(James Part 1): James is part of a collection of books in the New Testament that are called the Jewish Literature which begins with the Book of Hebrews and continues through to the end of the Book of Revelation. The theme of the book is found in James 2:20, "Faith without works is dead."
The Book of James is not a doctrinal book. James is a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus in Matthew Chapters 5 through 7. Everything that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount is found in the letter of James. The letter of James is made up of a series of tests by which the genuineness of salvation can be determined.
Verse 1 tells us that James was written to the Twelve Tribes which were scattered. These were Jewish believers who had scattered outside of Israel because of persecution. This group is officially known as the DIASPORA. That's a Greek word that means scattering. They were the scattered ones.
Hebrews gave us a lot on faith and the book of James will give us even more. In fact, James can be outlined as follows:
James 2:1 - My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
First of all, he says my brethren. So, these are believing Jews. Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
I'll try and break this down:
My brethren, have not. The word have (also translated hold), is what is called the Present Tense. And it literally means stop continually having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons. It shows that the problem is ongoing. He's literally saying stop continuously having the faith of our Lord with respect of persons. And that is a command!
Now notice it says have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more modern translations again change this to faith (in) Jesus Christ, not faith (of) Jesus Christ. That is a major problem in understanding the bible and the biblical presentation of faith.
If I may summarize it because it's going to be important for this Greek Perspective study as well. The word faith, PISTIS in Greek, means persuasion. PEITHOS is the goddess of persuasion in Greek understanding. It is a word that describes the presence and activity of God's Spirit. It is an unseen movement, a persuasion. And it's called PISTIS, faith.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher, and it says of "our" faith, but the word "our" is the definite article "the." There's no our in the Greek text. He is the author and finisher of the faith. He's the source, and He brings faith to its completion.
Thank you for sending this. I went over what I had put together on James 2:1 and spoke only about faith but failed to mention anything about the "respect of persons" part of this verse. I decided to add more to part 4 which I will be posting here shortly. Plus, I have just a little bit more to share about faith. I'm going to leave Part 4 as is, and pickup with Part 4a and 4b.
Thanks for bringing this up. And yes, I agree that we see some of this in the church today!
James 1:12 - Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Blessed is the man that endures trials. The word blessed, MAKARIOS, literally means to experience the fullness of something. It's the same word used in the beatitudes, to experience the fullness of something. The blessedness in the believer's life, especially the poor believer, is that they get to experience all the fullness of Christ. They're not distracted with the material wealth of the world.
That person is blessed. The most blessed person in the world is somebody who experiences the fullness of Christ with them during the day, all day long. We have the fullness of Christ according to Colossians Chapter 2. But we don't experience the fullness of Christ in our personal relationship with Him because we are distracted.
And that's what Spiritual growth is. The more we grow in Christ, the more we have His influence in our life. So blessed is the man who endures trials: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love him.
James 1:2 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
And if you remember, the word count means to let the leading thought of your mind be all joy when you fall into various trials. Why is that? It's because of knowing something in Verse 3.
James 1:3 - Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Knowing this, that your trial of the faith, and I shared earlier that the word "your" in the Greek text goes with the word trial, not the word faith. Your trial of the faith is working out endurance.
What he's telling them is that we are to live by faith and trust the Lord and not trust our circumstances and not trust our feelings. And we are to do this by remaining under our circumstances and trusting the Lord.
And we experience two things when we do that. Number one, we experience Christ Himself. He's the one who sustains us. And number two, we get to learn about the ways of the Lord to pass on to others.
James 1:9 - Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
Now wait a minute! Look at the positions here. The term "low degree" is the same word used for a poor man. And we will soon see that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. It says let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. So, a Christian in poverty is at the highest exalted position.
James 1:10 - But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
But the rich, let him rejoice. You have to bring the verb down from Verse 9. But the rich, let him rejoice, in that he is made low. Can you just hear the rich man saying, "Yesterday I was a billionaire, but today my finances are all gone, so praise the Lord, I just got exalted?" Let him rejoice, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
(James Part 1): James is part of a collection of books in the New Testament that are called the Jewish Literature which begins with the Book of Hebrews and continues through to the end of the Book of Revelation. The theme of the book is found in James 2:20, "Faith without works is dead."
