produce a harvest of good (Heb 12:7-11). When we perceive trials in such a manner, won’t we agree with James that we should consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds? Furthermore, we do know that God would not allow any trial upon us that we cannot bear (1 Cor 10:13). So, whenever we face trials, we should not be weary of them or be intimidated by them, but should rather patiently set upon figuring out why God permitted that trial and what particular weakness in us He is trying to make us aware of.
(5) Verses 5, 6, 7, 8 – James says here that if anyone thinks he lacks wisdom i.e. biblical knowledge, he should ask God who gives generously to all. God would not find fault with that person for his lacking, but rather appreciate him for asking help, having realized his shortcoming and thus God would give him wisdom generously. God would rebuke us only if we remain proud considering ourselves not lacking in biblical knowledge. Furthermore, James says that it’s important that we must ask with belief and have no doubt. A double-minded person who asks with doubt would not receive anything from God and he would be unstable in all he does. Like a wave of the sea is blown and tossed by the wind, the doubt about God in such a person’s mind would blow and toss him around. There might be a biblical passage that we are not able to grasp. It might be biblical chronology or a prophetic section. It might be some other doctrinal element. What should we do? Instead of approaching it with a mind that doubts our capability to grasp it, we should approach it with a strong faith that God would help us understand it if we study with prayer. Truly, if we do so, God would definitely be gracious to us. Not only for biblical knowledge, whenever we approach God, we need to do so with a strong faith in Him. But if we approach Him with a doubting mind, that doubt itself would blow and toss us around.
(6) Verses 9, 10, 11 – Here, by ‘believers in humble circumstances’, James means the Christians who are poor in the worldly sense. Definitely there are no poor/rich class divisions within Christ. James says that believers who are in humble worldly circumstances should not feel sorry for their lacking in the illusory earthly prosperity, but rather take pride in their high position of being rich in the eternal wealth of the Truth. Furthermore, worldly rich Christians would not have known the fickle nature of their earthly possessions before they came into the Truth. So they could have boasted about them before. But after they come into the Truth, they realize that their wealth is just like a wild flower that blossoms on a plant for a short while but soon gets scorched by the sun. Therefore, the Truth humiliates the worldly rich Christians by bringing them down from their earlier state of pride. James advises such people to not become sad about this, but rather be thankful to God and take pride in it as the Truth has set them right by bringing them down from their illusionary & temporary worldly wealth. The rich and poor Christians of even today should definitely take heed to James’ advice.
(7) Verse 12 – In Christian life, James declares that the rich are not the blessed ones (unlike in the world ), but rather blessed are the ones who persevere under trial. Why so? Our Christian life in itself is a great trial. And within that life come many different trials. Didn’t we see earlier that they come to help perfect us by testing us? One who perseveres under such trials and succeeds, James says, would receive the crown of life as a prize from God during the resurrection. Truly, even in this trivial world, people do rigorous evaluation to fill a high position. That being the case, would God really hand out eternal heavenly posts without severe testing?
(8) Verses 13, 14, 15 – James says that God just allows temptations to come upon us, but it’s we who are responsible for getting dragged and enticed by them. It’s important for us to understand this. Paul states that God never permits a temptation upon a person that’s beyond what he/she can bear, and moreover He would also provide a way out (1 Cor 10:13). What does that mean? Indeed, when we encounter a tempting situation, we can escape without getting entangled in it. Likewise, Jesus, when tempted by Satan, gave no heed to his words. So, Satan left him (Matt 4:1-11, The sufferings encountered by Jesus in the end on the cross were of a different nature. They were not for himself, but rather had come upon him because of the sins of mankind). Indeed, if we too stand firm like Jesus during our hours of temptation, it’s certain that the temptation would go away. We also heard Paul saying that God does not allow a temptation that’s beyond we can bear. Therefore, as James affirms here, our own fleshly desires are essentially why we get enticed by temptations. It’s those evil desires that make us take wrong decisions in tempting situations and thereby get us enticed and entangled. So, James declares that we get tempted not by acts of God, but rather by our own weaknesses in the flesh. But, when we persevere under temptations, identify our weakness in the flesh and repent, we grow spiritually. On the contrary, if we consider every temptation as an act of God, we would never figure out our flaws. So, even if we find ourselves enticed by a temptation, our first objective should be to identify which weakness of ours contributed to that enticement. Only then, we can grow. Instead, if we remain careless, calling it an act of God, that desire which had enticed us into the temptation, would grow (conceive) and give birth to sin. And if we continue to remain in that sin without any repentance, that sin would become full-grown and get us the death sentence. That would be the second death for us, the Church (See Grace – Blossom31:Jul’10,Para05). Let us be careful! It was Eve’s desire to taste the forbidden fruit that led to her enticement in her hour of temptation. Failing to recognize that desire, she continued to converse with the serpent which gave birth to sin. Truly, if we identify our evil desires, we can escape from falling into sin.
