The Believing Brother

May 16, 2025 | Read and Think About James 1:1 and 5:7-19

The Book of James is a letter written 20 years or less after Jesus left this earth - following his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.

According to the editors’ summary about the author, the book is a how-to on Christian living.  Their summary says the book’s theme is that good deeds are the mark of genuine faith.

But who was this writer?  In the very first verse, he identifies himself as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  In fact, this James was the half brother of Jesus.  He was one of the half-brothers of Jesus who had ridiculed Him in our last reading, “A Doubting Family.”

By the time of this letter, however, he was a devoted follower of Christ, and a leader of the young church in Jerusalem as we could read about in Acts 15:13.  Whatever the relationship before, James now was the “believing brother” of Jesus Christ.

The letter he wrote is 5 chapters long and covers many topics.  But what stood out to me was the 5th chapter, where he speaks of patience. He identifies patience in waiting (v. 7), patience in suffering (v. 10), and patience with someone who has lost their way spiritually (v. 19).

I think James wrote as one knowing that great patience had been shown to him – patience by his Savior, who also was his half-brother.  The analogy of the farmer who waits patiently for the land to produce the harvest is a powerful image.  James realized that is how his Lord had treated him, as the farmer who is patient and content to wait. 

He was not a believer at first.  James’ transformation – from one of the brothers we read about last time to the Christ-filled leader he is now – didn’t happen right away.   

James might have been drawing from his own faith journey and the powerful influence someone had on him, when he wrote several of these verses on patience. 

Points to ponder:

• What experiences have you had where the way you thought about something changed?

  
  

• Where do you see expectations – yours or someone else’s – influencing how you thought about that topic?