Main Idea

The Lord’s Return is essential, and helps us to live in Hope, Trust, and Integrity

Sermon Notes

Overview

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• In the first two paragraphs of this general section of the letter, James castigates people for arrogance and for abusing wealth and power. Overly self-confident Christian businesspeople are probably in view in 4:13–17, whereas the non-Christian rich are James’s target in 5:1–6. But both paragraphs lack James’s customary address to his readers, “brothers.” This changes in 5:7–11 (vv. 7, 9, 10). James thereby signals his intention to focus explicitly on the attitudes that God’s people need to adopt in light of a biblical perspective on this world and the coming judgment. And James leaves us in no doubt about what he thinks the basic attitude must be. Note the words “be patient” (makrothymeō) in v. 7 (twice) and v. 8; “patience” (makrothymia) in v. 10; “endure” (hypomeinō) and “endurance” (hypomonē) in v. 11. In light of the soon return of Christ as judge and deliverer (vv. 7, 8, 9), believers need to imitate the farmer (v. 7) and the prophets (v. 10) in displaying patience with their situation and with each other (v. 9) and to imitate Job in the endurance of difficult circumstances (v. 11).

Motyer, The Bible Speaks Today

• The pattern of 5:7–12: Standing back from verses 7–12 we see, as a first observation, that two subjects alternate with each other:

• We can open up this pattern in further detail:

• In this way we see that not only do sections on patience and speech alternate, but that sections dealing with joyful hope (7–8 and 10–11) lead into sections dealing with fearful expectation (9, 12). The whole unit (7–12) is, in fact, wonderfully symmetrical and balanced.

• Looking again at the detailed outline above, the word that springs to mind to replace the dots between the sections is ‘forfeiture’. We can forfeit the blessing of joyful hope, and replace it by fearful expectation of a coming Judge—and it is the tongue through which this grim forfeiture takes place. There is more to this than James’ celebrated emphasis on the seriousness of sins of speech. The very circumstances which call for patience (7–8) beget impatience. Think of such times of stress and hardship as verses 1–6 describe. (Note how James makes this connection by the ‘therefore’ in 5:7.) Pressed from outside by opponents, waiting for a Lord who is coming yet seems not to come, how easily tempers can fray and the fellowship begin to fall apart! How easy to begin to take it out on each other, to find cause for complaint within the family! Yet, as James taught in 3:18, the harvest of righteousness—the precious fruit of 5:7—can grow only in the soil of a peaceful fellowship. The tongue which destroys peace blights the harvest for which the coming Lord is looking.

• Our main source of information regarding this parousia, or coming, is the Lord Jesus himself. We have, therefore, a sure foundation for our expectant faith. He taught that his coming would be preceded by signs (Mt. 24:3) and would, when it happened, be as vivid, visible and unmistakable as lightning which illuminates the whole sky.(Mt. 24:27) It will happen on a day which cannot be known in advance (Mt. 24:36ff), and will bring about a separation or taking away of the people of God. (Mt. 24:8ff) Those who are Christ’s (1 Cor 15:23) will be gathered for ever into his presence,(1 Thess 2:19; 2 Thess 2:1) caught up to meet him in the air, (1 Thess 4:17) transformed into an unblemished holiness (1 Thess 3:13; 5:23) as they are at last made fully alive in Christ. (1 Cor 15:22) To unbelievers the expectation of the Lord’s return is a matter for cynical doubt and dismissal, (2 Pet 3:3-4) but to believers this sure hope constitutes a strong call to endure (Jas 5:8) and to prepare by holiness of life.(1 Jn. 2:28) For the Lord himself (1 Thess 4:16) will come in power,(2 Pet 1:16) his foes will perish,(2 Thess 2:8; cf. 2 Thess 1:7-10) and the heavens and the earth will be replaced by new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell. (2 Pet 3:12-13)

  • It is striking that all James needs to say to his readers is that the Lord is coming. He does not enter into long explanations and descriptions. He can assume that they know all about it, for it was a familiar truth to the New Testament church. If we wish to be New Testament believers, and to think in terms of New Testament priorities, then the fact of this great Advent, the sure expectation of it and the desire not to be ashamed before him at his coming should be in the forefront of our thoughts. John Blanchard says that ‘it is certainly probable that there are about 300 references in the New Testament, one for every 13 verses from Matthew to Revelation’.

