James 1:1-4 – Persevering Under Trial

Sermon & Translation by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 26 Feb. 2023

Greyed-out text is omitted from the verbal delivery of the sermon due to time constraints.

v.1 Introduction (Author & Addressees)

• As we begin a new study on the book of James, the first verse draws us to consider the context of the letter – who wrote it (and when), and to whom it was written.

• It is from “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

  • James is the Greco-Latin form of the Hebrew name “Jacob,” and we know of multiple men named James in the N.T.

    • The Bible mentions a “James the son of Zebedee” and “brother of John,” among Jesus’ original 12 disciples¹, but he was killed by Herod before this letter was written (Acts 12:2).

    • There was a James whose son was one of the 12 disciples known as Lebbaeus, Thaddeus, or Jude (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13), but he doesn’t seem to have any connection with this book.

    • There is also a “James the son of Alphaeus” who was another of the 12 original disciples² and, it seems that Matthew the Gospel-writer was his brother (Mark 2:14). Some Bible scholars think that this James was a cousin of Jesus, since John 19:25 says that Mary the mother of Jesus had a sister named Mary the wife of Clopas, assuming “sister” to mean “sister-in-law” and assuming Clopas to be the same as Alphaeus.

    • Finally we come to “James the Less” (Mark 15:40, 16:1) also known as “James the brother of Jesus,” whose mother was Mary³, and who had a brother named Jude/ Judas who wrote the book of Jude (Jude 1). The Apostle Paul calls him “the brother of our Lord” in Galatians 1:19, identifying him as the James who was not one of the original apostles (Acts 1:14, 1 Cor. 15:7) but who became a leader of the early church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:18, Gal 2:9, 12).

  • So which James wrote our book?

    • The fact that our author doesn’t give us his family’s names makes it more challenging to identify him, but, by the same token, this could indicate that he was so well-known that he didn’t have to give any more identifying information.

    • Although there is a variety of hypotheses on the identity of the author of this epistle, the strong consensus is that he is the one known as “the brother of Jesus” and “James the Less” (and later known as “James the Just”)⁴.

    • I believe he was born after Jesus to Joseph and Mary, in which case he wasn’t one of the 12 apostles, but according to 1 Corinthians 15:7, Jesus did appear to him after His resurrection, and the first chapter of Acts also mentions James in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples.

    • Roman Catholics, of course, have a different view of Mary, that she couldn’t have had any other child besides Jesus, so they insist that “brother of Jesus” must mean “cousin of Jesus,” and this leads to some confusion between James the Less and James the son of Alphaeus, but “cousin” is not within the range of meaning for the Greek word for “brother.”

    • It might also be noted that the style of James in this letter has notable similarities to the letter written by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 under the leadership of James. (For instance they are the only two apostolic epistles which use the Greek word Chairein in the greeting⁵.)

  • What do we know about this man’s character?

    • The fact that James identifies himself merely as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” shows us that he was a humble man. James did not tout his special position as the “brother of Jesus.” He simply calls himself “a servant,” and as a servant, he writes to help us in many practical ways. It is far more meaningful when someone ministers to you in a genuine way, and then you find out later that they are somebody famous, than when somebody starts out by trying to impress you with all their credentials before they start relating to you.

    • In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12, we glimpse a brief interaction between Jesus and his brother James: “While He was still speaking to the crowds... someone said to Him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers have been standing outside, seeking to speak with you.’ But He, in answer, said to the one who spoke to Him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And after extending His hand over His disciples He said, ‘See, my mother and my brothers, For whoever did the will of my Father in the heavens, that one is my brother.” (Matthew 12:46-50, NAW) I can’t help but think that this word from Jesus burned on the mind of His half-brother James and gave birth to the message of the book of James – that only those who are doers of the word are really followers of Christ.

