DIATRIBE AGAINST THE UNGODLY RICH (JAMES 5:1). Notice the complete contrast between the rich as described here and those who are being tested and tried in the opening words of the letter, ‘count it all joy when you enter into testing' (James 1:2) compared with ‘weep and howl for your miseries that... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Come now, you rich, weep and howl, For your miseries that are coming on you.' James enjoins the rich to weep and howl at what is coming on them. People weeping and howling in this way is a regular Old Testament picture. The Moabites wept and howled at what was coming on them in Isaiah 15:2. The dr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Your riches are corrupted, And your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, And their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, And will eat your flesh as fire, ‘You have laid up your treasure in the last days.' This was not, of course, literally true, although po... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Behold, the hire of the labourers who mowed your fields, Which is of you kept back by fraud, cries out, And the cries of those who reaped, Have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' The rich were not only storing up their treasure for themselves, but they were doing it dishonestly. They... [ Continue Reading ]
‘You have lived delicately on the earth, and been wanton, You have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.' The rich had already received their consolation (Luke 6:24). They have enjoyed ‘soft luxury'. They have lived in extravagance and wantonly enjoyed many pleasures of overindulgence (compa... [ Continue Reading ]
‘You have condemned, you have killed the righteous one. He is not resisting (or ‘opposing') you.' ‘The Righteous One' is a New Testament term for Jesus. See Acts 3:14; Acts 7:52; Acts 22:14. That does not, however, mean that we are to see this as a sudden direct reference to Jesus, although there c... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Be patiently enduring, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.' The idea behind ‘patience' here is ‘patient endurance'. It does not speak of a quiet waiting, b... [ Continue Reading ]
A CALL TO PATIENT ENDURANCE IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD'S COMING (JAMES 5:7). James now turns back to those who are true ‘brothers' and exhorts them to patient endurance, and to watch their tongues, in the light of the Lord's imminent coming. This is parallel to James 1:2; James 1:12 where he speaks of... [ Continue Reading ]
‘You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.' So they are to await the Lord's coming with patient endurance, and establish their hearts through prayer (James 1:5; James 5:13), through the reading and hearing of the word (James 1:21; Colossians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Do not murmur, brothers, one against another, that you be not judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors.' But it is one thing to patiently endure external trials, it is quite another to endure the internal behaviour and attitude of various ‘brothers'. So once more James has to emphasise the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patient endurance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.' That the church at this time were going through heavy trials is clear. While there was not necessarily persecution by the state, for that was fairly limited, there was certainly fa... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Behold, we call them blessed who endured.' See Daniel 12:12. Indeed those who suffered like this in the past and patiently endured were not to be commiserated with, they were to be called blessed, for great would be their reward. Godly men did not look back and say, ‘How sad'. Rather they rejoiced... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CALL FOR COMPLETE HONESTY (JAMES 5:12). This command follows a series of commands and precedes the command to pray and praise. Those commands were as follows: · Be patiently enduring (James 5:7). · Establish your hearts (James 5:8). · Do not grumble against one another (James 5:9). · Take t... [ Continue Reading ]
FINAL EXHORTATION TO PRAYER AND FAITH (JAMES 5:12). Having faced up men and women to judgment in different ways James now ends as he began by putting great emphasis on the need for faith and prayer, and openness in the fellowship, and on reminding us that prayer is effective for anyone who like Eli... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Is any among you suffering? Let him pray.' The first injunction is concerning those who are ‘suffering, afflicted, going through hard times' (compare the use of the word in 2Ti 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:9; 2 Timothy 4:5). They are suffering and enduring trials (compare James 1:2). And what they are to do i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. The third injuncti... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be made whole. The supplication of a righteous man avails much in its working.' And finally we come to a general injunction that covers all: those under trial (who should be rejoicing); those who are enjoying wholeso... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Elijah was a man of like passions with us,' In this description we are taken back to James 1:13 and James 4:1 where men's emotions were also involved. The difference was that in the case of Elijah he overcame his passions and did ask and receive. Here is the supreme example of the man who shared m... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SUPREME EXAMPLE OF A MAN UNDERGOING TRIALS WHO GAINED THE VICTORY IN PRAYER (JAMES 5:17). James now gives the example of one man of God who endured trials and testings, and through faith came through triumphantly (compare James 1:1), and that was Elijah. He was but a man like us, but through pr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘My brothers, if any of you err from the truth.' Mingled with encouragement and the vision of God, the whole of James' letter has been concentrated on bringing home ways in which ‘brothers' may err from the truth. Now like any good teacher he applies the lesson. Truth is a central emphasis in the N... [ Continue Reading ]
A FINAL WORD ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BROTHERS HAVING A PRACTICAL CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER (JAMES 5:19). All through his letter James has been seeking to ‘convert sinners from the errors of their ways', leading up to his final exhortation to prayer and praise in James 5:13. Now he passes on that respo... [ Continue Reading ]