• But, secondly, we ought to note how positive the judgment is. The returning lord in the parables is looking for what he can praise, and when he finds it his praise is immediate and warm (Mt. 25:21, 23; Lk. 19:17–19). We must never forget the searching nature of the enquiry: it is such that Paul can use the metaphor of fire (1 Cor. 3:13) and in prospect of the judgment can say that he is moved by the fear of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:11). Yet the Judge is our own loving, caring Saviour, and our constant thought should be how we can delight him at his coming by having something of eternal, lasting value to lay at his feet.

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• Internally, 5:1-6 represents the trials that the rich Roman or Jewish landowners are causing these mostly poor Christian day-laborers. Vv. 7-11 provides the proper response. V.12 rules out one provably frequent contrasting reaction.

• The antidote does not involve revolutionary violence or supplanting God’s role as vengeance-taker, which he will exercise when Christ returns. Rather, these exploited believers must endure their hardships with perseverance.

• The illustration, like the command in v.8 to strengthen one’s hands, shows that it is no passive inactivity that James has in mind, but an active preparation for God to come and do his part.

• Negatively, we must not grumble and take out our frustrations on each other.

• Two additional illustrations round out the paragraph - the divinely guided speech of the prophets, which was characterized by denunciatory rhetoric against the injustices of their day, and the clearly candid speech of Job, who likewise showed patience to be active rather than passive with his complaints to God.

• What Christians should not do is make vows. These likely involved promises to pay off debts if only they could be given more loans or more time, in ways that probably often exacerbated the problem.

• James remains completely pacifist, if not pacifist. In essence, “just wait, be patient, stand first, don’t complain”.

  • Two qualifications

    • James can take this tack because of his theodicy-his solution to the problem of evil. Christ is coming back, he is coming back soon, and he will wreak vengeance on the wicked-with absolute justice and equity-something sinful mortals could never do and therefore should not try to do!

    • The second qualification that demonstrates James is no pacifist appears in vv. 10-11. He may never condone violent resistance, but he offers two bizarre models if his point was nothing but quiet acceptance of oppression-the prophets and Job.

      • Thus, James adopts a middle ground between the revolutionary Zealots and the monastic Essenes of his day.

        • God can be trusted to right all wrongs in his perfect timing because he is merciful and compassionate (cf Ex. 34:6; Ps 103:8; 111:4)

        • But, God’s people are called to warn others of this impending judgment of evil and vindication of the righteous

Verse 7

• Cyril of Alexandria: If God delays the punishment of sinners, waiting for them to repent, it is not because his character has changed, so that now he loves sin. Rather, he is giving them time to repent.

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• The then (Gk. oun, “therefore”) shows that James views his admonition to believers (brothers, or “fellow members of the family of God”) as a logical consequence of his denunciation of the wicked rich in 5:1–6.

• The word “coming” translates the Gk. parousia, which means basically “presence” see 1 Cor. 16:7; 2 Cor. 10:10; Phil. 2:12). It was applied in secular Greek to the “arrival” of a king or dignitary. It is probably from this background that the technical sense of the word in the NT developed, for the early Christians consistently used the word to refer to the “coming” of Jesus at the end of history to judge the wicked (e.g., Matt. 24:37, 39; 2 Thess. 2:8) and deliver the saints (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23)

• “Patience” (from the root makrothym-) can sometimes be distinguished from “endurance” (from the root hypomon-), the former denoting the long-suffering attitude we are to adopt toward other people (1 Cor. 13:4; Eph. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:14), the latter connoting the strong, determined fortitude with which we need to face difficult circumstances (Rom. 8:25; 2 Cor. 1:6; 2 Thess. 1:4). Or, to put it simply, we are patient with other people and endure difficulties.

  • A similar overlap in meaning occurs in T. Joseph 2:7, where Joseph, after successfully resisting the temptation of Potiphar’s wife, says “perseverance (makrothymia) is a powerful medicine and endurance (hypomonē) provides many good things” (see also Col. 1:11).

