I once heard my late, beloved pastor say to give a baby a name they can live up to. I have never forgotten that advice and, with the birth of my firstborn child rapidly approaching, it has never been more relevant. With the gender of the baby known by all for a quite a while (it’s a boy) my wife and I decided to keep his name a secret until his birth, much to the chagrin of our family and friends. When choosing his name we definitely did not want to simply pick the trendiest name or find a name that went really well with his last name, we wanted to give him a name he could live up to.

We chose James.

Now there have been several notable James over the years. There was Jesus’ half-brother, James, who wrote the New Testament book of the same name and which is truly one of my favorite books of the Bible. There was James Madison, one of the chief architects of the U.S. Constitution and the fourth president of the United States. The King James Version of the Bible was one the first English editions of the Bible and is still widely used today by millions of believers. It was, of course, authorized by the English king whose name it bears. There is also James Dobson, the brilliant Christian psychologist and author, who has been, perhaps, the leading spokesperson for Christian values in the last quarter century. A quick glance through history would reveal several more notable men bearing the name, yet it was not after any of these great men that we gave our son this name.

We named our son James after the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve disciples who served with Jesus during His brief tenure on earth.  Any discussion concerning the disciples needs to begin with the fact of how ordinary they actually were. Jesus did not enlist the help of powerful kings or wealthy business men or educated scholars. Defying all worldly wisdom He chose men from humble origins and unspectacular backgrounds. James was one such figure.

James was a prominent member of the apostles.  In the books of Mark and Acts when the Bible lists the twelve disciples James’s name appears immediately after Peter’s both times, strongly suggesting he was considered a strong leader and probably second in influence among the group only to Peter.  Several times he appears as a member of the inner circle of disciples who were granted access to Christ during some of His most glorious, and agonizing, times on earth.

Chapter five, in the gospel of Mark, describes one such incident (verses 35-43).  Jesus is speaking in the synagogue when the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, is informed that his twelve year old daughter has passed away. Jesus, allowing only Peter, James and John (the brother of James) to follow Him, goes to the house where Jairus’s daughter lay, tells the mourners there that the girl is merely asleep and not dead, and enters the daughter’s room. Upon seeing the daughter he takes her hand and tells her to arise.  Immediately, Scripture says, she arose and walked.  Another time, the same three disciples were witness to the great Transfiguration, detailed in Matthew 17:1-13.  In Mark 14:33, James is again paired with his brother and Peter when Jesus exhorted them to pray privately with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Time and time again, James is singled out as being in a select group of the disciples.

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church and the founder of Master’s Seminary, sheds more light on the apostle James in his book, Twelve Ordinary Men.  He writes:

If there’s a key word that applies to the life of the apostle James, that word is passion. From the little we know about him, it is obvious that he was a man of intense fervor and intensity. In fact, Jesus gave James and John a nickname: Boanerges – “Sons of Thunder”.  That defines James’s personality in very vivid terms. He was zealous, thunderous, passionate, and fervent…Unlike Peter’s name, which was obviously intended to help encourage and shape Peter’s character toward a rocklike steadfastness, “Boanerges” seems to have been bestowed on the sons of Zebedee to chide them when they allowed their naturally feverish temperaments to get out of hand. Perhaps the Lord even used it for humorous effect while employing it as a gentle admonishment.

That’s right; James was far from perfect. Like the rest of us, he was a sinner. His particular weaknesses were selfish ambition and a callous attitude toward sinners.  In Matthew 20:20-24, James and John put their mother up to asking Jesus to reserve a special place in heaven for her two sons. The story showing James’s and John’s fiery temper best is probably found in Luke 9: 51-56. In this passage Jesus and his disciples are passing through Samaria. When a village refused to greet Jesus the proper way an incredulous James and John ask Jesus if He wished them to call down fire from Heaven to consume the village!  Of course, Jesus turned down their offer and rebuked them, saying, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”

John MacArthur comments:

James wanted a crown of glory; Jesus gave him a cup of suffering. He wanted power; Jesus gave him servanthood. He wanted a place of prominence; Jesus gave him a martyr’s grave. He wanted to rule; Jesus gave him a sword – not to wield, but to be the instrument of his own execution. Fourteen years after this, James would become the first of the Twelve to be killed for his faith.

Did James ever curb his zeal and passion with grace, compassion, and mercy? The answer is probably best answered by MacArthur. His chapter on James concludes with this account of James’s death:

It is significant that James was the first of the apostles to be killed. (James is the only apostle whose death is actually recorded in Scripture.) Clearly, James was still a man of passion. His passion, now under the Holy Spirit’s control, had been so instrumental in the spread of truth that it had aroused the wrath of Herod.  Obviously, James was right where he had always hoped to be and where Christ had planned him to be – on the front line as the gospel advanced and the church grew…And now his strength was so great that when Herod decided it was time to stop the church, James was the first man who had to die. He thus drank the cup Christ gave him to drink.  His life was short but his influence continues to this day.

History records that James’s testimony bore fruit right up until the moment of his execution. Eusebius, the early church historian, passes on an account of James’s death that came from Clement of Alexandria: "[Clement] says that the one who led James to the judgment-seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony, was moved, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian. They were both therefore, he says, led away together; and on the way he begged James to forgive him. And [James], after considering a little, said, ‘Peace be with thee,’ and kissed him. And thus they were both beheaded at the same time…”

James is the prototype of the passionate, zealous, front runner who is dynamic, strong and ambitious. Ultimately, his passions were tempered by sensitivity and grace. Somewhere along the line he had learned to control his anger, bridle his tongue, redirect his zeal, eliminate his thirst for revenge, and completely lose his selfish ambition. And the Lord used him to do a wonderful work in the early church.

Such lessons are sometimes hard for a man of James’s passions to learn…Such zeal must always be harnessed and tempered with love. But if it is surrendered to the control of the Holy Spirit and blended with patience and longsuffering, such zeal is a marvelous instrument in the hands of God. The life of James offers clear proof of that.

It is my prayer that my son’s life will bear the same proof.