James Bible Study

I've joined a group of women online who are walking through the book of James together.  We are reading the same verses each day.  Our purpose is to be accountable to each other and to help each other maintain the discipline of reading God’s word daily.   Each morning, (Monday-Friday) the first person who has her quiet time starts the group off. She will share in her post something she learned during her quiet time study of James that morning. Then each member of the group will reply to the whole group after they have their quiet time. 

We start next Monday.  So to prepare myself, I read through James and jotted down some initial "big picture" notes. 

James wrote the book to the "12 tribes of the dispersion".  My Bible's notes say there are a couple choices of which James wrote it.  There was James, son of Zebedee (one of the 12 disciples of Jesus) or there was James, the half-brother of Jesus who became a leader of the church after Jesus's resurrection.  In all likelihood, it was the latter.  Galatians 2:9 says James was a pillar of the church.  We see him in Acts 15 settling a major dispute within the church.  Our best description of the author of James comes from James 1:1 where he calls himself a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The "12 tribes of the dispersion" tells me that the readers of the letter were probably Christian Jews who had been scattered around outside of Jerusalem and Isreal.  It must have been hard for them.  Being Jews, they were probably not accepted by their Gentile neighbors.  Being Christian, they were probably rejected by their Jewish neighbors. 

So why did James write the letter?  I went to a commentary for a little help.  Jame's readers were going through trials, facing temptations to sin, having problems with their tongues which caused division, failing to "walk the talk"; having problems with worldiness; were disobeying God's Word and were sick.   Their root problem was spiritual immaturity.  It sounds like Christians today.   James wanted his readers to learn to be spiritually mature. 

I want to be known as a Christian who is spiritually mature; not a Christian who knows a lot of Bible, but one whose life displays the character of Jesus.  I know I will learn alot from James, but I pray that what I learn goes from my head straight to my heart and soul. 

So looking forward to this 12 week walk through James.....care to join me?