Brother or Bond-Servant - 10/29/2023

In the beginning days of the church, when preachers and teachers were not abundant, letters were written, sometimes to a large audience, to encourage Christians to put into practice their faith. The Epistle of James is such a letter.

The author identifies himself as “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1). The early church fathers identified this James as the half-brother of Jesus. They believed he had the same mother as Jesus, Mary, and his father was Joseph, Mary’s husband.

The author identifies himself as “a bond-servant.” While the general idea is that he is a servant, or slave, there is more to the definition. It carries the idea of someone who volunteers or does not take any pay for their services as a slave. The word is used to describe such men as Paul, Peter and Epaphas.

It is very interesting that James does not identify himself as the brother of Jesus. I believe he is down playing the physical relationship and lifting up the spiritual relationship. He seems to be indicating he wanted his readers to focus on him being a “bond-servant” and not the brother of Jesus.

Contemplating this description, we might asked ourselves, “Would we have highlighted the spiritual over the physical?” Would it have been more important to us to be recognized as a servant of Jesus rather than being recognized as the brother of Jesus?

This bond-servant is writing to a large group of Christians who have been “dispersed abroad.” He is not writing to a church in a given city or region, but rather he is writing a letter that would be read in various gatherings of Christians in numerous places.

The purpose of the book is to encourage the Christian to put into practice the things they have been taught regarding living the Christian life. Filled with short statements, along with illustrations and examples, there are multiple thoughts intended to help the Christian to be living the faith.

Maybe the most important thing we can learn from reading, studying and meditating on this short book of the Bible is that being a Christian involves work. There are things which Christians must do if they want to be counted by God as being faithful to Him. James seems to indicate in his book that if one does not practice the things he has included in this book, their faith is dead.

As Christians we should consider it a high honor to be a “bond-servant of God and [our] Lord Jesus Christ.” We should implement these authoritative teachings from James in our lives because we want to be a bond-servant teaching and living God’s way. - cgm

Scriptural quotations from the NASB1995.