Be patient 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 receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7 Be patient therefore. From this inference it is…
7 Be patient therefore. From this inference it is evident that what has hitherto been said against the rich, pertains to the consolation of those who seemed for a time to be exposed to their wrongs with impunity. For after having mentioned the causes of those calamities which were hanging over the rich, and having stated this among others, that they proudly and cruelly ruled over the poor, he immediately adds, that we who are unjustly oppressed, have this reason to be patient, because God would become the judge. For this is what he means when he says, unto the coming of the Lord, that is, that the confusion of things which is now seen in the world will not be perpetual, because the Lord at his coming will reduce things to order, and that therefore our minds ought to entertain good hope; for it is not without reason that the restoration of all things is promised to us at that day. And though the day of the Lord is everywhere called in the Scriptures a manifestation of his judgment and grace, when he succors his people and chastises the ungodly, yet I prefer to regard the expression here as referring to our final deliverance.
Behold, the husbandman. Paul briefly refers to the same similitude in 2 Timothy 2:6, when he says that the husbandman ought to labor before he gathers the fruit; but James more fully expresses the idea, for he mentions the daily patience of the husbandman, who, after having committed the seed to the earth, confidently, or at least patiently, waits until the time of harvest comes; nor does he fret because the earth does not immediately yield a ripe fruit. He hence concludes, that we ought not to be immoderately anxious, if we must now labor and sow, until the harvest as it were comes, even the day of the Lord.
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The precious fruit. He calls it precious, because it is the nourishment of life and the means of sustaining it. And James intimates, that since the husbandman suffers his life, so precious to him, to lie long deposited in the bosom of the earth, and calmly suspends his desire to gather the fruit, we ought not to be too hasty and fretful, but resignedly to wait for the day of our redemption. It is not necessary to specify particularly the other parts of the comparison.
The early and the latter rains. By the two words, early and latter, two seasons are pointed out; the first follows soon after sowing; and the other when the corn is ripening. So the prophets spoke, when they intended to set forth the time for rain, (Deuteronomy 28:12; Joel 2:23; Hosea 6:3.) And he has mentioned both times, in order more fully to shew that husbandmen are not disheartened by the slow progress of time, but bear with the delay.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11, 12 He applieth that to the poor, which he spake…
He applieth that to the poor, which he spake against the rich, warning them to wait for the Lord’s coming patiently, who will revenge the injuries which the rich men do them.
The taking away of an objection: Although his coming serve to linger, yet at the least we must follow the husbandmen, who do patiently wait for the times that are proper for the fruits of the earth. And again, God will not defer the least iota of the time that he hath appointed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of…
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Ver. 7. Be patient therefore] q.d. You poor oppressed ones, hold out faith and patience. You shall shortly have help. As the mother’s breasts ache to be sucklings so doth God’s heart yearn to be helping.
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Unto the coming of the Lord] sc. By particular deliverance; and not only by the general judgment. Let patience have line and rope.
Waiteth for the precious fruit] Being in novum annum semper dives, as the proverb is ever rich against the next year. Spes alit agricolas, Hope holds up the husbandman’s heart.
And hath long patience] He looks not to sow and reap in a day, as the Hyperboreans are said to do, that sow shortly after the sunrising with them, and reap before the sun set; because the whole half year is one continual day with them. (Heresbach de re Rustic.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the…
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord; viz. to judgment, and that either particular, to avenge the quarrels of innocent sufferers upon their tyrannical persecutors; or rather, to the general judgment, in which a full retribution is to be made both to the just and unjust, Rom 2:5,6, &c. To which judgment the Scripture calls all to look, especially those that are under oppression and persecution, 2Th 1:6,7, &c.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth; which cost him hard labour, and by which he receives great benefit, the sustentation of his life.
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Until he receive the early and latter rain; the rain soon after the sowing, which caused the corn to spring up; and that before the harvest, which plumped it, and made it fit for reaping, Deu 11:14; Jer 5:24; Hos 6:3; Joe 2:23.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Observe here, 1. The duty exhorted to, patience: Be…
Observe here, 1. The duty exhorted to, patience: Be patient, brethren. Patience is a sense of afflictions without murmuring, and of injuries without revenge. It is the duty of Christians to be patient under their sufferings, though they be long and sharp.
Observe, 2. The argument to enforce this duty, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. This may be understood of Christ’s particular coming to judge his murderers at Jerusalem, which was then at hand, or of his general coming to judge the world at the last day. As if our apostle had said, "Have a little patience, and when your Lord cometh he will put a period to all your afflictions; with desire long for his coming, and yet with patience wait for it."
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Observe, 3. A pattern of patience, propounded in the husbandman, he waiteth, and waiteth long for the time of harvest; and in order thereunto, for the former and latter rain, to prepare the corn for the day of a joyful harvest. Now, in imitation of the husbandman, the patient Christian thus argues with himself: "If the husbandman waits with patience for the coming of the harvest, shall not I wait with perseverance for the coming of my Lord? The approach of harvest is precious to him, and shall not the appearance of Christ be so to me? Shall he endure so much for a little corn, and not I much more for a heavenly kingdom?
Observe, 4. The direction given in order to the obtaining of this patience and long suffering, stablish your hearts; that is, in a firm expectaion of Christ’s coming, believe that he will come certainly, and may come suddenly, and sooner perhaps than you may apprehend.
Learn hence, that it is the duty of Christians, in and under their afflictions, to stablish their hearts in a firm belief of the coming and appearance of Christ, to put a final period to all their sufferings, and to reward their victorious faith and patience: Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 This epistle now drawing to a close, the penman…
This epistle now drawing to a close, the penman goes off very quickly from one thing to another: hence it is that matters so very different are insisted on in these few verses.
I. The sin of swearing is cautioned against: But above all things, my brethren, swear not, etc., Jam 5:12. Some understand this too restrictedly, as if the meaning were, "Swear not at your persecutors, at those that reproach you and say all manner of evil of you; be not put into a passion by the injuries they do you, so as in your passion to be provoked to swear." This swearing is no doubt forbidden here: and it will not excuse those that are guilty of this sin to say they sear only when they are provoked to it, and before they are aware. But the apostle's warning extends to other occasions of swearing as well as this. Some have translated the words, pro pantōn - before all things; and so have made sense of this place to be that they should not, in common conversation, before every thing they say, put an oath. All customary needless swearing is undoubtedly forbidden, and all along in scripture condemned, as a very grievous sin. Profane swearing was very customary among the Jews, and, since this epistle is directed in general to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (as before has been observed), we may conceive this exhortation sent to those who believed not. It is hard to suppose that swearing should be one of the spots of God's children, since Peter, when he was charged with being a disciple of Christ and would disprove the charge, cursed and swore, thereby thinking most effectually to convince them that he was no disciple of Jesus, it being well known of such that they durst not allow themselves in swearing; but possibly some of the looser sort of those who were called Christians might, among other sins here charged upon them, be guilty also of this. It is a sin that in later years has most scandalously prevailed, even among those who would be thought above all others entitled to the Christian name and privileges. It is very rare indeed to hear of a dissenter from the church of England who is guilty of swearing, but among those who glory in their being of the established church nothing is more common; and indeed the most execrable oaths and curses now daily wound the ears and hearts of all serious Christians. James here says,
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1. Above all things, swear not; but how many are there who mind this the least of all things, and who make light of nothing so much as common profane swearing! But why above all things is swearing here forbidden? (1.) Because it strikes most directly at the honour of God and most expressly throws contempt upon his name and authority. (2.) Because this sin has, of all sins, the least temptation to it: it is not gain, nor pleasure, nor reputation, that can move men to it, but a wantonness in sinning, and a needless showing an enmity to God. Thy enemies take thy name in vain, Psa 139:20. This is a proof of men's being enemies to God, however they may pretend to call themselves by his name, or sometimes to compliment him in acts of worship. (3.) Because it is with most difficulty left off when once men are accustomed to it, therefore it should above all things be watched against. And, (4.) "Above all things swear not, for how can you expect the name of God should be a strong tower to you in your distress if you profane it and play with it at other times?" But (as Mr. Baxter observes) "all this is so far from forbidding necessary oaths that it is but to confirm them, by preserving the due reverence of them." And then he further notes that "The true nature of an oath is, by our speech, to pawn the reputation of some certain or great thing, for the averring of a doubted less thing; and not (as is commonly held) an appeal to God or other judge." Hence it was that swearing by the heavens, and by the earth, and by the other oaths the apostle refers to, came to be in use. The Jews thought if they did but omit the great oath of Chi-Eloah, they were safe. But they grew so profane as to swear by the creature, as if it were God; and so advanced it into the place of God; while, on the other hand, those who swear commonly and profanely by the name of God do hereby put him upon the level with every common thing.
2. But let your yea be yea, and your nay nay; lest you fall into condemnation; that is, "let it suffice you to affirm or deny a thing as there is occasion, and be sure to stand to your word, an be true to it, so as to give no occasion for your being suspected of falsehood; and then you will be kept from the condemnation of backing what you say or promise by rash oaths, and from profaning the name of God to justify yourselves. It is being suspected of falsehood that leads men to swearing. Let it be known that your keep to truth, and are firm to your word, and by this means you will find there is no need to swear to what you say. Thus shall you escape the condemnation which is expressly annexed to the third commandment: The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
II. As Christians we are taught to suit ourselves to the dispensations of Providence (Jam 5:13): Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Our condition in this world is various; and our wisdom is to submit to its being so, and to behave as becomes us both in prosperity and under affliction. Sometimes we are in sadness, sometimes in mirth; God has set these one over against the other that we may the better observe the several duties he enjoins, and that the impressions made on our passions and affections may be rendered serviceable to our devotions. Afflictions should put us upon prayer, and prosperity should make us abound in praise. Not that prayer is to be confined to a time of trouble, nor singing to a time of mirth; but these several duties may be performed with special advantage, and to the happiest purposes, at such seasons. 1. In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The person afflicted must pray himself, as well as engage the prayers of others for him. Times of affliction should be praying times. To this end God sends afflictions, that we may be engaged to seek him early; and that those who at other times have neglected him may be brought to enquire after him. The spirit is then most humble, the heart is broken and tender; and prayer is most acceptable to God when it comes from a contrite humble spirit. Afflictions naturally draw out complaints; and to whom should we complain but to God in prayer? It is necessary to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means both for obtaining and increasing these graces in us. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. 2. In a day of mirth and prosperity singing psalms is very proper and seasonable. In the original it is only said sing, psalletō, without the addition of psalms or any other word: and we learn from the writings of several in the first ages of Christianity (particularly from a letter of Pliny's, and from some passages in Justin Martyr and Tertullian) that the Christians were accustomed to sing hymns, either taken out of scripture, or of more private composure, in their worship of God. Though some have thought that Paul's advising both the Colossians and Ephesians to speak to one another psalmois kai humnois kai ōdais pneumatikais - in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, refers only to the compositions of scripture, the psalms of David being distinguished in Hebrew by Shurim, Tehillim, and Mizmorim, words that exactly answer these of the apostle. Let that be as it will, this however we are sure of, that the singing of psalms is a gospel ordinance, and that our joy should be holy joy, consecrated to God. Singing is so directed to here as to show that, if any be in circumstances of mirth and prosperity, he should turn his mirth, though alone, and by himself, in this channel. Holy mirth becomes families and retirements, as well as public assemblies. Let our singing be such as to make melody with our hearts unto the Lord, and God will assuredly be well pleased with this kind of devotion.
III. We have particular directions given as to sick persons, and healing pardoning mercy promised upon the observance of those directions. If any be sick, they are required, 1. To send for the elders, presbuterous tēs ekkēsias - the presbyters, pastors or ministers of the church, Jam 5:14, Jam 5:15. It lies upon sick people as a duty to send for ministers, and to desire their assistance and their prayers. 2. It is the duty of ministers to pray over the sick, when thus desired and called for. Let them pray over him; let their prayers be suited to his case, and their intercessions be as becomes those who are affected wit his calamities. 3. In the times of miraculous healing, the sick were to be anointed with oil in the name of the Lord. Expositors generally confine this anointing with oil to such as had the power of working miracles; and, when miracles ceased, this institution ceased also. In Mark's gospel we read of the apostle's anointing with oil many that were sick, and healing them, Mar 6:13. And we have accounts of this being practiced in the church two hundred years after Christ; but then the gift of healing also accompanied it, and, when the miraculous gift ceased, this rite was laid aside. The papists indeed have made a sacrament of this, which they call the extreme unction. They use it, not to heal the sick, as it was used by the apostles; but as they generally run counter to scripture, in the appointments of their church, so here they ordain that this should be administered only to such as are at the very point of death. The apostle's anointing was in order to heal the disease; the popish anointing is for the expulsion of the relics of sin, and to enable the soul (as they pretend) the better to combat with the powers of the air. When they cannot prove, by any visible effects, that Christ owns them in the continuance of this rite, they would however have people to believe that the invisible effects are very wonderful. But it is surely much better to omit this anointing with oil than to turn it quite contrary to the purposes spoken of in scripture. Some protestants have thought that this anointing was only permitted or approved by Christ, not instituted. But it should seem, by the words of James here, that it was a thing enjoined in cases where there was faith for healing. And some protestants have argued for it with this view. It was not to be commonly used, not even in the apostolical age; and some have thought that it should not be wholly laid aside in any age, but that where there are extraordinary measures of faith in the person anointing, and in those who are anointed, an extraordinary blessing may attend the observance of this direction for the sick. However that be, there is one thing carefully to be observed here, that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to the anointing with oil, but to prayer: The prayer of faith shall save the sick, etc., Jam 5:15. So that, 4. Prayer over the sick must proceed fRom. and be accompanied with, a lively faith. There must be faith both in the person praying and in the person prayed for. In a time of sickness, it is not the cold and formal prayer that is effectual, but the prayer of faith. 5. We should observe the success of prayer. The Lord shall raise up; that is, if he be a person capable and fit for deliverance, and if God have any thing further for such a person to do in the world. And, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him; that is, where sickness is sent as a punishment for some particular sin, that sin shall be pardoned, and in token thereof the sickness shall be removed. As when Christ said to the impotent man, Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee, it is intimated that some particular sin was the cause of his sickness. The great thing therefore we should beg of God for ourselves and others in the time of sickness is the pardon of sin. Sin is both the root of sickness and the sting of it. If sin be pardoned, either affliction shall be removed in mercy or we shall see there is mercy in the continuance of it. When healing is founded upon pardon, we may say as Hezekiah did: Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, Isa 38:17. When you are sick and in pain, it is most common to pray and cry, O give me ease! O restore me to health! But your prayer should rather and chiefly be, O that God would pardon my sins!
IV. Christians are directed to confess their faults one to another, and so to join in their prayers with an for one another, Jam 5:16. Some expositors connect this with Jam 5:14. As if when sick people send for ministers to pray over them they should then confess their faults to them. Indeed, where any are conscious that their sickness is a vindictive punishment of some particular sin, and they cannot look for the removal of their sickness without particular applications to God for the pardon of such a sin, there it may be proper to acknowledge and tell his case, that those who pray over him may know how to plead rightly for him. But the confession here required is that of Christians to one another, and not, as the papists would have it, to a priest. Where persons have injured one another, acts of injustice must be confessed to those against whom they have been committed. Where persons have tempted one another to sin or have consented in the same evil actions, there they ought mutually to blame themselves and excite each other to repentance. Where crimes are of a public nature, and have done any public mischief, there they ought to be more publicly confessed, so as may best reach to all who are concerned. And sometimes it may be well to confess our faults to some prudent minister or praying friend, that he may help us to plead with God for mercy and pardon. But then we are not to think that James puts us upon telling every thing that we are conscious is amiss in ourselves or in one another; but so far as confession is necessary to our reconciliation with such as are at variance with us, or for gaining information in any point of conscience and making our own spirits quiet and easy, so far we should be ready to confess our faults. And sometimes also it may be of good use to Christians to disclose their peculiar weaknesses and infirmities to one another, where there are great intimacies and friendships, and where they may help each other by their prayers to obtain pardon of their sins and power against them. Those who make confession of their faults one to another should thereupon pray with and for one another. The Jam 5:13 directs persons to pray for themselves: Is any afflicted let him pray; the Jam 5:14 directs to seek for the prayers of ministers; and the Jam 5:16 directs private Christians to pray one for another; so that here we have all sorts of prayer (ministerial, social, and secret) recommended.
V. The great advantage and efficacy of prayer are declared and proved: The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, whether he pray for himself or for others: witness the example of Elias, Jam 5:17, Jam 5:18. He who prays must be a righteous man; not righteous in an absolute sense (for this Elias was not, who is here made a pattern to us), but righteous in a gospel sense; not loving nor approving of any iniquity. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer, Psa 66:18. Further, the prayer itself must be a fervent, in-wrought, well-wrought prayer. It must be a pouring out of the heart to God; and it must proceed from a faith unfeigned. Such prayer avails much. It is of great advantage to ourselves, it may be very beneficial to our friends, and we are assured of its being acceptable to God. It is good having those for friends whose prayers are available in the sight of God. The power of prayer is here proved from the success of Elijah. This may be encouraging to us even in common cases, if we consider that Elijah was a man of like passions with us. He was a zealous good man and a very great man, but he had his infirmities, and was subject to disorder in his passions as well as others. In prayer we must not look to the merit of man, but to the grace of God. Only in this we should copy after Elijah, that he prayed earnestly, or, as it is in the original, in prayer he prayed. It is not enough to say a prayer, but we must pray in prayer. Our thoughts must be fixed, our desires firm and ardent, and our graces in exercise; and, when we thus pray in prayer, we shall speed in prayer. Elijah prayed that it might not rain; and God heard him in his pleading against an idolatrous persecuting country, so that it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months. Again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, etc. Thus you see prayer is the key which opens and shuts heaven. To this there is an allusion, Rev 11:6, where the two witnesses are said to have power to shut heaven, that it rain not. This instance of the extraordinary efficacy of prayer is recorded for encouragement even to ordinary Christians to be instant and earnest in prayer. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek my face in vain. If Elijah by prayer could do such great and wonderful things, surely the prayers of no righteous man shall return void. Where there may not be so much of a miracle in God's answering our prayers, yet there may be as much of grace.
VI. This epistle concludes with an exhortation to do all we can in our places to promote the conversion and salvation of others, Jam 5:19, Jam 5:20. Some interpret these verses as an apology which the apostle is making for himself that he should so plainly and sharply reprove the Jewish Christians for their many faults and errors. And certainly James gives a very good reason why he was so much concerned to reclaim them from their errors, because in thus doing he should save souls, and hide a multitude of sins. But we are not to restrain this place to the apostle's converting such as erred from the truth; no, nor to other ministerial endeavours of the like nature, since it is said, "If any err, and one convert him, let him be who he will that does so good an office for another, he is therein an instrument of saving a soul from death." Those whom the apostle here calls brethren, he yet supposes liable to err. It is no mark of a wise or a holy man to boast of his being free from error, or to refuse to acknowledge when he is in an error. But if any do err, be they ever so great, you must not be afraid to show them their error; and, be they ever so weak and little, you must not disdain to make them wiser and better. If they err from the truth, that is, from the gospel (the great rule and standard of truth), whether it be in opinion or practice, you must endeavour to bring them again to the rule. Errors in judgment and in life generally go together. There is some doctrinal mistake at the bottom of every practical miscarriage. There is no one habitually bad, but upon some bad principle. Now to convert such is to reduce them from their error, and to reclaim them from the evils they have been led into. We are not presently to accuse and exclaim against an erring brother, and seek to bring reproaches and calamities upon him, but to convert him: and, if by all our endeavours we cannot do this, yet we are nowhere empowered to persecute and destroy him. If we are instrumental in the conversion of any, we are said to convert them, though this be principally and efficiently the work of God. And, if we can do no more towards the conversion of sinners, yet we may do this - pray for the grace and Spirit of God to convert and change them. And let those that are in any way serviceable to convert others know what will be the happy consequence of their doing this: they may take great comfort in it at present, and they will meet with a crown at last. He that is said to err from the truth in Jam 5:19 is described as erring in his way in Jam 5:20, and we cannot be said to convert any merely by altering their opinions, unless we can bring them to correct and amend their ways. This is conversion - to turn a sinner from the error of his ways, and not to turn him from one party to another, or merely from one notion and way of thinking to another. He who thus converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death. There is a soul in the case; and what is done towards the salvation of the soul shall certainly turn to good account. The soul being the principal part of the man, the saving of that only is mentioned, but it includes the salvation of the whole man: the spirit shall be saved from hell, the body raised from the grave, and both saved from eternal death. And then, by such conversion of heart and life, a multitude of sins shall be hid. A most comfortable passage of scripture is this. We learn hence that though our sins are many, even a multitude, yet they may be hid or pardoned; and that when sin is turned from or forsaken it shall be hid, never to appear in judgment against us. Let people contrive to cover or excuse their sin as they will, there is no way effectually and finally to hide it but by forsaking it. Some make the sense of this text to be, that conversion shall prevent a multitude of sins; and it is a truth beyond dispute that many sins are prevented in the party converted, many also may be prevented in others that he may have an influence upon, or may converse with. Upon the whole, how should we lay out ourselves with all possible concern for the conversion of sinners! It will be for the happiness and salvation of the converted; it will prevent much mischief, and the spreading and multiplying of sin in the world; it will be for the glory and honour of God; and it will mightily redound to our comfort and renown in the great day. Those that turn many to righteousness, and those who help to do so, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Be patient therefore, brethren,.... The apostle here addresses himself…
Be patient therefore, brethren,.... The apostle here addresses himself to the poor who were oppressed by the rich men, and these he calls "brethren" of whom he was not ashamed; when he does not bestow this title upon the rich, though professors of the same religion: these poor brethren he advises to be patient under their sufferings, to bear them with patience,
unto the coming of the Lord; not to destroy Jerusalem, but either at death, or at the last, judgment; when he will take vengeance on their oppressors, and deliver them from all their troubles, and put them into the possession of that kingdom, and glory, to which they are called; wherefore, in the mean while, he would have them be quiet and easy, not to murmur against God, nor seek to take vengeance on men, but leave it to God, to whom it belongs, who will judge his people:
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behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth; ripe fruit, which arises from the seed he sows in the earth; and which may be called "precious", because useful both to man and beast; see Deu 33:14 and between this, and the sowing of the seed, is a considerable time, during which the husbandman waits; and this may be an instruction in the present case:
and hath patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain; the Jews had seldom rains any more than twice a year; the early, or former rain, was shortly after the feast of tabernacles (u), in the month Marchesvan, or October, when the seed was sown in the earth; and if it did not rain, they prayed for it, on the third or seventh day of the month (w); and the latter rain was in Nisan, or March (x), just before harvest; and to this distinction the passage refers.
