The Author James
It has been contested over the years who wrote the book of James, in part because others mentioned throughout the New Testament bear that name. Two of these men were the twelve Apostles (see Matthew 10:2-4) and were unlikely to have written the book for multiple reasons. Others have been suggested, but the candidate who best fits the bill (all arguments, reasoning, and evidence aside) is James, the Lord’s half-brother and leader of the Jerusalem council (church). Passages that mention/involve him include Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3, John 7:2-5 (although this passage doesn’t mention his name directly; see also Acts 1:14), 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Galatians 2:8-9, Acts 12:17, Acts 15:13-21, and Galatians 1:18-19. Jude also mentions him as a brother in Jude 1:1, and he was also a prominent leader in the Jerusalem assembly.
Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 directly mention him as the Lord’s brother, while John 7:2-5 confirms that James, like the rest of his siblings, was an unbeliever even after Jesus had begun His public ministry. We don’t know when he came to faith in Christ, but 1 Corinthians 15:7 confirms that he was one of the earliest witnesses to the resurrected Lord (this may be when he came to believe). It wouldn’t be long after this that James would become a prominent leader of the Jerusalem church. Galatians 1:18-20 mentions Paul encountering him there after returning to Jerusalem from Syria and Cilicia after a fourteen-year stay in those locations (Galatians 2:1-10). Acts 15:13-21 mentions James’s speech to the brothers regarding accepting the Gentile believers as members of the body of Christ. James was the only “apostle” Paul saw in his first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem, aside from Peter. He was not an apostle like the rest of the twelve. Still, he was one in the sense of being “one who was sent out” (the other and second type and meaning of the word “apostle”) to teach the Word and preach the gospel (although James remained stationed in Jerusalem for the bulk of his work). Needless to say, he was not one of the twelve apostles, but he was popular and well known, as evidenced by everything we read about him. Some have estimated that James was martyred in either 62 or 69 A.D.
Date
We cannot know the exact date (let alone the year) when James was written. However, the book was most likely penned much later than many scholars have often posited (sometime after Paul’s completion of Hebrews around 59 or 60 A.D., as Dr. Luginbill places it). https://ichthys.com/mail-Bible%20chrono.htm
https://www.ichthys.com/Hebrews-intro.htm#II.__The_Date_and_Occasion_of_Hebrews_
Audience, Purpose (Occasion), and Theme
Regarding part of James’s purpose for writing this letter (in light of the fact that it was written right after Hebrews), Dr. Luginbill writes…
He was writing after Hebrews and encountering and trying to counter some of the same problems Paul had bumped into. This epistle was written after Paul’s execution so James is carrying on the work, so to speak, by trying to keep Jewish believers outside of Jerusalem from falling into the same trap that many in that city had done.
Again, he writes…
The way I read this epistle – as well as those of James and Jude – these were at least in part stimulated by Paul’s epistle (and the same is true of Peter’s epistle). Hebrews helped get those who were willing to be moved off dead-center. That was an easier lift for the authors of these other books, a harder one when it came to many members of the Jerusalem church apparently (which we may deduce from the destruction of the city and the dearth of information about any large scale exodus of believers before the fact).
James was writing to Jewish believers (“the twelve tribes scattered among the nations”) dispersed throughout the Mediterranean world, ever since the original Jewish dispersion during the Babylonian captivity. Many of them were suffering persecution from the Judaizers and the rich and were facing multiple trials on all fronts. And as Luginbill mentions in the above quote, James was trying to guard and protect these other Jewish believers from falling into the same legalist and gnostic trap that those in the Jerusalem church had fallen into (the Judaizers trying to bring them back under the Law and its various rituals as if Christ had never come and died on the cross). Paul’s letter to the Hebrews addressed the Jerusalem believers specifically, while James’s letter addressed all those outside it within the Eastern Mediterranean world (though the book was for all Jewish believers, regardless of location). And, of course, the Spirit meant this epistle for all believers of all time ever since its completion.
