Known for its declaration, "Faith without works is dead," (2:26), the letter of James is not addressed to a single church or community. Rather it is addressed to the “diaspora” or Jews who were scattered among the nations. James, however, is not merely writing to Jews, but Jewish Christians living outside Israel specifically scattered among the nations (also Hellenistic Jewish Christians). As to the location of his audience, there is no mention of it in the book, though the book mentions that these believers meet in a synagogue (2:2), and had somehow experienced persecutions, harassment and “trials of various kinds”, were forced out of their homeland, taken advantage of by their rich neighbors by dragging them to court(1;2; 2:6), and driven to poverty by abusive wealthy landowners (1:9-11; 5:4-6).

In 5:7-11, James moves away from condemning the wicked and unjust landlords (Vv.1-6) to comforting and counseling the poor believers in dealing with the oppression they are experiencing. He encourages them to respond in patience until the coming of the Lord and examine themselves in light of that coming (v.7-9), and persevere in suffering knowing that “the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.” (Vv.10-11)