James 1.1

James 1.1

 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

   To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

   Greetings.

The beginning of this book consists of three different people or groups of people: James, Jesus and the twelve tribes. The author is James. Now there is a lot of debate as to who this “James” is. Some say James the brother of John, as in James and John who were called to follow Jesus in Matthew 4. Others have pointed at other different guys named James in the New Testament, yet Church Tradition, and basically everyone, says that this James is James, the BROTHER of Jesus. 

That’s right, the guy that wrote this book grew up with Jesus. He had to hear from his Mom and Dad all the time, “Why aren’t you more like your brother, Jesus?!” James was exposed, for his entire life, to someone living his life by the principle of “Thinking Heavenly”. His brother, literally, came from heaven!!!! So James has a right to write about this topic. But the most shocking thing is not that this is Jesus’ brother, but how James refers to himself in verse 1. Check it out:

 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

He says, “servant”, which is a translation of the greek word, “doulos”. There are two Greek words that the English language translates, “servant”. One is the word, diakanos, which refers to someone like a waiter or server at a restaurant. The other is doulos, which refers to someone’s property, a SLAVE. And James says, “I am a SLAVE of the LORD Jesus Christ.” Remember, who is James again? He is Jesus’ half-brother. I would never call any of my sisters, “Lord”, or refer to myself as “Sy, the Slave of the Lord Ali Huffer.” Oh No, she tried to make me her slave when we were little, not again. Yet, right at the beginning, James doesn’t think worldly, he thinks heavenly. Because he knows that Jesus has risen from the dead and is now siting at the right hand of the Father, ruling the world. James recognizes, his old half-brother is now the King of the Universe. And we are called, no matter who we are, to be his slaves.

James begins his book by using himself as an example of what it means to think heavenly, and then he moves on to address his audience. He says:

   To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

What does James mean by “The twelve tribes scattered among the nations?” It could be three options: 

1. The Nation of Israel
2. The Jewish Christians scattered among the Nations
3. The New Israel, Christians, Scattered among the Nations

I don’t think James is writing this book to Jews who aren’t Christians, so that throws that option #1 out. I think it is some kind of combination between options two and three. This book was written after the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, which resulted in the Jews persecuting all the Jewish Christians, causing them to abandon Jerusalem into the regions of Judea and Samaria. Yet, I feel like James is making a statement here. 

Jesus came to establish a Kingdom, and he did this by calling twelve disciples to him, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel. When Jesus did this, he was saying, basically, that the old nation of Israel, the Jews, did not solve the problem of sin on this earth, but became part of the problem. Because of this, Jesus started a new nation with 12 new tribes, called the Church. This is what James had in mind when he wrote this book. He is saying “to the new nation of Israel, to the new Kingdom of God”. His point is this, if you are a part of the church, of God’s new kingdom, then my letter is going to teach you how to live, how to think heavenly, during this tough time. 

This applies directly to you. You are a part of God’s new Kingdom called Israel. You are a SLAVE of Jesus. This requires that you think heavenly in every situation and conflict you find yourself in. The rest of the book, James teaches how to handle trials outside the community as well as inside the community. The answer always comes back to these two words: Think Heavenly. This is the outline of the rest of the book:

• Wisdom For Trials Outside the Community (1.2-18)
• Wisdom For Trials Inside the Community (1.19-3.12)
• Wisdom From Above is the Answer (3.13-4.3)
• Wisdom Revealed in Test Cases (4.4-5)
• Judgment (4.11-12); Financial Planning (4.13-17);Treating Workers with Respect (5.1-6); Patience in Adversity (5.7-11); Making an Oath (5.12); Prayer (5.13-18); Discipline (5.19-20)