The book of James is a practical guide for Christian living, challenging believers to not merely profess faith but demonstrate it through actions. James addresses trials, temptations, favoritism, the power of words, and the need for humility and wisdom. His writing emphasizes the connection between faith and works, urging believers to be doers of the Word. He also gives strong warnings to the rich, calls for perseverance, and highlights the importance of prayer and restoration within the Christian community. James’s message is deeply rooted in both spiritual truth and practical application.
Resources:
Bible Project
https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-james
The original pronunciation of this author’s name in Greek is Iakobos, which in Hebrew is spelled Ya’akov. This is why most ancient and modern translations render his name as “Jacob,” and that’s what we will call him as well. There are many Jacobs in the New Testament. Two of them belonged to Jesus’ inner circle of twelve disciples, the son of Zebedee and the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:16-19). But this letter was written by Jesus’ half-brother Jacob (Mark 6:3).
The Big Idea
Following Jesus is not only about agreeing with theological information. Jesus’ followers become truly wise by living according to Jesus’ summary of the Torah—love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Background of the Book of James
We learn about Jacob's story from the book of Acts and Paul’s letters (Acts 12; Acts 15; Gal. 1-2). After Peter moved on from Jerusalem to start new churches, Jesus’ half-brother Jacob rose to prominence as a leader of the mother church in Jerusalem, made up of messianic Jews. This church was the first Christian community ever, and we know the people experienced difficult times during the twenty years that Jacob was their leader. There was a famine that led to great poverty in their region, and these messianic Jews were also being persecuted by the traditional Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. Jacob, however, was known as a pillar of this Jerusalem church, acting as a peacemaker who led with wisdom and courage until his untimely death. Sometime around 62 C.E., he was murdered by the priestly establishment in Jerusalem for following Jesus.
In this book, we have the legacy of Jacob’s teaching and wisdom condensed into a short but powerful work. While it begins like a letter, with Jacob greeting all the messianic Jews living outside the land of Israel, the rest of the work doesn’t read like a letter at all because it doesn’t address the specific problems of one local church like Paul’s letters. Instead, this book is a summary of Jacob’s sage wisdom for any and every community of Jesus’ followers. His goal isn’t to teach us new theological information; rather, he wants to get in our business and challenge how we live.
Jacob’s wisdom has been heavily influenced by two sources, the first of which is Jesus’ teaching about life in the Kingdom of God, especially the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). The second key influence is the biblical wisdom book of Proverbs, especially the poems in Proverbs 1-9. Jacob literally grew up with Jesus and the book of Proverbs, so his own teaching sounds a lot like them both and is stamped with their language and imagery. This book is made up of short challenging wisdom speeches, which are full of metaphors and easy to memorize one-liners.
In essence, Jacob is calling the messianic community to become truly wise by living according to Jesus’ summary of the Torah—love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
