James Intro

Some background information on the book of James before I dive in to the text:

Author:
The author of this letter is Jesus' half brother James. After Jesus' resurrection James went on to become a leading figure in the early Jerusalem church being mentioned several times in the account of the early church, the book of Acts.

Date:
James died in A.D. 62 so this letter was certainly written before then. It is likely that James would have mentioned the meeting of the apostolic council in Jerusalem in 48 A.D. had he written this letter after that. This puts the most likely date for this letter in the mid to early 40's A.D., certainly within a lifetime of Jesus.

Addressees:
In the opening of his letter James addresses it to "the twelve tribes in the Dispersion". These were Jewish Christians living outside of Jerusalem scattered about because of the persecution facing the early church as mentioned in Acts 11:19

You Don't Save Yourself

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
(John 5:5-9 ESV)

It's not what we do, how we behave, what rules we keep, what music we listen to, what movies we watch, how much we pray, how much we give, how much we know, how clean our language is, what political party we belong to or whether or not we believe the correct doctrines that saves us.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone. This is not your doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.

Soli Deo Gloria.