    • Marvin Vincent, in his Word Studies of the New Testament summarized well what is known of James’ character through church historians: “within the circle of the purely Palestinian Christians, and in Jerusalem, James is the chief representative of the Christian society. The later traditions of the Jewish Christians invest him with a priestly sanctity... He is said to have kneeled until his knees were as hard as the knees of camels, and to have been constant in prayer in the temple. He went barefoot, and practised abstinence from wine, and wore the long hair, the linen ephod, and the unshorn beard of the Nazarites... people vied with each other to touch the hem of his garment; and he is reputed to have called down rain in the drought… [We also know from 1 Cor. 9:5 that he was married.]

    • “The Jews and Scribes and Pharisees... came to James, and besought him to restrain the people from going after Jesus, to persuade against Him all that came to the Passover, and, with this view, to stand on the pinnacle of the temple, where he might be seen and heard by all the people. They accordingly placed him there, and said, ‘O Just One, to whom we all give heed, inasmuch as the people is gone astray after Jesus who is crucified, tell us what is the gate of Jesus?’ He answered, with a loud voice, ‘Why ask ye me concerning Jesus, the Son of man? He sits in heaven, on the right hand of the mighty power, and he is also about to come in the clouds of heaven.’ Many being convinced, and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ the Scribes and Pharisees said, ‘We have done ill in furnishing so great a testimony to Jesus. Let us go and cast him down.’ They went up then and threw him down, and, as he was not killed by the fall, they began to stone him. And he, turning round, knelt and said, ‘I beseech thee, Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ But while they were thus stoning him, one of the priests, of the sons of Rechab, cried, saying, ‘Stop! what [are you doing]? The Just One prays for you;’ and one of them, one of the fullers, took the club⁶ with which he used to press the cloths, and struck it on the head of the Just One. And so he [was martyred], and they buried him on the place by the temple.”

  • He died in the year 62 AD, and Bible-believing scholars date his letter around 45 AD. So this book was written within about 12 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and, as such, this is the first book written in the New Testament.

    • If it had been written much later, James would have had to deal more with the subject of Gentile Christians (Vincent),

    • and if this letter had been written after 48 AD, when Paul came to visit James in Jerusalem⁷, James probably would have come up with a more-conciliatory way of wording his message that wouldn’t have sounded so contradictory to Paul’s formulation of justification by faith alone. (Moo)

    • In the Pillar New Testament Commentary on James, Douglas Moo made some good comments about the inclusion of this book into the Biblical canon: the only books accepted by the early church as canonical were books where the author was known. But, while James was well-known as a church leader in Jerusalem, he may not have been as well-known outside of Jerusalem, and, since most Bibles were copied outside of Jerusalem, it took a couple hundred years for his letter to become known world-wide so as to be included among the books of the New Testament (for instance, when the early church father Origen lived in Egypt, he never cited James, but when he moved up near Jerusalem, he started quoting from James). But by the 400’s James was universally recognized as part of the New Testament. (And even Martin Luther, who famously disparaged the book of James by calling it “an epistle of straw,” even Luther recognized that James is, nevertheless, a book of the Bible, and he quoted from it frequently.)

• So who is this letter written to? James addressed his book to “the 12 tribes in the diaspora.”

  • The “12 tribes” are from the 12 sons of Jacob (whom God renamed “Israel”). It is a euphemism for “Jews,”

  • and “the diaspora” is a Greek word describing what a farmer does when he goes out into a field and scatters seeds all over the field to grow crops. So these are Jews who have moved away from Jerusalem⁸, mostly because of the persecution they were encountering. Acts 8 describes the situation in Jerusalem two years after Jesus’ ascension:

    • “At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered [διεσπάρησαν] throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles... As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered [διασπαρέντες] went everywhere preaching the word. (Acts 8:1-4, NKJV)

    • A.T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures In The New Testament suggested that “James is addressing chiefly the Eastern Dispersion in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia as Peter⁹ writes to five provinces in the Western Dispersion in Asia Minor.¹⁰”

    • As part of their Jewish background, however, they would come back every year to Jerusalem for Passover and the other holiday feasts, and there Pastor James would minister to them and encourage them, and I believe he wrote this letter for them to take with them back to their far-flung new homes. (D. Moo)

• So with that context, let me read my translation of the passage:
  “From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One. Cheers to the 12 tribes which are in the dispersion. Start considering it to be all joy, my brothers, whenever you happen to encounter various trials, knowing that the testing for genuineness of your faith has the outworking of steadfastness. But that steadfastness must have a complete effect in order that you may be complete with integrity, lacking in nothing...”

v.1 What is that Faith which must be tested and matured?

