James Blog 1

The Letter of James has two major candidates for authorship. The first is James, the son of Zebedee. According to Craig S. Keener, the more likely author was James, the brother of Jesus. The setting of the letter was probably before 66 AD and since James was killed around 62 AD, if he was the author, then it was written by 62 AD. The time frame between 62 AD and 66 AD “would allow for insufficient time for this letter to be a pseudepigraphic composition” (Keener 687). The Genre is an essay letter (Keener 687), adapting the diatribe (Perkins 2171) and is not addressed to a specific church. In the letter, James “attacks any form of partiality shown toward the rich. Arrogance and self-confidence can separate the rich from God and lead to callous injustice” (Perkins 2171). “Pride of the rich,” “persecution by the rich,” “pay withheld by the rich,” temptation to “retaliate with violent acts…or words” (Keener 689) are all reasons that the letter of James was written. The audience is predominately Jewish Christians, or even Jews in general, who had been “caught up in the sort of social tensions that eventually produced the war of AD 66-70” (Keener 689).
“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” James 1:2-8
“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy in to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.” James 4:7-10.
The cool thing about joy is that nobody can take it away from you. Happiness is fleeting. One wrong word or gesture and—where did the happiness go? Situations come and go making one happy or sad or whatever emotion. Joy is not an emotion though. I like to think of joy as a pure knowledge of God being, no matter what is going on inwardly or outwardly.
Christians cannot be “baby Christians” forever. God has greater plans than simply saving a person. After salvation, the Christian is supposed to learn and grow in the faith. One way faith is tried and refined is through trials. And it is so true that when a person goes through trials their faith produces endurance.
When growing up at church, we sang a song that was based off of James 1:17 and it is one of my favorites to sing to God. I love to call God by different attributes and names of His. Here, God is called the Father of lights. Does not that name make you smile? It is beautiful! Anyway, from the Father of lights comes every good and perfect gift. Anything that you receive that is good is from God! How amazing a God we serve who would give so much to His Church!
In times when I cannot feel the way I want to, I love to remember that God is beyond emotion. It is interesting, but when God feels far away, odds are He is closer than ever. Why? Because God is not known to pack up and leave during the night in an evil act of abandonment. One of the last things that God wants is for us to rely on emotion. What would come of that? I think that there would be a lot of spoiled Christians thinking that God somehow owed it to them to keep them happy at all times. There would be a world of “baby Christians” and maturity would be a foreign term.
This semester I have gone through some refining. There were days that God felt close and days where I wondered where He had gone. Yet, calling on Him proved that He was there because He answered each prayer. I just pray that I can keep on trusting when again God does not feel close.

WORKS CITED

Keener, Craig S. “James,” Pages 686-704 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Perkins, Pheme. “The Letter of James.” Pages 2171-2172 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.