Monday 19th
James 1:1
NIV (v1) – ‘James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.’
ESV (v1) – ‘James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.’
Having completed going through the book of Hebrews, we will move into the book that follows and that is James. As I indicated Saturday, from today I will be sending devotions out on Monday – Friday only.
I remember way back in the 1980’s being off work following an accident at work and deciding that I would put together a study on this book, I did start, but I never finished it, well this time I will make a fresh start and will finish it, or at least take us through this book in the same way that we have gone through the others. I still have the original notes I had done in that initial study, but where they are, I do not know, still packed in a box somewhere is my guess!
It is understood that James the author of this short letter was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, having the same mother, Mary. Jude who also wrote a short letter is also another of his brothers. I guess the first thing to note would be to rejoice that some of the family of Jesus believed on him, coming to faith, and contributing something to the Church which still speaks to us today. The question is, what can we learn from this letter from James? We will see.
What strikes me immediately is verse one, where James introduces himself as a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a man who could claim ancestry through his mother to Jesus, a relative, yet he is willing to consider himself as a servant to Jesus, he has acknowledged Jesus as Lord. He has come to know his half-brother in a more powerful way, here is a picture of humility, putting aside any claims to fame for want of a better way of putting it, he has discovered it is more important to be humble and submit to the authority of Jesus in his life and in doing so he becomes a servant from God and of the Lord Jesus to the Church, in this case as we read in verse 2 ‘to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion . . .’
What is also fascinating to me about James is that as he begins to encourage those who he is writing to, he says, ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds . . .’ That seems a strange thing to do, to say to count it a joy to suffer, in our human nature we do not like suffering, we always want the easiest way through things as possible, suffering is not pleasant and surely not joyful? but when it comes to the believer in Christ there is a particular blessing linked to suffering for being a Christian, and it was Jesus himself who said as recorded in Matthew’s gospel ‘”Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”’ (Matthew 5:10-12) It was also Jesus himself who was the greatest example of this as we discovered in our look at the book of Hebrews, ‘. . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12:2)
Maybe James had heard Jesus as he taught back then on the mount, or maybe he had picked up snippets along the way, but he knew his spiritual brothers and sisters were suffering for their faith and he wanted to encourage them, to enable them to understand that suffering as a Christian brings great reward. He continues, ‘for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness’. We will look at that phrase tomorrow, but today as I have on other occasions I want us to turn our attention to those who are undergoing trails of various kinds today for their faith, our brothers and sisters in particular who are living in nations that are hostile to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As of today, this is the top ten countries in the world for the persecution of believers, from 1 to 10, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, and India. How about making a point of praying over the next few days for these places, and for our brothers and sisters that they will know God’s presence and power, his grace sustaining them as they suffer for Christ.