(9) Verses 16, 17, 18 – James warns us not to be deceived by mistaking temptations as acts of God and thereby failing to recognize our own evil desires. God sends us only good gifts. Indeed, the Father who dwells amidst the heavenly lights, never changing yesterday, today and forever, would send us only perfect gifts like the Holy Spirit. He does not change like shifting shadows. James points out how perfect a gift God has bestowed upon us who are the Church, not by our own will, but rather by His predestined will, when He chose to give us birth by baptism through His word of truth that we might be firstfruits of all He created. Therefore, it’s certain that God would provide us only good things. It’s rather our own desires that cause the temptations.
(10) Verses 19, 20 – Having established that temptations come upon us only due to our own desires, James now provides instructions on how to escape from those temptations. We should be quick and eager to listen when someone provides good advice from the Bible. We should not rush to speak, but rather speak only after giving some thought. Likewise, we should not lose our temper easily because James declares human anger to be against the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, we should always, especially during times of temptation, be receptive to good counsel and be stable and calm, avoiding any angry talk. Because, if we speak in anger during temptations, we would blame God and others for those temptations, failing to realize our own evil desires. Only when we patiently listen to good advice, our own wrongs would come to our understanding.
(11) Verses 21, 22 – Therefore, James says that we should get rid of all moral filth like our evil thoughts and our wicked habits, and humbly accept and follow the word that God has planted in us. And that’s what would save us. Yes, it’s true that we cannot achieve self-justification in our flesh. But even if we commit a sin, we should not remain/continue in it, but rather repent immediately, seek forgiveness, get complete divine purification and strive hard to control that weakness so that we might not fall into it again (1 John 1:7-9). Instead if we remain in sin, we would definitely be subject to divine punishment. James adds that we should not merely listen to God’s word, but also do what it says. And what does it say? The Bible instructs us many things – to do gospel work, to grow in the knowledge of the Truth, to renounce sinful ways. We should not be those people who just listen to those teachings but never put them into practice. There is no use in mere listening. We should not be just Sunday Christians. So, let us do some sincere soul-searching to find out what kind of people we are right now.
(12) Verses 23, 24, 25 – James cites an example here to illustrate why we should not be mere listeners of God’s word, but rather do what it says. He compares someone who listens to the Word but does do not do what it says to a person who looks at his face in a mirror, but after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. God’s word is indeed like a mirror. When we look at it, it shows us crystal clear what our weaknesses are and what works of faith we need to do to perfect our faith. So, when we see it in such a way, wouldn’t it be wrong if we later go about our lives just forgetting what it showed us? That’s what James says here. We should not just look into the perfect law that gives freedom, but also follow it and continue to remain in it. This perfect law that gives freedom essentially refers to the law of liberty that Christ has given us. Indeed, Jesus has won us freedom/liberty from sin and granted us the blessing of running for heavenly positions. When we look intently into that perfect law of liberty, it shows us we get that freedom not by self-justification, but rather by God’s grace (Rom 8:1-4). Therefore, if we forget that our nature itself is sinful and strut around with pride in our own righteousness, we would fail to recognize our weaknesses. If we forget the truth of the law of liberty which essentially is the declaration that we are saved only by grace, and instead start getting deluded with an arrogance that rises out of a belief in our own self, we would become negligent in doing gospel/church works that are required to show/prove our faith. We would be forgetting what we saw in God’s word which showed us that our nature is sinful. Instead, if we do not forget that we are of sinful nature, we would continue to do works of faith till our death and be blessed. That’s what James says here. Only then, we would not blame God or others for our temptations, but would rather recognize our own weaknesses, seek God’s grace for their sake and strive to overcome them or atleast control them. Indeed, we should never forget that our nature is sinful. James explains this beautifully with the metaphor of seeing one’s face in the mirror.
(13) Verses 26, 27 – Furthermore, James declares that if someone considers himself religious but does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, is just deceiving himself. He adds that the pure and faultless religion that God accepts is to look after people in distress like orphans and widows and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Truly, we who are supposed to be filled with love should always help those who are in distress. It would be our duty of love to look after the helpless and the widows, especially those in our churches. We notice that the members of the churches of the Apostolic times did such things with great care (Acts 6:1). Therefore, like the churches of the Apostolic times, every church should think about how to look after those who are helpless within her. Furthermore, it’s also necessary for us to understand what it means to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Many mistake this to imply just the renouncement of sinful ways. That’s required indeed. But doesn’t ‘world’ mean the world in its entirety? Doesn’t the world have many sinless things as well? That being the case, what does it mean to keep oneself from being polluted by the world? What is the essence of our baptism? Isn’t it becoming dead to this world and being alive for Christ alone? Yes, we offer our present human life as a living sacrifice for Christ to achieve heavenly positions (Rom 12:1, See Grace – Blossom31:Jul’10,Para05). Therefore, we should not let even a lawful human desire to come as an obstacle to our divine calling. Performing gospel/church activities as works for God should essentially be the only goal of our lives. Even when a worldly wish or desire is lawful, we should not give it priority and let it pollute us. That’s what James means here.