(u) Bartenora in Misn. Taanith, c. 1. sect. 2. (w) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 4. 2. & 6. 1. & 10. 1. & Bava Metzia, fol. 28. 1. Maimon. Tephilla, c. 2. sect. 16. (x) Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi, & Miclol Jophi in Joel ii. 23. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 35. fol. 175. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7–12 The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit - Which…
The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit - Which will recompense his labour and patience. Till he receives the former rain - Immediately after sowing. And the latter - Before the harvest.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Verse 7. Be patient, therefore] Because God is coming…
Verse 7. Be patient, therefore] Because God is coming to execute judgment on this wicked people, therefore be patient till he comes. He seems here to refer to the coming of the Lord to execute judgment on the Jewish nation, which shortly afterwards took place.
The husbandman waiteth] The seed of your deliverance is already sown, and by and by the harvest of your salvation will take place. God's counsels will ripen in due time.
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The early and latter rain.] The rain of seed time; and the rain of ripening before harvest: the first fell in Judea, about the beginning of November, after the seed was sown; and the second towards the end of April, when the ears were filling, and this prepared for a full harvest. Without these two rains, the earth would have been unfruitful. These God had promised: I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil, De 11:14. But for these they were not only to wait patiently, but also to pray, Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so shall the Lord make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field; Zec 10:1.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 12 Jas 5:7-9. Be patient therefore, brethren — He now…
Jas 5:7-9. Be patient therefore, brethren — He now addresses the pious, oppressed, and persecuted disciples of Christ: as if he had said, Since the Lord will soon come to punish them, and relieve you, patiently bear the injuries which rich men offer you, and quietly wait till he come. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit — Which will recompense his labour and patience; till he receive the early, or the former rain — Immediately after sowing; and the latter — Before harvest. In Judea the rains usually come in a regular manner; the early rain about the beginning of November, after the seed is sown, and the latter in the middle or toward the end of April, while the ears are filling. These rains were promised to the Israelites, Deu 11:14, where see the note, and on Hos 6:3. Be ye also patient — Like the husbandman; stablish — Στηριξατε, strengthen, or confirm; your hearts — In faith and patience, considering that your sufferings will not be long; the coming of the Lord — To destroy your persecutors; draweth nigh — And so does his coming to rescue his people from the troubles of this life by death, and to judge the world in righteousness at the last day. Grudge, or, groan, not — As στεναζετε signifies; one against another — Groaning is caused by oppression; and when it is merely the natural expression of affliction, it is perfectly consistent with genuine piety, and moves God to pity the afflicted person, Jdg 2:18 : but when it is the effect of impatience, or when it implies a desire of revenge, it becomes criminal, and is the kind of groaning which the apostle forbids. Some read the clause, Murmur not one against another: that is, have patience also with each other; lest ye be condemned — Lest you all suffer for it, and perish in the common calamity; behold the Judge — Christ; standeth before the door — Hearing every word, marking every thought, and ready to execute those judgments.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Be patient therefore, brethren - That is, under such…
Be patient therefore, brethren - That is, under such wrongs as the apostle had described in the previous verses. Those whom he addressed were doubtless suffering under those oppressions, and his object was to induce them to bear their wrongs without murmuring and without resistance. One of the methods of doing this was by showing them, in an address to their rich oppressors, that those who injured and wronged them would be suitably punished at the day of judgment, or that their cause was in the hands of God; and another method of doing it was by the direct inculcation of the duty of patience. Compare the notes at Mat 5:38-41, Mat 5:43-45. The margin here is, “be long patient,” or “suffer with long patience.” The sense of the Greek is, “be long-suffering, or let not your patience be exhausted. Your courage, vigor, and forbearance is not to be short-lived, but is to be enduring. Let it continue as long as there is need of it, even to the coming of the Lord. Then you will be released from sufferings.”
Unto the coming of the Lord - The coming of the Lord Jesus - either to remove you by death, or to destroy the city of Jerusalem and bring to an end the Jewish institutions, or to judge the world and receive his people to himself. The “coming of the Lord” in any way was an event which Christians were taught to expect, and which would be connected with their deliverance from troubles. As the time of his appearing was not revealed, it was not improper to refer to that as an event that might possibly be near; and as the removal of Christians by death is denoted by the phrase “the coming of the Lord” - that is, his coming to each one of us - it was not improper to speak of death in that view. On the general subject of the expectations entertained among the early Christians of the second advent of the Saviour, see the 1Co 15:51 note; 2Th 2:2-3 note.
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Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth - The farmer waits patiently for the grain to grow. It requires time to mature the crop, and he does not become impatient. The idea seems to be, that we should wait for things to develop themselves in their proper season, and should not be impatient before that season arrives. In due time we may expect the harvest to be ripened. We cannot hasten it. We cannot control the rain, the sun, the season; and the farmer therefore patiently waits until in the regular course of events he has a harvest. So we cannot control and hasten the events which are in God’s own keeping; and we should patiently wait for the developments of his will, and the arrangements of his providence, by which we may obtain what we desire.
And hath long patience for it - That is, his patience is not exhausted. It extends through the whole time in which, by the divine arrangements, he may expect a harvest.
Until he receive the early and latter rain - In the climate of Palestine there are two rainy seasons, on which the harvest essentially depends - the autumnal and the spring rains - called here and elsewhere in the Scriptures the early and the latter rains. See Deu 11:14; Job 29:23; Jer 5:24. The autumnal or early rains of Scripture, usually commence in the latter half of October or the beginning of November; not suddenly, but by degrees, which gives opportunity for the husbandman to sow his fields of wheat and barley. The rains come mostly from the west or south-west, continuing for two or three days at a time, and falling especially during the nights. The wind then chops round to the north or east, and several days of fine weather succeed. During the months of November and December the rains continue to fail heavily; afterwards they return only at longer intervals, and are less heavy; but at no period during the winter do they entirely cease to occur.
Snow often falls in Jerusalem, in January and February, to the depth of a foot or more, but it does not last long. Rain continues to fall more or less through the month of March, but it is rare after that period. At the present time there are not any particular periods of rain, or successions of showers, which might be regarded as distinct rainy seasons. The whole period from October to March now constitutes only one continued rainy season, without any regularly intervening time of prolonged fair weather. Unless, therefore, there has been some change in the climate since the times of the New Testament, the early and the latter rains for which the husbandman waited with longing, seem rather to have implied the first showers of autumn, which revived the parched and thirsty earth, and prepared it for the seed; and the latter showers of spring, which continued to refresh and forward the ripening crops and the vernal products of the fields. In ordinary seasons, from the cessation of the showers in spring until their commencement in October or November, rain never falls, and the sky is usually serene. - Robinson’s Biblical Researches, vol. ii., pp. 96-100.
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Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 12 Be patient, &c. He now in these five following…
Be patient, &c. He now in these five following verses turns his discourse from the rich to the poor, exhorting them to patience till the coming of the Lord to judgment, which draweth near; his coming to judge every one is at his death. Imitate the patience of the husbandman, waiting for fruit after that the earth hath received the timely and early [1] rain soon after the corn is sown, and again more rain, that comes later to fill the grain before it comes to be ripe. This seems to be the sense by the Greek: others expound it, till he receive the early and latter fruits. (Witham) --- Behold the judge standeth before the door. This expression is synonymous with that in the foregoing verse. "The coming of the Lord is at hand." This way of speaking is not uncommon in Scripture. Thus God said to Cain: "If thou hast done evil, shall not sin forth with be present at the door?" St. James is here speaking of the approaching ruin of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans. (Calmet) --- Call to mind for your encouragement the trials and constancy[2] of the prophets: the patience of Job, after which God rewarded him with great blessings and property, and you have seen the end of the Lord; that is, what end the Lord was pleased to give to Job’s sufferings. But St. Augustine, Ven. Bede, &c. would have these words, the end of the Lord, to be understood of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross, for which God exalted him, &c. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Temporaneum et Serotinum. In most Greek manuscripts Greek: ueton proimon kai opsimon, pluviam priorem et posteriorem.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v7
X. FINAL THEME AND CONCLUSION
FURTHER ADDRESS TO THE BRETHREN. FINAL THEME: EXHORTATION TO ENDURANCE IN LONG-SUFFERING PATIENCE UNTO THE COMING OF THE LORD.—ENCOURAGEMENT THERETO. CONDITION THEREOF. FINAL PROMISE
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Jam_5:7-20
7Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early7 and latter rain. 8Be ye also patient;8 establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9Grudge not one against another, brethren,9 10lest ye be condemned:10 behold, the11 judge standeth before the door. Take, my12 brethren,13 the prophets, who have spoken in14 the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction,15 and of patience. 11Behold, we count them happy which endure.16 Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen17 the end of the Lord; that the Lord18 is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. 12But above all things,19 my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but 13let20 your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.21 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray, Is any merry? let him sing Psalms 14 Is any sick among you? 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:22 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall 16be forgiven him. Confess23 your faults24 one to another, and pray25 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain,26 and the 19earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren,27 if any of you do err from the truth,28 and one convert him; 20Let him know29 that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul30 from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.31
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Analysis:—Further address to the brethren. Final theme, viz: exhortation to endurance in long-suffering patience unto the coming of the Lord, Jam_5:7-9. Encouragement thereto: Examples of patient suffering, Jam_5:10-11.—Conditions thereof: Shunning of seditious movements. A hallowed disposition. The healing of their sicknesses. Liberation of the conscience by means of confession of sins. Exhortation to intercession. The example of Elias, Jam_5:12-18.—Conclusion replete with promise, Jam_5:19-20.
Further address to the brethren. Final theme: viz. exhortation to endurance in long-suffering patience unto the coming of the Lord, Jam_5:7-8.
Jam_5:7. Be patient therefore, brethren.—ἀδελφοί is the turning-point in the Apostle’s address. He now turns primarily to the Christian section of his readers without excluding however the further design of the address for all Jews capable of conversion in contrast to the aforementioned incorrigible πλούσιοι. μακροθυμεῖν literally to have great courage, to be magnanimous, branches out into the ideas to be long-suffering or forbearing towards the erring, applicable both to Divine and human long-suffering, and to be patient in the endurance of suffering, but also with the lateral idea of patiently hoping for endurance under apparent danger, here under the experience of worldly and human wrong, Heb_6:12. Hence μακροθυμία is distinguished from ὑπομονή in Col_1:11. And here also the term is obviously chosen instead of ὑπομένειν Jam_1:12, because the Apostle desires to lay stress on the endurance of the Jewish-Christian under the wrongs of the old situation of the world, by which the Judaists suffered themselves to be drifted into revolution.
Unto the coming of the Lord.—The Lord is Christ, as in ch, Jam_2:1, and the παρουσία denotes His eschatological advent according to the entire evangelical and apostolical system of doctrine (consequently not the coming of God unto judgment distinct and separate from the advent of Christ, as held by Augusti, Theile, de Wette). But this involves no reason for identifying this παρουσία with the judgments announced in Jam_5:1. nor must we, on the other hand, limit the coming of Christ to the last and concluding event of His epiphany. The coming of Christ is the epiphany (manifestation) of Christ with all its antecedent interpositions, be they universal or individual, the greatest of which is the destruction of Jerusalem, as the type of all subsequent comings.
Behold the husbandman waiteth.—Cf. Jam_3:18; Sir_6:16; 2Ti_2:6.
For the precious fruit of the earth.—Which is well worth waiting for. In this the husbandman is a symbol for believers, as also in that he confides the seed to the earth; to invisibleness, to seeming death and the grave. Joh_12:24.—
Being patient over it.—μακροθυμεῖν probably denotes here his persevering hope of the seemingly buried seed. It is the preciousness of the fruit (which, although invisible, he sees in expectation), that gives him long-enduring, faith-like courage. He calculates on it. [ἐπί is very graphic; it depicts him, as it were, sitting over it in the confident expectation of its appearing.—M.].
Until it shall have received.—That is, the fruit in its seed, not the husbandman (Morus).
The early and the latter rain.—That is with reference to the climate of Palestine: the autumnal rain before sowing, the spring rain before harvest, Deu_11:14; Deu_11:2; Jer_5:24, etc. See Winer, R. W. B. Article “Witterung.” [The early rain πρώϊμος מוֹרֶה יוֹרֶה began to fall about the middle of October, became more continuous in November and December and turned into snow in January and February. The latter rain ὄψιμος, מַלְקושׁ fell in March and lasted to about the middle of April. Thunder-gusts were not uncommon from January to March.—The singular exposition of the early and the latter rain given by Oecumenius may prove suggestive: πρώϊμος ὑετός, ἡ ἐν νεότητι μετὰ δακρύων μετάνοια. ὅψιμος, ἡ ἐν τῇ γήρᾳ—M.].
Jam_5:8. Be ye also patient.—As is the husbandman. It is assumed that the seed has been sown among them. Their patience, indeed, is sorely tried, hence:
Establish your hearts.—1Th_3:13; 1Pe_5:10. It is here understood that this must be done by seeking refuge in prayer to the Lord, who giveth strength, as has been repeatedly pointed out, Jam_1:5-6 etc.
Because the coming of the Lord is nigh.—Literally: it has already drawn nigh in its coming nigh. It is not a fixed nearness but a constant drawing nearer and that, not in the sense of a chronological definition, but in the sense of a religious expectation and assurance, which does not calculate the time and the hour, or rather looks at time in the spirit of the Lord before whom a thousand years are as one day (2Pe_3:8). In the Apostle’s sense of the expression, it could be said and may be said at all times: the coming of the Lord is nigh.
Jam_5:9. Murmur not, brethren, against one another.—There is no reason why this should be limited to the mutual forbearance among “Christians” (Huther). Here again all the dissensions among the Jews must be taken into consideration. As James had already denounced their quarrels, so he now feels anxious to stop the very sources of these quarrels. Huther admits that James refers to a “gemitus accusatorius” (Estius, Calvin), but denies that it amounts to a “provocatio ultionis” (Theile and al.). But the second cannot be separated from the first; the legalism of the Old Testament, moreover, as contrasted with the thorough fidelity of the N. T. intercession, exerted as yet a powerful influence over the minds of the Jewish-Christians and might easily bias them in that direction. The believing Jews were peculiarly exposed to that temptation by the oppressive and irritating treatment they received at the hands of the rich. Huther rightly remarks that impatience in affliction has the tendency of making men irritable. [It is of course difficult to determine whether the reference is to Christians only or to those who were open to conviction, or to all whom it might concern. As the exhortation states a general moral duty, it is perhaps best to give it the widest, possible application. In this sense the note of Hornejus (in Huther) will be found useful: “Quos ad manifestas it gravissimas improborum injurias fortiter ferendas incitarat, eos nunc hortatur, ut etiam in minoribus illis offensis quæ inter pios ipsos sæpe sub-nascuntur, vel condonandis vel dissimulandis promti sint. Contingit enim ut qui hostium et improborum maximas sæpe contumelias et injurias æquo animo tolerant, fratrum tamen offensas multo leniores non facile ferant.”—M.].
That ye be not judged.—According to Mat_7:1, because murmuring against one another is also judging. [The reference is to final condemnation.—M.].
Behold, the Judge standeth before the doors.—(Mat_24:33). Before the door. The Judge i.e. Christ. Theile sees here a reference to the disposition of the Judge to punish the oppressors and to avenge the oppressed; Huther, on the other hand, says it is intended to caution the suffering against the suspension of love and to hold out to them the promise of speedy deliverance. But it is pretty certain that the love of justice, purified from every unholy admixture, may also expect the just recompense of evil, and that the two ideas, therefore, go together. Wiesinger’s remark is excellent: “Ye may with perfect calmness leave the judgment to Him and therefore ye ought not to expose yourselves to the danger of the judgment.” Cf. Php_4:5. [Seeing Christ will speedily execute judgment, do not murmur against one another; murmuring against one another is a species of judging and condemning, ye are brethren, not accusers and judges of one another; invading the prerogative of the Judge renders you liable to judgment and condemnation. Love, requite evil with good and leave the judgment in the hands of Christ.—The reader is referred to the Introduction for the remarkable incident recorded by Hegesippus that the religious sects at Jerusalem were wont to ask St. James “which is the Door of Jesus?” Wordsworth says: “The words of St. James ‘Behold the Judge standeth at the doors’ perhaps became current among them. Perhaps those words may also have excited the question put in a tone of derision, ‘which is the Door of Jesus?’ at what Door is He standing? By what Door will He come? Show Him to us and we will go out to meet Him.—This supposition is confirmed by the reply of St. James, ‘why do ye ask me concerning the Son of Man? He sitteth in heaven, and will come in the clouds of heaven.’ ”—For other interpretations of that saying “Which is the Door of Jesus?” see Bp. Pearson on St. Ignatius, ad Philadelph. 9, αὐτὸς ὤν θύρα τοῦ πατρὸς, with reference to Joh_10:7-9; Valesius and al. on Euseb. II. 23; Lardner, Hist. of Apostles, James 16; Credner, Einleit. 2, p. 580; Gieseler, Church Hist. § 31; and Delitzsch on Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 673.—M.].
Encouragement thereto. Examples of patient suffering, Jam_5:10-11.
Jam_5:10. Take, my brethren, as an example.—ὑπόδειγμα, example or pattern=παράδειγμα, representation, related to ὑπογραμμός, writing-copy (copy-head) perhaps also attestation, and τύπος, the original pattern or beginning of a thing.
Of affliction and patience.—κακοπάθεια, ἅπαξ λεγ. in N. T. although not exactly=to suffer wrong (Hottinger), or=to suffer absolutely, denotes suffering evil or affliction, which easily suggests suffering wrong. [But, as Alford remarks, the word is strictly objective and is found parallel with ξυμφορά and the like. Cf. Jam_5:13, Mal_1:12; 2Ma_2:26-27; and Thucyd. 7:77, ἐλπίδα χρὴ ἔχειν, μήδὲ καταμέψασθαι ὑμᾶς ἄγαν αὐτούς, μήτε ταῖς ευμφοραῖς, μήτε ταῖς παρὰ τὴν ἀξίαν νῦν κακοπαθείαις (spoken by Nicias to the suffering Athenian army in Sicily): so Isocr. p. 127. c. μηδὲ μικρὰν οἴεσθαι δεῖν ὑπενεγκεῖν κακοπάθειαν—M.].
The prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord.—Cf. Mat_5:12. The addition characterizes them as servants of the Lord, who endured wrong for His sake.—Who spoke.—In a pregnant sense as frequently in the prophets.
In the name of the Lord.—(Lange: “in virtue of the name of the Lord”). Huther makes τῷ=ἐν τῷ, claiming as much for Mat_7:22. But there the sense is modified and here also this peculiar expression has probably to be so explained that the name of the Lord, i.e. the fundamental thought of the revelation of the Old Testament, gave impulse to their speaking. [But this seems a forced construction and since B. and Cod. Sin. actually supply ἐν there is really no reason why τῷ should not be taken=ἐν τῷ.—M.].
Jam_5:11. Behold, we count happy.—(Mat_5:10-11). This saying is not only a subjective judgment of James but a reference to the fixed judgment recognized in the theocratic congregation and more particularly in the Christian Church. On this account also the reading τοὺς ὑπομείναντας is preferable to ὑπομένοντας. This embraces of course also the prophets just referred to (Grotius etc.), yet not them only but besides them also the most honoured sufferers. Hence we have “ye have heard of the patience of Job,” Eze_14:14; Eze_14:20; Tob_2:12-14.—Although his patience was at first shaken by the great temptation. The Jewish Christians had heard of him not only by means of the lessons which were read in the synagogue, but the name of Job was popularly honoured among them.