• This is not so much a Gospel-preaching book as some of Paul’s letters are, but James does start his epistle with the Gospel message in kernel form when he says that he is “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

  • Notice that “God” and “Jesus” are put on the same level (connected by the same “and”), and that Jesus is called “the Lord” (which the Jews of his day used as a substitute for Yahweh). James identifies Jesus with the one true God!¹¹

  • Then he calls Jesus the “Christ” – which is Greek for “Messiah” in Hebrew and “Anointed one” in English. This identifies Jesus as the descendant of David who was promised eternal rule as king over the people of God. It also means that Jesus is the servant Messiah prophesied by Isaiah who would suffer for the sins of the people in order to make them right with God.

  • This, in a nutshell, is “the faith” which pastor James shared in common with his scattered flock and which he was encouraging them to hold onto despite temptations to give it up, and this is the faith which must be lived out with practical consistency in everyday life in our lives, despite opposition.

• The first practical outworking of faith shows up at the end of the first verse with the Greek greeting: Xairein, which literally means “to rejoice” (and it is translated “rejoice” in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice…”). Here it is a salutation in a letter, but it still contains a meaning of being of “good cheer.” He goes on in v.2 to command them to “consider it all joy when you encounter various trials.”

v. 2 What is meant by “Trials”?

• The Devil’s temptations of Jesus are called “trials” (same Greek word) in the Gospel of Luke:

  • “Jesus, quit praying already and break your fast: Turn these stones into bread…

  • Jesus, Quit being so humble; why don’t you impress everybody by staging a dramatic jump-save (complete with angels) from the temple roof!

  • And, for heaven’s sake, Jesus, quit waiting on God to exalt you; just bow to me and I’ll make you king of the world right away!” But Jesus trusted his Heavenly Father.

  • And Jesus mentioned these trials in His parable of the sower and the seed: Luke 8:13 "But the ones [sown] on... rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, yet these have no root; they believe for a while, but in time of trial fall away.”

    • It is a “trial” of faith when you encounter a rocky situation which raises questions in you mind whether God’s word can be trusted.

    • Perhaps you had a teacher in school who said that all the scientific evidence¹² points to life evolving over billions of years, not to it being created in six days. That gets you thinking, “Wait, is God’s word trustworthy, or is is just irrational superstition?”

  • Hebrews 3:8-9 also mentions such a trial: “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebell­ion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.” (NAW)

    • It’s referring to the time when the Hebrews had escaped from Egypt into the desert. There they got thirsty, because there was no water. This was an opportunity to trust the God whom they had watched create blood, frogs, hail, insects, a pillar of fire, and all kinds of other things – the God who had just delivered them from the angel of death, from slavery in Egypt, and from the army of Egypt in the parting of the Red Sea.

    • But instead of asking God to provide water to drink, trusting that He was with them to deliver them in their legitimate need, they instead questioned whether God was with them, accusing Moses of trying to kill them all in the desert, and they got angry over the lack of water.

    • That was a test of faith, and, even though they failed it, God miraculously provided water and kept them safe and sound.

  • In the Bible, a trial/test/temptation is a watershed moment when a person has to decide whe­ther to trust God or not. If they fail to trust God, they “fall away,” they “drown in… perdition.”

  • Some of the “trials” faced by Jewish believers in Jesus during James’ day were intense.

    • In Acts 5, Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem were arrested and put into jail for preach­ing the Gospel. An angel of the Lord opened the prison doors in the night for them to escape and told them, “Go back to the temple and start preaching again the words of life!”

    • Well, those guys had a choice. They could have said, “Um, count me out. I don’t want to get arrested and put in jail again. Next time, prison might be more permanent!” Instead, they believed in the words of life, they went and preached, they got arrested again and thrown in jail, they got flogged with whips, and then what does history record? Acts 5:41 “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” (NKJV) Rejoicing!!!

