James Introduction-Overview

Oh, it's just been kind of fun. It's been a challenge. I wish Roger had given this to Roy or to Andrew, but nevertheless. I say to Margaret, I like to kind of do verse by verse. I really like it. But this was fun. It made me kind of think back into what I did for 40 years in the workplace, thinking through grant writing and getting funding to do my research. Anyway, but this has been good.

And I think, hopefully, this outline for today's lesson on the Epistle of Danes is going to be helpful to all of us. It was to me, for sure. So we're going to address five questions. First, what James was this? OK, I think that's fairly easy to answer, much easier than a few of the other questions. When was the epistle written? There's a little bit of debate about that. Divine origin has been questioned about James. Should it be in the word of God? I think we all know the answer to that. But nevertheless, I'm going to raise a few points that have been mentioned over the years.

Who is the audience? And finally, topics to be addressed. And faith versus works is a major one, but are there more? And I can assure you there are more. So this is what we're going to do today. And I want to be interrupted. So please, this is not a sermon. This is simply a class so we have time for discussion. All right, let's begin.

I'm going to just simply state that here's the sources of my information. They're listed there. And I want to thank Jimmy Brekkerhoff for sending a work by McIntosh dated in the 19th century called Final Perseverance, What Is It? And it really was helpful, I think, to help us, in a very summarial sense, kind of put the Book of James into perspective. Jimmy, thanks. All right, so let's begin.

Which James was this? Well, there's lots of Jameses. Okay, so James, the son of Zebedee. And Matthew says, going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Okay? That's one James.

Then there's James, the son of Alphaeus, who is sometimes called the Less because of either his stature or his age. And maybe the way we look at him is the Less because he's not the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but nevertheless. Matthew 10.3. In Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Lebeus, whose surname was Thaddeus. So there's simply listing the son of Alphaeus as another James in scripture. James, the father of Judas, Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. Is that a different James than Zebedee or Alpheus?

There's some debate about that, but I don't think we need to be overly concerned about that. And then the author of this letter is James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know from the text that in Matthew 1355, is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? We don't learn much about those other two brothers, but this James, I think, is paramount because of his authorship of the book we're going to be studying. And then the second verse, Galatians 1, 9, I kind of found that kind of interesting. And I kind of found that just serendipitously, anyway, not well-pronounced. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

What's that explanation there that we're looking for about about what Paul's writing. Oh yeah, his interface with the apostles. It's that dialogue. Did he get all his information from the other apostles or did he get it from the Lord? That's that context, I think. And that really related to the time where he went into the wilderness to be taught by the Lord Jesus Christ for three years. This is timely in relationship to that. That's pretty amazing experience. I think it's too bad that God didn't give us more details about that personal education in the wilderness that Paul received. Anyway, all that aside, so that's the same James.

And James also, I meant to mention this, like the other disciples, James was not a believer during the public ministry of Jesus, but he was a witness to the resurrection. So we can't think that I mean, John was the one Christ loved, and there seems to be kind of a special relationship there. We learn a lot about Peter before the cross, too, and how the Lord dealt with him, but the details about his interaction with a lot of the other disciples is not so clear, but it's clear they're not saved people. There was nobody who was saved until the cross, right?

So anyway, 1 Corinthians 15, 7, and after that, he was seen by Jesus and then by all the apostles. I think it's kind of interesting, After that, who met him at the tomb, the resurrected Christ? Well, Mary, John, right? And then Peter. And then the next before the rest of the apostles, or it's called the apostles here, retrospectively, was James. So anyway, he gets a little bit more attention than I think many of the other 12. And he also, joined the followers of Jesus after the resurrection.

In Acts 1.14 it says, these all continued with one accorded prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. So this is not a brother in the Lord, this is his brothers chronologically. So anyway, I think we have pretty good evidence that James half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ is really.

And then there's more about him. Subsequently, I'm stating here, after the Jerusalem Church Council, James is seen as the leader of the Jerusalem Church. And by the way, in Acts 15, 13 through 21, you can read about that in more detail, but I thought I'd just share one verse. In Acts 15, 13, and after they had become silent, this is at the council, James answered saying, men and brethren, listen to me. And that was kind of the beginning of his really leadership of the development of the new church at Jerusalem, the very beginning of that church. So that's what we know about James. He was his half-brother, earthly half-brother. And I always think about God's DNA being dominant. has the same sin nature we all have, right?

There's nothing special about Mary, despite what some religious tend to believe. Mary was of the Earth, of Adam, if you will. Also, her line, she was the line of David, too, which is important, too. Right, and so prophesied to be, ultimately, the mother of the ultimate, fully God-man and man-God.