The end of the Lord.—We have here once more James’ uniformly significant τέλος, the import of which is wholly misunderstood if the passage is made to denote with Huther, Wiesinger and many others: “the termination which the Lord gave” (of the Lord, Genitive of the causal subject). We therefore return confidently to the exposition of Augustine, Bede, Wetstein and al. “the end of the Lord is the completing of Christ.” It is objected that the context does not warrant such a construction. But the context speaks in the Plural, not in the Singular of those who did suffer. The final clause of the verse “for very compassionate is the Lord and merciful,” it is supposed, ought to be restricted to the mercy of God, which gave so happy a termination to the sufferings of Job. But was Job’s restitution, according to the idea of the book, merely an act of mercy? On the other hand the supposition that Christ the Lord, pursuant to His compassion, entered upon His passion and thus showed the endurance of patience, conforms exactly to the biblical idea (1Pe_2:21; 1Pe_4:1; Heb_2:10), and this idea is actually prefigured in the book of Daniel (Dan_3:25). Huther, moreover, thinks it improbable, that James should have connected the example of Christ immediately with that of Job. But he did thus connect the example of Abraham with that of Rahab. There the antithesis was: Abraham, the father of believing Jews, Rahab a degraded Gentile woman; the antithesis here is: the great sufferer of the Old Testament, the Great Sufferer of the New. This abandonment of the ancient interpretation of our passage we cannot regard otherwise than as a consequence of the disparaging views held with respect to this Epistle. Besides James could hardly extol to the Jewish Christians the glorious gain of patience in suffering without adverting also to the example of Christ (cf. 1Pe_2:21 etc.). This might have struck some of his readers as almost amounting to a denial. And why does he employ the term τέλος, by which he understands principial completion, and generally that of the New Testament? Why does the verb ἠκούσατε not suffice him and why does he in contrast with it, use the Imperative ἴδετε “look at the completion of the Lord?” But the Lord, like Job, went through suffering to glory, and that in the highest sense; and He was moved thereto by His infinite compassion, His love, which is also designed to coöperate with the patience of Christians. And this ἴδετε seems to be the culminating point of the Apostle’s missionary saying addressed to those Jews who were as yet unbelieving: “the end of the Lord, look at it;” while the common exposition: “The end, which the Lord gave, see (i.e. know, learn from it) that the Lord is πολύσπλαγχνος etc.” (Huther), is not only very flat, but also forced.—For very pitiful is the Lord. Rendering ὅτι for, appears to Huther unsubstantiated by what goes before, but nothing can be more simple than the thought: “look at the end of the sufferings of Christ, for that He suffered need not excite astonishment, it is a consequence of His pity. πολύσπλαγχνος occurs here only; it is formed after רב חֶסֶד (Wiesinger), the Lxx. use instead πολυέλεος, 6 Paul and Peter εὔσπλαγχνος (Eph_4:32; 1Pe_3:8).
Conditions of this patience. Shunning of seditious movements. A hallowed disposition. The healing of their sicknesses. Liberation of the conscience by means of confession of sins. Exhortation to intercession. The example of Elias. Jam_5:12-18.
Jam_5:12. But before all things, my brethren, do not swear (conspire).—We cannot admit the view of Kern and Wiesinger that the connection of the Epistle breaks off at this point or that the dehortation contained in this verse has no other connection with what goes before than that which arises from the conduct of the readers.32 The fundamental idea which connects this verse with Jam_5:11 and Jam_5:13 etc., is the allaying of the fanatical excitement which was constantly growing among the Jews and was threatening through the influence of the Judaists to deprive the Jewish Christian Churches of their Christian composure. The history of the banding together of more than forty men against the life of St. Paul (Act_23:12-21) proves the bias of judaistic zealots to enter into conspiracies; subsequently towards the outbreak of the Jewish war they were doubtless of more frequent occurrence. We have employed in our translation an ambiguous word [Verschwörung, of which we have no current equivalent in English, i.e. an ambiguous equivalent; the German words denotes 1, to, bind one-self by an oath; 2, to enter into a Conspiracy. Conjuration is the nearest English representative of Verschwörung, but the sense of conspiracy attached to it, although current in the days of Sir Thomas Elyot (+1546), is now obsolete.—M], in order to intimate this meaning. To be sure we take it textually in the sense that all swearing accompanied by hypothetical imprecations or the giving of a pledge is conspiracy. See Comm. on St. Mat_5:34 etc. Hence James, like Christ (Mat_5:34), defines this swearing as swearing by heaven, by the earth, or by any other oath (ὅρκος) connected with a hypothetical curse. The Greek construction ὀμνύειν with the Accusative brings out the unseemly character of such swearing by or appeal to a created object as a witness or avenger, with greater distinctness than the Hebrew construction of the same verb with ἐν. Oecumenius, de Wette, Neander, and al. understand the prohibition to apply to swearing in general, as in Mat_5:33 with reference to or for the ideal condition of the Church. On the other hand Calvin, Wiesinger and many others refer the prohibition to light and trifling oaths in common life. With this must be connected the remark of Huther that swearing by the name of God is not mentioned; had he intended this swearing, he ought to have mentioned it in express terms because it is not only commanded in the law in contradistinction to other oaths (Deu_6:13; Deu_10:20; Ps. 63:12), but also foretold in the prophets as a token of men’s future conversion to God (Isa_65:16; Jer_12:16; Jer_23:7-8). But it follows also from this contradistinction that the oath in virtue of its N. T. completion was designed to be stripped of the formulæ of cursing and imprecation which always involve the pledging of things over which man has no control. To be sure, the stress lies here not only on this idealizing of the oath but also on the total setting aside of the abuse of oaths in the reality of social life. This attitude of James respecting abitrary oaths and his recommendation of the anointing with oil mentioned in the sequel, show that he was free from all Essene prejudice, for the Essenes were wont to administer to novices the vow of their order with a strong oath, although they rejected all other swearing, and so in like manner the anointing with oil.
But let your yea be yea.—[Winer: Grammar, p. 92, the Imperative ἤτω for ἔστω (which in the N. T. is also the usual form) 1Co_16:22; Jam_5:12; (Psa_104:31; 1Ma_10:31, cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. 6, 275; Acta Thom. 3, 7), Buttman I. 529; only once in Plato, Rep. 2, 361, d. See Schneidel p. 1. According to Heraclides (in Eustath. p. 1411, 22), the flexion is Doric. The other imper. form ἴσθι occurs in Mat_2:13; Mat_5:25; Mar_5:34; Luk_19:17; 1Ti_4:15 (Buttmann I. 257).—M.]. The exhortation corresponding to the prohibition. Here we find two opposing interpretations; 1. Let your yea and nay agree with your consciousness of positive or negative facts, i.e. let it be according to truth (Theophylact, Calvin and al.); 2. Let your yea be a simple yea, your nay a simple nay (Estius, Neander, Huther). We think that the two ought to be connected together from the nature of the case (see Comm. on Mat_5:34 etc.), but that the choice of the expression in Matthew along with actual truthfulness gives prominence to the assurance, while here James rather intones the perfect composure whereby the soul contents itself with the simple declaration.
That ye fall not under judgment.—On the reading εἰς ὑπόκρισιν see Appar. Crit.; on the expression see 2Sa_22:39; Psa_18:39. The context requires a judgment of condemnation and this is to be dreaded not only on account of the formal, wicked carelessness with which such oaths are uttered (which carelessness moreover leads to hypocrisy) but also on account of the mutinous and perilous acts or steps by which they are frequently sealed.
Jam_5:13. Is any among you in affliction?—In opposition to the reprehensible sealing of excited frames of mind by such imprecatory swearing, the Apostle exhorts them to calmness of disposition and points out the means of accomplishing it. Its way was under all circumstances by a religious elevation of the mind. In the case of affliction (for the rendering: “does any among you suffer?” strikes us as too weak) the depression of the mind is to be raised by prayer; in the case of prosperity the mind is to be guarded against wantonness by the sacrifice of prosperity, by thanksgiving, by the singing of psalms or songs of praise (ψάλλειν 1Co_14:15). Cf. Jam_1:9-10. Huther thinks that the connection of this exhortation with the one preceding it cannot be substantiated. The connection is manifestly the Christian regulation of different mental conditions.
Jam_5:14. Is any sick among you?—Here is the culminating point of the question whether the language of James is to be uniformly taken in a literal sense, or whether it uniformly bears a figurative character. The literal construction involves these surprising moments: 1. The calling for the presbyters of the congregation in the Plural; 2. the general direction concerning their prayer accompaning unction with oil; 3. and especially the confident promise that the prayer of faith shall restore the sick apart from his restoration being connected with the forgiveness of his sins. Was the Apostle warranted to promise bodily recovery in every case in which a sick individual complied with his directions? This misgiving urges us to adopt the symbolical construction of the passage, which would be as follows: if any man as a Christian has been hurt or become sick in his Christianity, let him seek healing from the presbyters, the kernel of the congregation. Let these pray with and for him and anoint him with the oil of the Spirit; such a course wherever taken, will surely restore him and his transgressions will be forgiven him. This symbol, explained in the Epistles of Ignatius as containing the direction that the bishop, the centre of the congregation should be called in, may be founded on a wide-spread Jewish Christian custom of healing the wounds of the sick by prayer accompanying the application with oil. Most remote from the mind of the Apostle is the Roman Catholic tradition of extreme unction; for the reference here is to the healing of the wounds of the sick conducing to their recovery, but not to a ritual preparation of him for death; not any more here than in Mar_6:13. Cf. Huther’s note, p. 196.
Let him call to himself (summon, call for).—In the case of bodily sickness it is self-evident that this must be done by others than the sick man. [προσκαλεσάσθω does not necessarily mean that the sick man is to call in person on the elders of the Church, it leaves the manner of his appeal undefined, he might call on them in person or summon them to his side by the intervention of others. To summon in the sense of sending for seems to be the most approved meaning. Cf. the Lexica.—M.].
The elders of the Church.—We must neither reduce the Plural to the Singular in the sense: “let him summon one of the presbyters” (Estius, Wolf), nor assert confidently that ἐκκλησία denotes here the particular congregation to which the sick man belongs, although the latter is probable. The main point is that ἡ ἐκκλησία, as a local congregation did represent from the beginning the whole Church and that consequently the presbyters could be sent for primarily from the most specific ecclesiastical district but also from a more distant sphere. [If I understand Lange’s allusion, I doubt whether his inference is sustained by the facts of the case. Interloping was not sanctioned in the primitive Church. The Apostles uniformly insist upon order and decency in the conduct of Church government. A sick man, connected with a particular ecclesiastical organization would send, of course, for the presbyters connected with it;. where no such organization existed, he would send for those presbyters to whom access might most easily be had.—M.].
And let them pray over him; i. e. not only for him, nor only literally as standing over his bed, but with reference to effecting his salvation (Act_19:13). [Bengel: “Qui dum orant, non multo minus est quam si tota oraret ecclesia.”—M.].
Anointing him with oil.—Many commentators assume, with reference to the Jewish custom, that the oil was here intended to coöperate as a medium of cure, cf. Jeremiah 8, 22; Jer_46:11; Luk_10:34. The disciples also used to connect this medium with their miraculous cures, Mar_6:13. See this Comment, in loco. Now in so far as the reference here implied lies to an apostolical method of effecting cures, we must doubtless think also of the organic connection of intercession with oil, i. e. of the spiritual effect accompanying that produced on the medium of the body. Huther (in opposition to Meyer) dissolves this connection without sufficient reason, by observing that the oil as such was only refreshing to the body. What such a refreshing amounts to, is not very clear; the chief point is that the two were to be united in one act, which was performed in the name of the Lord (Christ). But Huther rightly remarks that James did not prescribe anointing, but assumed the observance of the usage. He prescribes prayer in connection with that usage and the anointing as an anointing in the name of the Lord, which latter particular must not be referred to prayer only (Gebser), nor to both acts (de Wette), but solely to the act of anointing (Huther). In the literal acceptation of the precept, prayer would be the medium of the miraculous cure, which was then to be performed in the name of the Lord (i. e. not pursuant to His command, but in the power and limitation of His name). Schneckenburger adds that the presbyters had the χάρισμα ἰαμάτων (1Co_12:9). Huther calls this an arbitrary assumption and says that moreover nothing is said here of the χάρισμα. But the χάρισμα has at all times been the conditio sine qua non of ministerial efficiency and in the Apostolical church the office of presbyter did not involve the charisma, but rather those who had the respective charisma were generally ordained as presbyters (see 1Co_12:9; 1Co_12:30). Huther also sets aside without sufficient reason the connection between miraculous gifts and gifts of natural experience to which Pott, after his manner, calls attention: “quia uti omnino prudentissimi eligebantur, sic forte etiam artis medicæ peritissimi erant.
Jam_5:15. And the prayer of faith.—Not faith in general, but miraculous faith as a special charisma of the Christian spirit (see 1Co_12:9-10). Prayer characterized by such faith, not in general: the prayer which faith offers. Grotius and al. rightly assume that this faith implies identity of purpose on the part of the presbyters who intercede, and on that of the sick for whom intercession is made, for it is in this faith that the sick summons the presbyters (cf. the Gospels); Wiesinger and Huther arbitrarily limit this prayer to the act of the presbyters only.
Shall help (heal) the sick.—Shall savingly restore him to health. Lyra, Schneckenburger and al. understand corporeal and spiritual healing, de Wette, Wiesinger and al. corporeal only, because the forgiveness of sins is separately stated afterwards [Alford—M.]. Nevertheless we feel that we cannot give up the oneness of the two moments, seeing that the sequel doubtless adverts to the possibility of particular sins and that, as already stated, the concrete apostolical spiritual-corporeal cure seems to be here uniformly the symbol of a spiritual-social cure of the wounds and infection of the judaistic confusion.
And the Lord shall raise him up.—The Lord i. e. Christ. As is His wont to raise men spiritually-bodily, not only from the bed of sickness but also from the sickness. This ἐγείρειν however is not only the causality of the preceding σώζειν, but also holds out the prospect of the positive exaltation of life which has been effected by the σώζειν as the deliverance from peril of death.
And though he have committed sins.—This denotes an enhanced state of distress. Supposing that he even (κἄν) have committed sins, as πεποιηκώς, as one who is as yet burdened with the guilt of those sins (Plural). The presumption is not so much that these sins were the cause of the respective sickness (Huther), but they made the sickness a severe one and one difficult to cure; this would again import a spiritual meaning.
It shall be forgiven him; that is, his having committed sins. “Even in case that.” (Huther.) Forgiven not only in the social sense (i. e. by the presbyters (Hammond), not only in respect of his spiritual life, but the continuation, the curse of his guilt shall also be removed in respect of his life-situation. Huther wants to connect κἄν with the preceding clause: “The Lord shall raise him up, even if he have committed sins—(for) it shall be forgiven him.” In point of language κἄν is to favour his construction (but see on the other hand 1Jn_2:1); but in point of matter such a construction would greatly weaken the passage. The general and unconditional character of the assurance of renewed health, which is here expressed, has created much surprise. Hottinger expresses it more forcibly than any other commentator: “si certus et constans talium precum fuisset eventus, nemo umquam mortuus esset.” Grotius supplies the condition: “nisi nempe aliter ei suppeditat ad salutem æternam.” But Huther maintains against Wiesinger that there is no need of any restrictions and believes that the difficulty is removed by the consideration that James conceived the coming of Christ to be immediately impending; that consequently he did not consider the death of believers to be necessary, but viewed it only in the light of an evil which might be averted by believing intercession. Thus a second gross error would have paralyzed or covered the first. We rather opine that this very difficulty, as well as the whole character of the Epistle constrains us to adopt the symbolical interpretation. James assumes the existence of the custom of anointing the sick accompanied with prayer as a method of cure very generally prevalent in Jewish Christian Churches. This custom, traces of which are also found in ancient Judaism (see Wiesinger, p. 20433), he now turns into a symbol of a spiritual cure, which he recommends to those who were infected with the spirit of Judaism and revolutionary Chiliasm, as a remedy for their spiritual healing. This construction is also favoured by the next verse. [As the reasoning of Lange may not appear conclusive but rather doubtful to many readers of this work, I subjoin an outline of the subject which may prove valuable for reference.—The opinion of Polycarp, Bp. of Smyrna, a disciple of John and a martyr, is very valuable and sheds light on the whole question. He says (ad Philipp. c. 5), “Let the presbyters be tender-hearted, merciful to all, converting the erring (see Jam_5:19), visiting all who are sick (ἐπισκεπτόμενοι πάντας ἀσθενεῖς); not neglecting the widow or orphan or needy (see Jam_1:27), and providing always what is good in the sight of God, abstaining from all respect of persons (see Jam_2:1; Jam_2:9), not sharp in judgment, knowing that we are all sinners” (see Jam_3:2). The reference to James in brackets warrants the presumption that Polycarp was familiar with our Epistle, and the extract shows that at that early day the duty of visiting the sick had been devolved on the presbyters.—The direction that the sick should summon the presbyters (Plural) accords with the practice of our Lord who sent forth His Twelve Apostles and seventy disciples two and two (Mar_6:7; Luk_10:1).—The direction would hardly have been given, if it could not be complied with. James, as bishop of Jerusalem, presided over elders there (Act_21:18) and his language warrants the conclusion that presbyters had been ordained in the principal cities.—Without discussing the question who these presbyters were, the second order of the ministry or the first, the great fact remains that the visitation of the sick is an important part of ministerial activity, and that it is the duty of the sick (whether in body or in soul) to summon their spiritual advisers to their side. This is an important consideration, for in large parishes and especially in large cities weeks may sometimes elapse before the report of a parishioner’s sickness reaches their ears; if the sick are not visited under those circumstances, they must not blame their minister for remissness if they have failed to inform him of their sickness and to summon him to their side.
Our passage establishes the fact that anointing the sick with prayer accompanying it was practised in the Apostolic Church. The Apostles in virtue of the extraordinary and miraculous powers delegated to them by Christ, healed many, after having anointed them with oil. Cf. Act_6:13 with Mat_10:1-8 and Luk_9:1-6. The miraculous gift of healing continued for some time in the Church. See 1Co_12:8-9. James refers to this miraculous power of healing, which in its application however was not absolute, but dependent on the will of God; although applied in faith by the anointing presbyter and received in faith by the sick man, anointing did not heal him if he recovered his health, but prayer charged with faith, and this implies that the matter of the sick man’s cure was referred to the will of God, who did what was best for the sick, (Wordsworth), whether that was restoration to health or a Christian death.
The practice of anointing with oil with a view to recovery from sickness was continued in the Eastern and Western Churches, even after the Church had lost the miraculous gift of healing. It is continued in the Eastern Church for this purpose to this day, but the Church of England and other Reformed communions have abandoned the practice, because they perceived that the effect mentioned by St. James, viz. his recovery did not ordinarily ensue from the anointing with oil, and that the miraculous gift of healing as well as other miraculous gifts granted to the Apostles, had been removed from the Church.
The Church of Rome however retains the practice of anointing the sick with oil but perverted the design for which it had been instituted (viz: recovery from sickness), into that of a sacrament conveying grace to the soul, the sacrament of extreme unction, which is certainly one of the most audacious perversions of Scripture on record. See Alford and Wordsworth. Wordsworth: “The Apostle St. James had enjoined the practice with a view to the recovery of the sick; as Cardinal Cajetanus allows, in his note on the passage, where he says: “Hæc verba non loquntur de Sacramentali unctione extremæ unctionis,” but the Church of Rome prescribes, in the Councils of Florence (A.D.1438) and Trent (1551), that the anointing should not take place except where recovery is not to be looked for (Council of Trent, Sess. 14, “qui tam periculose decumbunt ut in exitu vitæ constituti videantur”), and therefore she calls this anointing “extreme unction,” and “sacramentum exeuntium,” and she regards it as a sacrament conveying grace to the soul. Thus, on the one hand, the Greek Church is a witness by her present practice, that the anointing was designed with a view to bodily recovery; and the Roman Church, on the other hand, is a witness, that the miraculous effects on the body, which were wrought in primitive times through the instrumentality of those who anointed the sick, and which accompanied that unction, have ceased.“—See this whole subject discussed in my article “An account of Extreme Unction,” Princeton Review, Vol. XXXVII. No. 2, April, 1865.—M.].
