James is named as the author in 1:1. A number of NT personalities were named James, but only three are candidates for the authorship of this book. James the son of Zebedee died in AD 44, too early to have been the author. No tradition names James the son of Alphaeus (Mk 3:18) as the author. This leaves James the brother of Jesus, also called James the Just (Mk 6:3; Ac 1:14; 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1Co 15:7; Gl 2:9,12), as the most likely candidate.
This James is identified as the brother of Jesus in Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; and Galatians 1:19. Though he was not a follower of Christ during his earthly ministry (Jn 7:3-5), a post-resurrection appearance convinced James that Jesus is indeed the Christ (Ac 1:14; 1Co 15:7). James later led the Jerusalem church (Gl 2:9,12), exercising great influence there (Ac 1:14; 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1Co 15:7; Gl 2:9,12).
James was probably written between AD 48 and 52, though nothing in the epistle suggests a more precise date. James’s death in AD 62 or 66 means the epistle was written before this time. Similarities to Gospel traditions and Pauline themes are suggestive. If Mark was written around AD 65 and time is allowed for the events of Acts 15 and 21 to have occurred between Paul’s first and second missionary journeys, a date between AD 48 and 52 seems most likely.
James led the Jerusalem church. The reference to “the twelve tribes dispersed abroad” (1:1) suggests the letter was written to Jewish Christians living outside of Israel. The reference to a synagogue in 2:2 also suggests that his audience were Jewish Christians. References to their circumstances (e.g., oppression by wealthy landowners; 5:1-6) could refer to congregations anywhere in the Roman Empire. However, Semitic word order, quotations from the Septuagint, and the overall dependence of the epistle on the Jewish wisdom tradition suggest a specifically Jewish Christian audience.
James continually called for obedience to the law of God. He never referred to the ceremonial law, but to the moral law. While some people think James is at odds with Paul about the Christian’s relationship to the law, both authors actually combine to give us a solid understanding of the OT law. Paul showed believers that Christ met the demands of the law and, thus, brings us to salvation. James showed believers that their obedience to God’s moral standards is an indication of a living faith, which is a life lived in step with the one who met the demands of the law. Some choose to oversimplify the distinctions between the OT and the NT and say the OT is grounded in works and the NT is grounded in faith, but James brings both testaments together to show that faith and works are integrally related in both the old and new covenants.
The book of James is a letter (an epistle), though only the greeting conforms to the ancient Greek form exemplified in Paul’s letters, especially Galatians. The greeting identifies the author as James, includes a title demonstrating the source of his authority (“a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”), names the recipients (“the twelve tribes dispersed abroad”), and conveys “Greetings” (1:1). Epistles were often used as a means of spurring the recipients to a change in behavior or belief based on the authoritative word and guidance of the sender.
The book of James has been compared to OT Wisdom literature. While there are wisdom elements in James, such as comparing the wisdom of the world with the wisdom that comes from God, it also contains exhortations and prophetic elements not common to Wisdom literature.
When blessed of God, our trials ripen us. Believers who have endured a great deal of affliction exhibit a sort of mellowness that you never see in other people. It cannot be mistaken or imitated. A certain measure of sunlight is needed to bring out the real flavor of fruits. When a fruit has felt its measure of burning sun, it develops a lusciousness we delight in. So is it in men and women. A certain amount of trouble appears to be necessary to create a sugar of graciousness in them so that they may contain the rich, ripe juice of a gracious character.
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ:
To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. A
Greetings.
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
QUOTE 1:3
Faith is as vital to salvation as the heart is to the body. Therefore the javelins of the enemy are mainly aimed at this essential grace. Your faith is peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world.
QUOTE 1:3
He rages at faith because he sees in it his own defeat and the victory of grace.
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. B For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 8 being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. C
9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field. 11 For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.
12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God D has promised to those who love him.
13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, A humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face B in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone C thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
1:3 “The testing of your faith.” Note the essential point that is assailed by temptation. Your faith is the target that all the arrows are shot at. Faith is as vital to salvation as the heart is to the body. Therefore the javelins of the enemy are mainly aimed at this essential grace. Your faith is peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world. If you had no faith, they would not be your enemies. Faith is that blessed grace that is most pleasing to God and, therefore, most displeasing to the devil. By faith God is greatly glorified, and by faith Satan is greatly annoyed. He rages at faith because he sees in it his own defeat and the victory of grace.
1:4 “Mature and complete.” The most valuable thing a person can obtain in this world is that which has most to do with his truest self. A man may acquire a good house. But suppose he is in bad health. What is the good of his fine mansion? The best thing is that which will make him a better man—make him right, true, pure, and holy. If our afflictions tend, by trying our faith, to breed endurance, and that endurance tends to make us into mature and complete people in Christ Jesus, then we may be glad of trials.
When blessed of God, our trials ripen us. Believers who have endured a great deal of affliction exhibit a sort of mellowness that you never see in other people. It cannot be mistaken or imitated. A certain measure of sunlight is needed to bring out the real flavor of fruits. When a fruit has felt its measure of burning sun, it develops a lusciousness we delight in. So is it in men and women. A certain amount of trouble appears to be necessary to create a sugar of graciousness in them so that they may contain the rich, ripe juice of a gracious character.
