Day 277: A slave of Jesus – James 1 vs 1

vs 1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. James 1 vs 1 New American Bible

We start a new part of the Bible today written by a man named James. The traditional view over the centuries is that he was a brother of Jesus Christ. In Mark 6:3 we read that when Jesus preached in his home town the people were amazed and said: “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” Joseph and Mary had other children besides Jesus. Mary was indeed a virgin when Jesus was conceived in her womb – but, thereafter, she was like any other married woman. After the angel told Joseph in a dream that the child Mary was pregnant with had been conceived by the Holy Spirit we read: “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.” (Matthew 1:24-25)

During the time Jesus was preaching about God's Kingdom and healing many people, James and the other brothers had not realized who he really was and didn’t follow him as disciples. But at some stage of his life James came to believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In fact, James went on to become one of the main leaders of the early Church in Jerusalem. The apostle Paul tells us that three years after he had become a follower of Jesus he went to Jerusalem, and he says: “I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother.” So James was seen by the early Church as an apostle.

Now when you think that this man was someone looked up to as an apostle, and he was also a physical brother of Jesus Christ, what does our single verse today tell us about the sort of man he had become?

I'd say he was a humble man. The word ‘slave’ meant someone who totally belonged to a master. They were no longer free to do their own thing but were called to serve the master in whatever task he set before them. And James called Jesus 'Lord'. He was willing to serve God by caring for those who had been saved through Jesus. He refers to them as 'the twelve tribes in the dispersion'.

That shows us that James, who was a Jew, had strong Jewish roots. In Jewish history the twelve physical tribes of Israel had been scattered by the Babylonians to far off countries. But James was no doubt using this term to speak of Christians. In Acts 8 we read that: “A great wave of persecution began, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers (except the apostles) were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.” (vs 1) And in Acts 11:19 we are told that “the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.”

So there were Jewish Christians who had fled Jerusalem now living in other parts of the world, as well as Jews in those places who had come to faith in Christ through the preaching of those who had been scattered. So it may well be that these were the particular people James had in mind when he wrote. We will see as we get into the book that he speaks about the trials that Christians had faced. But he could also have used the phrase to describe how Christians in general, not just Jewish Christians, are a bit like strangers in the world.

Lessons for us today? Firstly, Mary is not to be worshipped. She was not a virgin forever as some people have taught. She was an ordinary person, just like James. Secondly, do we gladly see ourselves as slaves of Jesus Christ? Is it our delight to serve him by serving those he has saved?