Axiom Community Church

Background:

• The author identifies himself as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”, traditionally understood as James, the half brother of Jesus. Leader of the early Jerusalem church.

• According to the Church Fathers, he has posthumously been described as the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and is the first of the Seventy Apostles, and originator of the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15.

• The Epistle was probably written about A.D. 47. The reference to the persecutions is in the present tense, and indicates a stage of suffering which has not yet receded into the past of history.

• Not written to any specific person or church, so it is not a correspondence letter but more of a literary work intended for a collection.

• St. James seems to have been moved to write his Epistle on witnessing that the first fervor of the Jewish Christians had grown cold, and that, owing to various causes, both external and internal, a certain spirit of discouragement had declared itself amongst them.

• External Causes. The new Christian converts found themselves at first the object of the indifference only of their fellow townsfolk, the greater number of whom still remained in unbelief; but this attitude very soon changed to one of hostility and even persecution. These early converts, belonging as they mostly did to the poorer classes, found themselves oppressed by the wealthy unbelievers; some were refused employment, others were denied their wages (v, 4); at other times they were mercilessly dragged before the tribunals (ii, 6); they were persecuted in the synagogues, and were, besides, reduced to extreme want and even starvation (ii, 15-17).

• Internal Causes. In the midst of these trials the faith of many began to languish (ii, 14, 20, 26), and the evil ways they had abandoned at their conversion were gradually indulged in once more. Thus it came to pass that the poor were despised in the sacred assemblies (ii, 1-9); there were divisions of brotherly sympathy (ii, 7); some promoted themselves the office of teacher/pastor who were unfit (iii, 1, 13); many were guilty of gossip and other sins of the tongue (iii, 1-12; iv, 11-13); there were contentions and lawsuits (iv, 1-2); some indulged in swearing (v, 12); others neglected diligent prayer (v, 13, 17-18); pride and vanity were yielded to (iv, 6-10); even some of the sacred rites seem to have been overlooked (v, 14-16). Such were the evils that the Epistle sought to remedy.