Chapter 8
James
The History:
Five out the twelve apostle were cousins of Jesus, that is why they were all at the wedding in Cana. Among Jesus’ followers were several people named James. These were:
James the father of Judas, (not Iscariot),
James the Little (the Less),
James, the brother of John, who was martyred by Herod, James, half brother of Jesus,
Jesus had four brothers from whom Jude and James became writers in Scripture.
What happened to the Church immediately after Jesus ascended into heaven? There was no New-Testament book written for the first twenty-years. Paul and James were the earliest to pen a letter, and the Gospels only began to appear about forty-years after Jesus’ ascension.
Near the end of Jesus’ ministry, many of the crowds that had followed him, abandoned him. This new Jesus movement, looked like a failure at first. The turning point came at Pentecost. James, the brother of Jesus, and Mary were in the upper room at Pentecost with all the other disciples. This turned the Church into a rapid fire that spread across the continent. The growth of the Church was tolerated at first, until it became too big to ignore. Then it became a threat to the established norms of Roman world.
After the stoning of Stephen, the authorities of Jerusalem banned and exiled this new, ‘Messianic-Jew’ sect. Soon after, Saul’s conversation sent shock waves across the Jewish landscape as, the persecutor became the persecuted.
Agabus prophesied in Antioch that there would soon be ‘a great famine over all the world’160, so Paul organized a collection of all the Churches to send to Jerusalem, because it was harder hit than most other areas. Herod blamed the Jews for the famine, mainly because the Jews were predominantly business people and the economy had slumped. So he began by persecuting Messianic-Jews161.
A doctrinal rift grew up between ‘Orthodox-Jews’ and ‘Messianic-Jews’, So the leaders of the Church called the first council to solve the argument. Peter, John, Paul and Barnabus were delegates and James, the half-brother of Jesus was the chair-person. It is worth repeating that the unanimous conclusion of this counsel was:
“We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus through Faith, just as they [the Gentiles] are”162.
But after that motion was passed unanimously, further debate on some practicalities of church membership took place. Items on the addenda were: ‘should gentiles believers be circumcised’ and ‘should gentiles be made to keep the law of Moses’. James as presiding elder sums up the conclusions:
Therefore, our judgement is that we do not trouble those of the Gentiles who have turned to God; But that we write to them to abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled and from blood163.
However, with a heart for unity, and to try to keep both Jews and gentiles in the same church, (while not expected to gentiles to be subject to the Law of Moses), Gentiles would be expected, not to offend Jewish believers. They could help by:
Abstaining from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood164
The person:
James, the brother of Jesus, was not always a believer in Jesus. He had been a good scholar at the temple and become part of the leadership. It may have been this leadership that put pressure on him to stop Jesus claiming to be Messiah. One day, together with a concern for his mother and the family name, he and the rest of the family, tried to take Jesus home in the middle of a teaching session. They suggested he had schizophrenia, (he was ‘Beside Himself’).
Somewhen between then and Pentecost there was a transformation. James and Mary were both in the upper room with the other disciples, when the Spirit arrived. James stayed in Jerusalem as a prominent leader after that, where he earned the nicknames ‘James-the-Just’, and ‘James-the-Bulwark’ [the solid].
By the time of the first council gathering, to settle the question of how Gentiles could become part of the ‘Messianic-Jews’ movement, James was president of the council, where he shows a remarkable ability in discerning how the work of the Holy Spirit tied in to scripture. When Peter testified to the Spirit coming upon the gentiles, James straight away tied it to Scripture.
It was probably his signature on the letter from the council that was sent around all the Church, saying to gentiles, ‘We are not laying on you any burden of the law but remember when you are with Jews, they have a different calling. Remember that and don’t seer their consciences’. In other words, The free man must give way to those under a different vow. This letter tells Jews how to behave in gentile world. And gentiles how to behave in a Jewish world.
When Roman governor Porcius Festus died, his successor, Lucceius Albinus, took two months to travel from Rome to take up the post. During that time, Jewish High Priest Ananus-ben-Ananus used the opportunity to convene the Sanhedrin and have James the brother of Jesus sentenced to death by stoning for violation of religious law. They took him up to the pinnacle of temple, (where Satan took Jesus), telling him to blaspheme Jesus or be thrown off. James refused and was thrown down. He survived that, so they stoned him. James died in sixty-two AD.165
The Letter:
The book is written in polished Greek and shows a number of techniques used by public speakers. So either James had excelled in his education, (which may be how he became the chairman and spokesman for the council), or he had succumbed to the new Greek idea of employing a ‘writer’ to write up the minutes of the council and simply signed it as Chairman.
Obey God's message! Don't fool yourselves by just listening to it.166
Following the decision of the council : ‘We believe that we will all be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are’167, James thought there was need for further clarification. He wrote an open letter to all the Churches at Galatia. The theme is ‘Faith displays genuine proof’ or ‘Faith produced evidence in the form of fruit’.
Unlike Paul, James does not start with doctrine. Because James now spends most of his time among other leaders he takes the basic doctrines as read.168 He does start by reminding them that there will be a judgement day, but then he states that on Judgement day God will be looking for the evidence of their faith. We will not be judged for what we do not know, but by the evidence of a genuine belief.
If this letter was in the Old-Testament, it would be in Wisdom books. There are five chapters and five themes but the points he wants to make, jump about a bit in the letter. Gathered together we can see he is saying exactly the same as Paul, and lays it out in an almost identical manner to the outline of faith described in the Preamble to the Letters section.
Belief comes alive and becomes Faith when it is sown into God’s promises. Faith grows into strong hope when it meets trials and disciplines. A strong hope produces good fruit. Good fruit spreads belief-seeds which are ready to fall into the Ahavah-love of God.
James stresses five things:
1 A maturing faith is not a one off statement like, ‘I Believe’.
2 Faith becomes unwavering hope when it meets opposition.
3 Hope is the evidence of faith, it is the natural outcome.
4 Faith and Hope are goal orientated, they do not flit to the latest fad.
5 The fruit of Faith and Hope drop seeds of belief to increase the Church. It is not by works of the Church but by the culture or nature of church that it grows.
James addresses his readers as ‘the twelve-tribes scattered’.169 He shows remarkable understanding that the ‘scattered’ Jews were not like the ones in Jerusalem, who had become proud and insular in their thinking. But the scattered Jews had become lax, assimilating and greedy.
Their newfound prosperity and freedom produced wealth and wealth produced godlessness. Yes, these believers were exploiting employees, spending money on self-indulgence, flattering other rich people while side lining the poor, financing for power, and becoming self-sufficient and self-important. The temptations of rich are well documented in the letter under the words: Envy, Selfish-ambition, Pride, Boasting, Presumption, Impatience, Covetousness and Litigation.
‘The same tongue blesses and praises also curses’, as Paul might say. Grumbling, lying, cursing, and swearing are all spoken of in this letter.
160Acts 11: 28.
161Acts 12: 1
162Acts 15: 11
163 Acts 15: 19 - 20, see also verses 28 - 29.
164 Acts 15: 20. - In other words not to offend the ceremonial expectations of the law
165Sources : Eusebius, Pappus and Clement
166 James 1: 22
167 Acts 15: 11
168Let the leader beware, that assumption subtly widens to a divide
169This verse alongside several others addresses a modern false doctrine by sects that declare the 10 tribes were lost.