    • And, negatively, James is probably also implicitly forbidding his readers from taking vengeance on their oppressors.¹⁵ “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• Brothers and sisters - four times  in this passage

• The verb “be patience” (makroththumeo) contains two nuances

  • Similar to “endure” (hupomeno) - wait, do not become overly zealous and turn to violence to further the cause of Christ in the face of oppression

  • Not as passive as hupomeno, persevere and not give up despite persecution.

    • Tamez’s idea of “militant patience”

  • Prophetically denounce injustice, and promote fair treatment of the poor laborers. The oppressed should not take justice into their own hands with violence, but await the appearance of the Lord.

    • Coming - parousia - took on the fixed meaning of Jesus’ return in glory and as judge.

      • The coming of the Lord is a threat for the wicked, and the comfort to believers

• We, too, easily recognize that, just as the farmer can do nothing to force God’s hand in the sending of rain or the process of growth, so we cannot compel Christ to return according to any timetable other than God’s. Meanwhile, we must busy ourselves with kingdom work, contributing all that we can to the outworking of God’s purposes in our world.

Verse 8

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• This NIV rendering is a bit paraphrastic, a literal translation of the Greek being “strengthen your hearts” (cf. NASB; NRSV). The very same language occurs in an eschatological context in 1 Thess. 3:13, where, however, the “strengthening of the heart” is accomplished by God himself: “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with his holy ones.” And similar uses of this verb in the sense of “be spiritually firm” occur in Luke 22:32; Rom. 1:11; 16:25; 1 Thess. 3:2; 2 Thess. 2:17; 3:3; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:12; Rev. 3:2. What is commanded, then, is firm adherence to the faith in the midst of temptations and trials. As they wait patiently for their Lord to return, believers need to fortify themselves for the struggle against sin and with difficult circumstances.

• The verb James uses, engizō (“is near”), occurs elsewhere in the NT in similar eschatological contexts. Jesus proclaimed at the beginning of his ministry that “the kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:15; cf. also Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11); and Paul (Rom. 13:12) and Peter (1 Pet. 4:7), like James, reiterate the “nearness” of the end events. 

  • But what is crucial is to understand this “nearness” in the appropriate temporal framework: salvation history. With the death and resurrection of Jesus and pouring out of the Spirit, the “last days” have been inaugurated. This final age of salvation will find its climax in the return of Christ in glory. But—and here is the crucial point—the length of this age is unknown. Not even Jesus knew how long the “last days” would last (cf. Mark 13:32). What this means is that the return of Christ, as the next event in the salvation-historical timetable, is, from the time of the early church to our own day, “near,” or “imminent.” Every generation of Christians lives (or should live!) with the consciousness that the parousia could occur at any time and that one needs to make decisions and choose values based on that realization. So it was as true in James’s day as it is in ours: we need to be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• IN the LXX, this idiom of “strengthening the heart” can mean “to gain physical strength, as for a journey (Jdg 19:5, 8; Ps. 103:15), or courage that comes from trust in the Lord (Ps 111:8), or firmness of intention (Sir 6:37; 22:16; see also 1 Thess 3:13).” We do all of this because of a constant awareness of God’s imminence.

  • James here refers not only to the return of Christ, to which the term “coming” (parousia) lends itself, but also to Jesus’ teaching regarding the kingdom of God.

• “Is near” (engiken) is in the perfect tense, an intensive use emphasizing the ongoing results in the present.

  • With that verb, James implies that the coming of the Lord already is near because it has, over time, drawn near.

  • But, of course, this is nearness in God’s time, in light of eternity (c.f. Ps 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8-9)

Verse 9

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• But grumbling against those who are close to us is particularly likely to occur when we are under pressure or facing difficult circumstances. We vent the pressure from a stressful work environment or from ill health on our close friends and family. So it would be quite natural if James’s readers, under the pressure of poverty and persecution (cf. 5:1–6), would turn their frustrations on one another. Moreover, the exhortation to be patient with the circumstances of suffering that the readers face could easily evoke the need for patience with fellow community members as well. Paul links patience with the need to “bear with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2) and with a refusal to “pay back wrong for wrong” in 1 Thess. 5:14–15.

