Whose Slave Are You?

Freedom is one of our favorite words, but what if it’s mostly a myth? We start with a blunt claim from Scripture: everyone is a slave to something. The real question isn’t whether we serve a master, it’s which master owns us, shapes our choices, and defines our future. That single idea reframes the whole Christian life, not as self-expression, but as surrendered allegiance to God through Jesus Christ. 

Then we slow way down over James 1:1 and treat it like the front door to the entire Book of James. James is famous for practical Christianity, faith in practice, and hard-edged commands that expose what we do with our money, our words, our plans, and our prayers. But none of that sticks until we accept James’ opening identity: “a bondservant” (doulos), a slave who belongs to God. We also dig into authorship and why the evidence points to James as the half-brother of Jesus, which makes his story even more shocking. He once doubted and mocked Jesus, yet after the resurrection Jesus appears to him, and James becomes a leader in the Jerusalem church and a man willing to die for what he once rejected. 

Finally, we explore how James stacks titles in a way that powerfully supports the deity of Jesus Christ, touching on early church debates and why James 1:1 mattered to defenders of orthodox Christian doctrine. We close with Hudson Taylor’s quiet humility: serving an illustrious Master. If you want a Bible study that moves from information to transformation, this is your invitation. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Get instant, biblically faithful answers to your Bible questions. https://www.wisdomonline.org/ask

Learn more: https://www.wisdomonline.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

You were chosen. Ephesians 1. You have been bought with a price you do not belong to yourself any longer. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. See, here's the truth. Whether or not the world knows it, everyone is a slave to something. Sin or righteousness. Everyone serves some master. Even if they say, Well, I'm free because I belong to myself. Well,

Whose Slave Are You

SPEAKER_00 0:34

you are your own master. The question then is, whose slave are you? The Bible is made up of 66 God-breathed books, scrolls. At least 30 of them are short enough to read in 30 minutes or less. The book of James is that kind of book. It's small, it's easy to read. Very little mystery to it. It's down to earth. You can read it as I have read it several times in about 20 minutes

Why James Hits So Hard

SPEAKER_00 1:20

or less. In fact, so many truths, though, come out of this book. They tumble over as if they are the waters of Niagara. It's hard to outline it. In fact, that's difficult for people in my position. One particular author catalogued nearly 30 different topics that just cascade one after another. And here's why. Much of the New Testament epistles deliver to us the precepts of our faith. James is passionate about the practice of our faith. He doesn't come into the living room of our lives where we've been expecting company and everything is dusted and the carpet is vacuumed. No, he goes right over and opens the door to the coat closet where we've stuffed everything until company leaves. He's going to pry into our private lives. He's going to rifle through every drawer. He's even going to have the audacity to examine our checkbooks and tell us that they reveal our true priorities in life. He's going to look at our prayer request list and inform us of what we really want from God. Well, James is going to take us into the divine examination room and he's going to listen to our hearts. He's going to look into our ears. He's going to have us open our mouths and say, Ah, while he examines our tongues. He's going to go deeper still and sift through our motives and explore our thoughts. In the little book of James, there are 54 imperatives. Almost one every other verse. That means 54 words or phrases could end with an exclamation point. See, James is primarily after one thing, turning precept into practice, turning belief into behavior, turning acceptance into application. See, he's going to go beyond exegesis and deal with the ethics of life. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said in the late 1800s, the problem of all problems is getting Christianity into practice. That's why you have in this little book 54 imperatives. You'll have 54 prescriptions from Dr. James. So with that in mind, take your Bibles and turn to James chapter 1 and follow along as I read at verse 1. James chapter 1, verse 1. James, stop. Now we've got a whole school year, okay? There's no need to hurry. Actually, what I want you to discover, we're going to cover just a few words, but I want you to discover

The Key Hidden In Verse One

SPEAKER_00 4:12

in these first few words of verse 1 the key to putting into practice the entire book of James. I believe that my biggest problem, and perhaps yours as well, in applying the book of James is that I don't really spend enough time in verse 1. You see, until you're willing to apply the truth in verse 1, you're not ready to dare to say what he says in verse 2. You're not ready for the truth of chapter 1 and chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5 until you're ready and willing to say what he says in verse 1. Now, as we cover most of this verse today, I want to point out three things that you can hang your mental hats on. First of all, I want you to notice James' signature. Now, the problem for us here at the outset is that the New Testament mentions five different men named James who followed Christ. Which one was the author? Now, if you research each of these men, which I have, and I won't