1:23 “Like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.” Scripture gives a truthful reflection of a person’s nature. It lets a man see himself but not as others see him, for others make mistakes. Nor does it show a person what he would see himself, for he is apt to be partial to his own soul. Rather, Scripture makes him see himself as God sees him. The Holy Book does not flatter human nature. When conscience is awakened and a person sees himself as the revelation of God declares him to be, he can hardly think that this can be the same self with which he was on such excellent terms.
1:24 “For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.” Looking in the mirror and noticing a black mark on our forehead is mere child’s play if we do not wash the spot away. To see ourselves as God would have us see ourselves in the mirror of Scripture is something. But we must afterwards go to Christ for washing, or our looking is superficial work.
A 1:1 Gk diaspora ; Jewish people scattered throughout Gentile lands
B 1:6 Or without divided loyalties
D 1:12 Other mss read that the Lord
2My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, D you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, E also said, Do not murder. F So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” A Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder.
20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? 21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, B and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
2:17 “Faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.” Regeneration is making the old thing new. It is infusing a new nature into a person. The new birth is making the person a new creation in Christ Jesus. But can a new creature have no repentance, good works, private prayer, charity, or holiness of any kind? The new birth would be a thing to be ridiculed if it did not really produce a hatred of sin and a love of holiness.
3Not many should become teachers, my brothers, C because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. 3 Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. 4 And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed D among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. 11 Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
13 Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
4What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you? E 2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. A You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
QUOTE 4:2
If a person’s desires are the longings of fallen nature, if they begin and end with self, if the chief end for which one lives is not to glorify God but to glorify self, then one can desire but will not have.
4 You adulterous people! B Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? C
6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:
God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble. D
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer E defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge F who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
QUOTE 4:14
Unless we purposely live with a view to the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence.
15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
4:2 “You desire and do not have.” Worldly desires, however strong they may be, do not in many cases obtain what they seek. A person longs to be happy, but he is not. He pines to be great, but he grows more ordinary every day. He aspires after what he thinks will content him, but he is still unsatisfied. One way or another his life is a disappointment. How can it be otherwise? If we sow the wind, must we not reap the whirlwind and nothing else? If a person’s desires are the longings of fallen nature, if they begin and end with self, if the chief end for which one lives is not to glorify God but to glorify self, then one can desire but will not have.
4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” First, we see that the text is not merely an invitation; it is a command. We must obey it. We need not entertain any fear that we will be an intruder when, in the exercise of his gracious sovereignty, God says to us, “Come!” Next, notice that he would not call us to himself if there were no road by which we could come. Once there was a great gulf fixed between us and God, but Jesus bridged the awful chasm. So draw near. The road to God is open to all who believe in Jesus. Finally, notice the encouraging promise. There is nothing about his casting out, spurning, or rejecting. We will be received graciously and loved freely. The promise is emphatic: “He will draw near to you.”
4:14 “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.” It is a great folly to build hopes on what may never come. It is madness to risk everything on the unsubstantial future. Life is like a vapor. Sometimes these vapors, especially at the time of sunset, are exceedingly brilliant. They seem to be magnificence itself when the sun paints them with heavenly colors. But in a little while they are gone, and the whole panorama of the sunset has disappeared. Such is our life. It may sometimes be bright and glorious. But it is still only like a painted cloud, and soon the cloud and the color in it are both gone. Therefore, if this life is unsubstantial as a vapor—and nobody can deny the fact—let us regard it as such, and let us seek for something substantial elsewhere. Unless we purposely live with a view to the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence.
A 4:2 Or You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and wage war.
C 4:5 Or Scripture says: He jealously yearns for the spirit he made to live in us?, or Scripture says: The Spirit he made to dwell in us longs jealously?
5Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. A 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!
10 Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. 11 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. B You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about — the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “yes” mean “yes,” and your “no” mean “no,” so that you won’t fall under judgment. C
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. 17 Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.
19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
5:11 “We count as blessed those who have endured.” A person going to a surgeon will bear sharp pain when he is convinced he will be cured by such pain. If a man proposes to cut me, I decline his offer. But if I know that I will die unless the incision is made, I welcome the knife. Let him cut without mercy if he intends mercy by it. It might be unmerciful to hold back his hand in such a case. Such knowledge should make us patient under divine chastisement. The Lord never grieves us because he likes to grieve us. He is full of pity and will only rid you of what would harm you.
“The Lord is compassionate and merciful.” Let us not be persuaded by man or devil to think ill of our God. He has a father’s heart even when he makes us feel the strokes of his hand. Our God cannot be unkind to us; he cannot forsake us. If we would see his goodness and his justice blended, we must look at the Son of God on the cross, dying in our place. Let us not doubt the tenderness of him who gave his one and only Son.
5:20 “Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death.” In the days of James, if any erred from the truth and from holiness, there were believers who sought their recovery and whose joy it was to save their soul from death. He who has erred was one of us, one who sat with us at the communion table. He has been deceived by the subtlety of Satan. Let us not judge him harshly. Above all, let us not leave him to perish without pity. If he was ever a saved man, he is still our brother, and it should be our business to bring back the prodigal and make our Father’s heart glad. If he is not a child of God, if his professed conversion was a mistake or pretense, grieve over him all the more, for his doom must be the more terrible. Still seek his conversion.