Jam_5:16. Confess therefore your sins (transgressions) to one another.—This injunction is general: it is the generalization of the preceding sentence. Cajetanus rightly observes: “nec hic est sermo de confessione sacramentali;” but the clause implies also the fact that James knew nothing of such a confessio, or he would have said: “Confess your sins to the presbyters,” of whom he had just been speaking. As to the sins here referred to, Huther understands sins in general as violation of the Divine law, in opposition to Wolf, who explains them as offences against one another, Mat_18:15. Bengel: “Ægrotus et quisquis offendit, jubetur confiteri; offensus, orare.” But the particular sins which are meant here, at least primarily, may be gathered from the whole Epistle; the reference is to the whole Judaistic movement which in so many respects had made them sick and feeble. But the thought has also the more general import that the confession of certain known transgressions is at once an unburdening of the conscience and a furtherance of prayer in the case of those who are thus drawn into the Christian fellow-feeling of guilt and thus also the preliminary condition both of forgiveness and of spiritual (and often even of bodily) healing. How many a germinating madness and suicide, how many a heart-languor and disorder which vexes the members and weighs down the body was to be obviated by this mutual effect of confession and intercession! But James had more particularly in view the hurts which were then troubling Israel. Both the confession and the intercession were to be mutual.
That ye may be healed.—This healing is understood spiritually by Grotius and al., spiritually and corporeally by Schneckenburger and al., corporeally only by de Wette, Huther and al. As nothing is said here of the forgiveness of sins, the promise of healing implies evidently also spiritual healing: but the idea “that ye may be healed theocratically” is probably predominant. “It is to be remembered that the prayer of the presbyters does not exclude the common intercession of Christians and that the efficacy attributed to the latter is not less than that attributed to the former.” Huther. [This is one of the passages adduced by the Latin Church for the necessity of confessing sins to a priest. Alford cites Corn.-a-Lapide’s exegesis as a specimen of the way in which the Romish doctrine is deduced. “Alterutrum, id est, homo homini, similis simili, frater fratri confitemini, puta sacerdoti, qui licet officio sit superior, natura tamen est par, infirmitate similis, obligatione confitendi æqualis.”—M.].
The prayer. … availeth much.—A saying of the power of genuine prayer designed to encourage them to adopt the recommendations previously set forth, i.e. both mutual confession of sins and mutual intercession. The great efficacy of such intercession is still further brought about by the position of πολύ etc. and by the gnomic and asyndetical structure of the sentence. Of a righteous man, of a צַדִּיק in the theocratic sense, i.e. not one “in a state of righteousness” as Hofmann expresses it, for “the state of righteousness” denotes an ontological, passive condition, while in the case of the theocratically righteous every thing turns on actuality, on the living faith, on the living God and His word of life. The species of these righteous men is the same in the Old Testament and in the New; they are men of living, energetic faith (Romans 4), although the righteous man of the New Testament has the advantage of an objective as well as of a subjective τελείωσις. Hence Elias may here be held up to the Christians as the pattern of a real man of prayer.
Inwardly effectual (working).—ἐνεργουμένη causes not little difficulty and has given rise to a great variety of opinions among commentators. A main point to be determined is whether ἐνεργουμένη ought to be taken as an epithet to δέησις, as the majority of commentators take it, or as a pure participial definition of the verb ἰσχύει (so Pott, de Wette, Huther, who are however at variance with respect to the sense). Pott: “Prayer is able to work much” or “prayer is able to work much and worketh much.” de Wette: “if it becomes energetic.” Huther: “In its energy” or “in its working.” But all this is rather tautological unless it be made to denote a theurgic operation, which is inadmissible. The adjectival construction may be taken passively or actively, or in the most literal sense as a middle, as a kind of Hithpael. Prayer may be considered passively as coänimated by the prayer of him for whom it is offered (Oecumenius), as moved by the Holy Spirit, inspired (Michælis), as penetrated by faith (Carpzov), as animated and attended by impulse to work [Werktrieb, so Calvin and Gebser], Taken actively the idea of ἐνεργουμένη coincides more or less with ἐνεργής or ἐνεργός (see Luk_22:44 ἐκτενής). So Luther: “if it is earnest;” Vulgate; “assidua,” and similarly many others. Of the other hand, Huther contends that this construction is contrary to N. T. usage, while Wiesinger maintains that this usage may be substantiated and refers to the proofs supplied by Wahl. We believe that the N. T. middle ἐνεργέομαι (Rom_7:5; 2Co_1:6; 2Co_4:12; Gal_5:6; Eph_3:20; Col_1:29; 1Th_2:13; 2Th_2:7) denotes according to the Hebrew and Christian conception a passivo-active working, i.e. a working set in motion by a previously experienced impulse. This in malam partem applies to the lusts in the members (Rom_7:5), to the mystery of iniquity (2Th_2:7), in bonam partem to the subjective σωτηρία (2Co_1:6), to the subjective πίστις (Gal_5:6), to the vital energy in believers (Eph_3:20), to the energy of Christ in believers (Col_1:29), to the word of God appropriated by men (1Th_2:13); in both respects, to death and life (2Co_4:12). The Active however is used with reference to God Eph_1:11; Php_2:13; Gal_2:8; 1Co_12:6; of His Spirit 1Co_12:11; also of Satan Eph_2:2. It follows from this clearly marked usage of the word that we must also take δέησις with the predication ἐνεργουμένη as indicating an efficiency effected or an impulse impelled. The idea doubtless imports the full tension of the praying spirit under its absolute obedience (yielding to) to the Divine impulse. And in this respect there is here an allusion to the idea of the miraculously potent prayer which works the ἐνεργήματα. [The Apostle’s idea expressed in plain words, seems to be that prayer in order to lead to outward effects, must work inwardly in grateful adoration of and fervent love and humble resignation to God; otherwise prayer is only a hollow, unmeaning and inefficacious uttering of words. Luther in his terse language hits the point, when he says in some place that “he who prays must feel that he is a beggar.” Absolute submission to the will of God is of course the very soul of prayer, and the true Christian never engages in prayer without the pious sentiment: “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Wordsworth remarks: “The martyrdom of St. James himself affords a beautiful comment on these words, especially where it is related that after he had been cast down by his enemies from the pediment of the Temple and they were stoning him, he fell on his knees and prayed for them, and some, who stood by, said, adopting the very words of this Epistle—“Hold, what do ye? εὔχεται ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ὁ δίκαιος,” “the Just man is praying for you.” See Introduction.—M.].
Jam_5:17. Elias was a man of like passions.—ὁμοιοπαθής does not exactly signify that Elias had the capacity of suffering, or his real sufferings (Laurentius, Schneckenburger), but “of like condition and nature” (Wiesinger and Huther) is hardly adequate in point of sense. In Act_14:15 there is certainly an implied emphasis on the dependence and restraints of human nature as contrasted with the Being of God. Moreover in Wis_7:3 the reference to the earth imports not so much equality of kind as equality of condition. In the case of Elias the term “like passions” or liability to being affected, points at least to his capacity of suffering and temptability.
And he prayed a prayer [with prayer].—Analogous to the Hebrew idiom of producing intensification by placing the Infinitive of the verb in juxtaposition with the Indicative, or by connecting the latter with the noun Gen_2:17 תָּמוּת מוֹת Considering that Huther himself observes that this form serves to bring out the verbal idea, it is difficult to account for his opposition to the exposition of Wiesinger and al., that the prayer of Elias was an earnest prayer. [Huther, I presume, objects to the introduction of a new word. The prayer of Elias was genuine prayer, prayer charged with ἐνέργεια.—M.].
That it might not rain.—βρέχειν is impersonal. [The gen. of the intent. See Winer, p. 343.—M].
And it did not rain in the land [on the earth].—Considering the O. T. colouring of the whole Epistle we may be allowed to translate ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς with Grotius and al. “in the land,” but Huther retains Luther’s rendering “on earth,” Schneckenburger compares this weighty saying with Gen_1:3 : “fiat lux et facta est lux.” But there remains the important difference that here the reference is not to an authoritative command (Machtspruch).
[Three years and six months.—Wordsworth: equal to 42 months or 1260 days, a chronological period of suffering. See Rev_11:3.—M.].
Jam_5:18. And the heaven gave rain.—A personifying, vivid mode of expression, reminding us of the prophetic style, Hos_2:21-22.
And the earth brought forth her fruit.—This was really the immediate purpose of the prayer. βλαστάνω [properly an intransitive verb, but used transitively—M.], a transitive verb: it let spring up, i.e. it put, brought forth. An application of what is related 1Ki_17:1; 1Ki_18:1; 1Ki_18:42 etc. The positive announcement of the drought may have led James to draw the reasonable inference that Elias had prayed for it, although we have no record to that effect, and tradition had probably anticipated his inference. Such a completion is however very different from a discrepancy (Huther). The second apparent difference is as follows: in 1Ki_18:1, Elijah is said to have foretold and to have been instrumental in bringing about the return of rain in the third year, while our passage affirms that it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Seeing that Luk_4:25 and the tract Jalcut Simeoni give the same duration, it would seem that that space of time was the uniform Jewish tradition. The explanation lies manifestly in the fact that 1 Kings 18 specifies the real famine according to its duration. But it stands to reason that the famine did not begin until one year after the announcement of the drought, viz. after the failure of the early and the latter rain. During the first year the people were still living on the harvest of the preceding year. Jewish tradition consequently added one year to the period of time mentioned in a general way in 1 Kings in order to mark the whole period between the two announcements of Elijah. Benson’s solution of the difference is somewhat different but not very clear. He says: “accuratior serioris traditionis computatio, ducitur a tempore non pluviæ primum cessantis, sed ultimum ante siccitatem eadentis, quam dimidio fere anno distare in promptu est.” That is, the first year of the drought is not added to the famine of about two and a half years’ duration, but the half year from the first failure of rain to the last fall of rain immediately preceding. Wiesinger is satisfied with Benson’s calculation, but Huther insists upon the discrepancy, because according to the statement of James, the drought began immediately after Elijah’s praying. But the narrative itself contains intimations that the drought did not at once produce famine, 1Ki_17:7; 1Ki_18:5. [Benson observes, however, that the words “in the third year” of 1Ki_18:1 do not necessarily refer to the duration of the famine, but most naturally date back to the removal of Elijah to Zarephath, 1Ki_17:8 etc; cf. the same “many days” in 1Ki_17:15, where indeed a variation is “for a full year.” Alford.—M.]. But far more important is the question why James selects just this example of an answer to prayer from the history of Israel. The greatest stress seems to lie on his intercession of pity, which was the more edifying as an example because the readers of the Epistle were wont to consider Elijah as a censurer. A drought had for a long time come also upon the spiritual life of Israel; the readers were therefore encouraged to pray with the faith of an Elijah for a rain of grace to fall on their people. The prophet’s first prayer is mentioned first, in order to furnish them with a forcible illustration that prayer is heard and answered, and perhaps also to show them how the real men of prayer in Israel were independent of and superior to the evil frame of mind which kept the populace in a ferment. Moreover the general tendency of Elijah’s prayers was hostile to the apostasy of Israel, and the zeal of their believing men of prayer was now to be directed against the new apostasy which consisted in an obdurate opposition to the Gospel (see Jam_4:4; Rom_11:1-5).
Conclusion replete with promise. Jam_5:19-20.
Jam_5:19. My brethren, if any among you should have strayed from the truth.—“This imports not a single practical aberration, but an alienation from the Christian principle of life, an inward apostasy from the λόγος ἀληθείας, of which the Christian is begotten (Jam_1:18), disclosing itself in a single course of life. Cf. Luk_1:16-17; Luk_5:20.” Huther. But the tenor of the whole Epistle constrains us to define this aberration still further as an aberration into Judaistic and chiliastic doings and fanatico-seditious lusts. [πλανηθῇ is passive and Alford rightly remarks “that there is no reason why the passive signification should not be kept, especially when we remember our Lord’s warning, βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ”—M.].
And one should convert him, to the truth, from which he has strayed in peril of apostasy.
Jam_5:20. Let him know [know ye—M.]. He that converts is to know the importance of his action and what a blessing rests upon it. The word, as to its form, is a hypothetical announcement or promise to him who is found thus doing, but as to its contents it is a general sentence or a sententious encouragement to all conjoined with the promise of a prize to those who act upon it. On this account ἐπιστρέψας is repeated after ὅτι.
That he who converteth a sinner.—The person who has strayed through delusion from the truth, considered from a practical point of view. Let the readers know that all those who have strayed in part or entirely from the truth are sinners according to the emphatic theocratic idea: doomed to the death-ban. This weighty part of the word is weakened by Huther’s remark, “that the reference is no longer to the person who has gone astray but to the whole genus to which the Christian who has strayed from the truth belongs as species.” The two ideas: delusion and dogmatical apostasy and practical ruin must not be separated on the theocratical ground, nor must the former kind be subordinated to the latter as species, although the practical and the theocratic form of ruin may alternately predominate.
Shall save a soul from death.—From death, as in Jam_1:15 and throughout the New Testament, from subjective damnation as it is inherent in the personality itself, defined moreover negatively with respect to the subject as the loss of the true life, of the true destination and sphere of life; a moral dissolution of the ontological life eternally self-generating itself, as on the other hand the true life generates life. A soul. The naked, inward existence of the personality itself, man in all his capacity of suffering and salvation and need of help. He shall save the soul. The conversion of the apostate is the conversion of a sinner; this has as its consequence his deliverance from death, because he is in the way of death and is overtaken before he finally falls into the snares of death. We need not stop to show that this presupposes Divine redemption as the salvation to which he is converted and the Divine coöperation of the Word and of the Holy Spirit as the means of salvation whereby he is converted. In the battle of faith between the believing readers of the Epistle and their half-believing and unbelieving brethren the point at issue turns therefore not upon dogmatical disputes of the synagogue, but solely and purely on the salvation of poor souls from eternal death, and not only on this but along with the salvation of many individuals, on the removal of a universal curse.
And shall cover a multitude of sins.—That is, the averting of a general ruin is brought about by the faithful salvation of many individuals. This covering of sins (cf. 1Pe_4:8; Pro_10:12) καλύπτειν contains doubtless reference in an enlarged sense, to the Hebrew כִּסָּה, to cover, cover over sins, i.e. to forgive, Psa_32:1 and elsewhere. But considering that such absolute covering of sin is the prerogative of God, it is probably better to think here of instrumental covering כִּפֶּר which is also used more especially of different means and mediators of atonement; not only of the cover of the ark, of sacrifice, of the high-priest, but also of the very sins to be atoned for (Exo_30:15 : Isa_47:11), and also especially of the person interceding, Exo_32:30. The last passage strikes us as peculiarly important. Moses effected the reconciliation of his people not as a sacrifice, not as high-priest, but by intercession, i.e. by the subjective mediation of the objective atonement. This objective atonement therefore is here assumed, just as the former expression, he shall save, presupposes objective salvation. The believing Jews are to become intercessors for their poor people, become instrumental to, bring about its real atonement. Believers participate in the atoning work of Christ as in His sufferings and intercession not as causa mediatoria but as causa organica. But the commentators are at variance whether the reference here is to the sins of the converters or to those of the converted. Erasmus and al. take it thus: by his good work he shall obtain remission of his sins with God. The Jews held (Joma fol. 87): “quicunque multos ad justitiam adducit, per ejus manus non perpetratur peccatum.” Augusti: He will obtain forgiveness on the part of men; his own offences will not be remembered. With more reason the majority of commentators refer the words to the sins of the converted. But the reference is not solely to the particular sins of the persons to be converted, and not even to their personal offences. πλῆθος denotes fulness, an entire mass taken as a unit, and the ἁμαρτίαι are the offences requiring to be atoned for. The reference is consequently to the total national guilt of Israel. To be sure, it is not referred to with greater distinctness or more clearly defined than by τὸ πλῆθος, because James, according to Jam_5:1, could no longer hope for the immediate salvation of all Israel, but foresaw, like Paul, a great judgment on their obduracy. But it was still his duty pitifully to wrestle with the judgment and to save a fulness (multitude) of souls and to atone for their sins. But whereas a common, national guilt is ever growing, and whereas this working of the curse can be broken only by means of the atonement, the observation of Huther is groundless “that this does not describe the sins which the ἁμαρτωλός would still commit and which are now prevented by means of his conversion (Pott: “multa futura impediet”), but the whole multitude of sins which he had committed before his conversion.” This restriction misapprehends the progressive nature of guilt, not to say anything of the circumstance, that the reference is no longer exclusively to the sins of converted individuals. The conclusion of the Epistle shows in general, as we have seen repeatedly before, that the usual exposition does by no means come up to the lofty stand-point and point of view of James. De Wette takes objection to the strong idea πλῆθος, saying that the reference is only to aberration and not to viciousness of life and seeks to arrange his assertion by inferences; Stolz asserts that the sinner’s amendment of life has the effect of consigning to oblivion his former transgressions; even Wiesinger and Huther restrict the import of the passage in two ways: “the reference is only to the multiform sin of the aforesaid converted individual and only to the circumstance that the converter becomes by his conversion the occasion of God forgiving his sins. “But our passage reminds us of the relation of Paul to his people, Rom_9:3; Rom_11:14. And as James, according to Acts, exhibited a peculiar fidelity in working for the salvation of his people, and, according to tradition, interceded for them with God, so at the conclusion of the Epistle he here invites the whole believing part of his people to engage in intercession and in the work of salvation, that many individuals might be saved from death, and a multitude of sins might be atoned for. The whole Epistle shows that he confines himself solely to human saving and atoning as a medium of bringing back the people to the true Redeemer and Reconciler, but he deems it of peculiar importance that the brethren must not fail to do their part in the work. Of course his words, in their sententious form, are also here so construed, that they possess a general and eternally valid apostolical significance; but as it was the duty of the expositor throughout the course of his exposition to give prominence to the noble historical import of this Epistle, which has been only too much missed and neglected, so he does at its conclusion.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The long-suffering patience required of the followers of Jesus is a duty of so wide a range, that the discharge of it, at least under many circumstances, would be too much for human strength, if the strength of their faith and hope were not animated by the thought of the nearness of the Lord’s coming. Therefore the words “the coming of the Lord is nigh” ought to be constantly before our eyes. While the Christians of the Apostolic Age were perhaps too much inclined to consider the coming of Christ to be near at hand in a literal sense, the Christian sense of our own age suffers this great final event to stand too much in the background and substitutes for it in most instances a mere individual hope of salvation immediately after death. The more we learn again that we belong “to men also that love His appearing” (2Ti_4:8) in the Apostolic acceptation of the term, the easier we shall find the practice of Christian patience and endurance in view of this the only satisfactory final development of the drama of history.
2. James as well as our Lord Himself (Matthew 13 and elsewhere), saw the kingdom of grace reflected and portrayed in the kingdom of nature. The disciple of Jesus may learn much from the diligent and patient waiting of the husbandman.
3. The heroes of faith of the Old Testament are regarded by James also in the light of patterns to the Christian in his course, just as in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_11:12). The rule that the way through suffering leads to glory, is in reality as valid under the Old Testament as under the New. Cf. Luk_24:26; Act_14:22.
4. James begins (Jam_1:12) and ends (Jam_5:11) his Epistle with a beatitude, just as our Lord began (Mat_5:3) and ended (Joh_20:29). His instructions with similar beatitudes. The introduction of the example of Job is the more remarkable because this is the only place in the New Testament where his history is referred to.
5. The dehortation from frivolous swearing is intimately and naturally connected with the notice of endurance and patience, which precedes it. Those who are impatient and discontented will readily curse and swear in their violence, while those who possess their souls in patience will also in this respect guard their mouth and keep their lips. The context shows abundantly that James does not absolutely prohibit all swearing, but only those oaths which men take when they are not as patient as Job (Job_2:10), but as impatient as Job (Jam_3:1), when they curse their day. Like Christ, (Mat_23:16-22) the Apostle condemns light and trifling swearing and specifies several examples thereof. Had he intended to forbid swearing by the name of God, he would doubtless have mentioned this first and most weighty oath before all others. But considering that the law expressly enjoined swearing by the name of the Lord (Num_6:13, b; numbers 10:20) and that the prophets referred to this swearing as the characteristic of the servants of the Lord (Isa_65:16; Jer_12:16; Jer_16:14-15), it is a priori highly improbable that James, who was penetrated through and through by the spirit of the Old Testament, should have intended to forbid also this oath. Swearing by the name of God is not only permitted but often becomes necessary in an imperfect state of society because of the sins of men, although it belongs surely to the ideal of the kingdom of God that no oath will be required in it and that yea and nay are as reliable as an oath. In this respect we may say, that the Christian, if the civil authority requires him to take an oath, is necessitated to do so only in consequence of his sojourn in the midst of this sinful and wicked world. In a certain sense we may say of oaths what Paul said of the law that τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν προσετέθη Gal_3:19. Cf. Lange on Mat_5:33-37, and on the Hebrew formulæ of oaths in general Rüetschi in Herzog’s R. E. III. p. 713 sqq.
6. Genuine Christian faith is distinguished by becoming equanimity in good and evil days, as prescribed by James (Jam_5:13) and illustrated inter alia by Paul (Php_4:10-20). Without Christ man is very apt to despond under suffering and equally prone to become elated with prosperity. The true Christian will in suffering seek consolation in prayer and so enjoy his prosperity that God is glorified thereby.