The Book of James is not a doctrinal book. James is a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus in Matthew Chapters 5 through 7. Everything that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount is found in the letter of James. The letter of James is made up of a series of tests by which the genuineness of salvation can be determined.
Verse 1 tells us that James was written to the Twelve Tribes which were scattered. These were Jewish believers who had scattered outside of Israel because of persecution. This group is officially known as the DIASPORA. That's a Greek word that means scattering. They were the scattered ones.
Hebrews gave us a lot on faith and the book of James will give us even more. In fact, James can be outlined as follows:
Chapter 1: The Development of Faith.
Chapter 2: The Activity of Faith.
Chapter 3: The Maturity of Faith.
Chapter 4: The Enemy of Faith.
Chapter 5: The Function of Faith.
Do you think it might be about faith?
James 2:1 - My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
First of all, he says my brethren. So, these are believing Jews. Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
I'll try and break this down:
My brethren, have not. The word have (also translated hold), is what is called the Present Tense. And it literally means stop continually having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons. It shows that the problem is ongoing. He's literally saying stop continuously having the faith of our Lord with respect of persons. And that is a command!
Now notice it says have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more modern translations again change this to faith (in) Jesus Christ, not faith (of) Jesus Christ. That is a major problem in understanding the bible and the biblical presentation of faith.
If I may summarize it because it's going to be important for this Greek Perspective study as well. The word faith, PISTIS in Greek, means persuasion. PEITHOS is the goddess of persuasion in Greek understanding. It is a word that describes the presence and activity of God's Spirit. It is an unseen movement, a persuasion. And it's called PISTIS, faith.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher, and it says of "our" faith, but the word "our" is the definite article "the." There's no our in the Greek text. He is the author and finisher of the faith. He's the source, and He brings faith to its completion.
I believe James 2:1 is a ongoing problem in the Church today.
"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with RESPECT OF PERSONS."
Blessings.
Thank you for sending this. I went over what I had put together on James 2:1 and spoke only about faith but failed to mention anything about the "respect of persons" part of this verse. I decided to add more to part 4 which I will be posting here shortly. Plus, I have just a little bit more to share about faith. I'm going to leave Part 4 as is, and pickup with Part 4a and 4b.
Thanks for bringing this up. And yes, I agree that we see some of this in the church today!
God Bless!!!
James 1:12 - Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Blessed is the man that endures trials. The word blessed, MAKARIOS, literally means to experience the fullness of something. It's the same word used in the beatitudes, to experience the fullness of something. The blessedness in the believer's life, especially the poor believer, is that they get to experience all the fullness of Christ. They're not distracted with the material wealth of the world.
That person is blessed. The most blessed person in the world is somebody who experiences the fullness of Christ with them during the day, all day long. We have the fullness of Christ according to Colossians Chapter 2. But we don't experience the fullness of Christ in our personal relationship with Him because we are distracted.
And that's what Spiritual growth is. The more we grow in Christ, the more we have His influence in our life. So blessed is the man who endures trials: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love him.
James 1:2 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
And if you remember, the word count means to let the leading thought of your mind be all joy when you fall into various trials. Why is that? It's because of knowing something in Verse 3.
James 1:3 - Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Knowing this, that your trial of the faith, and I shared earlier that the word "your" in the Greek text goes with the word trial, not the word faith. Your trial of the faith is working out endurance.
What he's telling them is that we are to live by faith and trust the Lord and not trust our circumstances and not trust our feelings. And we are to do this by remaining under our circumstances and trusting the Lord.
And we experience two things when we do that. Number one, we experience Christ Himself. He's the one who sustains us. And number two, we get to learn about the ways of the Lord to pass on to others.
James 1:9 - Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
Now wait a minute! Look at the positions here. The term "low degree" is the same word used for a poor man. And we will soon see that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. It says let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. So, a Christian in poverty is at the highest exalted position.
James 1:10 - But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
But the rich, let him rejoice. You have to bring the verb down from Verse 9. But the rich, let him rejoice, in that he is made low. Can you just hear the rich man saying, "Yesterday I was a billionaire, but today my finances are all gone, so praise the Lord, I just got exalted?" Let him rejoice, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
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