James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

When it comes to the question of authorship for the book of James, there are really only two options. It was either written by James the son of Zebedee and the brother of John or James the half-brother of Jesus. Acts 12:2 tells us that very early in the history of the church James the brother of John was executed by King Herod, which means that the James who is the author of James is James, the half-brother of Jesus.

Now consider that for a moment. We know that in the household of Mary and Joseph that Jesus was the first child that was born because Mary was a virgin and only betrothed to Joseph when Jesus was conceived. So James is the little brother of Jesus, along with several other siblings. Both Matthew and Mark list James first among Jesus’ siblings, implying he was the eldest of Jesus’ half brothers. Now it’s a pretty natural thing for siblings to have ups and downs in their relationships, but there comes a point when you get close to growing up when you stop start seeing your siblings as actual functional human beings. Even still, that human being who pays their taxes, has their children, works and earns money, and might even have a position of leadership over other people… is still your brother. Everyone else might see the mature, responsible, put-together and contributing member of society – but you know the kid who at his buggars.

That makes the word James uses to describe his brother all the more remarkable. He says in verse one: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is no small thing. To call Jesus “Lord” is to call Him master. It’s a title that emphasizes his sovereignty, power, and role as the head of the church. It also reflects Jesus’s equality with God the Father, highlighting his divinity. And it’s a term that would inevitably lead, in the New Testament, to a certain amount of criticism if not persecution.

In the days of James, there was a confession that linked the entire Roman world together. People of all stripes, of all different conquered areas, all came together under the confession that Caesar is Lord. When the Romans conquered a people, they would allow them to retain their regional identity. They could have their own customs, their own dietary habits, even their own religions as a way of keeping the peace in the empire. But they also had to, in the midst of all those things, recognize the supremacy of Rome. But the Christians would not. They served an even higher power. So instead of saying Caesar is Lord, they confessed Jesus is Lord. For the first Christians, this was not just a saying – it was deeply subversive. It was rebellious. And potentially deeply costly because they were declaring a higher loyalty.

James did not always feel this way. John 7:5 lets us know that Jesus’ brothers, during His ministry, did not believe in Him as the Messiah. Clearly, then, James had been on quite a transformational journey to go from not even believing His big brother’s claims about Himself to calling Him “Lord.” And here’s a little bit more of his story.

We’ve already said that James did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but the extremity of his doubt is expressed in Mark 3:21:

Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.”

But then something remarkable happened. Paul records for us in 1 Corinthians 15:7 that after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to James, and evidently it was a transformational experience. James became a key leader in the early church according to Galatians 2:9-12, and he eventually became the de facto leader of that church and presided over the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.

His entire understanding of Jesus had been transformed, and that transformation is summed up for us here in his opening verse in that one word: Lord.

Now that ought to encourage us for one simple reason – God changes people. You’ve seen it in your own life, if you are a Christian, and you’ve seen it in the lives of others. You can see it here in James. Through faith, God changes people. Deeply. So if there is someone in your life that seems far from faith, that is antagonistic about Jesus, that you could never envision bowing the knee to anyone or anything – remember James, closest in age and familiar relation to Jesus who eventually came to know Him as Lord.