The Letter of James

On Sunday mornings we are going to begin preaching through the letter of James. Months ago (many months ago) when we started preaching through I Corinthians it was the plan to continue straight into II Corinthians. One saturday, however, Chris became too sick to preach and I was asked to fill the pulpit. The text was I Corinthians 1:10-17 and the subject was conflict in the church. By the mercy of God’s Spirit I was able to use Chris’ notes and find some of my own observations. These observations came directly from chapter 4 of James’ letter. Ever since James 4 confronted my own approach to church conflict the content of James has weighed heavily on both our minds. Consequently, James is the book we’ll spending some time in over the next few weeks (months).

As I see it now the purpose of James is to exhort his readers to:

Find joy in their undivided devotion to God.

We see James address the consequences of divided devotion to God in the areas of:

1. Suffering and temptation (1:2-4; 12-15)
2. Spiritual Hypocrisy (1:19-27; 2:14-26)
3. Partiality and favortism (2:1-13)
4. The Tongue (1:26; 3:1-12)
5. Wisdom (1:5-8; 3:13-18)
6. Conflict in the church (3:18; 4:1-12)
7. Boasting about our plans (3:13-17)
8. Wealth and Poverty (1:9-11; 2:1-7; 5:1-6)
9. Patience and joy in suffering (1:2; 5:7-12)
10. Healing (5:13-20)

I greatly look forward to preaching a few sermons on James and can’t wait to hear how Chris will apply this book to our lives. James is credited, and rightly so, with being one of the most practical and applicable books in all of Scripture. Seeing the content and depth of James is like discovering a treasure that was there all along. I hope that you’ll study along with us and come each week, hungry to hear it proclaimed.