The opening sentence of James’ letter is very important and requires us to spend time to unpack the word “servant”. Most people, when they hear the word servant, may think of a butler or maid, maybe they even think of someone who serves in the church or in the community. But that is not the definition of servant James uses here. Instead, he uses the Greek word doulos, which means more literally a slave or bondservant, someone who sets aside all rights of their own to serve another.