• James begins by alluding to the parousia as a time of judgment on the wicked in order to comfort and encourage struggling believers; but he then reminds those same believers that the parousia will also include a serious assessment of their own spiritual state and behavior. As Davids puts it, “The nearness of the eschatological day is not just an impetus to look forward to the judgement of ‘sinners’ …, but it is also a warning to examine one’s behavior so that when the one whose footsteps are nearing finally knocks on the door, one may be prepared to open.… The coming Lord is also the judge of the Christian.

  • Think The Solid Ground and Nothing But the Blood here

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• Here, their whining contrasts with the patience James has just been trying to instill.

  • Criticizing others implies judging them, hence the reminder about God’s judgment.

• Christians often act as though judgment remains far off, a distant future possibility. James argues, however, that Christ’s return lies close at hand, on the threshold of the doorway, so that we ought to behave as people ready for a judgment that has already begun in this life and will culminate quickly at his return.

Verse 10

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• James urges his readers to take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of patience in the face of suffering. The Greek word translated “example” (hypodeigma) reflects the Maccabean tradition we have mentioned above, being used three times in the literature to refer to the heroic example of the Jewish martyrs (2 Macc. 6:28, 31; 4 Macc. 17:23). It often refers to something or someone that spurs others to imitation (in the NT, see, in a positive sense, John 13:15; and, in a negative sense, Heb. 4:11; 2 Pet. 2:6; cf. also Heb. 8:5; 9:23)

• James, of course, does not tell us what specific prophets he has in mind. But we naturally think of Jeremiah, who suffered so much at the hands of both pagan kings and, especially, his own people, in faithfulness to the message that God had given him to deliver. Intertestamental tradition, reflected in Heb. 11:37, asserted that the prophet Isaiah died a martyr by being sawed in two. In any case, James wants us to know that the prophets suffered in the cause of their God; they spoke in the name of the Lord. Doing God’s will, James is suggesting, will often lead to suffering. What is needed is a willingness to bear up under the suffering, maintaining spiritual integrity and waiting patiently for the Lord himself to intervene to transform the situation. It may also be that James cites the prophets because they were people who not only suffered injustice but spoke out against it as well. Christians need to learn to suffer patiently as they await the Lord’s vindication. But this is not to say that they cannot speak out against evil.

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• This “example” that James gives is not meant merely for intellectual discussion and pondering but should be the model for the lives of all the congregants. As the prophets suffered, they still sought the glory of God in what they said and did.

• The prophetic model that James puts forward steers a middle ground between pacifism and violence, swinging to neither extreme.

  • Part of the way the prophets “spoke in the name of the Lord” involved rhetoric denouncing injustice, even when the perpetrator was the king.

    • They always, however, stopped short of violent reprisal or of inciting revolution.

Verse 11

• Chrysostom: It is a great thing if we can give thanks with great joy. But there is such a thing as giving thanks out of fear, and also such a thing as giving thanks in grief. This is what Job did when, in great suffering, he thanked God, saying: “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away.” Let no one say he was not grieving over what had happened to him or that he did not feel it deeply. Do not take away the great praise due the righteous…How great is this praise? Tell me, in what circumstances do you bless Job? Is it when he had all those camels and flocks and herds? Or is it when he says: “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away”? For the devil also harms us not in order to take our possessions away so that we have nothing left but so that when that happens he can force us to curse God because of it.

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• James’s shift from the vocabulary of “patience” (makrothymeō and makrothymia) in vv. 7–10 to “endurance” (hypomonē) in v. 11 may simply reflect the influence of 1:12 on James’s language. But it is of course tempting to see more significance in the shift. Some think that James has used “patience” to speak mainly of the believer’s response to other people, while he uses “endurance” to refer to the need to “bear up under” the trial.²⁵ But, as we suggested earlier, while this particular distinction has some lexical basis, we are not persuaded that this distinction, or any other proposed, really makes sense of the sequence of these verses. It is especially difficult to see any difference between the “patience” of the prophets as they underwent suffering (v. 10) and the “perseverance” of Job (v. 11). The “blessing” here in v. 11, then, brings to a pinnacle the paragraph as a whole, providing the ultimate encouragement for the attitude of “patient fortitude” that James is exhorting his readers to adopt in the face of their suffering.²⁶

• For although Job did complain bitterly about God’s treatment of him, he never abandoned his faith. In the midst of his incomprehension, he clung to God and continued to hope in him (see 1:21; 2:10; 16:19–21; 19:25–27). As Barclay says, “Job’s is no groveling, passive, unquestioning submission; Job struggled and questioned, and sometimes even defied, but the flame of faith was never extinguished in his heart.”