7. The visitation and comforting of the sick is one of the most natural and important parts of the cura pastoralis. For special directions consult the works on pastoral and practical theology of Hüffell, Harms, Nitzsch, Palmer and al. [Also Burnet, on the Pastoral Care, Wilson’s Parochialia, Visitatio Infirmorum and Vinet.—M.]. On the true Christian frame of mind on the sickbed compare an essay by N. Beets, translated from the Dutch in the Jahrbuch des rheinisch-west-phälischen Schriftvereins, 1862, p. 1 etc. [Also an excellent work, published anonymously, entitled “Sickness, its trials and blessings,” New York: 1857.—M.].
8. Only by confining oneself to the sound of the words (Jam_5:14-16), it is possible to find here the precepts of extreme unction and auricular confession in the sense of the Roman Catholic Church. See under Exegetical and Critical. James refers plainly to miraculous recovery and to the mutual confession of offences among brethren in the event of one having failed in his duty towards another. On the other hand there exists also an Ultra-Protestantism and Anti-Romanism, which deems the use of both these means of grace altogether superfluous and almost prohibits them, which is likewise without blessing. The decrease of the gift of miracles is surely no proof of the increase of faith, and the entire discontinuance of mutual confession of sins is a sad token of the want of humility and brotherly love. Cf. Herzog’s R. E. Article Oelung.
9. It may be very superstitious and uncharitable to assume a direct connection of a certain sin and a certain disease; cf. Joh_9:3. But it is also very superficial to deny all connection between sin and disease. If there were no sins in the world, there would certainly be no plagues. The sick man consequently does well, if he recalls on the sick-bed first of all his own sins and seeks to obtain their forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins and recovery from sickness are in many respects more closely connected than most people think and therefore both are promised to the citizen of the celestial commonwealth, Isa_33:24.
10. The duty of brotherly exhortation addressed to blacksliding brethren (Jam_5:19-20), so warmly recommended by the Apostle, has also been enjoined by our Lord and the Apostles elsewhere (cf. Mat_18:15-18; 1Th_5:14; 2Th_3:13-16; Heb_10:24). The writings of pagan moralists contain also excellent directions concerning the manner how such friendly reproof should be administered. See e.g. Plutarch, de discrim. amici et adulatoris pp. 244–276, edit. Reisk.; Cicero, de amicitia cap. 24, 25. A striking proof of the blessing which may attend such a work of love towards the salvation of an almost lost soul, and of the manner how this duty should be discharged, is found in the well-known legend “John and the robber-chief,” told by Clem. Alex., quis dives salvus, cap. 42. But James shows himself throughout this Epistle as an exemplar of ardent Christian zeal for converting sinners from the error of their way and for saving souls from death. His words open a wide field and a glorious prospect to Christian philanthropy and the specific cure of souls. Hence Zwingli and Herder are not wrong in their criticisms on the conclusion of this Epistle; the former saying: “Insigni doctrina veluti colophone epistolam absolvit,” and the latter: “The conclusion, the strongest assurance, is like a seal affixed to the testament.”—
[On the connection of Jam_5:12-13 with Jam_5:11. Bp. Sanderson, (Lectures on Oaths, 7:11): “Set the examples of ancient prophets and holy men before your eyes. If ye suffer adversity, imitate their patience. If in all things, you cannot attain to that perfection, yet thus far at least, except ye be very negligent, you may go with ease; above all things, take heed lest too impatient of your grief, or too much transported with your joy, ye break forth into rash oaths, to the dishonour of God and shame of Christian conversation. But rather contain yourselves, whether troubled or rejoicing, within the bounds of Modesty; mingle not Heaven and earth, let not all things be filled with your oaths and clamours; if you affirm a thing, let it be with calmness, and a mere affirmation or negation. But if either of these passions be more impetuous, and strive to overflow the narrow channels of your bosoms, it will be your wisdom to let it forth unto the glory of God. Do you demand by what means? I will tell you: Is any among you afflicted? Let not his impatience break forth into Oaths and Blasphemies, the Flood-gates of wrath; but rather let him pray, and humbly implore God that He would vouchsafe him Patience, till His heavy hand be removed. Is any merry? Let him not bellow it forth in Oaths, like a Bacchanalian, but rather sing it in Hymns and Psalms unto the praise of God: Who hath made his cup to overflow, and crowned him with happy days.”
Barrow: (Serm. XV. vol. 1. p. 329). “In these words St. James doth not mean universally to interdict the use of oaths: for that in some cases is not only lawful, but very expedient, yea needful, and required from us as a duty; but that swearing which our Lord had expressly prohibited to His disciples, and which thence, questionless, the brethren to whom St. James did write, did well understand themselves to forbear, having learnt so in the first Catechisms of Christian institution; that is, needless and heedless swearing in ordinary conversation, a practice then frequent in the world, both among Jews and Gentiles; the invoking of God’s name, appealing to His testimony, and provoking His judgment, upon any slight occasion, in common talk, with vain incogitancy, or profane boldness. From such practice the holy Apostle dehorteth in terms importing his great concernedness, and implying the matter to be of the highest importance: for, Before all things, my brethren, do not swear; as if he did apprehend this sin of all other to be one of the most heinous and pernicious. Could he have said more? would he have said so much, if he had not conceived the matter to be of exceeding weight and consequence?”
Jam_5:14. Hooker: Eccl. Polit. 5:25. 3. “The authority of the Priest’s calling is a furtherance, because if God had so far received him into favour as to impose upon him by the hands of man that office of blessing the people in His name, and making intercession to Him in theirs, which office he hath sanctified with His own most gracious promise, and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance thereof, when others before in like place have done the same; is not his very ordination a seal, as it were, to us, that the self-same Divine Love that hath chosen the Instrument to work with, will by that Instrument effect the thing whereto He ordained it, in blessing His people, and accepting the prayers, which His servant offered up unto God for them?”
Jam_5:16. Hooker: 5:47. “But the greatest thing which made men forward and willing upon their knees to confess whatsoever they had committed against God, and in no wise to be withheld from the same with any fear of disgrace, contempt or obloquy, which might ensue, was their fervent desire to be helped and assisted with the prayers of God’s saints. Wherein as St. James doth exhort unto mutual confession, alleging this only for a reason, that just men’s devout prayers are of great avail with God; so it hath been heretofore the use of penitents for that intent to unburthen their minds, even to private persons, and to crave their prayers.” He quotes the following beautiful passages from Ambrose de Poenit. II. 10, and Tertullian, de Poenit. c. 10.
Ambrose: “Let thy mother the Church weep for thee, let her wash and bathe thy faults with her tears: our Lord doth love that many should become supplicants for one.” The reference is to voluntary penitents, who openly repented and confessed.
Tertullian: “Some few assembled make a Church, and the Church is as Christ Himself; when thou dost therefore put forth thy hands to the knees of thy brethren, thou touchest Christ, it is Christ unto whom thou art a suppliant; so when they pour out their tears over them, it is even Christ that taketh compassion; Christ which prayeth when they pray: neither can they be easily denied, for which the Son Himself is contented to become the suitor.” The reference is still to voluntary penitents.
On private confession, Hooker asserts and afterwards proves his assertion that the practice was unknown in the earliest and purest ages of the Church. “I dare boldly affirm, that for many hundred years after Christ the Fathers held no such opinion; they did not gather by our Saviour’s words any such necessity of seeking the priest’s absolution from sin, by secret and (as they now term it) sacramental confession: public confession, they thought necessary by way of discipline, not private confession, as in the nature of a sacrament, necessary.” Eccl. Pol. IJames Jam_5:4; Jam_5:6.—M.].
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jam_5:7-12. Christian long-suffering immeasurably different from stoical insensibility.—The Lord’s coming a consolation to the godly, a terror to the ungodly.—What the Christian, and especially the minister of the Gospel, may learn from the husbandman.—“Behold, the husbandman” etc. an excellent text for missionary discourses; waiting for the Lord should be 1, desired, 2, patient, 3, active, and 4, hopeful.—Rainy seasons must precede the day of harvest both in the kingdom of nature and in that of grace.—Christians, if opposed, should not groan against one another, but pray so much the more to God the Lord.—The witnesses of the truth at once the patterns of its professors.—The blessedness of the suffering; 1, the worth it possesses; 2, the price at which it is acquired.—The end of God’s ways a blessing to His people.—Lawful and unlawful use of oaths.—Christian love of the truth in relation to an unholy world.
Starke:—A Christian patiently waits for the harvest of the promised riches of eternity, while meanwhile the early rain and the latter rain of the grace of Jesus Christ moistens and refreshes his often weary heart.
Hedinger:—Hope sows the seed and calmly sleeps on the pillow of Divine Providence until the time of harvest, i.e. of a gracious answer, Jam_5:7. Psa_28:7.
Quesnel:—O sinner, how many iniquities dost thou commit behind the door, in secret. But behold, the Judge standeth at the door, Isa_29:15.
Cramer:—We are not better than our fathers (1Ki_19:4); therefore the prophets and patriarchs, Christ and His Apostles teach us not only by words but by their deeds to be patient, Lam_3:26.
Langii op.:—Suffering and patience are well conjoined, for the sufferings which we endure for God and for conscience’ sake, differ most from other sufferings in patience, 1Co_4:12.
Osiander:—The virtues of the saints are shown us in Holy Scripture, not that we may only marvel at them, but that we may imitate them, Heb_13:7.—God had also besides the Jewish people those who were His, who served Him in spirit and in truth. The Church of God is therefore not tied to a particular people or sect, Job_1:1.—God will not remember the sins of believers (Isa_43:25), but always the good which they have done (Mat_25:35).—Oaths should not be lightly used nor become habitual to us; yet nothing is less thought of in the world than this most important matter.
Stier:—The whole period of the world’s duration with its thousands of years of mankind upon earth is a mighty sowing for the final harvest in which the earth, having received its seed from heaven, is to give its fruit to heaven. At the harvest we shall understand the ways of God. If many things are dark and confused to us now, let us wait only for the time of the ripening! This applies to every individual in respect of this life’s day of grace, it applies in its highest and best sense to the true Christian who really lives for eternity. There passes throughout all Christendom, there lives in the hearts of all saints a constant presentation [i.e. making present—M.] of the end, and this is right; for the coolness with which we now reflect and consider and remove the last day to an indefinite distance, is rather a consequence of lukewarm faith, of love grown cool.—
Jam_5:10. We learn from this word, as we do here from James, that Job did really live like Noah, Daniel and all the prophets, and that the history of his sufferings is not a didactic poem, but genuine history. At that time indeed most people had only heard of him, for reading was then the prerogative of the learned, and even these had only in rare instances all the books of Holy Writ. Have we indeed read the book of Job aright? “A word, a man”—this [German] proverb alas has almost ceased to be true, and keeping one’s word has fearfully decreased among men, because lightness has increased. Would that it could be said everywhere at least “A Christian, a word” [i.e. a Christian, who pledges his word, should attach to it the sanctity of an oath.—M.].
Jakobi:—Swearing is also still common amongst us and in order to guard against its abuse, Christian authorities have taken the oath under their supervision and, as it were, under their protection. But that oaths are so often required by the authorities, that most people, if required, take them lightly and thoughtlessly, that they are eager to take an oath in order to gain perchance some little advantage, that so many oaths and oathlike phrases are heard in common life, that the simple yea and nay without the confirmation of an oath have in many things and with many men almost lost their power and value, all these are so many sad and suspicious symptoms of wide-spread untruthfulness and unreliability.
Viedebandt:—Patience in view of the blessed future in store for them, strengthening the heart against the temptation to impatience and murmuring, and particularly to a vengeful groaning against the oppressor, this is the task of the followers of Christ and of the saints of God whose life bears testimony to God, who never leaves His own, in patience and hope that is not deceived.
Neander:—Every word should be to the Christian what an oath is to others; there is no need of oaths, therefore, among true Christians, because each holds his word sacred and all reciprocate among themselves the assurance that the word of each is tantamount to an oath. Thus it ought to be in a truly Christian congregation, wherein all mutually know one another as genuine Christians.
Heubner (on Jam_5:7-8):—A passage for the ecclesia pressa, militans.—
(Jam_5:10). Examples are peculiarly effective to strengthen us in suffering. They show us 1, the possibility of endurance, of victory by means of the strength of God; 2, the glory, the reward of those who have ended their warfare.
Lisco (on Jam_5:7; Jam_5:11):—What exhorts us Christians to be patient in tribulation?
Jam_5:12. Swear not lightly !—
Porubszky (on Jam_5:7-9). The coming of the Lord in the light of our time. (on Jam_5:10-11). Our gain from the sufferings of Christ (!!)—(on Jam_5:12). Veracity the result of the fear of God.
Jam_5:7-8. Text for the harvest feast [Thanksgiving Day in U. S.—M.]. Wolf: Every earthly harvest-feast should renew our sense of the value of the hope of heaven.
(Jam_5:7-11. Epistle for the 24th Sunday after Trinity in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and elsewhere).
Gerok:—Three approved domestic remedies in adversity.
Böckel:—Encouragement to the dignified endurance of undeserved sufferings.—The power of a good example.—
(On Jam_5:13-20). Joy and grief must be sanctified by religion.—The power of prayer under suffering.—Christian rejoicing in God.—The Christian on the sick-bed.—The sick should send for the presbyter and not always expect him to come uncalled.—On the gift of miracles in the primitive Church.—The cause of its disappearance.—Duty and blessing of mutual confession of sins.—The confessio auricularis a caricature of the brotherly confession in the time of James.—The forgiveness of sins a chief requisite for the sick.—Intercession a duty of Christian love. 1. How much belongs to it. 2. How much is wanting in it!—Elias a teacher of prayer. We see in him a righteous man who 1, prays; 2, prays earnestly; 3, whose earnest prayer availeth much.—He that is saved himself should seek to gain others also.—The true Christian 1, is able; 2, is bound to; 3, and will save souls from death.—Saving brotherly love: 1, how much it costs; 2, how richly it recompenses.
Starke: Quesnel: The use of spiritual songs is greater than is thought. Psa_69:31-32.
Cramer:—It should be our first business in sickness to turn to God and have prayers offered for us, then send for the physician.
Starke:—Maladies are the fruits of sins. Poor man, if thou hast spent the days of thy health in the service of sins, be not surprised if thy Creator takes hold of the rod of sickness in order to lead thee to better thoughts, Lev_26:15 etc.—If you have offended or vexed others, be not ashamed to confess it.
Hedinger:—The prayer of the righteous availeth much, yet not everything. For God often sees that the granting of our prayers would be contrary to His will, nor salutary to ourselves, and it is often a great blessing, although not generally recognized, that God refuses to grant our requests. 2Co_12:8-9.
Starke:—God is so good that He does not always keep His power to Himself, but often equips also His children with it, Php_4:13.
Quesnel:—God gives us fruitful seasons and they are kept up by prayer, Act_14:17.
Starke:—As the salvation of the soul is infinitely more precious than that of the body, so much the more is God pleased if we do more for our neighbour in the concerns of his soul than in those of his body, Heb_3:13.
Hedinger:—Be not more merciful to thy neighbour’s ox and house than to his precious soul. That thou pullest out of a well, this, if on fire, thou puttest it out, but thou dost not counsel his soul in brotherly reproof though it fall into hell and burn in the most dreadful flames of sin. Those who love God promote also their neighbour’s salvation and lead the blind on an even path, 1Th_5:14.
Langii op.:—Teachers are bound first and mostly to observe that which is the duty of all Christians, to wit, the real instruction of their hearers, 2Ti_2:24.—Hearers are greatly honoured if God counts them worthy to become also the spiritual fathers of spiritual children, 1Th_5:11. If a woe is uttered on those who ruin others (Mat_18:7), what will be the reward of grace to those who have been the instruments of God in the conversion of others! Dan_12:3.—Blessed is the man who is ready to be admonished and to be speedily turned from his error. He who thinks that in this respect others have no right to speak to him, robs himself of the blessing which he might obtain through others.
Stier:—Human song is of itself good and noble. The same God, who gave to the fowls of the air the voice with which they unconsciously praise Him, gave song to man. We remember how e.g. Luther rightly extols the science and gift of song. Who has received it, let him rejoice, who lacks it, let him seek, if possible, to waken it, for it is a good gift of the Creator which generally belongs to human nature.—Would that our present presbyteries did consist of men who understood something more than to keep accounts! [Stier is a Presbyterian—M. ]—Every Christian should be to his brother Christian a priest who receives the confession and dispenses the absolution.—(Jam_5:19-20). The greatest want and the greatest work of faith.—The Lord alone can help, deliver, and save the souls. But He does it and uses for that purpose instruments of His power, vessels of His grace. Hence the Scripture hesitates not to attribute to us miserable sinners the salvation of our fellow sinners. The Apostle labours to save some among His people, Rom_11:14. To Timothy, the bishop, he promises: “In doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” 1Ti_4:16. In like manner he refers to a wife that may save her husband, and to a husband that may save his wife, 1Co_7:16. Yes, brethren, we may save one another, help one another from death to life: this is truly a great, the greatest and most precious promise of the rich grace of God to our poor soul.
Jakobi:—Among our Christian brethren of another communion, from whom separated three hundred years ago for liberty’s and conscience’ sake, the use of anointing with oil, recommended in our text, has been retained, and a devout sick man among them cannot rest until he has received this extreme unction at the priest’s hands. Now although we cannot help seeing in this practice a complete misapprehension of these words of Holy Writ and a lamentable superstition, have we not, we ask, gone similarly astray, while there continues among us the sad evil habit of celebrating the Lord’s Supper in so unconscious a state and of considering the taking of it immediately before death to be necessary, after the Holy Table had often before been unfrequented for years?
Neander:—To excite more than one to repentance of a single sin, and thus to pave his way towards obtaining the forgiveness of one sin, is to draw him away from the whole sinful bias of his life and to restore in him the state of a new, Divine life. Thereby many sins, which plunged him into his former course, are covered.
Viedebandt:—Pray for one another. Such a precept is not found in the catechism of worldly friendship. Alas, how much ungodly friendship. It is like thorn-hedges which have grown the one into the other, united as it were in order to pierce and to tear. Noxious bind-weed!—while the soul is tied, prayer is tied also. Patience in suffering flows from hope for joys.
von Gerlach: (Jam_5:13).—Sadness and gladness are alike dangerous to the Christian; the devil takes advantage of every strong emotion to draw him away from God. Prayer and praise act like weapons against him.—
Heubner (Jam_5:13):—The value of spiritual songs as compared with worldly songs (Jam_5:15). Faith is the soul of prayer: without that it is faint and dead.—Prayer is one of the most glorious expression of free-will.—We also, like Elias, may pray for temporal things—(Jam_5:19-20). The infinite value of a human soul.—
Lisco: (Jam_5:13-18).—Of the abuse and the right use of the name of God.—Several Christian rules of life.—Prayer 1, in all the situations of life, 2, especially with the sick, 3, availeth much.—(Jam_5:19-20). Loving care for the conversion of sinners.—The blessed occupation of saving souls: 1, the motives that should prompt us; 2, the manner how we should set to work; 3, the blessing that attends it.
Porubszky:—True cheerfulness.—Faith gives health.—Of the fruit of prayer.—The conversion of sinners the most laudable work of faith.—
[Jam_5:10. Jortin:—History sacred and secular shows us men naturally as weak as we are, liable to the same temptations of vanity, conceit, pride, sensual affections, fear, wrath, envy and malice, yet conquering these foes to their salvation. They had as quick a sense of pleasure and pain, of love and aversion, of profit and loss, of plenty and poverty, of honour and dishonour, as we; and yet they overcame the world by their faith, and by the influence of true religion upon their minds. They had indeed the Divine assistance to strengthen their infirmity; and so may we, if we seek it as they did.
Jam_5:11. Bp. Sanderson:—Job held out in his patience under his great trial unto the last: and God out of pity and in His tender mercy towards him, heaped comforts upon him at the last in great abundance. It would be well worthy of our most serious meditation, to consider both what by God’s grace he did, and how by God’s mercy he sped. His example in the one would be a good pattern to us of patience: and his reward in the other a good encouragement for consolation. This we may rest upon as a most perfect truth, that if we do our part, God will not fail on His.
Jam_5:14. Nedarim p. 40, 1. “Rabba, as often as he fell sick, forbade his domestics to mention it for the first day: if he did not then begin to get well, he told his family to go and publish it in the highways, that they who hated him, might rejoice: and they that loved him, might intercede with God for him.”
Rabbi Simeon in Sepher Ha Chayim said: “What should a man do, who goes to visit the sick? Ans. He who studies to restore the health of the body, should first lay the foundation in the health of the soul.” The wise men have said, “No healing is equal to that which comes from the word of God and prayer.” Rabbi Phineas, the son of Chamma, has said, “When sickness or disease enters into a man’s family, let him apply to a wise man, who will implore mercy in his behalf.”—M.].
Footnotes:
[7] Jam_5:7. [1 Rec. A. K. L. al. insert ὑέτον before πρώϊμον; Cod Sin. inserts τόν καρπόν (τόν improb.) before πρώϊμον.—M.]
Lange: Be patient therefore [endure], brethren, … having patience with reference to it, till it hath received the early and the latter rain.
