Finger Thinking through James 001

James 1:1 NASB
James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.

Just some insights:
Possibly the first epistle of the NT to be written (50-60 AD)
Written (we believe) by James the brother of Jesus and leader of the Church at Jerusalem.

Written to:  Possibly Jewish believers who had fled persecution in Israel but none-the-less the letter is applicable to all believers.  Regardless of the background of the recipients the letter is the most practical letter to any church.

Verse on lays out the context for us.  The recipients are, "the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad."  Though it is tempting to assume the letter is written to believing Jews we can't assume that.  There has long been a belief that "Israel" - that is those Jew who were faithful to the faith of Abraham -were aptly the church in the Old Testament.  The Puritan especially saw things that way and we would not do wrong to see it the same.

Remember that the redeemed are those who have placed their faith in the Christ regardless of whether they lived before He came, dies and was resurrected or after.  It is faith in God and His Word - trust in His faithfulness - that was counted as righteousness to Abraham.  Regardless of how little of how much even Abraham understood of God's promise and the coming of a Redeemer, Abraham's trust in god was the key.

So, we have believers, "scattered abroad."  This had to be difficult.  For Jewish believers
there may or may not have been a Jewish community which would tolerate these folks.  for Gentile believers is may have been tougher.  They would have not real "community" to associate with in a pagan city and association with the Jewish community would have been iffy at best.

So we have believers living, if you will, in exile.  They have been uprooted from their homes and have gone to a foreign place with no real support group.  This had to produce trials and with those trials came temptation and with temptation - sin.

They were no different than we are.  Even if we were born here in  the U.S. we are resident aliens.  This is not our "home."  It is just where we live.  Not only that but our "support group," other faithful believers grow fewer and fewer daily.  We too are faced with trials and that brings temptation and hence sin.

We would do well to remember as we move through James that the context is trials.  Not temptations as much as the trials which precipitate them.  We are constantly bombarded (at least I hope we are) with challenges to our faith and our faithfulness.  How could we not be?  And if we are not we need to be very very concerned about whether or not we are indeed of the faith.  It's one thing to "trust" about Jesus.  it is a whole other thing to trust in Him as the only object of trust anywhere and to resist the confrontation of offers to trust other people, processes, things, etc.

The context of James is trials.  We will be looking next at that word, trial, and hopefully we will gain a greater insight and sensitivity concerning trials.  We desperately need to.  Our "trial radar" is being jammed by multiple sources of interference and we need to ramp up the power to overcome them.

Questions:
Do you live as a resident alien, waiting to finally be "home?"
Do you recognize all the subtle trials you and your friends and family face daily?
Are you actively armoring yourself and increasing your wisdom in regards to these trials?
Do you understand that in not being sensitive to trials you set yourself up for temptations?

Peter writes:

1 Peter 2:11-12 NASB
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. [12] Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.