Working Through James (Intro)

After a very busy semester of not having time to write, i wish to embark on a little bit of a new category of blog posts, at least as far as this blog is concerned; specifically, exposition. As much as we can read and study many great books and hear strong preaching and teaching on a regular basis, the actual performing of exegesis takes practice. We have a great many resources that we can use to tell us what a passage means, and i do believe we should utilize those as much as possible; however, it is possible to use those resources as a substitute for thinking for ourselves, and praying and listening for what the Spirit of God is telling us through a passage. That being said, it has been some times since i have broken down a passage of Scripture on my own.

The book i am choosing to work through is James. The reasons for this choice are simple – i haven’t spent a great deal of time studying it. Although i have read through it several times and reference it on a regular basis, i don’t believe i have ever sat down and worked through the letter as a whole, nor do i believe i have ever heard it preached through as a unit. So as i begin, let me simply say that i welcome all thoughts and comments regarding these posts. My desire is, above all, the truth of the Word of God.

- The Greeting (1:1) – There is probably a great deal that one could say regarding the greeting with which James opens his letter; but i would like to work with simply one aspect of it, namely, that the people to whom it is written are said to be in dispersion.

The fact that he addresses the Twelve Tribes tends to suggest to our ears that this is a negative thing. Realistically, Israel in the New Testament never fully recovered from the exile. From a political standpoint, Israel had seen a total of approximately 70 years of independence since the exile. Mostly they were passed from one empire to the next, and were often oppressed even as they dwelt in their homeland. Furthermore, the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 sent the Jews into a dispersion that would not be recovered from until after World War II.

Spiritually, since Jesus begins His formal ministry we see the spiritual picture gravitating slowly away from Jerusalem and never returning until the Great Tribulation and then, finally, Eternity (which is a New Jerusalem in any case).

Even for the church the idea of dispersion came as a result of persecution. The Apostle James was martyred only a few years after Jesus’ ascension, and all the Apostles except John are martyred eventually, although John would still see his fair share of physical torture.

So the Twelve Tribes and the Church both (or in my understanding, they are the same), are scattered all over the “known” world, and we tend to see that as a negative thing, particularly because it is riddled with the flavor of persecution.

But further meditation specifically on the words of Christ might in actuality reveal a much different perspective.

If we look carefully at Jesus’ ministry, He says things like, “And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations “, and then follows with a command in the Great Commission to take the gospel to other nations. He tells His Apostles in Acts 1 that they will go to the ends of the earth preaching the gospel. And when does the church finally spread out? In the midst of the persecution in Acts 8, when “Those who were scattered went about preaching the word.”

It is true that the church in Jerusalem was looking to send some out to preach the gospel in other places. But the most effective spreading came through persecution. Of course this is not to say that persecution is a good thing, but we should take note of the fact that the church has always thrived in times of persecution, even to this day.

So as James (almost certainly not the Apostle James) pens this letter, he can say that he is addressing this letter to “The Twelve Tribes in the dispersion“. And from a Kingdom perspective, this is a good thing. For the gospel is being preached further and further towards the ends of the earth.

Peace be with you,

Caleb

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