Maturity in Christ

Today’s Through the Bible Reading: James 1-3

We can hear God’s Word and let it change our heart and transform our life, or we can hear it and do nothing with it. That is exactly the exhortation and challenge found in today’s Bible reading.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:22-25

Today we jump to the book of James, perhaps the earliest letter we have to the church in Jerusalem, written around A.D. 45. James had been the first pastor of those local believers (Acts 12:17; 15:13), and at the time he wrote this book, the severe persecution that eventually caused the dispersion of that church had just begun.

There are at least four men named James in the New Testament (Matt. 10:2-3; Luke 6:16; Acts 12:2). But here we have James, the half-brother of Jesus (Matt. 13:55). This James didn’t come to faith in Jesus as the Messiah until after the resurrection (John 7:3–10; 1 Cor. 15:7), when Jesus appeared to him personally.

At the time James wrote this letter, the church in Jerusalem was in its infancy and these Jewish believers were still very much Jewish in thought and practice. Knowing his audience, James referenced the Old Testament at least fifty-three times.[ii] He pointed the believers’ attention to Old Testament illustrations and applied them to their current obligation: maturity in Christ.

“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:4

James puts an emphasis on faith demonstrated by outward action. Just think of James’s experience. He grew up with Jesus. Amazing! If anyone knew the answer to “what would Jesus do?”, I’d suspect James, Jesus’s younger brother would. As you read through this concise letter, consider it from James’s perspective. He knew Jesus from a child and watched Jesus throughout His life. All that James admonishes us to do – he saw demonstrated in Jesus. As Christians, we are to be Jesus imitators and the book of James gives us insight as to how that looks. 

by Sharon Kaselonis / All rights reserved ©