    • The book of Hebrews also records some of the trials of the rank-and-file Jewish believers in those “early days” of the church: “...y'all endured much strife of sufferings that [consisted], on the one hand, of y'all being made a public spectacle (with both insults and oppressions), and, on the other hand, that [consisted of] becoming partners with those who were being thus treated – for y'all suffered together with [the apostle’s] chains also, and y'all accepted the robbery of your possessions with joy, knowing to have for yourselves a possession that is better and lasting.” (Hebrews 10:32-34, NAW)

• Trials of faith can come in the form of hostile human opposition like that¹³, but it’s important to realize that it also comes every day in little, mundane things like:

  • opportunities to trust in the security of money instead of choosing to trust and obey God, (1 Timothy 6:9 “...those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” NKJV) Jesus said “You can’t serve both God and Mammon,” so which will you serve?

  • Other everyday trials come in the form of opportunities to trust in the hollow comfort and imitation joy of illicit on-screen images or illicit relationships rather than in the real comfort and joy of the Holy Spirit,

  • or opportunities to tell a lie in order to protect yourself from consequences, versus telling the truth and trusting God to redeem you,

  • or opportunities to indulge in selfish laziness, instead of laying down your life in service to others,

  • or opportunities to get angry because your will was crossed, instead of praying to God for help when things get frustrating.

  • You see, you’ve all “encountered various trials!”

• So how should we respond to them? “Consider it all joy...”

v.2 What Does it mean to “Consider”?

• The Greek word for “consider/count” is ἡγήσασθε, from which we get the English word “hegemony.” It is translated “leadership” in some places in the Bible, such as Hebrews 13, but, in this context, it means “to lead your own thought processes in a particular direction.”

  • When a circumstance befalls you that creates a watershed moment in which you can either trust God or trust man, you need to lead your mind in the direction of God’s joy.

  • According to Hebrews 11:11 Sarah had a hegeomai moment like that: “With faith, even Sarah herself received power for the purpose of the founding of a seed - {She gave birth} indeed beyond the standard-time of age [for it], once she decided [hegeomai’d] that He who promised is trustworthy.” (NAW) Sarah received the ability to have a child at 90 years old when she led her mind in the direction of trusting God’s promise.

  • Paul also had a hegeomai moment in Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count [hegeomai] all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (NKJV) Paul decided to abandon his position of privilege and power on the Jewish Sanhe­drin (analogous to a position on our supreme courts) in order to tell Gentiles about Jesus!

  • Will you take control of your thinking in this way, and lead your mind to decide that it is a thing of joy to grow your intimacy with God through trials?

  • 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that it is possible, because God never puts us in trials that would be impossible for us to succeed in: “...God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tried above what you are able, but rather He will make together with the trial also the way out for the ability to undergo [it].” (NAW)

• One way we do that is by “considering it joy” – believing Jesus when He said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Y'all are being blessed whenever liars reproach you and persecute [you] and speak every evil against you for my sake. Keep rejoicing and leaping for joy, because your reward is bountiful in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.” (Matthew 5:10-12, NAW) It is an act of faith to consider trials a joy, when you know that there is a bountiful reward in heaven that is well worth any hardship involved in getting to it.

• It is also a considered act of obedience to God for the Christian to praise the Lord in the midst of tribulation, because God commands it of us!

  • Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, ‘Rejoice!’” (NAW)

  • 1 Peter 4:12-13 Loved ones, don't keep being wierded out by the fire coming among y'all to test you, as though it were something strange coming among y'all, but rather, just as y'all have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, keep rejoicing, in order that also in the unveiling of His glory, y'all may rejoice while jumping for joy.” (NAW)

• And note that this is not just occasional rejoicing, this is “all joy... whenever” you experience trials. Does that sound like a tall order? How can we possibly chose joy consistently?

vs. 3-4 By Knowing The Result

• James gives us a pointer in v.3 – it has to do with what you “know” – “knowing that the testing of your faith produces/works steadfastness/patience/endurance...”

