Today's focus: James 1:1.
James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is James? James is the half brother of Jesus. Born to Mary and Joseph. He is not one of the original disciples whom Jesus called. In fact, James would have not identified himself in the way he starts his letter during the life of Jesus.
Jesus brothers did not believe he was the Christ at first. During his lifetime James was with his brothers as the called out Jesus to show who he was in John 7:2-5. How does one go from disbelief to belief? From standing aside to dying a martyr's death? The power of the resurrected Savior.
We can sometimes this day and age just say the "resurrected Savior," devoid of the power and truth it represents. We tie it so tightly into our ' Easter Story,' that we lose the centrality and necessity that Jesus, being risen from the grave is a key point. He died AND ROSE AGAIN. He fulfilled the prophecies and conquered death and now sits on the right hand of His Heavenly Father; yet we can be dismissive of the miracle of this momentous life changing reality. James lived on both sides of the testaments. He knew the Old Testament well, grew up in the household of Jesus, Son of Man, and then became a follower of Jesus Christ His Lord post resurrection. He came to the place and then lives zealously in the truth that Jesus is the Christ! And we get to see the transformation.
It is therefore, no little thing that James does not identify as Jesus' half brother but as his bond-servant. A slave to Christ willing serving His Master.
Jesus appears to James after His resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:7. He is then likely found in the upper room Acts 1:13-14. Through faith in Jesus Christ now and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit James becomes a pillar of the local church. We actually see him time and again, perhaps without notice. He is a leader in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:13) is called a pillar by Paul in Galatians 2:9, and Paul would go to visit him twice that we know of, one his first mission to Jerusalem after his conversion and on his last journey through. James is known historically as James the Just.
Foxes Book of Martyrs has his death recorded in his 90's by being cast down from the top of a temple and then beaten to death with clubs.
This is James. Identified in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. May our new birth in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His spirit within us, so too change our identity and titles. In our culture people typically ask your name and then quickly followed by what do you do for work? We can become identified with a trade. My hope is that I become identified souly with my Savior. Not that I am the wife of so and so or mother of them, and them...but as Jenny, servant of the Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ. We can be so consumed or motivated by our identities we hold or identities we desire- may ours be Christ in every way.
Portion B of verse 1, we find James writing to the 12 tribes of the dispersion. After reading many commentaries the prevailing thought seems to be this would have been early Jewish Christians, thus the 12 tribes reference; and they would have started to be scattered abroad. After the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts chapter 8 the church scatters. At the time of this writing most likely James son of Zebedee would have too, already been killed, Peter would have been imprisoned by Herod (Acts 12). The church was right off the ground in an intense season of persecution. This letter was written to those early believers as a way to live the faith they are now professing. Keep in mind this is written, much like several other letters of the New Testament to those in times of trials and persecution. Keep in mind what is addressed... but also what is not.
James teaches and urges with zeal to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. The church we attend today was built of the blood paved roads of those who went before us. Who to live was Christ and to die was gain! May we use the book of James to calibrate how and why and to whom we serve, to whom we point to, and to how we love.
Worship today: Why did life get harder
(just a forewarning I cry often when I hear this song, a beautiful, true, honest song before the Lord)
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