Wisdom from Above

Wisdom from Above

Introduction to the Book of James.

Imagine. You receive a letter from a man who knew Jesus personally.  He grew up in the same village as Jesus. In the same family. The same house. You open your letter box, and there it is. A letter from the brother of Jesus! Would you read it? Treasure it? Memorize it? Would you obey it? Or would you frame it up as a curiously to be admired and talked about?

What have you done with the book of James? Most biblical scholars agree that the brother of Jesus wrote it.  And yet most of us neglect it. How many sermons have you heard from James?  Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, famously called James an epistle of straw. Understandably, the champion of justification by faith alone didn’t like James’ emphasis on works. But for many of us, James is simply not exciting enough. Not mystifying. It doesn’t tickle ears. Like the teaching of Jesus, James is a little too practical and too demanding for comfort.

Few biblical books take us closer to Jesus than the letter of James. It bears the imprint of Christ and the stamp of the original Jesus Movement.  It may well be the first writing of the New Testament. Apart from the Gospels, James preserves more of the teaching of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount than any other portion of the Scripture.

Let James introduce you to his brother Jesus. He writes like Jesus spoke - in pictures. Truth comes to life in sea and water, wind and wave, grass and flower, horse and bridle, ship and rudder, forest and fire. See the truth about yourself in the Mirror of God's Word (James 1:23-25). James revisits the teaching of Jesus while it’s still in living memory. He preserves the radical and revolutionary character of the early Jesus Movement before tradition and institutions tamed it. James is no epistle of straw. It’s a mountain of salt. A tract for transformation.  A pathway to practical holiness.  The brother of Jesus puts the ethical demands of Jesus in your face, uncompromised and unadulterated.

The ancients compared the teaching of the wise to string of pearls. That’s why Jesus said don’t throw your pearls to pigs.  James is a string of precious pearls.  If you can stomach it, blessed are you. Most people prefer peas and corn.

Source: Wisdom from Above (40 Day 2016)