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Observe here, 1. The author and penman of this epistle described by his name, James; by his office, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ: that is, by special office, as a dispenser of his gospel. It is the highest honor that can be conferred upon the greatest person, to be the servant of Christ, especially in the quality of an ambassador.
Note also, how St. James stiles himself the servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some read the words conjoined, others disjoined: conjoined thus, James, a servant of Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord; and thus the fathers urged this text against the Arians, to prove the Divinity and Godhead of Christ; others read the words disjoined, thus James, a servant of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. This latter reading seems most natural, and less strained, and affords an argument for proving the Divinity of Christ no less weighty than the former; for as the Father is Lord as well as Jesus Christ, so Jesus Christ is God as well as the Father, and God will have all to honour the Son as they honour the Father.
Observe, 2. The persons to whom this epistle is directed, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad; that is, to such and so many of the Jews as were converted to Christianity, and were now dispersed and scattered into several countries and nations; to them is St. James excited and moved by God to write and direct this excellent epistle.
Here note, by the way, these three things: 1. That God's own people in general may be dispersed and driven abroad from their own countries and habitations; it is no new thing to suffer in this kind, Heb_11:38 those, of whom the world was not worthy, wandered in deserts and mountains, woods and caves.
Note, 2. The severity of God towards this people of the Jews, in particular; they were a sinning people, a sinful people, weary of God, sick of his worship, severe to his Son; and God grows sick and weary of them, and according to his threatening, Deu_28:64 scattered them from one end of the earth unto the other, among all people.
Lord! how dangerous and unsafe it is to rest upon, and glory in our outward privileges! None had more, none had greater privileges than the Jews, yet for their sins the land spewed them out, and God dispersed them, yea, made them a hissing and a by-word among the nations.
Note, 3. The tenderness of God's love and care towards the faithful amongst them in and under this dispersion, he stirreth up St. James to write to the scattered tribes, and to apply seasonable comforts to them, and to all Christians with them in a suffering state, which accordingly he does throughout this whole epistle.