  • Such testing is done with the attitude, not of disqualifying the weak, but rather with the attitude of proving the genuineness of what is real. It is an opportunity to display your character as a follower of Jesus – an opportunity to confirm that your faith is real. God is not trying to get you to fail in these tests. He is creating opportunities for you to show real faith to the world around you and thus be glorified by you. That’s what most of life is about!

  • If you know in your heart that this is what is going on – that God is giving you opportu­nities to practice your trust in Him, then you can know that these tests will make you a more-and-more steadfast follower of Jesus and bring you joy.

  • Romans 5:1-4 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ... and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope.” (NASB)

• That “steadfastness/patience/endurance/perseverance,” according to v.4, “must have a complete effect/perfect work, in order that you may be complete/perfect/mature with complete/entire/integrity.”

  • In other words, “You’re not done yet. You need to experience opportunities to prove your faith, or else you won’t mature. Rejoice that you have trials coming to you, because this will ensure that you end up with all the perfection¹⁴ that God wants you to have!”

  • You come to Jesus “Just as you are,” but He won’t let you stay “just as you are.” He demands growth in maturity.

    • He said “...you shall be perfect/complete/mature, like your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48, NAW)

    • and He told the rich, young ruler, that, even though he was a good person, he needed to keep growing in “perfection/ completion/maturity” if he wanted to follow Jesus, and for him, that mean selling off his large number of possessions¹⁵.

  • The Apostle Paul demanded the same thing:

    • 1 Corinthians 14:20 “Brothers, stop being children in your thinking, but rather in evil continue in infancy, yet in thinking be becoming mature.” (NAW)

    • Philippians 3:14-15 “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind…” (NKJV)

  • And it is usually in the context of trials that we grow in this maturity:

    • Ephesians 4:11-16 speaks of maturity in terms of doctrinal knowledge¹⁶ “and He Himself gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers toward the equipment of the saints to the work of service, to the construction of the body of Christ, until we – all of us – arrive into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into being a mature man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In order that we might no longer be infants, tossed back-and-forth and carried about in every wind of teaching...” (NAW) But the doctrines you become strongest on are the ones you have personally had to defend against those who were teaching error.

    • Hebrews 5:14 speaks of this maturity in terms of moral discernment “ it is to mature ones that the solid food belongs - the ones who, their senses having been trained through their conditioning, possess an ability to distinguish between both what is good and what is bad.” (NAW) But the issues where you really understand the bright lines are between right and wrong are the ones you’ve had to wrestle with personally.

    • James 3:2 speaks of this maturity in terms of prudence of speech, “...If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” (NASB) But again, for most of us, controlling our tongue comes through trials where we had to eat our words and learn from experience what was worth saying and what wasn’t!

    • And, of course, 1 John 4:16-18 speaks of maturity in terms of love: “...God is love, and the one who stays in love stays in God, and God [stays] in him. In this, love has been perfected with us...” (NAW) And it is not until you have gone through the trial of having to surrender your selfish interests for the good of someone else that you can really say you have loved.

• There is also a synonym for “mature/perfect” in v.4, and that is the Greek word holoklayroi, trans­lated “complete/entire/integrity.” It shows up only one other place in the N.T., and that is in 1 Thess. 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)

  • God is interested in all of you being mature and complete, “hitting on all cylinders” – playing with a “full deck” – “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17, NKJV), and that goal is normally achieved through you enduring trials.

    • That’s why we need to cheerfully welcome trials as opportunities to show to the world the genuineness of the faith God has given us;

    • that’s why we must choose to trust God and His word when the opportunities come to put our trust elsewhere;

    • that’s why we need to keep in mind that God is moving us toward His goal of maturity.

• And so, in the words of Peter, May you “...rejoice a little now since it is vitally necessary to be grieved by various trials so that the refining of y'all's faith... might result in praise and glory and value at the revelation of Jesus Christ!” (1 Peter. 1:6-7, NAW)

James 1:1-4 – Comparison Of Textual Traditions & Versions^A