So, ultimately, then, You know, if we look at the immaculate conception of God's DNA with, you know, Mary's DNA, obviously the sin nature was canceled. So the half-brothers were of Joseph and Mary and were just like us. They're all of Adam. But it's interesting thinking a little bit more out of the box about how God's DNA had to be dominant for Christ to be fully human and fully God to live a life without sin.

Is the sin nature inherited? well we're all of the first atom aren't we so presumably that sin nature is part of simply being human and it's unfortunate god planted that way that's what scripture well documents and we all know that personally don't we any other thoughts about james here before we go ahead yeah jim uh i was reading my uh is this hotches no this is gone man that ended with That's John. This is from my Home and Christian Standard Bible. They say that James, the son of Zebedee, was probably the first one martyred, and that was about 44 A.D. So he's eliminated from the writing. Okay. I could have added that if I'd known that. All right, good. All right, question number two.

When was the epistle written? And that may be a little overactive, but I don't know that it really is entirely. It's estimated that this letter was probably written between AD 45 to 48, making it one of the first books of the New Testament. So I find that important. And Josephus said that James died in AD 62 during the high priesthood of Ananus. So he must have written the letter before then. were giving him credit for writing the letter before 62.

And many commentators believe that James' lack of reference to the Jerusalem Council in AD 49 suggests he wrote this before that meeting. Interesting. But it's interesting if the council is kind of really what led to ultimately the establishment of the Jerusalem Church, then I think you could raise some question about the exact date here. And Kostner claims this is a very tenuous argument, since the issues James dealt with in his epistle are different than those that the Jerusalem Council discussed. Many scholars have taken James' lack of references or allusions to other inspired New Testament epistles as additional support for this position.

When you read James, I think I think we've said this here before, James, John, and Peter need to be read after we understand Pauline church doctrine. And that kind of relates to this. But others, Sunday prefers a later date, such as AD 60, claiming that the distinctive doctrines of Christianity were presupposed and that thematically the epistle addresses the misinterpretation of justification of faith by Paul in the Epistle of the Romans, which was apparently written in 1852. So what do you make of that? That James is assuming that everyone knows the Pauline epistles.

I mean, I've read through the entire book. I think we as Christians, we can look at it. Go ahead, Mike. I think we can. I think we can look at it and just say, well, count it all joy. I think that's this book, no matter what. Every time I read it, it just counted all joy. That's the heading for me. All right. We don't need to be so concerned about this.

But I think it's important in rightly dividing the word of truth to see whether we think James was knowledgeable about the church doctrine that Paul has presented and many epistles have preceded it. I don't think so. I don't think James knew of all the Pauline doctrine that was there. I mean, that's an opinion only. It's obviously debating.

But Sunday believes it was written closer to his death than earlier. And that would presuppose that justification by faith was already well established. Other thoughts? comments about this? I think the way he deals with faith and words presupposes that he didn't understand Paul's viewpoint on that, because it's not real clear. It's a little bit confusing. I would tend to agree with that, Jim, but again, some people think otherwise. The fact that people debate this authorship and the timing of it really is open to only adding confusion.

I think it's a book that is granted by God's great grace and ultimately we have to rightly divide going forwards. Okay. Question number three. It's interesting that there's a lot of people that wonder about whether this book should be included in scripture.

I think we all can conclude it's there, God has it there, but just to bring you up to date there a little bit, OK, so the first point here is Debelius maintains that the epistle is pseudamus, that means without known authorship, and dates the epistle later, from the late 1st to mid 2nd century. OK, that's OK. I'm just giving you the arguments here. Don't shoot the messenger.

And Manton, who wrote his book in the 17th century, and actually it's been reprinted a number of times, He's quoting Eusebius, and he says, and these things concerning James, whose epistle that is reported to be, which is the first among the epistles called universal, yet we are to understand that the same is not void of suspicion, for many of the ancients make no mention thereof, nor of Jude being also one of the seven called universal, yet notwithstanding we know them to be publicly read in most churches.

Eusebius is really doubting the early authorship of this book and the fact that many were not mentioning this, nor Jude, in the early, you know, gatherings really relates to that position. And then Manton goes on to quote Jerome, James wrote but one epistle which is also said to be put forth by another in his name, though by little and little in process of time it gained authority in the church.

So the idea of This was really slow to be incorporated as one of the books of the Bible. We're talking about the first several centuries that ultimately failed to recognize this as a book to be included. And I think, you know, most importantly, I think this is kind of interesting. Luther plainly rejected it.

