I am changing what I am going to be teaching--two weeks from now.  We just finished Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.  All of them written by Paul while he is in a Roman jail--a hole in the ground with no way out.  He encourages everyone with his letters.  At the same time, he is miserable, cold, alone, and not knowing what is going to happen to him.  But he doesn’t complain.  He encourages.  Blesses.  Teaches.  Writing letters.

In two weeks, I will begin teaching the book of James.  Some think it was written by the apostle James.  But most scholars believe it was written by Jesus’ brother James.  A man who finally realized who his brother really was only after the resurrection.   James knew they had different fathers and were half brothers, but in thirty-three years of being in the same family, he didn’t know Jesus was the Messiah.

And Jesus didn’t show up beating a drum when he started his three year mission of preaching the Kingdom of God.  What were Jesus and James doing during Jesus first thirty years?  We know he helped Joseph with carpentry.  We know he went to Jerusalem and interacted with the priests--and that they were amazed at his knowledge of the scripture.  Whatever was going on between the two brothers during those years certainly affected how James wrote this short epistle.  You immediately know you are not reading something that Paul wrote.  James is unique in style.