James is the brother of Jesus. He didn't always believe in Jesus, but later became a GREAT LEADER in the Churches at Jerusalem after the death, burial, resurrection and accension of Jesus. James, as you'll see, preached hell and fire to his congregation. Many pastors of today are sugar coating the truth and adopting the new modern approach to salvation by giving in to wordly likes, interests and desires. James leave no stones unturned and goes directly to the sourch of wickedness in the Church, to repentance, then salvation. James has the right Spirit we all must have to be true servants of God. That is, being true to our faith, staying focus on Jesus, being conscious of our attitudes, separating ourselves from others who are wordly, resisting temptation, loving each other, and remaining obedience no matter the circumstances in our lives.
With your mind eye, visualize James writing this letter. He is probably sitting at a well made desk or at some make shift of a desk, deep in the Spirit. Feel his deep love and concern for all in the Churches. Listen with your heart, soul and mind as the Spirit uses James to correct the Churches and put them on the right road towards real service for Christ.
Welcome to the book of James. It's really not a book, but an actual letter, like a letter you and I would write to each other today. In this book or letter you'll find a power house of daily living directed entirely at the Church scattered throughout Jerusalem and around the world even unto our time and beyond.
[1]
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting. ==== I like the way James open his letter to the Church. He let it be known up front that he is a servant of God and Jesus. Many of us are afraid or ashame to tell someone we stand for God and Jesus. I've often seen folks clamb up when in the present of someone who do not believe as they do. They seem to let the person of the other religion push or force their god on them. We should jump right in and say, "well, I believe in Jesus, and no matter what you say, I'm going to serve him." II Timothy 4:2 says to," "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove (express disproval), rebuke (criticize), exhort (lift up his name), with all longsuffering and doctrine."
A servant is one who serve. To serve, means we become a servant, a follower, a faithful witness of Jesus and God. We become a servant once we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and repent. To repent is to recognize the fact that you are a sinner, ask forgiveness, and begin to live for Christ (Roman 10:9-10, also see How to be Saved. In Matthew 24:46-47, Jesus said this, "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. If we want to dwell with Jesus in Heaven and in the New Jerusalem we sure better keep serving, doing something for the Lord. Don't wait like some people say, "I'm waiting for the Lord to tell me what to do." Well, when you became a member of this flock, and said "yes" to God, you should know what to do. It's all been written down in our Bibles. You don't need to wait for God, or keep consulting God to tell you what to do. He made it possible through written scriptures. God knew we stiffnecks would quickly forget his words if he just told Jesus to come preach to us for a while and leave. If he did that, Man, we wouldn't remember 5 percent of what Jesus and his deciples said. Over a period of time, that 5 percent would be speculative. That is, the truth would be all messed up. We wouldn't know what to believe from one person to the next. So, to keep us all straight and on on one accord, he made sure we had something around that would be around forever, for us to consult over, and over, and over again, so we can't forget or get his word all screwed up. It's called the Bible! Manual scripts written and divinely inspired by the hand and mind of God through his Son Jesus Christ, who taught "before," and divinely inspired his deciples "after," his death and accension to the Father, to write the word of God down for future and continuing use for all who desire to hear, read, believe, and accept the word and Jesus as the true gospel. II Thimothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: [17] "That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
Once we study and learn of God and our savior Jesus Christ, and what Jesus did on the cross for us, we have no need to be ashame. We need to lift our heads high and plung right in and help spread the gospel to the whole world. Besides, a shameful person can forget about salvation, for Christ says, Mark 8:38,
"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels." To be ashamed is not wanting to be seen together, meaning you will not be in his presence, meaning you will not be in the first resurrection.
[2] My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;One fault we Christian have is drowning ourselves in our problems. We worry about everything. No sooner than trouble strikes we forget about Jesus. We pray doubting prayers unsure of whether Jesus will answer them or not. Your troubles over ride your faith in Jesus. What we should do is pray about our situation and go about our business letting Jesus handle it. That is, turn it over to Jesus and forget it. Believe that it has been heard by Jesus and that Jesus is now working on it. This is call patience and faith.
[3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. You must understand that having problems is a good thing for the Christian. I know you don't want to hear this, but it's true. Problems we can't solve make us more dependence upon God. We pray more and talk more with him. We get more serious in our relationship with him (reminding him of his promise to help us). We try variations of prayers to reach him. We study more. We become better people. We believe he's going to answer our prayers and take care of that problem because he said he would, and God don't lie. He will answer us in his own due time. We must believe that. We wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. Who are we waiting on? We're waiting on Jesus. We wait patiencely as though expected company will arrive anytime. We know they are coming, it just a matter of when. When Jesus arrives we're glade to see him like the company which finally arrived. We are made whole from our sicknesses and our troubled problems are behind us. We can rejoice knowing that we made it through by holding on to our faith. Afterwards we can tell somebody else to pray and hold on. To wait on Jesus. You can tell'em because you're "been there, done that.
[4] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.Being patience simply means we trust whole heartedly in the divine intervention of God for all our needs. We don't sit down and worry about a situation out of our control. We know we have an adversary who will intervine for us. That adversary is Jesus. We wait on him because of our obedience to him. But,we must be faithful, honest and truthful before him. Then, he will supply our needs.
[5} If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and unbraideth not; and it shall be given him.