Which James Wrote James

SPEAKER_00 5:18

bore you with all of the details, I'll give you what I've come up with, and that is basically two potential candidates. And I'll give you the one I believe was the author. One of the candidates could very well be the Apostle James, the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee. Problem with this particular James being the author, however, is that he will become the first of twelve apostles to be martyred in A.D. 44 by the order of Herod Agrippa, which rules out his potential for writing this book, which comes a little later. The centuries-old view on authorship, and even today the view of evangelical scholars, is that the James who wrote this little book was the leader of the church in Jerusalem, James, the half-brother of Jesus. Which means something absolutely dramatic happened in this young man's life to get him to that point. And I want to take some time showing you what that was. Now, Matthew's gospel informs us that as Jesus began his ministry, none of his siblings believed his claims. In fact, it was more than unbelief. The Bible tells us that they were offended by his claim. As Jesus in Matthew 13 is visiting his hometown of Nazareth and preaching, the Jews effectively said, Who is this guy claiming to be, and who does he think he is? In fact, they go on to say, Is not this one the carpenter's son? In other words, how can he be who he claims to be? We know his dad. Joseph the carpenter. We knew him while he was living. And the text goes on further. They said, Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas, or Jude, and his sisters, are they not all with us? And they all took offense at him. In other words, the people who were offended by Christ's claim to be God's son were not only the people of the village, but his own brothers, half-brothers and sisters, they're saying, I know we think the same thing. Who does he think he is? They're mortified. They are, in the text, offended. Like Mark's gospel tells us that when Christ's kinsmen, a word used of blood relations, his brothers and sisters and his own family, heard that he had launched his public ministry and he had actually called disciples after him to follow him. Mark 3 tells us they, his brothers, half-brothers, went out to take custody of him, for they were saying he has lost his senses. You can translate it, they thought he was out of his mind. They came to take custody of him, they came to take him away, they thought he needed help. Now, obviously, if you hold to the clear statements in these verses that Jesus had half brothers and sisters, that his siblings born to Mary and Joseph, after Jesus was virgin born. You've got another issue on your hands, don't you? In fact, you have several. The Roman Catholic Church has labored to redefine the words of Scripture in order to uphold the belief that Mary was who they claim even to this day that she is, the virgin Mary, perpetually virgin, that she never had any more children. So James could not be the half-brother of Christ, the secondborn to Mary,

Mary And Jesus’ Siblings Debate

SPEAKER_00 9:00

the firstborn son of Joseph and Mary. The Roman Church believes that Mary was not an ordinary housewife, not an ordinary mother. She was unique among all human beings. In fact, in 1845, the Pope declared that Mary had never sinned. This is the papal doctrine called the Immaculate Conception, that Mary had actually been born without original sin, and she never sinned ever one time in her entire life. So the Roman Church has offered up a couple of answers to these problems. One answer is that James and the others weren't literally brothers and sisters of Jesus, they were cousins. They would point out the truth that the word can be used in a generic sense of endearment, just as you might say to somebody today, hello, brother Sam, hello, brother John. And that would be true. So obviously the use of the word can have, can have figurative or metaphorical usage. The problem is the Greeks were smart enough to have a word for cousin. And they never, ever, ever one time used in the scriptures the word cousin for a biological brother or sister. Always used the word delphos, never once used to describe a cousin. Now there's another view that is promoted, and it is the view that, well, if they're not cousins, what it really was here is that Joseph had been married before, and he had six children. He was a widower when he met Mary and took her to be his wife. There's simply not any verse anywhere telling us that Joseph was a widower with six kids. On the other hand, what we do have in Scripture is that Mary was not a perpetual virgin, but that she had more children. Now, by the way, the reason I'm spending so much time on this issue is not so much to take on Roman Catholic tradition. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here for the most part, but to eventually get us all to the point where we understand that James' life and his first recorded words in Scripture following his conversion to Christ indicate something incredibly dramatic. Now in Matthew 13, 55, we're given the names of Jesus Christ's half-brothers in that text. They're given in typical biblical fashion, in the order of age, which is consistent in Scripture, which lets us know then that James, who appears first, was the secondborn, closest to Christ in age. Then comes Joseph,

