James: More GraceSample

Some letters are hard to write.

Writing hard truths to loved ones can be especially difficult.

The letter we are going to read might well have been a hard letter to write and perhaps an even harder one to receive. It is full of searching challenges and, at times, painful rebukes. Yet, it is also full of love and concern. As we read it, we will need to listen out for the challenges but also for the loving care. Sometimes love has to be tough. We need tough love at times to call us back from danger and to keep us on the right track. This part of God’s word is powerful to do both. James wanted those things for his first readers. Let’s pray that this letter does those things for us too.

• How does James choose to introduce himself (1:1)?

Early church tradition suggests that the James who wrote this letter was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus himself. This James became the first leader of the church in Jerusalem. It was a senior and influential position.

But James himself doesn’t mention any of this. He doesn’t mention anything that would make him seem important and special, although he probably could have. James introduces himself as a servant. He is ‘a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ’. That could be a description of any Christian.

James will have a lot to say in his letter about being humble. He will call his readers to humble themselves again before their Lord. Here in 1:1 we learn that when James later says, ‘Humble yourselves’ (4:10), he is asking his readers to do what he himself has already done. He has humbled himself before God and before the Lord Jesus, and become their servant.

James is a servant on his masters’ business. His words, painful as they may be to hear at times, are written at his Lord’s bidding. He is bringing his readers what God and the Lord Jesus Christ want to say to them, and it is important that his readers and we know that.

Pray

Ask God to help you respond humbly and obediently to the challenges of James' letter.