Morning Moments

JAMES Devotional Outline with Notes

PRACTICING WHAT WE PREACH

INTRODUCTION

Hypocrisy! The church is filled with hypocrisy! I have heard it a million times through all my years of ministry. Some of it is true and some of it merely excuses for unbelief and/or unfaithfulness.

The important thing is that we Christians understand the balance between faith and works and that works without faith is as fatal as faith without works. Paul tells us that "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

James deals with the practical side of the Christian life - the works side. It is why Martin Luther considered James an "epistle of straw". It may also be why the epistle itself came so close to not being included in the Canon of Inspired Text. Works had been overemphasized and faith had been neglected by the Roman Church.

In any event, we shall proceed in our Devotional Outline of the Epistle of James with notes with the assumption that it is inspired and preserved of God and that the author was the half brother of our Lord Jesus, and the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church.

Although we shall consider carefully each verse, our study will be strongly thematic as we find somewhat of a theme in each chapter. It is my earnest prayer that the Lord will guide us into a deeper and richer knowledge of Himself as we study and that He will give us the wisdom for practical application toward holiness and indeed away from hypocrisy.

The strong Jewish content and lack of reference to emphasis upon the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 and the issues resolved there are among the many things about the book that make an early writing of it acceptable. It is obviously written to Christian Jews, but that should not surprise us for the early Church was Jewish for about the first 14 years.

1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

Immediately three things leap out at me about this verse:

1. The Humility of James - "a servant"

Don't you wonderful what it might have been like to grow up in the same house as Jesus? Was he treated any differently than the other children of the household? Did he ever spill anything at the table? I have a thousand questions about growing up with him. But James, even though he did not believe until after the resurrection refers to himself not as the brother (half brother) of Jesus, but as his servant. That's humility.

2. The Honor of Jesus - "the Lord Jesus Christ"

How casual we are sometimes with the name Jesus, but that was not the case with James. He is clear about Jesus not only being THE CHRIST, the Anointed One of Israel, but that He is GOD - Sovereign LORD as declared by the Father and one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. James gives the Lord the honor due Him and to me that speaks volumes about their relationship.

3. The Heart of James - "scattered abroad"

Great persecution had scattered the Jewish Christians to the four winds and James had a heart for them all. He was the Bishop at the Jerusalem Church as other family members would be after him, but he, as his Lord had a heart for the people of Israel who had come to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. This letter was to be an encouragement to them. It is what is called an encyclical epistle or one which was to be circulated. BUT God has seen fit for you and me to have it too. PTL!

BLESSINGS!