And I'm quoting here, the epistle, though not owned by, I'm quoting Luther now in his writings, The epistle, though not owned by many of the ancients, I judge to be full of profitable and precious matter, it offering no doctrine of a human invention, strongly urging the law of God. Yet in my opinion, which I would speak without prejudice, it seems not to be written by any apostle, which was the error and failing of this holy and eminent servant of God, and therein he is followed by others of his own profession. So what Luther's saying, we're justified by faith. Why is so much emphasis being put on works?

And he's really doubting the scriptural basis for this epistle, thinking it's written by someone really not giving credit to James himself. But this is kind of entering in through a side door, if you would. But I think I'm going to conclude here. But all of these are interpretations by man.

And we have the comfort in trusting that the Lord is the author of his word. And just a few verses to support that. You know, it's interesting. I challenged, you know, the Bible ultimately through multiple avenues to find where each and every word of, I'm going to support the fact that the word of God is clearly completed with us, but the idea that You know, John said he could write a lot more. Remember, he'd write a lot more if he had pages to do it, but they would fill the more books that are on the shelves. I'm paraphrasing. But did God ever say that I have nothing further to add? I mean, at the end of the book, somebody pulled Revelation and read the last verse of Revelation.

But while you're doing that, in 2 Timothy 3.16, all scriptures inspired by God And it's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what is right, 2 Timothy 3.16. And in Hebrews, we have a couple of quotes that really solidify the position that the word of God is alive and powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword coming between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

And then in Hebrews 6.18, so God has given us both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. It goes on and on. So last person, Revelation doesn't have some closure.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the Tree of Life and from the Holy City, which are written in this book. Okay, so is that related to only the Book of Revelation, or does that relate to the entire Bible?

I didn't bring that verse forward, but just thought about that one this morning. Anyway, I think we don't sit and question whether the Book of James should be in the Word of God. It's there. It's for us, and we can learn a lot from it. Anybody want to take this book out? All right. But it is a bit of a challenge in terms of the topics to be covered. All right. Who is the audience? What do you think? Who is the audience here? Who's James writing to?

We were writing to Jewish Christians of the 12 tribes that were dispersed among their nations. Okay. Specifically Jewish Christians. Okay. And why, do you think? I can't explain why. And do we know where this group of Jewish Christians lived at the time? Well, in the area. But it says in the first verse to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. They were dispersed among all the Roman Empire.

Okay. You have to think that maybe it's in the proximity of Judaism, but we don't know that for sure. It says in my Bible that first century Jewish Christians residing in Gentile communities outside Palestine and all Christians everywhere. Yeah, okay. So here's what Macaulay has to say. The word dispersed was technical term for the diaspora or of the Jews who had been scattered among the Gentile population and did not live in Palestine. So apparently this is again what Macaulay has to say.

They were therefore exposed to both Gentile persecution and Gentile conduct. That the 12 tribes are mentioned shows that Israel has never ceased to be a distinguishable entity in the sight of God. So that's kind of Macaulay's interpretation. As you just said, Jim, in James 1 and 2, it's James, a bondservant of God and a Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Greetings, my brethren, count it all for joy when you fall into various trials. And in verse 6 of chapter 2, which have dishonored the poor man, do not the rich oppress you and drug you into the courts, or drag you into the courts. I think there that's an example of the persecution that they were facing maybe from the Gentile believers that surrounded them, or even the Gentile population as a whole.

So I guess I mentioned earlier, I correct myself, but this is likely beyond the area of Judaism in Palestine, per se. It's scattered. So it's not a... A good verse on this is in the Gospel of John 735. It sort of uses from the Holy Spirit what the Jews thought of the dispersion. It says the Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? And they're referring to Jesus who said that where I'm going you cannot come. He's not intending to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? I just thought that might help us a little bit. That's John 7, 35? Yeah. Yeah, that's good, Roy. Yes.

Another verse, I thought it was in Acts 8, when the persecution started, it mentions about the, for those who had been scattered. What about preaching the word? Where is that? In Acts 8? when the persecution started on the early believers. And that's scattered on the three ways. What verse? Verse four. I want to read that.

It says, therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. But the verses before talked about Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging men and women, dragging off men and women. put them in prison. But the persecution began on the early church. Do you think that relates to the Jewish church only? Well, at that time, it's kind of the early church. Okay, good. Thanks. Appreciate that additional insight. All righty.

