James the Lord's Brother

It is generally believed that the epistle of James was written by Jesus’s half-brother.  Paul mentioned in his epistle to the Galations that he had visited with “James the Lord’s brother” during the time he was preparing for his ministry after his conversion.  This is the James who is mentioned as well in Acts 12:17 and 15:13.  Presumably he was also part of the description given by John during the life of Jesus when he wrote, “For neither did his brethren believe in him” (John 7:5).  So apparently the conversion of James took place either at the end of Christ’s life or after His resurrection. 

                Martin Luther called the book of James an “epistle of straw” because he disliked it compared to books like Romans and Galatians.  Likely one of the reasons that he did not like the book of James was because it has few direct references to the Savior and His grace.  The book of James is focused largely on the works that we need to perform, and we have famous phrases such as “faith without works is dead” and “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).  As I’ve thought about why James would be so focused on this idea of putting faith into practice, I see  at least two reasons for the heavy emphasis here.  One is that perhaps he was thinking about his own childhood and years up through Christ’s ministry when James himself had been just that: a “hearer” of the word from his brother, but not a doer.  He had likely been a constant “hearer” of the word as he was always around Jesus.  But he never put it into practice until the end of Christ’s life.  He probably regretted that he had been so naïve and unbelieving as a first-hand witness of the Savior, and so he wanted to make sure others did not make the same mistake.   

                A second reason perhaps for the focus of James on being “doers of the word” was that this was what he observed his whole life growing up with Jesus.  He was the “perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing” and I’m sure as James looked back on his childhood he understood and appreciated how Christ had been the perfect “doer of the word” (Elder Holland, None Were With Him).  Christ lived the law perfectly and James was a firsthand witness to that—even if he didn’t always believe in his brother—and perhaps he was trying to teach us that to be like Jesus we must also put our faith into action and live accordingly.  While James did not speak much about Jesus in his epistle, he did show us how to live to be like the Savior.  Perhaps the statement from Jesus that sums up best the epistle of James is this: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).  That’s the message that James wanted his audience to understand.