I would like to begin a series on the General Epistle of James, the twentieth book of the 27 books of the New Testament.

Today we will introduce this wonderful letter written by a man named James.

Now James in his lifetime was a controversial figure and his epistle from the time he wrote it to the time when it was generally accepted as scripture, equal to Paul’s writings, was also controversial.

It is a book that brings you to test your faith, to examine yourself whether ye be in the faith.

It is a book that puts feet to your faith, that brings sweat and labor to the subject of faith.

It is a book that challenges you to put your money where your mouth is.

It is apparent that mouths can speak with great swelling words.

But many times those with much to say also have great swelling wallets who wish to keep them swelling for their money and their mouth never meet.

Many of us do not have much money but many of us have much mouth.

This is a book that encourages less talk and more action for it is a book which admonishes its readers to be swift to hear but slow to speak.

Its message is "words are many", but "actions are few."

James is the author of this book, but which James was it?

The New Testament refers to several men as "James."

For example, there is James, the son of Alphaeus, but we see little of him in the New Testament, and few would view him as the author of this epistle.

Then, there was James, the son of Zebedee, and brother of John.

He is unlikely to be the author since he died as a martyr in the year 44, as recorded in Acts 12.

The third "James" is the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the James who is the most likely author of this epistle.

This James and our Lord both had the same mother but not the same father, Jesus being virgin born of the Spirit and therefore the first born.

James is mentioned first in Mark 6:3,  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?

James’ name being mentioned first leads to a belief that he was the oldest of the siblings of Jesus.

Mark 6:3 continues by telling us that his siblings were offended at him.

John 7:5, confirms this offense,  For neither did his brethren believe in him.

So during Christ’s time on earth James was not a believer.

There is no specific mention of James’s conversion, but after the resurrection, James comes into prominence and is in the congregation of believers.

The Apostle Paul specifically mentioned a resurrection appearance by Jesus to James in 1 Corinthians. 15:7, After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.  For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

From this statement it appears that James was of the group that was called Apostles.

After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the brothers are said to have been with the twelve and the other believers in Jerusalem.

We find this in Acts 1:14,  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Three years after Paul’s conversion we find James to be one of the Apostles in Jerusalem.

He writes of this in: Gal. 1:19,  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.  But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.

So James was recognized as an Apostle by Paul.

In time, James assumed the leadership of the Jerusalem church, originally held by Peter who was engaged in travel.

James chose instead to base himself with the Jerusalem church.

There has always been conjecture that James’ authority was enhanced because of the fact that he was the brother of our Lord.

But James makes no mention of this family relationship in his epistle, choosing rather to refer to himself simply as James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is important and something for us to think about as we sometimes bandy names about.

James didn't want to be accounted worthy by his physical relationship to Jesus.

He wanted to be counted worthy because of Jesus and with his relationship with Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

It was not important who he was, or to whom he was related to by blood, but his claim to fame was that he was a servant of Jesus Christ.

Acts 15 is the passage of scripture that tells us that James was fully in charge of the Jerusalem church.

He was the spokesman who concluded the matter concerning the Gentiles keeping of the law of Moses and this is reported in:

Acts 15:19,  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

It is clear from Gal. 2:9 that James saw his calling as to the "circumcised," that is, the Jews.

Acts 21 also makes it clear that James retained his Jewish ness in his rule.

According to Hegesippus (c. 180), James’s faithful adherence to the Jewish law and his austere life-style led to his designation as "James the Just."

Josephus the historian of those times places James’ death in the year 61 when he suffered martyrdom as part of a Jewish uprising after the death of Festus the pro-cur-ator and before his successor had been appointed.

If this death account as to the time is true then the Epistle of James would be one of the early books written in the New Testament.

The Epistle of James has had a rough road to follow in taking its place in what we know as the New Testament.

The Gospels are the prominent books, Paul’s writings are so Gentile in direction, and so prominent by their volume.

Luke has written more words in the New Testament than any other writer.

And then we have James who was so prominently Jewish in the midst of books aimed mostly at Gentiles.

In fact, although included in the Bible as a whole, the Epistle of James was not included in the New Testament prior to the 1500’s where it, along with Hebrews, Jude and Revelation were located together at the very back of the English bible.

At that time there was still a reluctance to accept certain books into the canon of Scripture.

Books that were most readily accepted into the New Testament were those written by apostles, whose doctrine and teaching lined up with other writings of the New Testament.

During the Reformation, Martin Luther expressed himself strongly regarding the Book of James and basically counted it as one of the lesser books of the New Testament.

He did not see it coming from the pen of an Apostle and therefore did not see its authorship as from James the brother of Jesus.

Luther’s view of this book was stated in his introduction to his New Testament, first published in 1522. He wrote

"In fine (to clarify), Saint John’s Gospel and his first Epistle, Saint Paul’s Epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Saint Peter’s first Epistle—these are the books which show thee Christ, and teach thee everything that is needful and blessed for thee to know even though thou never see or hear any other book of doctrine. Therefore is Saint James’s Epistle a right strawy (light) Epistle in comparison with them, for it has no gospel character to it."

This is what Martin Luther wrote in the Preface of the Epistle of James in his New Testament.

It is rather long but it provides a picture into the thinking relative to scripture that was taking place at the end of the dark ages.