[ … being patient over (Alford) it, untill it shall have received.…—M.]
[8] Jam_5:8. [2 Cod. Sin. L. al. insert οὖν after μακροθυμήσατε.—M.]
Lange:. … . strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is nigh.
[ … stablish …, because the coming …—M.]
[9] Jam_5:9. A. B. Lachm. Tischend. place ἀδελφοί before ἀλλήλων. [Cod. Sin. κατὰ ἀλλήλων.—M.]
[10]A. B. K. L. [Cod. Sin.—M]. al. read κριθῆτε for κατακριθῆτε.
[11] Rec. omits not ὁ κριτής (as Huther asserts), but ὁ sustained by A. B. K. L. [Cod. Sin.—M.] al.
Lange: Groan (sigh) not … that ye be not judged … before the doors.
[Murmur not, brethren, … that ye be not judged. …—M.]
[12] Jam_5:10. Rec. K. L. al. insert μου before ἀδελφοί, omit A. B.—Rec. has τῆς κακοπαθείας before ἀδελφοί but A. B. K. L. al give ἀδελφοί first.
[13] James 5 :. Rec. K. L. al. insert μου before ἀδελφοί, omit A. B.—Rec. has τῆς κακοπαθείας before ἀδελφοί but A. B. K. L. al give ἀδελφοί first.
[14]ἐν found in B [Cod. Sin.—M.], adopted by Lachmann, is wanting in A. G. K. al.
[15] [ Cod. Sin. reads καλοκαγαθίας for κακοπαθείας.—M.]
Lange: Take, brethren, as an example of suffering evil and of patience the prophets who have spoken in virtue of the name of the Lord.
[Take, my brethren, … of affliction and patience. …, who spoke in …—M.]
[16]Jam_5:11. Lachmann for ὑπυμένοντας reads ὑπομείναντας A. B. Vulg. al. Cod sin. ὑπομίναντας.
[17]ἴδετε A. B. G. al. Tischend. [Alford], through an exegetical mistake appears to have been changed into εἴδετε Rec. B al. and adopted by Lachmann.
[18] ὁ κύριος omit G. K. al. Tischendorf; A. B. insert it, but B omits the Article. This ὁ κύριος was probably omitted, because it was held to be superfluous after the preceding κυρίου (Hnther).
Lange: Behold, we count happy the sufferers who did endure.—Ye have heard of the endurance of Job and look at the end [the consummation] of the Lord. For very compassionate is the Lord and merciful.
[Behold, we count happy them that endure.… See also the end of the Lord [of His dealings with him]: because the Lord is very pitiful and merciful.—M.]
[19]Jam_5:12. [Cod. sin. has πάντων οὗν.—M.]
[20][Cod. Sin. reads ἤτω δὲ ὁ λόγος for ἤτω δὲ Rec.—M.]
[21] [Luther’s rendering “into hypocrisy” arose from the less authentic reading εἰς ὑπόκρισιν Rec. G. K. al. But A. B. Vulg. al. fix the reading ὑπὸ κρίσιν.
Lange: But above all things, my brethren, swear (conspire) not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth.… But let your (Sinait.: ὁ λόγος) yea be a yea, and your nay a nay, that ye fall not under judgment.
[ … . that ye fall not under judgment.—M.]
Jam_5:13. Lange: Does affliction happen to any among you?…, is any cheerful, let him sing praise.
[Is any among you in affliction?… Is any cheerful?…—.M.]
[22] Jam_5:14. [16 Insert τοῦ before κυρίου Rec. K. L. omits B, which also omits κυρίου.—M.]
Lange: … let him call to himself … [let him call for …—M.]
Jam_5:15. Lange: And the prayer of faith shall help the sick … it shall be forgiven him.
… save (heal) the sick man; … M.]
[23]Jam_5:16. A. B. K. [Cod. Sin.—M.] Vulg. al. Lachmann [Alford] insert οὗν.[Rec. omits it.—M.]
[24]τὰς ἁμαρτίας A. B. [Cod. sin.—M.] al. Lachmann; τα παραπτώματα G. K. al. Tischendorf [Alford.—M.]
[25] A. B. προσεύ χεσθε; [Rec. εὔχεσθε.—M.]
Lange: Confess, therefore, your sins to one another, and pray for one another … The prayer of a righteous man, inwardly effectual [efficiency effected] availeth much.
[ … . therefore your transgressions one to another … The inwardly effectual prayer of a righteous man is very efficacious.—M.]
Jam_5:17. Lange: … of like passions with us, and he prayed a prayer that it should not rain, and it did not rain in the land for … .
[ … of like passions with us, and he prayed with prayer that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for …—M.]
[26]Jam_5:18. [20 ἔδωκεν τὸν ὑετόν Cod. Sin. A. al.—M.]
[27]Jam_5:19. Rec. G. Tischend. omit μου, A. B. K. [Cod. Sin.—M.] insert it; so Lachmann [Alford.—M.]
[28] [Cod. Sin. inserts τῆς ὁδοῦ before τῆς ἀληθείας.—M.]
Lange: My brethren, if any among you should have strayed from the truth, [Sinait: from the way of the truth] and one should convert him …
[ … be led astray from the truth and one turn him back.—M.]
[29]Jam_5:20. [22 γινωσκέτω Rec. A. K. L. Vulg. al; γινώσκετε B. Alford.—M.]
[30] ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. A. [Cod. Sin.—M.] Vulg. al. Lachmann, [A inserts τήν—M.]; Rec. B. G. K. al. read ψυχήν.
Lange: Let him know … cover a multitude of sins.
[Know ye, that he who turneth a sinner from the error of his way …—M.]
[31] The subscriptions: of James, Epistle of James; Epistle of St. James.
[Ιακωβου Β; Ιακωβου επιστολη, Α; τελος του αγιου αποστολου Ιακωβου επιστολη καθολικη Ζ.—M.]
[32]On the attempt of Rauch to prove the non-authenticity of the section Jam_5:12-20, see Gebser, p. 395.
[33]Oil in the East, where it is much better than with us, is a common and very useful remedy employed in many diseases by rubbing it into the affected parts and pouring it into wounds for the purpose of mollifying them. Cf. Isa_1:6; Mar_6:13; Luk_10:34; Joseph, de bello jud. 1, 33, 5. The balm of Gilead in particular was highly esteemed as an external application. Jer_8:22; Jer_46:11. Thus the Greek and Roman physicians also recommend poultices made of wine and oil, or vinegar and oil (Galen, de comp. medic. 2; Plin. H. N. 31, 47 etc.). Tertullian ad Scapulam informs us also that Proculus, a Christian, cured the Emperor Severus with oil. Cf. also Sheviith James 8: qui capite dolet, aut quem invasit scabies, unguat se oleo etc. Gebser, p. 403.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Be patient therefore--as judgment is so near (Jam 5:1,…
Be patient therefore--as judgment is so near (Jam 5:1, Jam 5:3), ye may well afford to be "patient" after the example of the unresisting Just one (Jam 5:6).
brethren--contrasted with the "rich" oppressors, Jam 5:1-6.
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unto the coming of the Lord--Christ, when the trial of your patience shall cease.
husbandman waiteth for--that is, patiently bears toils and delays through hope of the harvest at last. Its "preciousness" (compare Psa 126:6, "precious seed") will more than compensate for all the past. Compare the same image, Gal 6:3, Gal 6:9.
hath long patience for it--"over it," in respect to it.
until he receive--"until it receive" [ALFORD]. Even if English Version be retained, the receiving of the early and latter rains is not to be understood as the object of his hope, but the harvest for which those rains are the necessary preliminary. The early rain fell at sowing time, about November or December; the latter rain, about March or April, to mature the grain for harvest. The latter rain that shall precede the coming spiritual harvest, will probably be another Pentecost-like effusion of the Holy Ghost.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–12 5. The Christian sufferer under these wrongs pointed to…
5. The Christian sufferer under these wrongs pointed to the judgment day, Jas_5:7-11.
7. Brethren—Our apostle turns in contrast, from the rich men to the just men; from the persecutors to the persecuted. But what shall we think of commentators who are not quite sure that the rich men and the brethren are not the same!
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Be patient—To the Church in all ages the judgment seat of Christ, even though long millenniums distant, is, conceptually, near at hand. See supplementary note to Matthew 25, and note on 2Pe_3:8.
Coming—The PAROUSIA; the second advent, the day when the human race, in resurrection state, stands in the presence of its final Judge.
Observe, again, that, unlike last days, in Jas_5:3, and day of slaughter, in Jas_5:5, this Parousia has the Greek article. This indicates that the two former were indefinite events, and the last a definite. That is, the latter indicates the one well known and universally expected event, while the former are a special era for these rich men and their contemporaries.
Husbandman—As the planter fixes his conceptual eye upon the day of harvest, so do ye fix your mind’s eye upon the final reward.
Long patience—An intimation of the unknown length of the period intervening before the judgment day.
Early and latter—The word rain, though truly implied, is not, perhaps, a genuine reading. The early “rainy season” in Palestine is autumnal, extending from first of October to last of December, and even, with slight snow, into January. February brings an interval of fine weather. The latter rain is in spring, embracing March and April.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7–11. Comfort and Counsel for the Poor
7–11. Comfort and Counsel for the Poor
7. Be patient therefore] More literally, Be long-suffering. The logical sequence implied in “therefore” is that the “brethren” whom St James addresses should follow the example of the ideal “just man” of whom the previous verse had spoken. There is a terminus ad quem for that long-suffering, and it is found in “the coming of the Lord.” Here, with scarcely the shadow of a doubt, it is the Lord Jesus who is meant. St James had learned from the discourse recorded in Mat_24:3; Mat_24:37; Mat_24:39, to think of that Advent as redressing the evils of the world, and he shared the belief, natural in that age of the Church, that it was not far off. It had already drawn nigh (Jas_5:8). The patient expectation of the sufferers would not be frustrated. We see that the hope was not fulfilled as men expected, but we may believe that even for those who cherished it, it was not in vain. There was a judgment at hand, in which evil-doers received their just reward, and which made glad the hearts of the righteous.
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hath long patience for it] The verb is the same as that just translated “be patient.” Better, perhaps, is long-suffering over it, as implying a kind of watchful expectancy. The prevalence of a long-continued drought in Palestine when St James wrote (see note on Jas_5:16) gave, we can scarcely doubt, a very special emphasis to his words of counsel.
until he receive the early and latter rain] The MSS. present a singular variety of readings, some giving “rain,” some “fruit,” and some no substantive at all. “Rain” gives the best meaning. The “early rain” fell in the months from October to February; the latter, from March to the end of April. Comp. Deu_11:14; Jer_3:3; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23. An ingenious allegorising interpretation finds in the “early” rain the tears of youthful repentance; in the “latter,” those of age.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 (7) Be patient.—The third, and last, part of the…
(7) Be patient.—The third, and last, part of the Letter commences here with these exhortations towards endurance.
Therefore—i.e., because of this your deep and abiding misery, be sure God’s help is nigh:—
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“The darkest hour is on the verge of day.”
“Out of your stony griefs” build, like Jacob of old, a house of God (Gen_28:19), whereunto you may run and find refuge. If there be wrath laid up in store for the oppressor, great is the coming peace of the oppressed.
The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it . . . Be ye also patient.—It becomes you, the just, to bear with the unjust till God work the end of your trial, and prove them at the same time. Again and again, through several verses (Jas_5:7-11), St. James repeats his advice, emphasising it with various reasons: the nearness of deliverance; the Judge standing at the gate; the example of the prophets—persecuted by men, and therefore blessed of God; the hope of those who endure—Job for example: the very faithfulness and tender mercy of the Lord, bringing all things to a perfect end. Few ideas are more startling (is a reflection of Dr. Evans) than those produced by the strange combinations in Scripture. Matters are joined there which we mostly put asunder here, speaking of them, at least, as apart. And thus we read in the Revelation (Jas_1:9) of the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. But all Christians are citizens of a patient kingdom; the King thereof is more patient, as He hath greater need of patience than His subjects, and He is patient, because He is strong. Impatience is a sign of weakness. God can afford to wait, for His time is eternity. And we can be strong in His strength, and wait also in patience. In so far as St. James’s hearers were earthly minded, they could not learn this lesson; so often with ourselves we would have our wrong righted instantly, and to the full. Only one view of life can alter this, viz., the lifting of our gaze from earth to heaven, remembering that “the time is short” (1Co_7:29).
The early and latter rain.—It is, perhaps, just as well to recollect there were only two seasons of rainfall in the Holy Land, and, if long delayed, famine was a certain result. With the change of the Israelites from pastoral life to agricultural, the malignity of these dearths was lessened; but they were and are still severe. The Bible mentions many such—e.g., in the days of Abraham (Gen_12:10), Isaac (Gen_26:1), Jacob (Gen_42:2), Ruth (Jas_1:1), Samuel (2Sa_21:1), Ahab (1Ki_18:2). The “early rain” fell during the autumn sowing—in October, November, and December; “the latter” in March and April. By many versions the word “rain” is omitted, but, of course, was always intended.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Vers. 7-20. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS
Vers. 7-20. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS
(1) TO PATIENCE (vers. 7-11);
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(2) AGAINST SWEARING (ver. 12);
(3) TO PRACTICAL CONDUCT IN HEALTH AND IN SICKNESS (ver. 13, etc.).
Vers. 7-11. Exhortation to patience.
Be patient therefore. In his concluding remarks St. James reverts to the point from which he started. (comp. Jam_1:3, Jam_1:4) Makroqumein is here given a wider meaning than that which generally attaches to it. As was pointed out in the notes on Jam_1:3, it ordinarily refers to patience in respect of persons. Here, however, it certainly includes endurance in respect of things, so that the husbandman is said makroqumein where we should rather have expected uJpomenein. (cf. Lightfoot on Col_1:11) Unto the coming of the Lord (ewv thv parousiav tou Kuriou); Vulgate, usque ad adventure Domiai. The word parousia had been used by our Lord himself of his return to judge, Mat_24:3, Mat_24:27, Mat_24:37, Mat_24:39. It is also found in St. Paul"s writings, only, however (in this sense) in Thessalonians 1Th_2:19 1Th_3:13 1Th_4:15 1Th_5:23; 2Th_2:1, 2Th_2:8) and 1Co_15:23. St. Peter uses it in his Second Epistle (1:16; 3:4, 12), as does St. John. (1Jn_2:28) Behold, the husbandman, etc. Consideration, exciting to patience, drawn from an example before the eyes of all. Until he receive; better, taking gh as the subject of the verb, until it receive. The early and the latter rain. Ueton of the Received Text has the authority of A, K, L, and the Syriac Versions; a (with which agree the Coptic and Old Latin, if), karpon. B and the Vulgate omit the substantive altogether. In this they are followed by most critical editors (e.g. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort), but not by the Revisers; and as the expression, prwimon kai oyimon, without the substantive, is never found in the LXX, it is safer to follow A and the Syriac in retaining uJeton here. (For "the early and the latter rain," comp. Deu_11:14; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Zec_10:1) "The first showers of autumn which revived the parched and thirsty soil and prepared it for the seed; and the later showers of spring which continued to refresh and forward both the ripening crops and the vernal products of the field" (Robinson, quoted in "Dictionary of the Bible," 2:994).
Vers. 7-11.
Four considerations moving the Christian to patience.
1. The example of the husbandman an illustration from nature. If patience is needful in things of this life, is it not also in the world of grace?
2. The approach of the second advent.
3. The example of the prophets.
4. The example and experience of Job an instance of one whose latter end the Lord blessed more than his beginning. The nearness of the Lords advent a reason for patience. To most men the thought of the advent is a thought of warning and of judgment. St. James, following his Master"s example, makes it a thought of consolation. "When ye see these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Thus Christians may test their spiritual condition by considering whether the thought of its approach is to them one of consolation or of warning.
Vers. 7, 8.
Long-suffering in view of Christ"s coming.
These words strike one of the leading chords of the Epistle. There is no grace which its readers are more earnestly exhorted to cultivate than that of patience. In the preceding verses James has been denouncing the rich ungodly Jews. The Epistle was not addressed to them, however, but to the Christian Jews who were suffering from their oppression and cruelty. So, the apostle here resumes the ordinary tenor of his letter. He exhorts the Church to continue patient and unresisting, like the ideal "righteous one" of ver. 6. He suggests the thought that the Lord"s coming, while it would usher in the doom of the wicked rich, would also bring deliverance to his own people. The same event which their oppressors should contemplate with weeping and howling (ver. 1) would be to the righteous a joyful jubilee.
I THE EXHORTATION. (Vers. 7, 8, first parts.) To wait constitutes a large portion of religious duty. Indeed, patience is not a segment merely of the Christian character; it is a spirit which is to pervade every fiber of it. In all ages spiritual wants and trials are the same; and believers, therefore, have always the same "need of patience." To "wait upon God" is a frequent exhortation of Scripture. The cultivation of this patience is perfectly consistent with holy activity. It springs from the same root of faith from which good works spring. We show our faith not only by our active "works," but also when we "endure, as seeing him who is invisible." Again, Christian patience is to coexist along with the fullest sensibility of suffering. "Long-suffering" necessarily involves the consciousness of suffering; and so does "patience," as the etymology of the word reminds us. Christian comfort does not come to us in connection with any incapability of sorrow; it comes as the result of the subjugation of the passions, and the cultivation of complete acquiescence in the Divine will. The apostle indicates the limit of this long-suffering the coming of the Lord." What advent does this mean? To the early Hebrew Christians it meant mediately the impending destruction of Jerusalem. To us it means in like manner any interposition of Providence to deliver us from trouble, including our removal by death. But the ultimate reference, both for the early Church and for us, is doubtless to the Lord"s final advent at the close of time. Then the Savior shall appear as the Judge of all, and shall forever put an end to tyranny and wrong. The thought of that great event is surely well fitted to stablish our hearts," i.e. to strengthen them for patient endurance.
II THE EXAMPLE. (Ver. 7, second part.) As an illustration of his subject, and in order to excite the grace of patience within the hearts of his readers, James introduces an allusion to the pursuits of husbandry. Think, he says, of the long-suffering of the farmer. His is a life of arduous toils and of anxious delays. He must wait for the "early rain" in the late autumn before he can sow his seed; and for the "latter rain" in April, upon which his crops depend for the filling of the ear before the harvest ripens. This patience is necessary. Although sometimes sorely tried, it is reasonable.
The "fruit " which the farmer desires is "precious;" it is worth waiting for. And his long-suffering is also full of hope. It has been rewarded by the bounty of Providence in former years; and besides, if he be a pious man, he remembers the Divine assurance that "seed-time and harvest shall not cease." Now, says the apostle, afflicted Christians are to learn from this example a lesson of long-suffering. Trial and persecution are designed to yield an infinitely more "precious" harvest than that for which the husbandman waits. This harvest is "the fruit of righteousness fruit of the Spirit." And spiritual fruit takes far longer time to mellow than the natural harvest does. So "it is good for a man quietly to wait" for it. We have the assurance that in spiritual husbandry the ultimate reward is never disappointing. "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
III THE ENCOURAGEMENT. (Ver. 8, second part.) "The coming of the Lord is at hand." This implies, first of all, that the Lord is sure to come. While no farmer possesses an absolute certainty in reference to the harvest on his own particular farm, every one who in the spiritual sphere "sows to the Spirit" may rest assured that the day of an abundant and blessed ingathering will arrive. The Lord Jesus, who came to our world nearly nineteen centuries ago, is to come again, His second coming is the greatest event in the future of the Church. It is the pole-star of her hopes. When he appears, the spiritual harvest shall be reaped. We, accordingly, shall cherish the true spirit of long-suffering, only in so far as we "love his appearing," and realize that the purpose of it is to reward his people and take vengeance upon their enemies. It is a sign that our faith is weak, if we meditate seldom, and pray little, about our Lord"s second coming. How different was it in this respect with the apostles and the early Church! But, if the final advent was near in the first century, it is still nearer now; and in the interval what arrears of vengeance have been accumulating! It should be our comfort in the time of trouble to reflect that "the coming of the Lord is at hand." The whole New Testament Church lies under the shadow of the second advent. It will be an event of infinite moment, and therefore it is never far away. To the view of God, with whom "one day is as a thousand years," this event is nigh; and the men of faith learn to see it from God"s point of view. Compared, also, with the great eternity on the other side, the second advent seems "at hand." What an encouragement does this thought supply, in the direction of devout patience, both in working and in suffering! It should be at once a spur and an anodyne, to know that the Lord is already on his way. For, when he comes, he will reward all service, and right every wrong, and take his people home to himself. C. J.
Vers. 7-11.
The coming of the Lord.
Following the warnings for the rich, we have encouraging counsel for the poor. Yes, even the poor persecuted ones just spoken of in the previous verses. The coming of the Lord is set forth as being nigh at hand, and they are exhorted to a patient waiting till that coming be accomplished.
I THE COMING OF THE LORD.
