James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…
I’ll begin this meditation by sharing how I see Scripture.
The first time I looked at the book as a child it seemed to me to be an insurmountable mountain. Such a big volume! So many words!! Later, while in high school, I took up with our local Young Life group and was challenged to read the whole Bible. (Just three chapters a day and you can read the whole thing in a year!)
In college, I majored in Religious Studies for a year at a secular university. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting into. The secular mind looks at every such book as an artifact of the past, a historical relic. The challenge for the secular mind is not to understand the Bible but to dissect and bisect the text into little pieces. Then, as though one had the omnipotence of God Himself, decide which bits should be believed and which should not.
Much later in life, I came to understand that if God could create the entire universe and everything in it, He could probably get a book published if he wanted to. And if He did it would be exactly the way He wanted it to be. Sometime after that, I began what would become a pattern of reading the Bible over and over again, usually once a year. I needed the repetition to get my head around what the Creator had written.
I mention this because my journey is not so different than James’.*
James grew up with an older brother named Jesus. I don’t know if he was told that Jesus was a half-brother or not. Jesus had been born under a cloud of scandal because his mother and father were not “married” at the time he was born.
The picture painted in scripture of the relationship between Jesus and his siblings is revealing. In Mark 3:21 Jesus’ family accuses him of being “out of his mind.” In John 7:5 we read, “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” The tone of the passage suggests that Jesus’ brothers were giving him a hard time because they thought he was trying to be a rock star.
It wasn’t until after Jesus had died that James realizes who is half-brother is.
Whoops.
Having realized his mistake, James must now do some catching up. At once the whole world is different. God is not simply a possibility but is very real. The words Jesus spoke and the things he did take on new meaning.
Application: Like James, our challenge is to make up for lost time. Do we know Jesus as well as we ought to know Him?
Food for Thought: What does it mean to be a servant of God?
*For the sake of discussion I am assuming that the James who wrote this letter is the brother of Jesus.
Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.
I think to be a servant means to understand and live like He is our Lord. We obey Him and seek to please Him. He is not a Genie who must respond to our every wish. He is Lord and we bow to Him.
Great comment Rich.
It seems simple yet it is not always easy to put into practice.
I think there’s also element of serving other people on behalf of Jesus. That’s where the simple task becomes very difficult. People can be such…people.
Happy Tuesday
I think Jesus’ word for that was … sheep. 🙂 And yes, I think you are absolutely right: serving others on behalf of Jesus is a BIG part of serving God. Well said!
Our best example of a servant of God is Jesus himself. Philippians 2:4-8.
JEC,
Thank you! What a wonderful passage!!
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant…
Being a servant of God is living your life like there is a God. That nothing you have is yours. That your body isn’t yours. Your Time isn’t yours. Everything is His your just caring for His stuff until He returns or calls you to Him.