The brother at home
When people in the Messiah's own town wanted to cut him down to size, they did it by naming his family.
Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
James is the first name on that list. He grew up in the same house, in the same trade town, and the Gospel is honest about what he thought of it at the time: his brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5). Whatever changed for him, it changed later.
The one they came to see
By the time Acts picks him up, he is the man in Jerusalem. Peter, let out of prison in the night, stops only long enough to leave one instruction behind.
He said, “Tell these things to James, and to the brothers.” Then he departed, and went to another place.
James is named first, and named apart from the brothers, by a man with nowhere safe to stand and no time to spare.
He was not a travelling preacher. He stayed where the community was and held it together.
The meeting that decided everything
The hardest question the early believers faced came quickly. Gentiles were turning to the Lord God. Did they have to become Children of Israel first, keeping every part of the law of Moses?
The argument goes on a long time. Then James speaks, and the room settles.
After they were silent, James answered, "Brothers, listen to me.
He quotes the prophets, and then gives his judgement: do not make it hard for the Gentiles who are turning to the Lord God (Acts 15:19). Write to them instead with four things to keep away from: the pollution of idols, sexual immorality, what is strangled, and blood (Acts 15:20).
Look at what that decision is. It is not a demolition of the law. It is a doorway held open, with the door still on its hinges. He keeps the things that go back before Moses, to Noah and to Adam, and he does not load the rest onto people it was not given to.
He kept the law himself
Years later Paul comes back to Jerusalem, and goes straight to James with all the elders present (Acts 21:18). They tell him what the situation is: thousands of the Children of Israel have believed, and they are all zealous for the law (Acts 21:20). There is a rumour going round that Paul has been telling people to forsake Moses (Acts 21:21).
James gives him a practical instruction. Take four men who have taken a vow, purify yourself with them, pay their expenses, and let them shave their heads, so that everyone can see the rumour is false (Acts 21:23–24).
That is a man who held two things at once and refused to drop either: the door open to those outside the law, and the law kept by those inside it.
His letter
A short letter carries his name, addressed to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, and it opens by calling himself a servant (James 1:1). It reads like a man who had listened to his brother for thirty years.
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
He says pure religion is visiting orphans and widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unstained (James 1:27). He tells them not to hold the faith with partiality, not to seat the rich man well and the poor man badly (James 2:1–4).
He says the tongue is a small thing that sets a forest alight (James 3:5–6). He tells them to confess to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16).
And he makes the argument that his name is best remembered for: faith that produces nothing is not alive.
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
He uses Abraham as his example, and quotes the same line the Torah uses: Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness (James 2:23, Genesis 15:6). Believing and doing, in one man, not two.
He also gives a rule about the future that this whole site keeps.
For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that."
What is said of him
The Gospel names him as the brother of the Messiah (Matthew 13:55). Peter, straight out of prison, sends word to him before anyone (Acts 12:17). Acts shows a whole assembly falling silent to hear him and then doing what he said (Acts 15:13–22).
And his own letter names him as a servant, which is the word the Recitation puts in the mouth of his brother in the cradle: "Indeed, I am the servant of The God" (The Recitation 19:30).
The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that the disciples of Jesus, asked who would support him for the Lord God, answered that they had believed and that they were those who submit (The Recitation 3:52).
There the Lord God revealed that the Messiah came confirming the Torah that was before him (The Recitation 3:50). James, keeping the law in Jerusalem while holding the door open to everyone else, looks very much like a man living that sentence out.
Some read Acts 15 as the moment the law was set aside. Others read it as the moment it was kept and not imposed. Both are readings of the same chapter, and we do not rule between brothers.
A prayer
Lord God Almighty, make us doers and not only hearers. Keep us from seating the rich man well and the poor man badly. Guard our tongues, which are small and start fires.
Let our faith show in what we actually do, by Your permission and Your mercy. And if You will it, we will live and do this or that; and if You do not, Your will is better than ours.
Questions people might ask
Who was James?
The brother of Jesus the Messiah, named first among the brothers (Matthew 13:55). After the Messiah was raised up, he led the believers in Jerusalem.
Did James keep the Torah?
Yes. Acts shows him telling Paul that thousands of believers were zealous for the law, and asking Paul to show that he kept it too (Acts 21:20-24).
What is his letter about?
Doing, not only hearing (James 1:22). Faith shown by works (James 2:14-26). The tongue (James 3:1-12). Patience, prayer and the rich (5). It is short and plain.
