James the Just - Part 1

[1]

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.  Greetings!  James 1:1

We are beginning a new devotional study this morning which will take us through the New Testament book of James.  James is the younger (half) brother of Jesus Christ.  Six months before the cross and resurrection, he wasn’t even a believer.  Yet in this epistle he calls himself a servant of God and the Master, Jesus.  The word is doulos or bond-slave.  It is the word you would use to describe someone who voluntarily chooses to enslave himself to another. 

James was doubtless one of the 500 who saw the resurrected Jesus and became a believer.  He later became pastor at Jerusalem and presided over the Jerusalem council mentioned in Acts.  His life was profoundly changed from one who thought his brother was crazy, to one who willing to be (and was) martyred for his brother. 

It is important to see this incredible focus on being committed to serving Christ in this epistle James wrote.  In it are more than 60 imperative commands.  And there are only 108 verses in the whole book.  It’s like every other sentence James is telling us to follow the same road of commitment to this older half-brother of his.  

James and Jesus grew up in the same household, yet James had never really known his older brother was a whole lot older than he could’ve imagined…like, eternal!

There are some pretty life-altering decisions to make if you take James seriously and seriously follow Jesus.  In the spirit of full disclosure, let me be honest here to announce that investigating James, with the intention of obeying God with whatever we find out, can be extremely hazardous to the health of anyone playing at discipleship. 

However, any believer who truly discovers new life in Jesus also knows He demands loyalty from would-be disciples:

No one can serve two masters.  For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  Matthew 6:23

For You Today

So, if you cannot say for certain that you have nailed down your relationship to your Maker – a saving relationship in Christ, based on His sacrifice on the cross for you, then the first step is still before you in becoming a Christian disciple, you need to be saved.  Tell Him you repent of sin; you want to be His follower. 

Then, publicly take your stand with Him in a church where you can belong to those who also belong to Jesus.  There you can identify with Him in public Christian baptism, worship, and serving the community.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons
                          Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©