Therefore, James wrote this book to them because they were scattered like lost sheep with little access to any pastor-teachers. Hence, these believers faced a scarcity of Bible teaching (some was present, but there was little cooperation because many did not want to humbly receive the Word) and leadership during a time when they were especially needed. James wrote this epistle to “fill in the gap” and help address the situation, ensuring the spiritual growth and safety of those under his care. If James could not be physically present with them (he was stationed in Jerusalem as one of the primary leaders of that assembly), he could write to those under his charge to further strengthen their ability to endure the difficult situation(s) they now found themselves in. For this reason, he wrote the Book of James.
Although the book was written specifically for Jewish believers (with perhaps a few Gentiles mixed in as well), the principles (the entire book) contained therein apply to all believers of all time (including us today), both Jews and Gentiles (even if the specific setting and circumstances differ). The book’s theme, sometimes criticized as confusing, is relatively simple: to show believers how to live the Christian life, especially in the face of difficult trials and tribulations. This includes not just listening to and acknowledging the truth (as if a mere acceptance and appreciation of the facts is good enough), but also applying it through faith. In other words, we can paraphrase or summarize James’s message: “Don’t just read and understand my words; put them into practice through faith! Otherwise, the truth will not benefit you in any way during these strenuous times you must now endure, times where you desperately need to practice what you know since your faith is now under some serious pressure.”
All believers of all time, especially growing individuals making great strides in their spiritual advance, will always have to face trials and tribulations of various kinds as long as they live and breathe, because such difficult tests are necessary for faith to grow. Without testing, our faith, spiritual growth, and maturity would be suspect, and we would never have any opportunities to prove their quality. Faith needs challenges and difficulties to grow, so that such hard scenarios are expressions of the Lord’s love and graciousness, enabling us to grow closer to Him. However, as James points out, not long into the epistle, temptations to sin are not the same as tests directly from the Lord Himself, because God does not tempt anyone to do evil, which is contrary to His will and character. We will explain this further by examining the individual verses throughout the book.
How applicable James’s words are to the church today because of the greatest of all trials and “tribulations” we are about to soon endure! The seven-year tribulation prophesied throughout Scripture (most notably in Revelation and many of the major and minor prophetic books in the Old Testament) will be the worst time the earth has ever seen (Matthew 24:21), so that James’s words should sink into the minds of all believers. This is one of the reasons I chose to teach through this book because of how applicable it is for us (the modern-day church), who will soon have to “get our acts together” (stop being lukewarm Revelation 3:14-22) and start more aggressively seeking out and applying the truth so that we will be able to endure through those most difficult times.
The Structure and Content of the Book
Many of James’s teachings echo the ethical principles Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, such as listening and doing, giving, prayer, wealth, and asking. A side-by-side comparison between Matthew chapters five to seven and many of the ethical teachings found in the epistle of James will reveal this. Much of this is also undoubtedly because James and our Lord were half-brothers, so the apostle was familiar with many of our Lord’s words and certainly had other things in common. James’s style is simpler and more straightforward than most other New Testament books (especially compared to many of Paul’s epistles) and has a “flavor” similar to that of the wisdom writings, as in Proverbs.
Regarding the book’s structure, we will briefly lay out the major subjects here in passing, as an overview or survey. The book (chapter one) opens with a greeting (James 1:1), followed immediately by James’s encouragement to his readers on how to react in difficult trials and temptations (which includes asking the Lord for wisdom in complete faith and not allowing one’s status in life to drag one away from the Lord, James 1:2-11). This and all the following warnings were necessary because many in James’s reading audience were at odds with one another (including fighting and quarreling; James 4:1-12). Not only that, but the trials and tribulations the members of James’s congregation were now facing made living and acting morally difficult; hence, they began to react negatively. It was test time to see whether they would practice what they already knew and everything else they would be taught. Now that testing had come, some of them began to react poorly (so were some of the reports James had received about the spiritual welfare of these believers).
