This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I am writing to the "twelve tribes" - Jewish believers scattered abroad. 

Greetings!

James 1:1 NLT

It's easy to skip this part of the letter and jump into the "important" stuff, but this letter has a context, and the context matters. We're not Jews living somewhere in the world in the first century, so there may be some things here that might be difficult to grasp in our world, things that clash.

Greetings!

This is a letter written by James and while there are differing views on this, tradition is that James is Jesus brother. 

Or "half brother"? 

For anyone with a family of step siblings, siblings with different parents, adopted in some way, you're in good company. 

Who decides what a "normal" family is anyway?

James tell us who he's writing to, and his stance towards God and Jesus. 

He says he is "doulos" a bond-servant without any ownership rights of his own. 

That's quite a thing to say! 

We can be happy to say we're followers of Jesus, but doulos? Servants? 

James seems very happy to let us know that's his stance without putting anything on anyone else, us included, and that seems to be a pretty cool way to be. 

#thisisme