1. Its nature.
(1) For mercy: "to them that look for him unto salvation". (Heb_9:28) So here, "the end of the Lord," etc. The "end" towards which God always works for his people is their deliverance; so shall it be emphatically then. Nor is the deliverance a cold, deliberate putting-forth of power; he is full of pity." So he saves out of the fullness of love that yearns towards the oppressed. But the pity and the deliverance are both alike "of grace," for we deserve them not; so we are reminded, in that he is "merciful.
(2) For judgment: "to them that obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath". (Rom_2:8) So here, the judge standeth," etc. The "end" towards which God is compelled to work, by the sins of men, is their judgment; so emphatically then. And the very pity of his heart becomes intenser indignation, when sin spurns his pity.
And the judgment shall be one, therefore, of accumulating penalties; judgment because they "obey not the truth;" yet heavier judgment because they obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ". (2Th_1:8)
2. Its nearness. Certainly there is a seeming nearness in the apostolic days; how shall it be explained?
(1) Actually, it was very near, the intervening time being compared with the vast eons of God"s working; so 2Pe_3:8. And even we, studying the history of the past, can view the lapse of ages somewhat according to the measurement of God.
(2) Ideally, it was near indeed to those to whom it was the one burning, glowing hope. For illustration, the parting with a much-loved friend for a separation of many years: we dwell so fondly, in the lingering farewells, on the reunion time, that all the long interval is forgotten in the absorbing hope of that better day. So Christ, parting with his disciples: I will come again". (Joh_14:3) So the disciples, looking for their Lord: his coming draweth nigh." Yes, the high mountain-peak stood out so clear and beautiful against the distant sky, that it seemed nigh, almost as one might touch it even now!
(3) Virtually, it was near. There might be many a climb before that mountain-peak should be gained, but each ascent of the intervening hills lessened the distance towards that high summit. So the successive comings " of the Lord, through all the ages, are preparing for and bringing near that advent, which shall be, after all, but the culmination of the judgments and deliverances that are proceeding now.
(4) Potentially, as has well been said, it might be even nearer then than now, for the spiritual alertness of the Church, and the rapidity of the evangelization of the world, were the fulfillment of conditions upon which depends the "hasting" of "the coming of the day of God". (see 2Pe_3:12, margin) So, then, in all these senses it might well be said, "the coming of the Lord is at hand;" "the Judge standeth before the doors.
II THE PATIENT WAITING. But as yet they must wait, and be patient in their waiting. For when the ideal of their hopes burned feeble and dull, and the weary routine of common life was oppressive to their hearts, how distant, sometimes, might that coming seem! And, seeming distant, it would actually become more distant, for their faith and work would slacken, and so his way would not be prepared. Yes, there must be a looking for their Lord, that they might rightly do his will, and also that they might patiently wait for his appearing. So, then, as regards this patient waiting:
1. Its character.
(1) Endurance of evil: one feature of the economy of redemption. Yes, "we call them blessed;" so Jam_1:2-4, Jam_1:12.
(2) Strength of heart: evil without could not touch that inward strength. In this consists the "blessedness" of the enduring. Therefore "stablish your hearts.
(3) Trust in God: a God with us now; a God working for our deliverance hereafter. Having him, we have all things; and hoping in him, we shall not be put to shame.
2. Its encouragements.
(1) The processes of nature may teach us patience: "Behold, the husbandman waiteth," etc.
(2) The prophets of grace teach the same patience: "Take, brethren, for an example," etc. And the patience manifested by them was that of men who can "suffer, and be strong;" an active patience
(3) The patience of Job is the typical example of God"s dealings, so mysterious and yet so merciful; and of man"s faith, so tossed and tried, yet cleaving to the God who, he is sure, will not forsake. One penalty of impatience and unfaith is mutual discontent: "Murmur not one against another." As against this, the reward of patient trust in God is "the peace of God," which "shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Therefore, for duty"s sake, for society"s sake, for your own hearts" sake, for Christ"s sake, "be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord;" for "yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry". T.F.L. (Heb_10:37)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11, 12 The husbandman waiteth
Jam_5:7-8
The husbandman waiteth
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Persuasives to patience
Here the apostle inculcates--
I.
A PATIENCE THAT, IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS THAT LIFE RIPENS, WAITS. This is taught in the allusion made to harvest. The husbandman waits. He waits from the season of the autumnal till after the vernal rains. These rains, and all the ripening influences of sun and earth succeed each other in unhastened order, tie waits for what is worth the waiting. To him the clusters of the grape, the sheaves of the corn, are precious fruit. And all the time he waits, he knows that the ripening process is going on.
1. The human race advances to maturity. Notwithstanding the blight of its early spring, and the many perils of all its seasons, the great Restorer points to its harvest when He says, Then cometh the end.
2. Our individual life is under the same law, the law of growth. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Every life ripens, every life tends to and culminates in a harvest. Towards it in all our seasons we are advancing. To the Christian man the produce, the result of his ever-ripening life, will be in its habits, experiences, and fellowships, a harvest of precious fruit. Even now he reads pages of his own inner history, which prove that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.
II. A. PATIENCE THAT, BY THE HOPE THAT CHRIST WILL COME, IS UPHELD. The expression of patience at which we have been looking is that of a somewhat spiritless resignation. Now we are summoned to a fortitude prepared for all that may happen. Stablish your hearts. The Septuagint uses the word translated stablish to describe the upbearing of the hands of Moses by Aaron and Hur on the mountain. Those two men sustained the prophets arms from hour to hour till the war was over, and the victory won. So there is a hope which our patience, though often like Moses hands thus heavy, may be upheld. What hope? That the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. The coming of the Lord may mean at least one of the three things:
1. His coming in some special dispensation of Providence.
2. His coming to judge the world.
3. His coming at our death.
III. A PATIENCE THAT IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRISTS PRESENCE IS UNMURMURING. The Judge standeth before the door, and though Judge, it is He who was the Man of sorrows, the despised and rejected of men. Does not His history, from the stable to the Cross, shame our murmurs? The Judge standeth before the door, and knows the circumstances and deserts of us all. Before we judge others we need that our eye should, like Christs, search souls as well as circumstances, and that our hand, like His, should weigh character as well as condition. The Judge standeth before the door, and will rightly reward our destiny. Dare we anticipate His sentence? Need we?
IV. A PATIENCE THAT IN THE SENSE OF ITS FELLOWSHIPS REJOICES. High among the heroes of the good stand the prophets. Having held communion with God, they have turned to the world of men, and charged with God-given thoughts, have stood and taught in His stead. Thus, theirs has been the dignity not of mere nobility, nor royalty, but of Divinity. Their sufferings have become as famous as their mission--so famous that we are bidden to take them as examples of suffering affliction. In our sufferings, therefore, we can look round to those that have spoken in the name of the Lord, and wonderingly ask one and another of them, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? But as eminent as their sorrows is their endurance. When we think of them we reckon them not as sad, unfortunate, pitiable. Listening to the voice that on the mountain pronounced who among men are blessed, we know that these prophets are indeed blessed.
V. A PATIENCE THAT THROUGH CONFIDENCE IN GODS CHARACTER IS ALLCONQUERING. The expression, The end of Lord, may mean one of two things, either of which reveals Him as being very pitiful and of tender mercy.
1. It may mean the termination to which God brings sorrow. For illustration of this, perhaps, Jobs name is cited.
2. Or it may mean the object of the Lord in permitting sorrows. Well has it been said that it is rough work that polishes. Look at the pebbles on the shore! Far inland, where some arm of the sea thrusts itself deep in the bosom of the land and expanding into a salt loch, lies girdled by the mountains, sheltered from the storms that agitate the deep, the pebbles on the beach are rough, not beautiful--angular, not rounded. It is where long white lines of breakers roar, and the rattling shingle is rolled about the strand, that its pebbles are rounded and polished. As in nature, as in the arts, so in the grace: it is rough treatment that gives souls, as well as stones, their lustre. The more the diamond is cut, the brighter it sparkles; and in what seems hard dealing, their God has no end in view but to perfect His peoples graces. (U. R. Thomas.)
Are missions a failure?
It is a matter of common remark that Christian missions are often looked upon somewhat coldly even by well-disposed people. The main reason for this coldness is, at least in very many cases, a mistaken estimate of what missions can be reasonably expected to achieve. Now the first point to be observed in this estimate of what missions can be expected to do, is that it is the natural product of one feature of the temper of our day. The human mind is largely influenced by the outward circumstances of the successive forms of civilisation in which it finds itself; and within the last half century railroads and telegraphs have successively altered human habits of thought in more respects than one. We assume that the rate at which we travel and send messages must necessarily have its counterpart in all meritorious forms of human effort; and in this way we accustom ourselves to regard rapidity in producing results as a necessary test of good work--a test failure to satisfy which is not easily, if at all, atoned for by other tokens of excellence. This impatience of delay in production may have its advantages in certain limited districts of activity. But is it not a mistake to assume that all forms of human effort are improved by this acceleration of pace, or, indeed, that they will adapt themselves to it? Take art, and consider the old and true saying, Time is short and art is long. Do what we will, art cannot be hurried. Even if a painter or a sculptor creates with great rapidity this or that masterpiece, the rapidity is limited to the moment of production; the real preparation which has enabled him to project the idea, and has perfected the methods of expressing it, is the work of a lifetime, and rare, indeed, are the occasions when even a great artist can produce rapidly and to order. Or take literature. As a rule, the composition of a great poem, or history, or treatise, which shall live extends over many years, not because the mechanical labour involved formally in writing out a considerable work requires a great deal of time, but especially because to produce anything that shall have on it the stamp of maturity requires time stilt more urgently--time for redressing, so far as may be possible, some defects whichnecessarily attach to the first effort at production, time to reconsider what is ill-judged, to supply what is deficient, to anticipate in some degree the sentence which an impartial posterity would pass upon a composition in its original crudity. Now, to-day, we are remarking how this impatience for immediate results which marks our time extends itself beyond those activities which are mainly or wholly human, and claims to mould and to govern undertakings in which God is the main agent, and man only Gods instrument. Only here the impatient demand is apt to meet with a different kind of reception from there. Artists and men of letters adjust their work to the temper of the day, but the Eternal Workman heeds not the varying moods and fashions of the creature whom He has made, and, in spite of the demand for rapid production, is at this hour as slow and as sure in His work as at any past time in history. A mission is essentially a work in which man counts for little, although his active exertion is imperatively necessary. In a mission, the influences which fertilise human effort, and the date at which this fertilisation shall take place, are alike in the hands of God. When this is felt, it will be felt also that an order, so to describe it, upon a given mission for so many converts, at least, within such and such time, is an indefensible thing. But St. James in the text supplies us with an illustration which may enable us to see this more clearly. What the coming of the Lord certainly means in this passage may be open to discussion. Our Lord comes to us in blessings and in judgments, and St. James may be thinking of some political or social event which would put a stop to the oppressions of which his correspondents had complained; or he may be thinking of our Lords second coming to judgment: But either coming, St. James implies, is in this respect like the natural harvest--that while mans activity leads up to it, it depends on agencies which are beyond mans control. When St. James points to the presence and operation of God in nature, every countryman in Syria would have understood him. The corn was sown in September; in October there came the early rain, which made the seed sprout; the latter rain fell, as a rule, in March or the beginning of April, in time to make the ears swell before they ripened. In a soil of remarkable fertility, but generally of no great depth, spread as it was over the limestone rock, everything depended on the two rainfalls. The husbandman could only prepare the soil and sow the seed: the rest he must leave to God; and St. James dwells on the long patience with which, as a rule, a Syrian peasant waited for the precious fruit of the earth, and for the rainfall which was so necessary to its growth. And his language illustrates an old observation, that, as a rule, people who live in the country are more religious--by which I mean more constantly alive to the presence and the working of Almighty God--than are people who live in towns. The habit of Watching God in Nature is of itself a lesson in the school of faith. If anything is clear about Gods work in nature, it is that it proceeds gradually, that it cannot be precipitated. This truth finds, perhaps, unintentional expression in the modern word of which we hear so much--evolution. One period in the earths earliest condition introduces to another; one phase of natural life leads on to the confines of another; this epoch of human history is the parent of much that first emerges to view in that--the truth being that the one presiding and controlling Mind is throughout at work, never ceasing from, never hesitating about His task, and that eternal wisdom which reaches from one end to another mightily and sweetly doth order all things. And in nature, so, as St. James implies, it is in grace. Man does his part; he sows the word of life, he prepares the soil, he plants with St. Paul, he waters with Apollos, but he can do no more, and God, who sends the early and the latter rain, alone gives the increase. So it is in the history of individuals when that great change takes place which is called conversion, whether from error to truth or from ungodliness of life to obedience of Christ. St. Augustine tells us that long before the change which was precipitated by his reading the passage in the Epistle to the Romans he had met with teachers, events, examples which had set him thinking. He put those thoughts aside, but they returned. He again dismissed them; again they came back to him. He was, in truth, ill at ease; his Manichean creed, his dissolute life were the husks on which this prodigal son long fed, but those husks had a work of disenchantment to do, though time was needed in which to do it, and at last this preparatory process was over. The hesitations, the misgivings, the yearnings, the relapses, the near approaches to grace, and the shrinkings back from grace had all come to an end; the fruit had ripened, whereby the Christian Church received the greatest of her teachers since St. Paul. And so, too, in the history of societies. It took three centuries to convert the Roman empire to Christianity, if, indeed, we may rightly so describe the numerical superiority, for it was not much more, on the part of the Christians at the end of the first quarter of the fourth century of our era. And yet even so described what a wonderful work it was! Three centuries before such a result would have seemed impossible to any man of sense and judgment. In view of these natural analogies, and of this history, let us turn once more to the modern demand that so many missionaries shall produce in such and such a time so many converts, and to the impatience, if not the indignation, which is felt or expressed if this expectation is not realised, as though something had taken place which was akin to a commercial fraud. What is this modern way of looking at missions but an endeavour to apply to the kingdom of Divine grace those rules of investment and return which are most properly kept in view in a house of commerce? Do you not see that this demand leaves God, the Great Missionary of all, out of the calculation? God has His own times for pouring out His Spirit, His own methods of silent preparation, His own measures of speed and of delay, and He does not take missionaries or the promoters of missionary societies into His confidence. He has a larger outlook than they, and more comprehensive plans, and whether He gives or withholds His gifts, of this we may be sure, in view of the truest and broadest interests of His spiritual kingdom: we appeal to His bounty, but we can but do as He bids us, and abide His time. Not that this reverent patience in waiting for Gods blessing is any excuse whatever for relaxing the zealous activity with which missionary efforts should be prosecuted by the Church of God. The husbandman does not the less plough the soil or the less sow the seed because he is uncertain whether his labour will be followed by the early and the latter rain. If he does not plough and sow he knows that the rain will be useless at least to him. It is quite possible for a secret indifference to the interests of Christ and His kingdom to veil itself under the garb of reverence, to refuse to help the work of Christian missions because we do not know how far God will promote a particular mission; but that is only one of the many forms of self-deceit which we Christians too often employ in order to evade Christian duties. Duties are for us, the results with God. (Canon Liddon.)
Waiting
I. BEHOLD THE CONTINUED AND PERSEVERING DILIGENCE WHICH PRECEDED THE EXERCISE OF THE HUSBANDMANS PATIENCE, HOW various and multiplied are his labours: he ploughed, dressed, fallowed, sowed, harrowed, his fields--and for what?--to wait until the softened furrows should allow the tender grain to sprout. Can you behold his preparatory efforts without emotion? Alas I we are verily guilty in this matter. What little diligence have we evinced--how disconnected have our toils been--how unwilling to repeat the effort, which appears pretentious!
II. MAKE THE SUBMISSIVE ACQUIESCENCE WITH WHICH HE EXPECTS THE PROMISED ISSUE OF HIS LABOURS. He, indeed, knows not which field shall best prosper, or whether both shall be alike good; but he quietly, and without distraction, waits the arrival of spring, when the tender herb shall appear. And shall he be wiser in his worldly ways than you, who are the husbandmen of the Most High? In providential concerns you are perplexed, and your fears are many; but why be careful for the morrow? Of what avail is this tumult of mind, this agitation of spirit? Under tedious delays, does this rebellion of heart do other than increase your misery? Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord; observe how the husbandman waits, how deep is the conviction that impatience will never accelerate his harvest. Moreover, in your case, your hopes are delayed by this temper. Suffer not your fears-I had almost, but for pity, said, your follies--to triumph. You are no proper judge of the length of time you have waited: every minute has been to you as an hour, or as a year. You misjudge the motive of his delay; it is, that he may commend your patience, as well as reward your labours.
III. OBSERVE THE ANXIETY WITH WHICH THE HUSBANDMAN EXPECTS THE SPRINGING OF THE CORN. Man is prone to extremes; if he may not be impatient, he thinks he must be indifferent; if he is condemned for standing still, he runs like some restive horse which will either not stir, or furiously gallop. But the farmer unites the two; though not impatient, he is far from unconcerned. Do you take an equal interest, as lively a concern, in the field you cultivate for your Great Employer? Go to the husbandman, thou careless and unconcerned parent; consider his anxieties, and be wise: recollect the domestic trust confided to you.
IV. But once more, notice the CERTAINTY characterises the patient expectation of the farmer; he waits till he receive the early and the latter rain. The expression may be considered as comprehending all the kindly and sweet influences of the heavens, which are necessary for the precious fruits of the earth; and have these ever been withheld? But the profits of our fields are not so certain, by many degrees of probability, as is the reward of grace which is ensnared by His promise who cannot lie.
1. Before we conclude, let our attention be directed to One who has towards us exemplified long patience; who has frequently come and sought fruit from us, and found none. You think much of waiting a few months for your crops; or if your desires are delayed for a year or two, prayer and effort are both discontinued. Has He not reason to expect abundant returns from you? What more could He have done for you?
2. Let me point you to those inferior husbandmen who fairly expected to have reaped from you the reward of their labours, and yet have hitherto waited in vain.
3. Should the expectations of the husbandman in reference to any of his fields fail, he will again plough up the land; and, notwithstanding a few sickly plants sprinkled here and there on the surface of the ground, sacrifice all his toils and hopes, and prepare it for another crop. Thus has the Great Husbandman dealt with the nations at large: their privileges have been taken from them, and given to such as bring forth the fruits thereof: and thus will He act towards individuals who trifle with the means of cultivation they enjoy. (W. Clayton.)
A visit to the harvest field
The earth that yields seed to the sower and bread to the eater has received its constitution from God; and it is governed through His wise providence by fixed laws that are infinitely reliable: and yet, at the same time, with such diversified conditions and minute peculiarities as may well convince us that the Almighty intended the operations of nature to supply us with spiritual instruction as well as with material good.
I. First, then, How DOES THE HUSBANDMAN WAIT? He waits with a reasonable hope for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain. He expects the harvest because he has ploughed the fields and sown the grain. Out on the folly of those who flatter their souls with a prospect of good things in time to come while they neglect the opportunity of sowing good things in the time present. They say they hope it will be well with them at the end; but, since it is not well with them now, why should they expect any change--much less a change contrary to the entire order of Providence? The husbandman waits with a reasonable hope; he does not look for grain where he has cast in garlic. Save then that thou art a fool, thou wilt like him count only on the fruit of thine own sowing. While he waits with a patient hope, he is no doubt all the more patient of the issue, because his hope is so reasonable. And not only does he wait with patience, but some stress is put upon the length of it; and hath long patience for the precious fruit of the earth. Now, our waiting, if it be the work of the Holy Spirit, must have this long patience in it. Are you a sufferer? There are sweet fruits to come from suffering t Have long patience for those peaceable fruits. You shall be brought out of your trouble when the discipline for which you were brought into it has been fulfilled. Have long patience, however, for not the first month does the husbandman find a harvest. If he has sown in the winter, he does not expect he will reap in the early spring: he does not go forth with his sickle in the month of May and expect to find golden sheaves. He waits. The moons wax and wane; suns rise and set; but the husbandman waits till the appointed time is come. Wait thou, O sufferer, till the night be over. Tarry thou a little longer, for if the vision tarry it shall come. Are you a worker? Then you need as much patience in working as you do in suffering. We must not expect to see immediate results in all cases from the preaching of the gospel, from the teaching of Scripture in our classes, from distributing religious literature, or from any other kind of effort. Be patient, O worker, for impatience sours the temper, chills the blood, sickens the heart prostrates the vigour of ones spirit, and spoils the enterprise of life before it is ripe for history. Wait thou, clothed with patience, like a champion clad in steel. Wait with a sweet grace, as one who guards the faith and sets an example of humility. Wait in a right spirit, anxious, prayerful, earnest submissive to the ways of God, not doubtful of His will. Disciple of Jesus, learn to labour and to wait. With regard to the result of Christian obedience, the lesson is no less striking. The first thing that a farmer does by way of seeking gain on his farm is to make a sacrifice which could seem immediately to entail on him a loss. He has some good wheat in the granary, and he takes out sacks full of it and buries it. You must not expect as soon as you become a Christian, that you shall obtain all the gains of your religion, perhaps you may lose all that you have for Christs sake. And, while the husbandman waits, you observe in the text he waits with his eye upward, he waits until God shall send him the early and the latter rain. None but the eternal Father can send the Holy Spirit like showers on the Church. He can send the Comforter, and my labour will prosper; it will not be in vain in the Lord; but if He deny, if He withhold this covenant blessing, ah me! work is useless, patience is worthless, and all the cost is bootless: it is in vain. Note, however, that while the husbandman waits with his eye upward, he waits with his hands at work, engaged in restless toil. He cannot push on the months; he cannot hasten the time of the harvest-home; but he does not wait in silence, in sluggishness and negligence; he keeps to his work and waits too. So do you, O Christian men I wait for the coming of your Lord, but let it be with your lamps trimmed and your lights burning, as good servants. The husbandman waits under changeful circumstances, and various contingencies. Only a farmer knows how his hopes and fears alternate and fluctuate from time to time. Yet he waits, he waits with patience. Ah, when we work for God, how often will this happen! There are always changes in the field of Christian labour. At one time we see many conversions, and we bless God that there are so many seals to our testimony. But some of the converts after a while disappoint us. There was the blossom, but it produced no fruit. Then there will come a season when many appear to backslide. Some deadly heresy creeps in, and the anxious husbandman fears there will be no harvest after all. Oh, patience sir, patience. When God shall give you a rich return for all you have done for Him, you will blush to think you ever doubted; you will be ashamed to think you ever grew weary in His service.
