As many of you know, I will be publishing James, a book on the Letter of James from the Bible, in early 2016. In anticipation of that, I will be posting snippets of the book for all of you to enjoy. Here is the first sneak preview:

Introducing the Audience: The Scattered Chosen

Now that we know a bit about who James was, let’s take a look at the intended readership of the letter. James simply states that his letter is “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.” The word “dispersion” herein is translated from the Greek word “diaspora”, and is translated pretty directly as “scattering.” Historians have placed the approximate writing time of this letter between 48 and 62 A.D., making this one of the earliest written books of the New Testament. Only the book of Matthew may have been written earlier, but even that possibility is disputed. Pentecost had already occurred in Jerusalem and Christianity had subsequently flowed out in all directions like a divine invasion of life. Through this greeting, we can infer that one of the primary purposes of this letter was to spiritually unite Christians regardless of when or where they live.

To accomplish this, James wrote for us a collection of challenges, exhortations and warnings. Many of the letters written by the Apostle Paul discuss the process of being saved and accepting grace. This book was explicitly written to Christians, so taking any of James’ words out of that context makes them volitile. In the context of salvation and grace, they are life-giving and full of rich, nutritious encouragements and reminders. James' assumption is that his readers have already believed in Jesus as God, and his primary focus is to give a clear understanding on what aspects of our lives to check, how to know when something is wrong, and what to do when that spiritual "check engine" light starts blinking.

While I don’t have enough detailed information about James or his audience to fill our mental canvases, I’ve hopefully given you something like a “connect-the-dots” page that should help you put James’ words into focus. In the end, God’s revelation to you need not be hindered by limited background information. Now that you’ve met the author and audience, let me introduce you to the Letter of James.

For more information on James, click here.