From Mocking Jesus To Martyr

SPEAKER_00 11:40

named after Daddy, evidently. Simon, Judas, or Jude, as he became known. He also wrote a little letter. Well, we may study that one next. Then Matthew mentions his sisters. Doesn't tell us how many, it's just plural. There may be more than two. Could be three or four. What you have is you have at least four brothers and two sisters. It might have been four and four, it might have been eight, it might have been nine. She could have been keeping up with Mrs. Duggar, for all we know. What you have, however, is this, and this is significant. You have, when you understand this, a single mother raising for at least several years seven children. If she had a child every two years, when Jesus Christ died in his early 30s, the youngest child would have still been a teenager. Listen, my admiration for Mary isn't lessened by the truth, it's increased. While we don't slip over into false doctrine, it causes me to appreciate her even more. Add to this the fact that while she believed the claims of her son without fully understanding them, none of the other children did. In fact, John's gospel tells us they mocked Christ. His brothers mocked him. When he was involved in public ministry, his brother said, You know, why are you hanging around here? What you ought to do is go make things public. Go and demonstrate your power. You only want a name, they said. You only want the world to follow you. The implication there is you just want power and popularity. That's what his brother. This is James. His other brother saying these things. Listen, I want you to understand that this home was filled with turmoil over the claims of Christ. It was in a moment's peace, especially as the older children grew and grew in their resentment against him. Christ knew nothing of the closest family members understanding him or believing in him. He was ostracized from his own brothers and sisters. I want you to understand the fact that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief long before the cross. So, more to the point, how do you go from listening is as James mocks Christ? How do you go from that point to him following Christ? How do you go from him denying and refusing the claims of Christ to being sold out to the claims of Christ? How do you go from being a disbeliever, an unbeliever, to an author? How do you go from this point to that point? How do you go from being somebody who's not interested in Christ to somebody who dies for Christ during the seventh year of Nero's reign as a martyr? So what happened to James? One verse says it all. Paul is writing to the Corinthian believers in chapter 15. I'll read it for the sake of time. He's telling specific events that occur related. These occurred related to the passion of Christ. He writes in verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to