• If the readers have heard of Job’s perseverance, they have also seen what the Lord finally brought about. A literal rendering of these words would be “you have seen the telos of the Lord.” The word telos can mean either “purpose” or “end,” and each of these meanings can be related to the word “Lord” (kyriou, a genitive) in a couple of different ways. 

  • On the other hand, the restorative “end” of Job’s story is of course prominent in the canonical book and would be of equal comfort to James’s readers. Your present suffering, James would be saying, is not the “end” of the story; God will transform your situation for good when Christ is revealed in glory. This latter interpretation should probably be adopted. The closest parallels to James’s wording in intertestamental Jewish literature (T. Gad 7:4; T. Benjamin 4:1) and in the NT (Heb. 13:7) support this rendering, and it fits well with the overall message of the book of Job, one of whose purposes is to show how Job’s integrity is rewarded in the end. And it also provides a natural lead-in to the final clause of the verse: the good end that God brought about in Job’s situation shows that The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Of course, James does not mean that patience in suffering will always be rewarded by material prosperity; too many examples in both the OT and the NT prove this to be wrong. But James does seek to encourage our faithful, patient endurance of affliction by reminding us of the blessing that we receive for such faithfulness from our merciful and compassionate God.

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• Second Temple Literature expands on the suffering of Job, claiming that it lasted for many years before God restored him, so that he becomes the prime exemplar of endurance.

  • Indeed, perseverance is the only character trait for which Job is explicitly praised in the Testament of Job.

  • James does not leave us ignorant of God’s purpose, but explains that it occurs in order that we might see his grace. God will shower mercy and compassion on those currently oppressed.

Verse 12

Moo, Pillar New Testament Commentary

• When James says Do not swear, it is not coarse or vulgar speech he prohibits but invoking God’s name to guarantee the reliability of what a person says.⁴¹ A person may take an oath to reinforce the truth of something he has said or to bind himself to a future course of conduct. The verb James uses here (omnyō) has this sense throughout the LXX and the NT (see, e.g., Mark 6:23; Acts 2:30; Rev. 10:6). Oaths, as we may also call them, are by no means consistently forbidden in Scripture. God himself takes oaths to guarantee the fulfillment of what he has promised (see, e.g., Heb. 3:11, 18; 4:3; 6:13, 16; 7:21). The OT law did not prohibit oaths but demanded that a person be true to the oath he had taken. Lev. 19:12 is both typical and potentially significant for James: “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.” Its significance lies in its context: as we have seen, James makes the “love command” of Lev. 19:18 the heart of his “kingdom” law (2:8), and several other ethical issues that he tackles are also referred to Leviticus 19.⁴² But concern about the devaluation of oaths through their indiscriminate use and a growing tendency to “weasel out” of oaths by swearing by less sacred things (cf. Matt. 23:16–22) led to warnings against using them too often (see Sir. 23:9, 11; Philo, Decalogue 84–95). Jesus, as it appears, went even further than this when he commanded his disciples not to swear “at all” (Matt. 5:34). Jesus’ teaching in Matt. 5:34–37 is particularly important in understanding James’ teaching, because it looks as if James is consciously reproducing that tradition. The similarity between the two passages is striking when they are set side by side:

• Some argue that Matthew and James diverge on one crucial point: Matthew suggests a “substitute oath”—“yes, yes” and “no, no”—while James simply prohibits all oaths. But it is more likely that Jesus in Matthew is saying the same thing as James: our truthfulness should be so consistent and dependable that we need no oath to support it: a simple “yes” or “no” should suffice. “Our mere word should be as utterly trustworthy as a signed document, legally correct and complete.”⁴³

Blomberg and Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

• Oaths can force us into behavior that does not glorify God. Not only can our speech bring either honor or dishonor to God; we ought also to be people whose word is accepted as trustworthy, without needing to swear by anything for others to trust us.

• We should live, speak, and act with integrity in all we do.