James also often refers to Old Testament examples of the faith, including Abraham, Rahab, Job and Elijah, as well as the Ten Commandments of the Law of Moses. So the audience, again, is largely, if not entirely, Jewish. So he's referring a lot to Old Testament doctrine. Are there any other books in the New Testament that are more Jewish than James, do you think, in terms of its audience?

Hebrews. Hebrews? Yeah, maybe. I think Hebrews probably extends a little bit more past the Jewish believer. What about Peter? We've studied that here, written predominantly to the Jewish diaspora. Anyway, this is not the question we have to answer, but James clearly is directed to the Jew, I think, or the Jewish church. Remember, the Bible wants us to distinguish, not to distinguish you from Gentiles, it's the body of Christ, right? So a lot of the early church probably had this type of persecution of the early believers by the Gentiles, as indicated by Macaulay's summary of the audience and how they suffered persecution. That's clearly part of James, and we'll get back to that in a few minutes. All right, most importantly, I think, is the topics to be addressed.

And this whole faith versus wars is something that is kind of summarial about a lot of the controversies in the interpretation of the Book of James. But there are many more, and I'm going to list them briefly. We're not here to go through the entire book today. We're just here to kind of summarize the entire book. So let's keep that in mind.

So there are many references to to nature, too, that are consistent with, I think, apparently rabbi's teaching of the day. So James uses nature a lot in terms of some of the points he wants to make in his epistle. There are many allusions to Jesus' teaching on the mount, on the Sermon on the Mount here. And the Sermon on the Mount is not for us today, but ultimately the allusion to that really, I think, relates to the Jewish direction of this epistle and what it really indicates. What's the Sermon on the Mount? What audience is that that the Lord is addressing there? It's Kingdom Age, right? So James has a lot to say about the Sermon on the Mount.

But here are the other themes that I picked up on as I kind of looked at the book entirely. Temptation, we hear about in the first chapter. Trials are frequently mentioned. Partiality within or outside the church. The tongue. The tongue almost has an entire chapter. Wisdom, pride, or the absence of humility, piety of the poor, and ultimately, the character trait of patience.

All these things James addresses. So the faith versus works argument is kind of a summary of what the book really is all about. But nevertheless, I think how that plays out in the life of a believer relates to a lot of other topics. So these are things we'll keep in mind as we go through it. And I'm going to thank Jimmy Brinkerhoff again for sending something that Andrew and I both took a look at that I think is fairly important.

So now back to faith versus works and using in part what's written in the McIntosh book called Final Perseverance, where So first, let's make sure we're rightly dividing the word of God by justifications by faith. There's just no question about that. And a few verses that address that.

In Romans 3, 27, 28, where is boasting then excluded by the law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. You know, justification by faith is mentioned in Hebrews, it's mentioned in Habakkuk, and that's what brought Luther away from the Catholic religion. And then in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, we all know this, for by grace you've been saved through faith and it's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. So justifications by faith, and we can even expand on that in getting in much more detail in the Book of Romans if you want to do that.

So let's accept that for what it's worth. But let's then reflect briefly on what James has to say. And I think the verse that was brought out by McIntosh that Jimmy shared with me in Andrew is this. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Yeah, faith can save them by justification. It's clear that it saves them.

The question is, is James really asking a question he doesn't have the answer to, do you think? Is he just being difficult here? What do you think? I mean, was James really thinking that works were so important that if you don't have them, you're not saved? Nobody wants to ponder about that. You would have to turn to the most difficult verse in James. I didn't dissect the whole book of James today, verse by verse, but I think this is really a key verse which McIntosh brought up in this perseverance document that I mentioned, Final Perseverance. What is it? So let me quote what McIntosh says.

We can discuss this. inquires, what does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith? And he said, what doth it profit though a man have faith? But the important word, say, quite removes all difficulty and unfolds in the simplest possible way the point which the apostle has in his mind. We might inquire, what doth it profit though a man say he has 10,000 a year if he has it not?

And the kind of take home message is, law works are such as are done in order to get life. Life works are the genuine fruits of the life possessed. Let's ponder that and discuss that a little bit. Law works are such as are done in order to get life. What's the whole world system think about in terms of their day-to-day performance. Many believers are really living under a blanket of law. And I think most of us, I hope, can reflect on the fact that self-righteousness was really what we're about in terms of the buffing up of the flesh to do good things, right?

But I think the point McIntosh is making here is life works come from a life. It's the new life we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And life works are the genuine fruits, which are Holy Spirit directed, of life possessed. Pretty profound. And Jim, again, thanks for sharing this. I think the say makes this very subjective.

They say they have faith. But do they have faith? Does their life back it up? By the way, when everybody dies, they're in a better place than their family thinks, right? Because their law works have been noted to be valuable or important and outside themselves. But law works are done in order to get life, but they never achieve it.

