A boy carved himself a wooden boat. He put a sail on it and placed it into the river. To his dismay the boat swiftly flowed down the river and out to sea before he could catch it. A month later he was walking past a shop when he saw his little boat for sale in the window. He tried to convince the man that it was his but when the man wouldn’t give it back he bought it from him. As he left the shop he said to the boat, “little boat, first I made you and now I have bought you, you are now twice mine.” If you are a Christian then this is a parable of your life, you are owned by God twice, He made you and He has bought you.
James asks you the question, “Are you a slave of God and Jesus Christ?” Well are you?

Who is James?
From the tone of the first verse we get the impression that the author of this letter is well known. He simply writes James, no explanation of who he is. This leaves us with a choice of 5 men in the early Church. However, the letter shows that this man speaks with authority, 1 in every 5 verbs used is a command. Essentially there are only 2 men who could write like this without needing to include additional information to explain who he is.
There is James the brother of John, the son of Zebedee. Unfortunately he had a terrible accident with a sword, Herod had him killed. So unless this letter was written before about AD44. The other choice and the one that Church tradition supports is that this letter was written by James, the half-brother of Jesus. The letter is consistent with what we know of James from the scriptures and from sources outside of the Bible as well.
Church tradition is that body of historical teaching which historians can’t prove. Many are sceptical about the value of Church tradition as there are many dubious things taught by Church tradition. However, I am personally prepared to accept Church tradition where I can’t prove it to be wrong. It is like taking an eye witness account of some event in which you can’t prove or disprove, you either trust the witness or you don’t.
So Church tradition teaches that James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote this letter. If this is so then James shows his humility by not mentioning that relationship. Instead he is prepared to call himself a slave of God and Jesus Christ. This is an important title. As you can guess a slave doesn’t own himself, has no rights that we would recognise, and must do what his or her owner wants them to do. Does this describe your life in Christ? Are you living as a slave of Jesus Christ?

Whom is He Writing to?
James writes, “to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations.” It would seem straight forward that James is writing to Jews or at least Jewish Christians. But the question is, is it as simple as that? Throughout scripture reference to the 12 tribes is about the 12 tribes of Israel. However, in that unusual book of Revelation, the 12 tribes mentioned are not the normal 12 tribes of Israel, 1 is missing. I’ll leave it to you to find out which one, suffice to say, that this allows us to speculate that James may have a wider vision of the 12 tribes than is usual.
The kids song “Father Abraham” teaches us that Abraham had many sons. In fact Abraham had 8 physical sons, but if you are a Christian today you are a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham by faith. The Old Testament teaches us that God has set aside a people for Himself. These became the Children of Israel. All other peoples of the world were called Gentiles. However, God teaches us that the Gentiles would be grafted into the children of Israel. It is the Church that is now the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus reminds us of this when he told the Pharisees that God could raise up children for Abraham from the very stones on the road. Lets be clear, the Church has not replaced Israel, the Church is Israel. The Apostle Paul calls Christians, both Jewish and Gentile Christians, as the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). The Apostle Peter writing to a Church of mixed races calls them “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1Peter 2:9).
No matter which way you take this phrase, James is writing to people who belong to God and gives instruction in the way to practise true religion. Do you know how to live a properly religious life?

Why this letter?
Christianity is often accused of being “pie in the Sky.” In other words it is about the future but has no real relevance to our daily lives. In this letter, God the Holy Spirit reminds you and I that Christianity is practical, that true religion is not just about ritual, but about work.
In this we have Jesus as our example. Jesus believed in ritual, He went to the temple, He taught in the Synagogue, He was involved in the festivals. He was involved in baptism, He set up the ritual of the Lord’s Supper. Ritual is not to be dismissed.
Yet if ritual is all you and I are involved with, if the sum of our Christianity is only ritual, then we have missed the boat. This letter from James does not contain much ritual. It does not encourage us to keep the festivals, or the special events. Instead it reminds us to think through the underlying basis of our faith. He calls for us to be practical.
It is a feature today with people young and old, but especially with the young that we see people around us who need help but we don’t even think to give them any. There is work to do all around us but we either do not have a servant attitude or we are like the rest of society expecting someone else to do it instead.
There is the poem that goes, “Someone should have done the job that Anyone could have done but No one did it instead.” In his letter James pushes us to look with Jesus eyes. James wants us to exercise pure religion, the same pure religion as Jesus. Our lord Jesus was the most heavenly minded man to ever walk this earth, but He was a blessing where ever He went. When Jesus saw a need He helped, the widow of Nain had her son returned to her, the leper felt His healing touch. Being heavenly minded for Jesus was not an excuse to not be involved with people.
This is what James is on about. He gives us, the Church a kick in the pants about practices that are not conducive to true religion. The Presbyterian Church was established in Scotland with a hiss and a roar full of life and Godliness. Today it is rife with spiritual corruption. Practices that James warns about have contributed to it’s ruin. Some congregations elected men to be elders who were prominent in the town, but who did not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
However, let us not point fingers at others, rather let us be wise enough to learn from history, and to be even wiser to learn from this book of James.

Are you committed enough to Jesus Christ to learn from James? Are you a slave of Jesus Christ?