Here are some quotes from New Testament scholars and commentators on the issue of whether or not James viewed Jesus Christ as being God. I give credit to Sam Shamoun for pointing some of these quotes out.
"James goes beyond the OT usage in adding the Lord Jesus Christ to servant of God. This shows the movement in the early church to recognize the equality of Christ with God." (G.J. Wenham, J.A. Motyer, D.A. Carson, R.T. France, New Bible Commentary, pg. 1356)
"So at the very least, James operates within an early Christian commitment to Jesus as the Christ, the glorious Lord, who will come in judgment, to whom the author is committed as a "slave."…" (Dan G. McCartney, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: James, pg. 70)
“The titles James uses for the Savior are common in the N.T., yet significant. ‘Lord’ (Greek kurios) traces its meaning back to its use in the Greek translation of the O.T. called the Septuagint, often designated LXX after its alleged number of Jewish translators (see the 'Letter of Aristeas'). There 'Lord' served as the translation for the divine names, both Yahweh and Adonai. Its N.T. application to Jesus is therefore freighted with significance. Jesus is the Yahweh of the O.T., and N.T. writers are not shy about making this identification (e.g., cf. 1 Pet. 2:3 with Ps. 34:8)." (Harrison Pircilli, The Randall House Bible Commentary: James, 1, 2 Peter, and Jude, pg. 10)
"The passages show that like Paul (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1) the author considers himself not only a servant of God but also of Jesus Christ." (Peter H. Davids, The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Epistle of James, pgs. 39-40)
"If the title 'servant of God' is common, the full description 'servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ' is not. Only here in the NT does this language occur. James could intend both titles, 'God' and "Lord,' to apply to Jesus - 'Jesus Christ, both God and Lord.' But we would have expected the titles to occur in the opposite order had this been James's intention. His point rather is that he serves both God and 'the Lord Jesus Christ.' (Douglas J. Moo, The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James, pg. 49)
"James, brother of Jesus, sees himself as a servant 'of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.' Herein is an early Jacobean glimmer of what was destined to become trinitarian thought. Jesus Christ is defined by 'Lord,' or better yet, 'Lord' is defined by Jesus Christ. As mentioned in the Introduction, that we cannot always be sure whether 'Lord' refers to Father/God or to Jesus Christ puts us on the threshold of a profound shift at work in the messianic community's theology. Larry Hurtado's magnum opus has demonstrated with full documentation that 'Lord' belongs to and emerges from the earliest stratum of Christian worship and theological reflection. We can surmise that ascribing lordship to Jesus Christ is shaped by liturgical practice in the messianic community to which James writes." (Scot McKnight, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Letter of James, pgs. 63-64)
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