Bob, I'd like to make one point. It seems like this was written during a time when there were a lot of fake Christians, you might say, and you know, the Gnostics and fake beliefs. And it seems like with James and with John and with Peter and with Paul, they're really defending, rightly dividing the word. And it seems like, you know, there's a lot of people in the church that are maybe going around sinning and sinning and sinning, and they really aren't saved. And maybe there's a little bit of of an issue with that, with James.

Well, this is the time of the birth of the Brethren, really, during the late 19th century, too. And I think this was an important manner in which to distinguish justification by faith from works, in terms of the relationship of life works versus law works. Other thoughts? Andrew, do you want to comment? If you're there. I don't know if he's there. I don't see him. Yeah, he is there. He doesn't have his mic on or camera.

One of the wonderful things that this passage brings out is the contrast between living with a present awareness that Christ is in us as believers And when we're walking in fellowship with Him, there will be the manifestation of Christ. And everything that He wants done will be flowing through us. And I think that's what His emphasis here is. Not that we say that we have faith, but that we exhibit Christ in the process of His working through us.

Right. We're talking about a life here, right? We're not talking about works, per se, is ultimately any value in the absence of the life that sources them. Yeah, the human judgment on this would be, how much good have you done? Or, are you manifesting something good from their perspective? Well, what's God's perspective of good and evil? In our study of James, we're there to learn that the new life does relate to works, right?

We don't account them to ourselves, but the life is demonstrable of the life by the works, in fact, that we do. And ultimately, God is the ultimate judge of our works in terms of their source. If they're wood, hay, or stubble, they get burned, right? And those are the self-like works. The question is, how do we produce the works that are life-based? And that's up to God, isn't it? That's the leading of the Holy Spirit in this new creation we are in, Christ Jesus. I think that's a key, what you just said, that God produces the works. Right. And how do we become more life works oriented as we live the Christian life? You study the person, right? And we learn the person in this new creation we are in. for me to live as Christ and of course die as Cain. I always say either way you win.

This woman in Oregon I mentioned to you whose son has a rare genetic disease that relates to what I did academically. She's now burdened by the fact that where is God? I'm going through this and quoting only Old Testament. David reflects a lot on where God has left me and where am I? I mean, it's repeatedly in her letter, and I feel my heart was heavy when I read this. And I think it relates to kind of what we're about. Let's see what the Epistle of James has for us, and it's always by rightly dividing the Word of Truth as we go forward. Amen. All right, good.

Any final comments about this overview? One thing I like about the life works, they will not be contrary to God's law. God will produce those works through us according to His law. And what law is that? Ooh, you got me there. Well, you know, Scripture mentioned Paul as the law of Christ, and the law of Christ is not a series of commandments. I mean, you know, the law of Christ is the new nature we have.

The law of Christ is to be, you know, born by grace through faith, and ultimately that's the life we live, too. Hey, Bob? Yes, hi. Hi. Yeah, James mentions in this book the law of liberty. And I think that's his own term that he uses. And that sounds very in line with Paul, the law of liberty. OK, that's good. That's all right. So as we look at the questions, which James was? Is it perhaps brother of the Lord Jesus Christ? Who was the epistle, when was the epistle written? Probably in the late 40 to 45 to 50 A.D. period, some question a little bit later.

Divine origins question, but I think we can put that to rest. This is the Bible, the word of God, and we have it, and we can interpret the end of Revelation, and there's nothing to be added anymore to any scripture, right? So we're comfortable with that. The audience, mostly the Jewish diaspora, the Jews who were spread around the areas outside of Palestine, and who are persecuted regularly, probably, by the Gentiles.

And finally, faith versus works is part of what we're going to be studying, but there's a lot more in James. And I think, you know, it's interesting to see what emphasis James puts on the tongue. That's chapter three, maybe that's June or July, I don't know where we're going to be getting to that. But whatever that is, it's incredible how our tongue can be such a harmful enemy to ourselves and to the gospel we proceed to share.

And you can add today emails and texts. All right, let's close in prayer. Father, we're in a challenging part of scripture, but we trust you that you have intended it there for us, that as Andrews mentioned, the law of liberty is an important way to think about this, and that it's really what we have, the liberty to live a life by our faith in the great platform of grace the Lord gives us. And by that life, then the life works that we have really bring glory to you. So we're thankful for this epistle. We pray for the teachers who will be sharing this and the wisdom that you give them to share this in a way that will be uplifted and the glory would be yours. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.