Things that I find interesting in James are that James says in vs 1: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ...
If this was a letter to a Jewish audience, it wouldn't endear him to his intended audience. After all, the Jews were being
taught a different account of Jesus... Jesus was an anathema. They positively hated the Christians, right?
So, I believe that his readers would have been converted Jews.
Added to this is that he doesn't go ahead and try to convert in this epistle like the author of Hebrews seems to do. Instead,
James builds on the teachings of others.
If this was a letter to a Jewish audience, it wouldn't endear him to his intended audience”
yeah exactly israel Had the gospel preached specifically to them first and not gentiles some converted before Jesus death others were converting after his death
along with gentiles
it’s definately addressed to those ofnthe twelve tribes but it doesn’t make any difference the church consisted of both former Jews who converted to Christianity and also former gentiles who converted to Christianity
at he message to convert a Jew and to teach them the new testsment is in no way different it’s for anyone who believes
A few more pints from James he’s talking about faith not the law of Moses
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
hes talkin GB bout repentance and accepting the new testsment word of Christ
Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But
be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:”
James 1:2-4, 21-23 KJV
james like paul
And the other writers of the New Testament epistles is teaching us something that’s meant to get into our thinking about the subject of faith so we better understand faith
some seem to think faith means “ now I never have to obey God because I have faith “
abut that’s obviously not faith faith is the reason we do obey what he said will bless and save us
faith needs to be constructed from scripture it shapes our faith when we accept “ faith without works is dead “ what that does is push us forward we begin to understand “ I really need to actually repent d start living a life that pleases God he gave his life for me now it’s time I give my life to him and walk the walk
when we say “works “ every day we do things we run into people we interact with people as we live our life every day we do works and deeds in just daily
Life
awe want to do good always d when we’ve failed we want to acknowledge we did wrong and know we have forgiveness and repent and do better next time every day we’re making a record of our life in Christ as Christian’s we need to let go of the thought “ it’s not my choice what to do , I’m just a sinner who’s incapable nothing I do really matters I’m saved and my deeds don’t apply “
awe want to grab onto and let into our hearts what we do ax sully learn from scriptire
“ faith is more than saying I believe but my actions show my faith , I was a sinner and now Jesus is creating me to be a child of God , I was a slave to sin , now I’m free to follow Jesus with all my heart and be clothed in his garments of righteousness having thy father pleased in all I’m growing up to be in him “
a our issue is always in our mind and heart if we don’t accept our part our role and responsibility to do good and not evil our faith is never going to lift us out of that
as long as a sinner doesn’t think they need to repent and obey Gods Will with thoer deeds they never will it’s the nature of the flesh
abut if we start believing the truth out our actions it’s going to spark us to repent and start focusing and doing better
airs not about earning anything bekng righteous before he’ll have us
airs about we believe in Jesus and he said that makes us right , now we need to hear the lords word and learn and follow so we don’t perish after having been given the greatest gift of all human history
hes calling us righteous beforehand because we believe and leading us from sin into that righteousness as we follow and grow up in faith which only comes from the gospel