James 2:19 - God is One

James 2:19 - You believe that God is one.

Some trinitarians point to this scripture as proof that God is one. There thought, however, is that "God" means three persons in one God, or as some prefer, God in three persons. Is that, however, what James meant when he said "God is one." Is James speaking of three persons, all of whom are the one God that he speaks of?

James starts out his letter by first differentiating "God" from the "our Lord Jesus Christ." He says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." (James 1:1) He continues to use the word "God" in James 1:5,13,20. In James 1:27 he speaks of "our God and Father." In the second chapter of James, he uses the word "God" in James 2:5, before he uses the word in again in James 2:19. We are not given any hint that James changed the meaning of the word "God" in James 2:19 to mean more than the God and Father as he spoke on in James 1:1,27. James continue identify "God" with the Father in James 3:9. Thus, there is no reason to think that in James 2:19 he is not also referring the Father as that "one" God. This agrees with Jesus' statement that his Father is "the only true God." (John 17:3) Rather than giving us any reason to think of the one God as three persons, James 2:19 in its context vindicates the God and Father of Jesus as the one and only true God. -- John 20:17; Romans 15:6; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 11:31; Ephesians 1:3,17; 1 Peter 1:3.