Let's Talk The Book of James

• Amanda Beres Dec. 4th, 2025

  Amanda Beres is a writer and freelance editor based in Rhode Island. She has a Master's in Professional Writing and Communication and has worked with The Global Poetics Project and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.

Hey everyone! This post might sound a little different and will definitely be a four-part series.  I want to focus on a book of the Bible, the book of James, which has four chapters. (See now why I say this will be a four-part series). Of course, any follower of Christ should read the Bible period. But there is something about the book James that puts a practical spin on what we do spiritually. It provides insight into how our actions should display what we believe and who we follow.  James is short but powerful (Kinda like me! Haha!!…Okay, that joke was corny). Despite it not being long, it has a lot to offer. Let’s break this down.  

Now, I will just outright say here, I am in no way sponsored by any of these organizations, but when it comes to studying the Bible, Bible Project, Through the Word, and Blue Letter Bible Commentaries have been so helpful. Yes, I am a pastor’s daughter. Yes, I grew up in the church and heard these stories so many times. No, I do not know everything about the Bible. And no, I have not read through the entire Bible… yet. However, that is a goal of mine.  I will never say mine is the right interpretation. There will be as many interpretations as people who read the Bible.  But the Bible does explicitly say in the New Living Translation in 1st Corinthians 13:9- “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!” This means we need everyone’s interpretation! We need to communicate with each other! No one should be excluded! And what a great place to start getting into the book of James! 

So first things first, let’s look at the opening greeting from James. This is a letter, so it does have a proper greeting. In the North American Standard Bible translation, James 1:1 reads - “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings”. Okay, let’s break down this verse. I know, I know, we’re not even past verse one. But trust me, there are already things here to pay attention to. Let’s focus on the word bond-servant. A bond-servant by definition is someone who was enslaved, has been given their freedom, and chooses to willingly stay serving their master’s house. Now, James was also a brother of Jesus. And I mean that literally, he was one of Joseph and Mary’s kids. But he finds the most important thing he could be is a bond-servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ! That’s incredible! Jesus is both literally and spiritually James’ brother, and he first identifies himself as Jesus’ follower and bond-servant. Now, I could write a whole thing on just that, but that’s not where we end. 

The book of James is a letter, and that is the introduction. But if it’s a letter, it has to be written to someone. We see again in James 1:1 that it is written to the twelve tribes of Israel who have been dispersed abroad. They have been scattered and separated from the Holy Land and the Holy city of Jerusalem. But yet, we see this whole chapter is about having faith in trials! James goes on to talk about how we will receive a reward in Heaven if we do well and suffer well on earth for Christ’s sake. He even says in James 1:1 to consider joy when we come trials come.  That might seem like a contradiction. How can you be happy in trials? Well, that gets cleared up, too. It says in James 1:3-4, “Be assured that the testing of your faith (through experience) produces endurance (leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace). And let endurance have its perfect result, and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed (in your faith), lacking in nothing.” 

Now, don’t jump ahead of me here and say God wants us to suffer. He doesn’t. In Isaiah 26:3, it says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You!” So this isn’t about whether or not God wants us to suffer. Again, He doesn’t want us to suffer. But the Bible is clear that we will come up against some tough, bad, and even evil things in life. So it’s more about when you suffer, keeping your mind steadfast on Jesus. Especially if you are suffering for His sake. What does that look like, though? Well, if you’re a Christian, you might have friends or family who outright make fun of you for your faith, or going to church on Sundays, or reading your Bible. In extreme cases around the world, people face imprisonment or even death for publicly expressing their faith and beliefs. But they don’t give up or turn away from Christ. This is suffering for Christ’s sake. 

But we still come to the question of how this is a good thing, or why we should consider it joy. Let’s start with the very first and most obvious thing: you were alive to experience it! That alone is a miracle! Jesus chose to die so you can live! He rose again, so you can have hope! So even if the day isn’t going your way, you’re having a truly terrible day, or you're even facing dire circumstances, for faith in Christ, you’re alive to experience it. It may not be pleasant, and certainly isn’t fair, easy, or good, but you can have hope. Building from here, trials also build resistance. If you like working out or are involved in any sport, you know how important building muscle is. The best way to build muscle is to build resistance. That’s where the trials come in! Remember, James 1:3-4 says the testing of faith produces endurance, and to let it do a thorough work. This means faith is something built, developed, and produced, but all so we lack nothing! The real trick is knowing how to apply what we learn to our lives. This is where James begins to discuss wisdom. 

Now wisdom is interesting. Where we build faith, we ask for wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him”. This is incredible! God willingly shares His infinite wisdom with us! Does this mean He will let us in on everything…absolutely not. But it does mean that when life gets rough, we can ask for help! To understand this fully, we need to know what wisdom is. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. It’s knowing how and when to use what you’ve learned.

 We haven't even gotten through the whole first chapter, and there’s already so much to unpack, from understanding trials to wisdom to watching what we say. James also says praises and curses should not come out of the mouth. But this is what happens with the word of God! And of course, we have to understand the context. James is speaking to believers. He is speaking to the Jews who have been scattered among the nations. Essentially, James is speaking to people who already know about God, believe in God, and believe in Christ as the Messiah. And with this information, we head into chapter two. 

Going back to what we discussed about needing each other, James thinks so, too! In fact, Chapter 2 is all about that. Here, he focuses on the sin of partiality, also known as favoritism. Why is this a big deal? Because God doesn’t have favorites! And let’s be honest, the church wasn’t great at understanding this then, and it still struggles with it now. Many people leave the church because of church hurt, or because they don’t feel qualified, or have been made to feel they don’t have enough faith. Usually, this concerns things such as how much people give, where they serve, what they wear, how they pray and speak, or what they know about the Bible. The list is really endless. Unfortunately, this goes two ways. Being a pastor’s daughter, I can tell you it’s not just pastors to congregation, a lot of the time it’s congregation to pastor. Yet, there is often a low turnover of pastors, while there can be a significant turnover of people attending church. I don’t have time to go over all of this right now, but stay tuned and stay blessed!

Blessings!

Amanda Beres