Welcome to the 10-Minute Bible, where we look at one book of the Bible in 10 minutes. Well, give or take 10 minutes. In this session, we're going to look at the book of James. Now, as you've heard me say many times in this series, in order to understand any book, but especially books of the Bible, you need to understand three things. Number one, you need to understand the subject of the book. which is nothing more than the answer to the question, what is the author talking about? The second thing you need to know is how does the author develop that subject? I call that the structure. And as you've heard me say many times in this series, in a secular book, we have a table of contents that give us some idea of what the author's doing with the subject. There are no such things in the books of the Bible. However, A good study Bible will have a rather detailed outline and that will give you some idea of how the author is handling and developing that subject. The third thing you need to understand is what I call the situation. What provoked that book to be written? In virtually every book of the Bible, not all, but virtually all, something happens that made that author write to that original audience on that particular subject. So those three things are the situation, the author, the recipients, and the purpose. Now, with those things in mind, let's look at the book of James. We need to start with, what is the subject? Now, that's a bit of a challenge. This book appears to some people to jump from one subject to another, and several subjects have been suggested. One is that the subject is faith. That's clearly here, but it's not the overall subject of the book. Another suggestion is that the subject is maturity. And again, that's a major issue in this book, but it's not quite the overall subject of the book. After examining all of those and wrestling with this book a great deal, my favorite book of the Bible, I have concluded that the subject of the book is trials. I'm certainly not alone in that. Many others have concluded that as well. It seems to me that best explains the overall subject, while there are minor subjects that support that overall subject, which we'll get to in a minute. All right, if that's the subject, how does the author develop that subject? What is the structure of the book? Now, as long as we've been in epistles, I've talked about the structure of a letter, because Paul's epistles, from Romans to Philemon, basically follow that format of an ancient letter. Well, we're out of Paul, we're into James, and he does not follow the format of a letter at all. Matter of fact, some have suggested that this perhaps originated as a sermon. That better explains the structure of the book. At any rate, I think the structure is clearly laid out in chapter one, verse 19, where he says, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry. As I have examined this book in detail and taught it more times than I can remember, I am more and more convinced that that is the structure of this book. So I would outline the book like this. First, there's a salutation. in verse 1 that identifies the author and the recipient, so forth. Then there is a prologue that beginning at verse 2 and going through verse 12, he talks about trials. That's very clear. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Then in verses 13 to 18, He talks about temptation, and those two things seem to be the prologue of the book, an introduction, so to speak. Now, it's interesting that those two subjects are put in juxtaposition, almost as if to say that in every trial there is a temptation. So you need to know how to handle both of those. At any rate, As I said a minute ago, I think the theme of the book is trials, and 119 and 20 tell us about how to get the most out of trials. As I said a minute ago, 119 says, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Verse 20 adds, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Now, that That is so clearly true. If you get angry, spout off at the mouth, and then don't do what God says, which is what he means by be swift to hear, then you won't produce godly righteousness in your life. So this is the formula for getting the most out of a trial. Now, let's talk about the situation. The author is obviously James. But what is significant about that is that James was the half-brother of Jesus Christ. After Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had other children, and they were the half-siblings of Jesus Christ. But he doesn't identify himself as his brother. He identifies himself as a bondservant of God and of Jesus Christ. What humility. He could easily have said, look who I am. But he didn't. He recognized himself as a servant. Now, that opening verse indicates that this was written to the Jewish Christians. And putting that in the context of the New Testament, it's no doubt true that this is a result of the persecution in Acts 8. And so James is writing to them. And if that's the case, then this book was written around maybe 45 AD, which would mean it's one of the first books, if not the first book to be written in the New Testament. Now, who are these recipients? Well, I mentioned a minute ago, they are Jews, but they're also Christians. That's very evident. He calls them brethren. We know they're Jews because it's addressed to the 12 tribes, and in chapter 2, it uses the word they met in an assembly, and that's the Greek word synagogue. So this is early, early in Christian history. They're still meeting in the synagogue. But as you surveyed the book, it's very obvious that some were rich, but most were probably poor, and they were going through all kinds of difficulties. The rich unbelievers were oppressing the poor people, even hauling them into court, and even withholding their wages. There was also trouble among them. There were disagreements and strife. And some of them were physically sick. So that is the situation that provoked this book to be written. The purpose, then, is to exhort these Christians to respond properly to trials and to warn them about the dangers of not doing that. If I were going to summarize the book in one short simple sentence, I would say the way to respond to trials is trust God, and learn from them by being swift to hear, that is, heed the word of God, slow to speak, and slow to be angry. Now, what is our takeaway? Well, nothing could be more practical than this book of the Bible. I would say that the one great spiritual truth for us is simply in the midst of trials, trust the Lord, endure, and be swift to obey, slow to speak, and slow to get angry to obtain maximum maturity. And that is a huge, valuable spiritual lesson to this book. So when trials come, and they will, life is full of them, then trust the Lord and endure. Be slow to speak, be swift to obey, be slow to speak, be slow to get angry so that you can develop spiritual maturity.