James – All or Nothing

James highlights in a unique manner that when we follow Christ we are all in or all out. This is reflected in our attitude, prayers, pride, listening, faith, wealth, speech, wisdom, friendship, etc.

Timeline of the New Testament

Snapshot

  • Introduction
  • Theme Verse
  • The Binary Perspective
  • Doers
  • Deceivers
  • Drifters
  • Discussion

Authorship

The author James could be [1]:

  1. James the father of Judas – not very significant
  2. James the son of Alphaeus – unlikely as he is an obscure apostle.
  3. James the son of Zebedee and brother of John -important figure, but died early around spring of 44 AD
  4. James, the brother of Jesus, rose to prominence after Pentecost and traditionally held author

Summary of the book

James directs this book to Jews scattered across the world – possibly in anticipation of the sufferings Jews will face in the coming years and centuries. His teaching on practical living is sandwiched between the word of God and prayer with perseverence

Teachings

Teachings

The teachings of James are very similar to the teachings of Jesus – vivid, colourful, illustrative and most importantly covering the Kingdom values similar to the sermon on the mount

The Binary Perspective

James differentiates people clearly into two categories (James 1:22):

The doers

The deceivers

At the end he deals with the in-between category of the drifters who will eventually fall into one of the above categories.

Two Kinds of Prayers

Two Kinds of pride

Two Kinds of Listening

Two Kinds of Religion

Two Kinds of Wealth

Two Kinds of Belief

Two kinds of Speech

Two kinds of Speech

Two Kinds of Speech

Two Kinds of Wisdom

Two kinds of Friendship

Two kinds of Attitude

Two Kinds of Attitude (Cont’d)

For those in between… The Drifters

They are precious lives to be rescued

  • Don’t write them off
  • Go after them
  • Get them back
  • Prevent an epidemic of drifters… James 5:19, 20 Message

Discussion

  • Look at the binary perspective slide above. Which aspects do Christians today compromise and not clearly fall into the category?
  • What do you find most challenging?
  • How can we achieve a clear “1”, in all aspects of “doers”? What steps do you personally need to take? Share.

References

1.bible.org

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