{"id":9728,"date":"2026-03-29T17:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9728"},"modified":"2026-03-29T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:13:17","slug":"james-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9728","title":{"rendered":"James \u2014 Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great deal of time and effort has been spent by a great many people to reconcile the teaching of James with the teaching of Paul. On the surface, the doctrines of the two men appear to disagree.<\/h3>\n

Paul stated unequivocally: ” For by grace you have been saved\u00a0through faith<\/strong>, and that not of yourselves;\u00a0it is\u00a0the gift of God,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>not of works<\/strong>, lest anyone should boast<\/span><\/em> (Ephesians 2:8-9<\/span><\/a>)”<\/span><\/h3>\n

James also allowed no wiggle room when he wrote: “What\u00a0does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? … <\/span>Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/em>But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works<\/span><\/em>” (James 2:14, 17-18).<\/span><\/h3>\n

Some people try to find a way to explain the differences away and claim there really isn’t any difference. Others (including Martin Luther) reduce James to a lesser place in the canon of Scripture.<\/h3>\n

There’s a third solution, one that requires no complex arguments to prove that the two men were really saying the same thing. It also does not require James to be relegated to a lesser position in Scripture. The solution is simply this: Paul and James were writing to different audiences regarding different gospels.<\/h3>\n

Clear evidence for this can be found in Galatians 2:7-9<\/span><\/a>: “But on the contrary,\u00a0when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised\u00a0had been committed to me, as\u00a0the gospel\u00a0for the circumcised\u00a0was to Peter<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>(for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), <\/span><\/span><\/em>and when James, Cephas [Peter], and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we\u00a0 should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised<\/span><\/em>.”\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Book of James is one of a group of books traditionally called the General Epistles … It has been the cause of much controversy in the church because of the failure of many to “rightly divide” the Scriptures. If we lump all the New Testament together and fail to distinguish between God’s prophetic program for Israel and his secret program for the church, the Body of Christ, we will think there is a contradiction between the clear message of salvation by faith alone in Paul’s epistles (Romans 4:1-8<\/span><\/a>) and James’ emphasis on faith plus works (James 2:14-26). Those who do not understand the Apostle Paul’s distinct message and apostleship will be confused. Failing (or refusing) to see these distinctives has cause some to wonder if the Book of James should even be in the canon of Scripture. (The reformer Martin Luther went so far as to call it “an epistle of straw.”) However, once we understand Paul’s unique apostleship and message and God’s differing plans for Israel and the Body of Christ, these problems go away, and we realize that God indeed meant exactly what He said to whom He said it. \u2014 Grace, page 2195.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

That there is a great difference between the great Pauline Epistles and the Epistle of James is seen at a glance. … The character of the Epistle of James is essentially Jewish<\/em>. In the second chapter the word synagogue is used as the place of their assembly. … They were then still in the synagogue. Nothing about the Church, the body of Christ is mentioned in this epistle, nor do we find here the great doctrines of Christianity and the corresponding Christian relationship. The law is also prominent; and there are other Jewish features. … The character of the entire epistle corresponds with those to whom the epistle was originally addressed, “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” It is evidently a document written at an early date during the transition period and before the great doctrinal epistles of the apostle to the Gentiles [Paul] had been produced, in which the fulness of redemption, the body of Christ, the church, and its unity and other cardinal doctrines of our faith are revealed. \u2014 Gaebelein, page 1123.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Overwhelming evidence indicates that the author of James was … the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Himself. While James did not believe in the Lord during His earthly ministry (John 7:1-5<\/span><\/a>), he came to believe after His resurrection and went on to become the leader of the Kingdom assembly in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13<\/span><\/a>; 21:18<\/span><\/a>; 1 Corinthians 15:7<\/span><\/a>; Galatians 2:9<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Grace, page 2195.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We know that the epistle had to be written before AD 62 because that is when James was martyred. Many believe that the book … was one of the earliest epistles written, and this does indeed seem to be the case. The book is addressed to the “twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” This undoubtedly refers to the Jews who had been scattered throughout Gentile lands for centuries and to those who were recently scattered after the stoning of Stephen, around AD 35 (Acts 2:8-11<\/span><\/a>, 8:1<\/span><\/a>). The “flavor” of the book is Jewish, and there is no hint of the Jew-Gentile controversy, so it was most likely written before the Jewish Council, which was held in AD 49. All these points point to an earlier date of writing, probably before AD 40, but certainly no later than AD 49. \u2014 Grace, page 2195.<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Catholic church created so many myths and legends about the apostles that I’m hesitant to believe anything not stated in Scripture, but the death of James was recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus: “Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but on the road, so he assembled the Sanhedrin or judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others. and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”<\/h3>\n

The closing books of the Bible \u2014 Hebrews to Revelation \u2014 relate to the future, and will uphold the faith of the elect members of the Hebrew people and of the Gentiles who will love and confess the true Messiah, and brave the persecutions of the future false Messiah. These books specially belong to them, and will be understood by them. \u2014 Williams, page 992.<\/span><\/h3>\n

I have found myself avoiding James, not because I don’t think it belongs in Scripture, but because so many people (ignorantly or intentionally) misunderstand it that it feels like a minefield. I hope through this study to allow the Holy Spirit to teach me what it has for me.<\/h3>\n

The resources I’m using for this study:<\/h3>\n

Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible<\/em>, by Arno C. Gaebelein \u2014 Loizeaux Brothers (Gaebelein)<\/h3>\n

Grace Study Bible<\/em> \u2014 Berean Bible Society (Grace)<\/h3>\n

King James Bible Commentary<\/em> \u2014 Thomas Nelson Publishers (KJBC)<\/h3>\n

Studies in James<\/em>, by Paul M. Sadler \u2014 Berean Bible Society (Sadler)<\/h3>\n

Williams’ Complete Bible Commentary<\/em>, by George Williams \u2014 Kregel Publications (Williams)<\/h3>\n

When I quote from these works, I will use the word in the parentheses.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great deal of time and effort has been spent by a great many people to reconcile the teaching of James with the teaching of Paul. On the surface, the doctrines of the two men appear to disagree. Paul stated … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9733,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions\/9733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}