(14) Chapter 2: Verses 1, 2, 3, 4 – Next, James teaches a lesson for the Jewish Christians of his time who were still extolling the Mosaic Law. This lesson is significant for us too. James says that believers in Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. The Jewish Christians were showing special attention to the rich people who came wearing gold rings and fine clothes to their churches, by giving them good seats. But when the poor came in filthy old clothes, they made them stand or sit on the floor by their feet. Indeed, human nature does tend to treat the rich with respect and that did play a part in their conduct regarding this matter. Never should we behave like that in our churches either. But there was another far deeper reason for such a conduct among the Jewish Christians during the times of James. Some Bible translations like the KJV mention the poor coming in ‘vile raiment’. A more accurate translation of the Greek root word for this ‘vile’ here (Strong No: 4508) would be ‘filthy’ (NIV) or ‘dirty’ (NASB). As per the Mosaic Law, clothes could be deemed filthy due to many reasons. Actually certain types of clothes themselves were considered dirty (Deut 22:11). The Jewish Christians of that time were still adhering to the Law and discriminated against the poor because they came wearing clothes deemed dirty by the Law. This is actually confirmed in the 4th verse. The NIV renders it as ‘have you not… become judges..?’ This makes it amply clear that the Jewish Christians judged those poor people. How so? They judged them by the Mosaic Law as we saw earlier. James rebukes such behavior among them. Let us study further.
(15) Verses 5, 6, 7 – In these verses, James reminds the Jewish Christians that God chose even the poor to become rich in faith and to inherit His Kingdom. God has indeed chosen many from the weak of this world (1 Cor 1:26-30). Therefore, James says that it’s wrong for those Jewish Christians to dishonor the poor whom God Himself has honored. We too should keep this in mind. Furthermore, during the times of James, it was actually the rich who persecuted the Christians a lot. It was the rich who filed lawsuits against Christians and dragged them into courts. It was the rich who were blaspheming the name of Christ. Christianity was a new religion at that time. So, the rich, no matter whether they were of the Jewish faith or of pagan beliefs, did not like the rise of Christianity. And they exercised their monetary power and influence in the Roman Empire to cause trouble to the Christians. It’s true that even many among the poor people of other religions of those times could have disliked the growth of Christianity. But those poor would not have had the means/power/time to persecute the Christians. So, the rich were indeed a greater enemy for the Christians of those times than the poor. That being the case, James asks the Christians why they were favoring the rich i.e. the condition of prosperity! We should not forget that even Jesus declared wealth as a great obstacle to Christian life (Matt 19:23,24). As Christians, we know from the words of Christ that wealth is indeed a heavy burden. Then wouldn’t it be foolish of us if we still favored rich people in our churches and also strived ourselves to acquire a lot of wealth!
(16) Verses 8, 9, 10, 11 – Furthermore, James says here that if the Jewish Christians really keep the commandment of ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ which is essentially the royal law as declared by Christ, they would be doing right i.e. they would not be showing favoritism. But, he adds that if they show favoritism, they would be breaking that royal law and hence convicted as sinners by the Law. This is because, James says that whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point ‘is guilty of breaking all of it’. He illustrates it with an example. Both murder and adultery are forbidden by the Law. But, James says that if somebody commits just murder but not adultery, they still have broken the whole Law. Indeed, how great a burden was the Mosaic Law on the shoulders of the Jews! Many calculate that there are 613 commandments in the Law. So, if a person manages to keep 612 of those commandments, but fails to keep just one, it’s still equivalent to breaking the whole Law. What a heavy burden! So, why does James mention this here? The Jewish Christians discriminated against the poor, judging them to have broken the Law as they wore dirty clothes. But they themselves were showing favoritism there, essentially breaking the royal commandment and thereby breaking the whole Law. James is essentially pointing out the irony in their hypocritical behaviour. So, what is the profound message he conveys to them here? If they judge people by the Law that did not and cannot justify not even one among the sinful mankind, then all including themselves are sinners indeed. So they should rather adhere to Christ’s law of liberty that won freedom from the Law Covenant which justifies by grace. That’s James’ message to them. And this is what he so beautifully elaborates in the next two verses. Let us study further.
(17) Verses 12, 13 –James advises the Jewish Christians to act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty, instead of extolling the Mosaic Law and judging the poor by that Law. The law of liberty is a covenant of God’s grace. It brought an end to the Mosaic Law Covenant and granted freedom from it and sin (Rom 8:1-4). It has forgiveness at its core. James warns that people should not forget that judgment without mercy would be shown to anyone who has not been merciful to others. Even Christ has told so clearly (Matt 6:15). The Mosaic Law Covenant had punishment as its central trait. So, even as that Law Covenant was good, it became a death covenant to Man, because Man is in sinful flesh and commits sin from time to time despite his good intentions (Rom 7:9-24). It was the ransom sacrifice of Christ that delivered us from that Law (See Grace – Blossom09:Nov’08, Paras04-08). And in the law of liberty established by Christ, James says, mercy would be considered greater than judgment. In essence, the law of liberty is a covenant that has forgiveness and mercy at its heart. Therefore, we too should be merciful to others just as God is to us (Luke 17:4). Only then, we would be acting as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. We will be judged in the way we judge others!
– To be Continued –