James 5:7-11

Patience in James 5:7; James 5:10 is different from endurance in n, Hebrews 12:1 f.; it is the opposite of short-temperedness or impatience. The farmer does his work and then can only wait for a harvest which he can do nothing to hurry. The Coming of the Lord is a phrase appropriating to Yahweh and in Christian language to Christ a term almost technical for royal visits. (With our new knowledge of the profane use of the word, mg. becomes misleading.) The former rain follows the sowing, the latter comes just before the corn ripens. This epistle belongs to the period when all Christians still believed in the imminence of the Advent (contrast 2 Peter 3:4, written perhaps two generations later); and even among Jews, as the apocalyptic literature shows, such a belief could readily find acceptance. The Lord is a title which Christian writer and Jewish reader would understand differently. The latter would equally fail to trace the source of James 5:9 (Matthew 7:1), and the personality of the expected Judge (Matthew 25:31 ff.) who is at the door (Mark 13:29). The examples chosen to encourage faithful men are almost enough alone to show that James writes to Jews; the higher example of Hebrews 12:2 f. is in his heart, but must not yet be set down with the pen. When the Sauls to whom he writes have become Pauls, they will understand.

James 5:11 suggests a Beatitude, Blessed are they that have endured to the end, for they shall be saved (Mark 13:13). Job's endurance lies in the persistence of his trust in God (cf. Job 13:15); for the end, cf. Job 42:12 it proved that God worketh all things for good with them that love God (Romans 8:28, cf. mg.).