James 1:12 then adds further encouragement and motivation to respond in a spiritually mature way to these trials and difficulties by mentioning the specific reward for so doing (the crown of life; again, we will explain all these things later as we examine the individual verses in context). After that, but before continuing, James realized the necessity of differentiating between temptations from the Devil and tests the Lord allows the believer to go through to strengthen their faith to head off any false ideas his readers may have had that credited God with doing anything impure (since a righteous and holy God can have nothing to do with evil), James 1:13-18. He did not want his fellow Jews (or anyone else after writing, including us today) to think that God was against them (as Job was tempted to do through his own testing) lest they grow disheartened by abandoning their faith because of demoralization.
James 1:19-27 continues the narrative in chapter one on applying the wisdom the believer should ask for and apply (which includes being slow to speak and quick to listen, listening and doing, and taming the tongue). Chapter two includes more things to include on this list of asking for and applying wisdom, such as treating all men as equals without partiality (James 2:1-13), followed by giving reasons as to why works (James 2:14-26) are so important (since they highlight false faith for believers out of fellowship with God and unbelievers claiming saving faith they don’t have). Regarding the issue of partiality, it was imperative for James to address it because most believers in his time held a lower status in society. Since this was the case and because it was the rich who were exploiting and oppressing them, why would anyone within James’s sphere of authority who claimed Christ wish to hypocritically replicate this sinful behavior? This section then leads to the part on faith and works, where James uses the example of helping a poor brother in need (James 2:15-16).
Chapter three then continues the theme of listening and doing (seeking out and applying wisdom in one’s life “Doers of the Word”) by urging the reader to learn to bridle the tongue (James 3:1-12) since many of these Jewish believers were fighting and quarreling with each other James 4:1-12 (one of the reasons why James warns them that not many of them should become teachers because what one says or teaches and how one talks can have a huge impact on others). For this reason, James needed to distinguish between the wisdom of this world and the type that comes from God above. It is not wise to do what unbelievers see as good, right, and acceptable. However, it was not enough for James to tell his readers that what they were doing was wrong; he needed to show them what the good looked like instead of pointing out their flaws and walking away. This he did, as seen in verses seventeen and eighteen.
Chapter four finally brings to the fore one of the reasons James addressed so many of the topics he did (James 4:1-3 because of the internal strife and disunity that was occurring) and warns of the dangers of such ungodly conduct in James 4:4-6 (see also James 4:11-12). The solution to this was (is) to submit to God by resisting the Devil (as well as everything else mentioned in James 4:8-10). The final section of chapter four (no doubt necessary for James to address because some were, as mentioned before, allowing themselves to be influenced by unbelievers and their worldly type of “wisdom”) revolves around seeking the Lord’s will first in humility instead of proudly and arrogantly assuming one knows what is best (James 4:13-16).
In chapter five, James gives a brief warning to the rich unbelievers (the warning also applied to wealthy believers) who were also oppressing the brothers and sisters under his care (James 5:1-6). To further help end his letter, he exhorts his scattered congregation to patience amid the trying times they faced (James 5:7-9), followed by examples of past, inspiring biblical figures who had done the same under far worse conditions (James 5:10-12). And, finally, since some were presently not faring so well because of their weak faith under trying circumstances (and because of possible future lapses), James wanted his listeners to help restore those in any spiritual danger so that the problem(s) would not grow worse and result in greater consequences (James 5:13-16 and James 5:19-20). He cited the prophet Elijah in James 5:17-18 as an example of genuine faith in prayer, while encouraging his congregants to do the same.
To conclude our introduction, we will examine this book verse by verse and section by section (breaking it down into parts for easier readability). Also, there will be times when I will diverge into a specific topic directly or indirectly related to the present subject of whatever verse(s) under examination to help the reader better grasp the truths contained therein. So, this series will combine verse-by-verse and topical approaches (as we go along).