Preface to the Epistle of St. James

Though this epistle of St. James was rejected by the ancients, I praise it and consider it a good book, because it sets up no doctrines of men but vigorously promulgates the law of God. However, to state my own opinion about it, though without prejudice to anyone, I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle; and my reasons follow. In the first place it is flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works. It says that Abraham was justified by his works when he offered his son Isaac; though in Romans 4 St. Paul teaches to the contrary that Abraham was justified apart from works, by his faith alone, before he had offered his son, and proves it by Moses in Genesis 15. Now although this epistle might be helped and an interpretation ² devised for this justification by works, it cannot be defended in its application to works of Moses' statement in Genesis 15. For Moses is speaking here only of Abraham's faith, and not of his works, as St. Paul demonstrates in Romans 4. This fault, therefore, proves that this epistle is not the work of any apostle.

In the second place its purpose is to teach Christians, but in all this long teaching it does not once mention the Passion, the resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ. He names Christ several times; however he teaches nothing about him, but only speaks of general faith in God. Now it is the office of a true apostle to preach of the Passion and resurrection and office of Christ, and to lay the foundation for faith in him, as Christ himself says in John 15, "You shall bear witness to me." All the genuine sacred books agree in this, that all of them preach and inculcate Christ. And that is the true test by which to judge all books, when we see whether or not they inculcate Christ. For all the Scriptures show us Christ, Romans 3; and St. Paul will know nothing but Christ, I Corinthians 2. Whatever does not teach Christ is not apostolic, even though St. Peter or St. Paul does the teaching. Again, whatever preaches Christ would be apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, and Herod were doing it.

But this James does nothing more than drive to the law and to its works. Besides, he throws things together so chaotically that it seems to me he must have been some good, pious man, who took a few sayings from the disciples of the apostles and thus tossed them off on paper. Or it may perhaps have been written by someone on the basis of his preaching. He calls the law a "law of liberty," though Paul calls it a law of slavery, of wrath, of death, and of sin. ³

Moreover he cites the sayings of St. Peter: "Love covers a multitude of sins," and again, "Humble yourselves under the hand of God;" also the saying of St. Paul in Galatians 5, "The Spirit lusteth against envy." And yet, in point of time, St. James was put to death by Herod in Jerusalem, before St. Peter. ⁴ So it seems that this author came long after St. Peter and St. Paul.

In a word, he wanted to guard against those who relied on faith without works, but was unequal to the task in spirit, thought, and words. He mangles the Scriptures and thereby opposes Paul and all Scripture. ⁵ He tries to accomplish by harping on the law what the apostles accomplish by stimulating people to love. Therefore, I will not have him in my Bible to be numbered among the true chief books, though I would not thereby prevent anyone from including or extolling him as he pleases, for there are otherwise many good sayings in him. One man is no man in worldly things; how, then, should this single man alone avail against Paul and all the rest of Scripture?

Now the thing to remember in Luther’s comments is that he is comparing this epistle to the other epistles and in his opinion does not find that it measures up.

But we are to remember that Luther was a reformer.

A reformer is one who reforms, meaning the status quo is to be changed.

His position on the book of James was a position that was greatly affected by his position against the Roman Catholic Church.

He stood upon the scripture that tells us that:

It is Christ alone who saves men from their sins, by faith alone, apart from works. The just shall live by faith!

The Roman Catholic Church used the Book of James to their advantage as the basis for some of its erroneous teaching regarding works.

It is understandable how Luther would tend to be cautious about accepting the Book of James as the authoritative Word of God.

Luther reacted so strongly to the misuse of the Book of James by the Catholic Church that he became suspicious of the book itself.

Another lesson we are to learn from Luther’s stand was that he was fallible.

He interpreted the book of James in light of the battle in which he was engaged.

The authority of the scripture was the cause, against the authority of the Roman church who majored on the book of James.

Therefore in his mind the book of James was not to be regarded in the same manner as the other books written by Apostles.

He did not do anything surprising for most of us do what he did.

We all make choices regarding our interpretation of the Word of God.

We all label ourselves with biblical interpretation labels and then look at the book wearing that label and anything that does not fit our label is put in the back of the book.

Like it or not, we are all somewhat selective in terms of the weight we give to various books and texts of the Bible.

Luther may have looked at this book though reformation colored glasses but others have found it to be a book that stands apart from the other epistles and provides much for holy living.

Another early Bible translator was William Tyndale who was also influenced by Luther, for when he translated the New Testament, he placed the same four books that Luther viewed with suspicion at the end of his New Testament.

But in his introductory comments he was more favorable than Luther regarding the value of these books.

Other reformers such as Zwingli, Beza, and Calvin without hesitation accepted James on a par with other New Testament books.

When Calvin wrote his commentary on the General Epistles, (James, I and II Peter, I, II, III John and Jude, he kept the order Luther had established but at this time he highly endorsed the disputed books.

He said: "There are also at this day some who do not think it entitled to authority. I however, am inclined to receive it without controversy."

Even today there are those who would call the value of this book into question because they mistakenly suppose that there is some kind of conflict between James and Paul in their teaching on justification.

More careful analysis of the teachings of both Paul and James shows that there is no discrepancy between their teachings.

Hopefully, this will become apparent in our study of James