SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/25/2021 10:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “James the
son of Alphaeus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 10:3c
Message of the
verse: “James the son of Alphaeus”
Today it is my goal to look at this man named James the
son of Alphaeus, but first I want to give a short introduction to three
different disciples. The three men we
will be looking at in this third group of apostles are James the son of
Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, who is actually found in Matthew
10:4a. MacArthur writes “Most of what we
know of them is inferred from their names or descriptive identities or is
gleaned from church tradition. Except
for one short question posed to Jesus by Thaddaeus, the Bible tells us nothing
about their individual characters, personalities, abilities, or
accomplishments, either during their three years of training under Jesus or
during their ministry in the early church.”
James the Son of Alphaeus
As we look at this man’s name we can see that when you
add “son of Alphaeus” to his name then he can be distinguished from the other
apostle James who was the son of Zebedee and also from James the half brother
of Jesus. Let us look at Mark 15:40 “40 There
were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were
Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome.” We see in this verse from Mark’s gospel that
he is called James the less, and in the Greek the word “less” is Mikros.
This word can also mean smaller or younger, so perhaps he was a short
young man or just a short man, we don’t know.
MacArthur adds “Used in the sense of smaller, the name may have been
another means of distinguishing him from James the son of Zebedee, who was
clearly larger in influence and position and possibly also in physical
stature. In the sense of younger, it may
have indicated his youthfulness in comparison to the other James.” Suffice to
say we don’t know why he was called the “less” and so speculation is all we can
do at this point, but for whatever reason he was called “the less.”
MacArthur writes “Because Matthew’s
father was also named Alphaeus (spelled Alpheus in Mark 2:14), James and
Matthew may have been brothers. Also,
James the Less’s mother is mentioned in Mark 15:40 as being present at Christ’s
crucifixion, along with other women. She
is referred to as the wife of Clopas in John 19:25. Since Clopas was a form of Alphaeus, that
further supports the possibility that James and Matthew were related.”
Even though we don’t see anything
about the work that James did that does not mean that he didn’t work for the
Kingdom of God. We have mentioned that
all of these apostles will be ruling the 12 tribes of Israel in the future Millennial
Kingdom headed up by our Lord as He rules from His father’s throne in
Jerusalem.
MacArthur concludes “After two
thousand years, James the son of Alphaeus remains obscure. We do not know a single word he spoke or a
single thing he did. The early church
fathers claimed that he preached in Persia (modern Iran) and was crucified
there as a martyr for the gospel. If
that is true, one can only wonder what would have happened to that country and
to world history had those people responded favorably to the gospel.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful to learn about these men even though we don’t know a lot about
them. God knows what they did and He
knows what I do for the kingdom of God, and it is my prayer that whatever He had
planned for me to do in eternity past that I am doing it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that
the Lord will truly bring revival to my heart and defeat the enemies that I
face spiritually each day.
8/25/2021 10:31
AM
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