Title: Introduction to the book of James

Text: James 1:1

FCF: We often struggle balancing works with faith

Prop: Because living and saving faith produces good works, we must hear and live the Word.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to James chapter 1. Let’s go ahead and read the first verse of this letter. I am reading from the NET which you can follow on page 1360 of the pew bible or in whatever version you have in front of you. And before we read verse 1, I do plan to read the entire book at the end of the introduction, so be thinking about whether you’d like to read aloud a chapter of James in a few minutes.

As I looked back over each introduction to an epistle that I have done since being your pastor, it became clear to me that although there are some generally consistent items that are included in an introductory sermon, each letter is unique and requires its own approach. Some begin with doctrinal teaching in the first verse, preventing me from including any of the text in the introductory sermon. Some letters are part of a series or a collection. Others are thematically connected.

James then, takes on its own shape as we will actually look at the first verse today. There are two reasons we are able to do that. First, it stands alone in the text. Nothing he says after is inherently connected to anything he says in the first verse. Secondly, the first verse includes some of the introductory material that I would be talking about anyway – so I might as well include it in our look at the letter as a whole.

James is considered to be a general or catholic epistle, meaning it was written to no one person or church specifically and was intended to be given to all the church. Although calling it “general” makes it seem like James doesn’t have anyone in particular in mind - we see from the first verse that that is actually not quite accurate. James does have someone in mind that he is sending this letter to. We’ll get to that in due time.

Canonicity

[Slide 2] The epistle of James has always been a little bit suspect as to whether it should have been included in the canon of scripture. Many early church fathers accepted it but in their disputed books section. It is worth noting that all the disputed books were eventually adopted into the canon of scripture. They included Hebrews, James II and III John, Jude and Revelation. Essentially everything after Philemon in your bible except for I John.

But sometime later, in the 1500s to be exact, another prominent church figure had some seemingly significant problems with the book of James. Martin Luther, the great reformer, who in his study of Romans had come to the conclusion that Justification is by faith alone and not of works. So why did Martin Luther have a problem with the book of James? Well, James says in chapter 2 of his epistle that Justification is by works and not of faith alone. So… like exactly the opposite of what Luther concluded that Paul was teaching in Romans. For those wondering, that is definitely going to be on the “theological challenges” list when we get to that in a few minutes.