Bondservant Means Owned By God

SPEAKER_00 15:05

the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, that is Peter, and then to the twelve, the rest of the twelve, verse six, and after that he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now that is, they're alive, but some have died. Verse 7, then he appeared to Jake. He appeared to Jake. Can you imagine that meeting? What did Jesus say? Hello? My brother. Everything I told you, I was. I am. Evidently, from what we know of James, the believer, as far as you can go back in church history, the predominant belief was that the resurrected Lord commended his brother into ministry, and he would become the leader in the church of Jerusalem during extremely difficult transitional times. This James would go on to become the author of this book of the Bible, we're still studying 2,000 years later, in which he encourages us all to get real with our with our faith. And by the way, one more sidebar here for those of you that wished. Maybe you've had the moments, and maybe even this morning you're a little discouraged. Maybe, maybe you've you've wished you'd come to Christ earlier in life. Can you imagine what James could have regretted? He could have lived his life, the rest of his life, with bitter regret. Now in his early 30s. But the truth of Christ's resurrection changed everything just as it has for you. And like James, live life with an exclamation point. His signature symbolizes the radical transformation of a man who once laughed at Christ but now lives for Christ. Let me show you something else. Not just his signature, let me show you his status. Back in James chapter 1, verse 1, his signature reveals for us his identity, his status reveals for us his priority. Let me read. James, the Lord's half-brother. Oh, wait. Let me try again. James, the chairman of the Jerusalem Council who directed the development of the church to embrace Gentiles from every nation. Let me try another one here. James, one of the few who received a personal visit from their resurrected Lord. All of that's true. Every one of those statements are true. But what does he say? Look, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James says, You want to know my highest status in life? I'm a bondservant of God. Now, Paul in Galatians chapter 1, verse 19, will refer to James as the Lord's brother. But James prefers to speak of himself only as servant. In fact, the word for bondservant in this text is the word dulas, which literally can be rendered slave. It's a little rougher, isn't it, to our ears? Now, to the Greek world, and certainly our world, but back then especially, this was a term of degradation. There were millions of slaves during the days of Christ. To the Greeks, and certainly to any culture, freedom and autonomy and being your own master represents the highest status of life. Success in life is not in serving, but in having people what serve you. You see, for the genuine believer, this word says it all, dulas slave communicates ownership, possession, allegiance, dependence, subjection, loyalty. Do you know what the ingredients of salvation come out of the first century slave market? You were chosen. Ephesians 1. You have been bought with a price you do not belong to yourself any longer. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. You are subject to his will and control, Philippians 2. You are called to give an account of your service. 2 Corinthians 5. You are regularly chastened or rewarded by him according to his own pleasure, with or without an explanation. Hebrews chapter 12. And one day you are told that you can expect, and you long for the day when you will hear the words, again, duolos is the word used. Well done, thou good and faithful slave. The truth is we need to proclaim the freedom of the gospel from sin. See, here's the truth. Whether or not the world knows it, everyone is a slave to something. Everyone is enslaved. You are either enslaved to sin or righteousness. Everyone serves some master, even if they say, Well, I'm free because I belong to myself. Well, you are your own master. The question then is, whose slave are you? See, as you move through this book, the only thing that would ever challenge us to apply any of it is that we're categorically reminded in the very first verse that we are not the master of our lives, we are the slaves of God. Christians are slaves to God. That isn't gonna sell, is it? Could that be the reason so many people in America who claim to be Christians so soon bail out? Because they didn't understand the true gospel. James comes along and he effectively says, here's here's who I am. I am not free. I'm a slave. And I may go through my entire life as God's slave, ignored. Now, just who does James belong to? We've noted his signature and his status very quickly. I want you to look at his savior. The little book begins: James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not going to bore you with all the grammatical details, but let me at least tell you that in the Greek New Testament, James does not include in this phrase any definite articles or indefinite articles, which makes it stunning. He simply strings together

James 1:1 On Jesus’ Deity

SPEAKER_00 21:59

titles. Which means you can read them in any order. You can literally translate this: James, the slave of Jesus Christ, God, Lord. Following me? James, the servant of God, Lord, Christ Jesus. What you have here is one of the strongest texts describing the unity of the Godhead and the deity of Jesus Christ. He is called by James both Lord Yahweh, Jehovah, and Christ. It was Jesus. In fact, in the fourth century, when Athanasius was defending the deity of Jesus Christ against the heresy of Arius, Arius was a popular teacher who was teaching that Jesus Christ was a God and not the manifestation of the God. Arianism has been repackaged in recent generations in Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching. It was James chapter 1, verse 1, that Athanasius used to topple the arguments of Arius and in the council win the day and deliver a blow to that false teaching. Where James says, I am a slave of God, who effectively is Jesus Christ the Lord. Stunning trick. I grew up with him. He's just a man who's enlightened. He's just a good man whom God glorified. He's just a man who made it. He was a good teacher. The man that grew up with him said he is a God. I close with this. Hudson Taylor was used uniquely and mightily by our Lord in taking the gospel into the interior of China. For 50 years, I just finished reading his biography. He loved the Lord. He risked his life over and over and over again. In fact, he made the comment one time that they never established a new mission post without experiencing a riot. How's that for church planters? When he was an old man, he

Hudson Taylor And The Illustrious Master

SPEAKER_00 24:34

was in Australia, he was invited to speak everywhere. One particular place, he was invited to speak to a large church. When he arrived, it was packed, standing room only. The moderator introduced Hudson Taylor with eloquent, well-chosen phrases that magnified the marvelous accomplishments of this missionary on the field. And he ended his introduction by referring to Hudson Taylor as, quote, our illustrious guest. The biographer wrote who was there that Mr. Taylor stood there quietly for a moment and then smiled and said quietly, dear friends, I am the servant of an illustrious master. Sounds a little like James, doesn't he? I hope it will sound a little more like us as we go through this divine prescription by Dr. James on how to translate faith into life.