The Good News About Hard Times

“The Good News about Hard Times” “Doctor Fahrenheit?” “Five test questions checking our Maturity” The Book of James –An Introduction “What is Maturity?” I can still hear the late Joan Rivers repeating during one of her famous monologues, “Oh grow up”. Good advice? I tend to think so. I believe that the greatest problem that we have in this world is immaturity. People need to “grow up!” James’ goal in his letter is to talk about the immature Christian. This is written, not to unbelievers, but the Book of James is written to believers. We see can that in the first two lines of Chapter One. People are acting immature, making immature decisions, acting in immature ways. Some people in life have this mysterious life-long quest to find God’s will for their life. The Bible says that finding God’s will is not some mysterious search for the Holy Grail with mysterious inscriptions on it from the Hebrew. The Bible, very strongly in the Book of James, points out that Christ’s will for us is personal growth and maturity. God’s will for every part of creation is growth. The same is true spiritually, emotionally as well as physically. God’s will for every person is that they grow to maturity. In Hebrews 6:1, “Let us go on to maturity.” The word “mature” in Greek is the word “teleos”, translated “mature, complete, perfect.” James uses the word five times within five chapters. The Letter and the purpose of James is to bring people who are already Christians to maturity in Christ. It is a manual on maturity. Who is James? Who wrote this letter? There are many theories about it; some say it was James the brother of John and one of the sons of Zebedee. Others say he was James, the son of Allpheus. Most competent scholars now agree that the James who wrote the letter is probably the James, the Lord Jesus’ own stepbrother. As a result, we really should take James seriously as he grew up with Jesus. He had direct knowledge of the teachings; he saw the miracles. He was actually not a believer in Christ as the Messiah until the time of the Resurrection. Paul tells us that it was the Resurrection that had a powerful impact and changed James’ entire life and belief about his stepbrother, Jesus. Jesus’ stepbrother, James, would be perfect for the role, as men said his “knees were as callused as a camel’s from long times of prayer.” James is very important in the Early Church. The time that he wrote was probably the earliest letter written about the Early Church. It took place during the time of the Book of Acts. The scribes and the Pharisees hated James, and the people loved him. He became such a significant leader in the Early Church that the great Apostle Paul came to him at least three times to seek advice. In the early days after the Resurrection, James became the acknowledged leader of the Early Church. In Jerusalem, even the Jews regarded James with respect and reverence, so he gained the title of “James the Just.” One of the early church historians, Eusebius, tells us that James was killed for his faith, by being pushed off the pinnacle of the temple. The pinnacle was the point in the wall around the temple that jutted out over the Kidron Valley. There is a drop of about 100 feet from the height of that wall, straight down into the valley. Years ago, I stood on that wall, on the pinnacle of the temple, and as I looked down into the valley I was reminded that this was the very place where the devil took Jesus and tempted Him to jump off the pinnacle of the temple. Eusebius tells us that in about the year 66 AD, “James the Just,” the brother of our Lord, was pushed off the pinnacle by the Jews who had become angered with him for his Christian witness and testimony. Historian Eusebius says that the fall did not kill James, and that he managed to survive the fall, stumble to his knees and pray for his murderers. By then they got so angered that they finished off the job by stoning him to death in the same fashion that Stephen was killed. What was it about the life of his brother, Jesus’ life that would dramatically change James’ feelings to where he was willing to lay down his life for what he believed about Jesus? I can think of no stronger testimony than his opening words to this letter: James 1:1, “This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a tremendous change, because James did not believe in his brother during the times of Christ’s earthly ministry to somebody who says that he is “a slave” of the Lord Jesus Christ. What caused the change? After the Resurrection Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:7, “The risen Christ appeared to James,” an incident that undoubtedly led to his conversion and later as a disciple of Jesus, and a leader in the Early Church. This letter from James was written during the early part of the life of the early church. It comes out of that period reflected in the Book of Acts, and may therefore be the earliest Christian document that we have, written perhaps even before the Gospels of Mark or Matthew. You cannot read this letter without being struck by its likeness to the teachings of Jesus. In fact, if you take the Sermon on the Mount and the Letter of James and lay them side by side, you will see more than a dozen exact parallels. Therefore, it is quite evident that James listened to the Lord Jesus and heard these messages, even though perhaps he struggled with them at the time. Another thing about this letter that aligns with the methods of teachings of Jesus is that just as Jesus took illustrations directly from God’s creation, so did James. You have the waves of the sea, the animal kingdom, the forests, the fish, plants, trees, and others all drawn from nature, just as the Lord himself did. If we are to look in James’ own words, I think we would see that it was not so much the words of Jesus as the works his brother did and the life he lived. Of course, the most overwhelming miracle upon James’ mind was of the Resurrection. In the life of Jesus, he saw far more than mere words, far more than theology. He saw a clear demonstration of what Jesus taught. What James is saying to all who have ears to hear is “Christianity is a faith that really makes a difference, a philosophy that carries with it a life changing force.” Here was a practical way of living, a realistic power to meet the problems of the day. This was a faith that worked in practice as well as in theory and to James; practicality was of utmost importance. What really concerned James was that Christians not just talk, but do good works and have Christ-like attitudes that demonstrate the genuineness of their faith.