II. WHAT DOES THE HUSBANDMAN WAIT FOR? He waits for results, for real results; right results; he hopes also rich results. And this is just what we are waiting for--waiting as sufferers for the results of sanctified affliction. Oh that we might have every virtue strengthened, every grace refined, by passing through the furnace. And you are, also, like the husbandman, waiting for a reward. All the while till the hat vest comes, he has nothing but outlay. From the moment he sows, it is all outgoing until he sells his crops, and then, recovering at once the principal and the interest, he gets his reward, in this world look not for a recompense. You may have a grateful acknowledgment in the peace, and quiet, and contentment of your own spirit, but do not expect even that from your fellow-men. Wait till the week is over, and then shall come the wage. Wait until the sun is gone down, and then there will be the penny for every labourer in the vineyard. Not vet, not yet, not yet. The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth. This is what we wait for.
III. WHAT IS THE HUSBANDMANS ENCOURAGEMENT IN WAITING? The first is, that the fruit be waits for is precious. Who that walks through a cornfield where the crops are plentiful, but will say, Well, this was, after all, worth all the trouble and all the expense, and all the long patience of that winter which is over and gone? If the Lord should draw you near unto Himself by your affliction, if He should make His image in you more clear, it will be worth waiting for. And if, after your labours, He should give you some soul for your reward, oh, will it not repay you? We may wait, therefore, with patience, because the reward of our labour will be precious. Above all, the reward of hearing the Master say, Well done, good and faithful servant, is worth waiting for I Even now to get a word from Him is quite enough to cheer us on, though it be a soft, still voice that speaks it, but oh, the joy of that loud voice Well done. A godly husbandman waits with patience, again, because he knows Gods covenant. God has said seed time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease, and the Christian farmer knowing this is confident. But oh, what strong confidences have we who have looked to Christ, and who are resting on the faithful word of a covenant God. He cannot fail us. It is not possible that He should suffer our faith to be confounded. The covenant stands good, the harvest must come as surely as the seed time has come. Moreover, every husbandman is encouraged by the fact that he has seen other harvests. And, O brethren, have not we multitudes of instances to confirm our confidence? Let us cheerfully resign ourselves to the Lords will in suffering, for as others of His saints who went before us have reaped the blessing, so shall we.
IV. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PATIENCE? To patiently wait Gods appointed time is our business. Suppose a man should be impatient under suffering. Will it diminish his suffering? We all know that the irritability of temper which is caused by impatience is one of the difficulties which the physician has to battle with. When the patient is calm there is a better chance of his recovery. O that ye would endeavour to conquer impatience. It cast Satan out of heaven, when he was impatient at the honour and dignity of the Son of God. But the benefits of patience are too many for me to hope to enumerate them. Suffice it to say, patience saves a man from great discouragement. Expect to wait for glory; expect to wait for the reward which God hath promised; and while you are waiting on the Lord your bread shall be certain, and your water shall be sure: you shall often eat meat, thank God, and take courage. The short days and long nights shall not be all charged with gloom, but full often they shall be tempered with good cheer. When we have patience it keeps us in good heart for service. Great haste makes little speed. He that believeth shall not make haste; and as the promise runs, he shall never be confounded. Above all, patience is to be commended to you because it glorifies God. The man that can wait, and wait calmly, astonishes the worldling, for the worlding wants it now. You remember John Bunyans pretty parable of Passion and Patience. Passion would have all his best things first, and one came in and lavished before him out of a bag all that the child could desire. Patience would have his best things last, and Patience sat and waited, so when Passion had used up all his joy, and all he sought for, Patience came in for his portion, and as John Bunyan very well remarked, there is nothing to come after the last, and so the portion of Patience lasted for ever. Let me have my best things last, my Lord, and my worst things first. Be they what they may, they shall be over, and then my best things shall last for ever and for ever. There is one other respect in which our case is like that of the husbandman. As the season advances, his anxieties are prone to increase rather than to abate. In like manner we have a closing scene in prospect which may, and will in all probability, involve a greater trial of faith, and a sterner call for patience, than any or all of the struggles through which we have already passed. Perhaps I can best describe it to you by quoting two passages of Scripture, one specially addressed to workers, the other more particularly to sufferers. The first of these texts you will find in Heb_10:35-36. This is sweet counsel for thee, O pilgrim, to Zions city bound. When thou wast young and strong, thou didst walk many a weary mile with that staff of promise. It helped thee over the ground. Dont throw it aside as useless, now that thou art old and infirm. Lean upon it. Rest upon that promise, in thy present weakness, which lightened thy labour in the days of thy vigour. Cast not away your confidence. But there is something more. The apostle says, Ye have need of patience, after ye have done the will of God. But why, you will say, is patience so indispensable at this juncture of experience? Doubtless you all know that we are never so subject to impatience as when there is nothing we can do. Hence it is that after our fight is fought, after our race is run, after our allotted task is finished, there is so much need of patience, of such patience as waits only on God and watches unto prayer, that we may finish our course with joy and the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus. And what about the second text? Turn to Jam_1:4. Seemeth it not as though patience were a virtue par excellence which puts the last polish on Christian chastity? We will hire us back to the cornfields again: I am afraid we were forgetting them. But this time we will net talk so much with the farmer as with the crops. Knowest thou, then, what it is that gives that bright yellow tinge of maturity to those blades which erst were green and growing? What, think you, imparts that golden hue to the wheat? All the while the corn was growing, those hollow stems served as ducts that drew up nourishment from the soil. At length the process of vegetation is fulfilled. The fibres of the plant become rigid; they cease their office; down below there has been a failure of the vital power which is the precursor of death. Henceforth the heavenly powers work quick and marvellous changes; the sun paints his superscription on the ears of grain. They have reached the last stage; having fed on the riches of the soil long enough, they are only influenced flora above. The time of their removal is at hand, when they shall be cut down, carried away in the team, and housed in the garners. So, too, it is with some of you. The fall of the year is most thickly strewn with the fall of human life. You have long been succoured with mercies that have come up from mother-earth; you have been exposed to cold dews, chilling frosts, stormy blasts; you have had the trial of the vapoury fog, the icy winter, the fickle spring, and the summer drought; but it is nearly all over now. You are ready to depart. Not yet for a brief space has the reaper come. Ye have need of patience. Having suffered thus far, your tottering frame has learnt to bend. Patience, man--patience! A mighty transformation is about to be wrought on you in a short space. Wait on the Lord. Holiness shall now be legibly, more legibly than ever, inscribed on your forefront by the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness. The heavenly Husbandman has you daily, hourly, in His eye, till He shall say to the angel of His presence, Put in your sickle. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Be ye also patient
Christian waiting
I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIAN WAITING.
1. Christian waiting follows conscientious effort. It is not until we have striven to do our duty in Divine strength; it is not until we feel ourselves hemmed in, unable to take another step, that we are to stand still and see the salvation of God. The apostolic injunction is: Having done all, to stand. It is not until we have laboured that we are to learn to wait. To act otherwise would be to play the part of a farmer who may be waiting for a harvest before he has sown the seed.
2. Christian waiting is an outcome of faith. Faith in the Divine promises, fidelity, ability, and love.
3. Christian waiting is patient. It is a state in which fluttering and murmuring have no place; it is a state in which there is dignified self-restraint, and sweet acquiescence to that will which is recognised to be infallible, sovereign, and good.
4. Christian waiting is expectant. It is ever on the outlook. An attendant, who was asked to wake a visitor in time to meet an appointment, was lingering hard by for the purpose, when some one exclaimed, What, sitting here and doing nothing! No, was the quick reply, I am busy waiting. The man who is truly waiting for the salvation of the Lord is busy waiting--busy like one waiting for the day-dawn, or like one waiting to take the tide at the flood.
5. Christian waiting is necessary. God does nothing hurriedly. Did the earth, with her hills and vales, lakes, rivers, and seas, dark mines, and gigantic rocks, reach her present state in swift transactions? Did Jesus sweep down from the heavens as the Saviour of man immediately He was promised? Is human life rapid in its physical, mental, and spiritual growth? The development of that which is great cannot be forced. Perfection is not reached in a leap.
II. THE ENCOURAGEMENT BY WHICH CHRISTIAN WAITING IS HERE ENFORCED. The farmer is encouraged to wait by the thought that every sunrise prepares for, and accelerates the gleeful reaping time. So the believer is incited to wait for Christ by the assurance that His coming draweth nigh.
1. His coming in some signal dispensation of Providence may be nigh. If there is no longer a needs be for our waiting, we may be sure that He will speedily come to crown our temporal and spiritual efforts with appropriate success; to solve perplexing problems; to deliver from envy, slander, oppression, and to satisfy the desires which He Himself has kindled.
2. His coming at the end of the world may be said to be nigh. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
3. His coming at our dissolution may be said to be nigh. It cannot be far distant from any one of us; every clock-tick and pulse-beat hastens it. (E. H. Palmer.)
Christian persistence
When men have entered upon a religious experience, or a religious life, they are warned that there are perils in that life or experience--especially the peril of getting tired of it; of losing interest in it; of having their enthusiasm waste away like a summers brook, and die like a fugitive cloud. Weariness may take on either of three forms--that of simple fatigue, that of discouragement, or that of disgust. Now,there are no callings in life that are continuous in which we do not experience weariness in the first form--that of fatigue; and rest is the cure for it. We get tired of daily tasks--especially those that consist in bearing heavy burdens and responsibilities; and the night is a blessed relief to those who perform them. But then come the other forms of weariness--namely, discouragement, want of hope, and disgust, aa inexplicable state of mind which oftentimes drives a man to the other extreme, so that he loathes things that once were attractive to him, and not only renounces his purposes, but stands in direct antagonism to the very ends that before he sought violently to serve. I shall speak of some of the occasions on which this weariness and this reaction take place, and of some of the causes which produce them. Weariness often takes place in regular and necessary business life--especially where our avocations are not such as minister pleasure. We should seek as far as possible to reduce that which is necessary in our daily calling to a pleasure. Although there are some things that can scarcely be made pleasurable, yet to a far greater extent than men believe it is possible to subdue to liking things that are not naturally likable. There are odours that are intolerable when we regard them with disgust, but that, nevertheless, when we dwell by them day by day, if we have rational minds, we may come to so regard as to overcome our repugnance to them. And if one man can do it, another can. Tasks that are disagreeable should first be essayed. To all those who have a wearisome life; to all those who have mixed responsibilities to all those who are obliged to have anxiety; to all those who are compelled to bear these things in bodies enfeebled by disease, or in bodies whose nervous organisation has been very much supplanted, there is this exhortation: Be not weary in well doing. In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not. If by complaint, if by repugnance, if by weariness, you could change your affairs for the better, it would be different; but you make them worse by these things; and discretion, as well as the exhortation of revelation, points out the true any Be bold, be patient, be not weary, continue instant in season and out of season. Follow these directions, and in due time ye shall have relief. Then a still more critical weariness comes upon persons who, having set before them a vivid notion of their faults and failings, attempt to shape their whole character to a higher pattern and to live their whole life on a higher plane. There is nothing harder than to rise from any level where we have permitted ourselves to spread, out to a higher level. We hug the sphere in which we have invested the most of ourselves; and when we are called to forsake it and to go up to a higher level it is a thing of displacency; and we do it with the utmost fatigue and reluctance. Yet, every man should set his face against the ruling of lower tendencies; and should determine to measure himself by, a higher standard; and when a man, carrying out these purposes in succession, finds himself attacking pride, besieging vanity, doing battle with lusts, and passions, and appetites, he has a campaign on his hands which may very well breed weariness and discouragement, for many and many of the tendencies of our nature are like streams which seem to dry up in summer, but which come Booming again in spring when the rains descend upon the mountains; and where we thought we had achieved victories we find ourselves quite overthrown and swept away. In some respects it is true that men are worse when they begin to be better: The conflict with morbid nature with unwholesome nature is disturbing. Therefore men who attempt to carry out the rule of righteousness with temperance often find themselves very tired of sitting and watching at the door of the mouth, and saying, Let your moderation be known [be made apparent] to all men. They forget, they relax vigilance, they faint; and the inordinate appetite which they have striven against for days and weeks at once overtakes them, and they are swept away; and in looking back, when they examine the tendencies of anger, and irritableness, and envy, and jealousy, and avarice in the actual strifes of life, when they think of their relations to others, and of the relative conditions of others and themselves, and when they, from year to year, mark whether they grow in grace or not, it is not strange that weariness and discouragement come over men. Then there is weariness in our social duties and relationships. In days of sickness, in days of labour, and especially in days of poverty, when one can almost say, Heart and flesh have failed, is it strange that there is discouragement? And is there no need of the injunction, Be not weary in well doing? and of the promise, In due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not? When dealing, not within the sacred precincts of the family, but in our relations with those around us--with our neighbours, of every clime, of every disposition, of every kind of education, and of every temperament--an amount of forbearance, of patience, of gentleness, of wisdom, and ofgoodness is required that cannot be measured in words. And when it becomes necessary to co-operate for the public good, or for the good of special classes or conditions of men, human nature is a thing that torments the patience. It is hard to bear with men, and it is hard to bear with them just in the proportion in which they are strong and multiform in their nature. We are disposed to be weary in doing good to others, so slow is the result of anything we undertake in developing itself, so unfruitful is this result, and so material and uninteresting are people. Is it the work of charity? To do good among those who need you most--the poor and the ignorant--will require all the patience, all the gentleness, all the self-denial that you can command. All men, therefore, who go out into the community as reformers should bear in mind the difficulty of managing human nature, and should remember that reformation is effectual only in proportion as it touches the fundamental wants of men. The temperance reformation is slow, is intermittent, and has its reactionary periods, because it strikes at the very strongest passions and appetites which exist in human life. It is an attempt of goodness to overcome badness. It is a promiscuous campaign carried on by all sorts of men. And the marvel is not that it is so slow, but that it is so fast, and that there is so much in it that is permanent. To the end of life and society, however, the work of temperance will be a thing to be done over and over again; and every generation will have to go through precisely the same process. Yet men must not be discouraged nor faint. Then, other men grow weary on account of injudicious labours, on account of undertaking too much, and on account of constantly attempting to work from wrong standards in themselves. Many a man works from the impulse of praise; and as long as he is praised, not to say flattered, he is encouraged, and works cheerfully; but when the praise ceases he begins to grow weary and discouraged, and it seems to him as though life had lost its savour. Others work from the feeling of pride; and so long as that feeling is gratified, and men look up to them, and show them difference, and submit to their control, they are buoyant, and work willingly; but when the gratification of their pride ceases, and men do not yield to them any longer, and they are obliged to humble themselves before others, they grow weary. The trouble comes from the fact that they are attempting to work from the standpoint of prominence and dominance, and wish to be masters. Other men work because they have a sense of duty, and a sense of duty ought to underlie every action of their life; nevertheless, if there is nothing but a sense of duty, it is a hard master that grudges reward; for the sense of duty increases with the performance of duty. The ideal of what we should be and should do grows with actual attainment, so that a man will live for ever in the seventh chapter of Romans, if his inspiration in life is for ever an inspiration of conscience or of duty. In view of these considerations, it is not strange that so many are weary in well-doing, and we see how manifestly it is right that we should exhort men, saying, Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not. Be seed-sowers. Be husbandmen in the harvest-field. Sow and reap day by day. Sow at morning and at evening. Withhold not your hand anywhere. You know not which shall prosper, this or that, or whether both alike shall prosper; and be not weary of the work that you leave behind you; take it up again wherever you go; and in the spirit of the Master, carry blessedness, cheerfulness, hopefulness, happiness in your rounds, whether of rest, of pleasure, or of duty. (H. W. Beecher.)
The duty of expectation
In the order of the phenomena which we call natural, everybody knows that time must be taken into account, and that the impatience of men has no effect whatever upon the regular progress of things. The harvest can be expected only after a regular number of months, and when fruit-trees or plants such as the vine are to be brought to maturity, years of patient waiting are required. It is front the habit of reckoning with nature that the peasant derives his proverbial patience and his unwearied tenacity. The artisan of our cities handles matter at his will, and his task is sooner completed; nevertheless, he also knows that nothing solid or good can be produced at a moments notice. Thus it is as regards the culture of the intellect; it has its successive stages, which can neither be suppressed nor inter-vetted; the greatest of mathematicians must proceed step by step from the elements of arithmetic to integral calculus. Nothing can be absolutely improvised in this world, and, as the poet said, Time soon destroys what has been done without its aid. We all accept this law: but when the Divine works are in question, it seems to us to be out of place. On this point our opinion partly rests upon the true idea that God is above time. Now we may draw a false inference from this principle which, however, is both true and necessary: we may imagine that whatever is Divine must needs be instantaneous. It is certain, however, that Jesus Christ never encouraged this tendency; He declared that prodigies in themselves might be an effect of the evil spirit, and it is upon the moral character of His natural or supernatural works that He always insists upon most strongly. Is it not this very prejudice which leads so many fervent souls to acknowledge the action of the Holy Ghost only in those manifestations which are sudden and striking? Two equally fatal consequences follow from this conception: in the first place, disdain for the ordinary means of grace, for the regular ministry, for the institutions of the past, for the measures which assure and prepare the future. God, it is asserted, hath need of none of these. The other consequence is the impatient zeal which would hurry on the progress of souls, which exaggerates the results already obtained, sees conversions in factitious emotions, creates an over excitement which it takes for an evident effusion of the Holy Spirit, and passes the most uncharitable judgments upon those who have kept outside of this sacred contagion. Now the truth is this: It has pleased God, who Himself is above time, to act in time and by means of time. To convince yourselves of this, behold God at work, as revealed to us in Scripture; His actions will enable us to understand His purposes. God creates the world. It seems as though an instantaneous creation should have responded to an almighty will. But the Bible gives us a totally different account of our origin. In it time appears to us as the very condition of the existence of things. Everything is subject to the twofold law of succession and progress. What I say of creation may also be affirmed as regards the work of grace. If I seek the reason of the existence of all things, Scripture replies by this sublime expression: the reign of God.
Everything tends towards this end, everything is subservient to it, and the entire universe knows no other. Nevertheless, despite this decisive reason which appears to us so completely self-evident, Gods triumph is not immediate; there is a history of the reign of God. A history, that is to say, a beginning, then successive actions which prepare the final consummation; a history, that is to say, the secular, difficult, laborious development of a germ deposited in the depths of humanity. That is the substance of the teaching of Scripture; if you misapprehend it, the Word of God will be for you an eternally sealed book. God takes time into account when the destinies of His kingdom are in question. The history of Christianity is the visible realisation of this Divine plan. We must acknowledge, doubtless, that the sins, the indifference the apathy, the dissensions of Christians have manifestly contributed to this delay; but, even had the influence of these causes been null and void, the conversion of the world had not been the work of a day: the rains of the early and latter seasons must have fallen ere that magnificent harvest could be gathered in. What we say of the conquest of nations, we must also affirm of the salvation of individual souls. God might subdue them in a day; sudden and often striking conversions occur at all times to remind us of the sovereignty of grace; but these are exceptions, and in these very exceptions, a discerning eye easily detects a hidden and latent preparation. In the parable of the prodigal son, the gospel points to the successive phases of the sinners estrangement, of the awakening of false independence, of selfishness, pride, rebellion, of the intoxicating delights of passion, of the final shame and degradation, and only in this supreme hour does the distinct remembrance of the Fathers house spring up in that broken heart. For the salvation of a soul, as well as for the salvation of the world, we must learn to wait. Oh! I am not ignorant of the surprise, murmurs, and criticisms which these delays of the Divine action rouse in our hearts. Before us continually stands out that unsolvable contradiction between the notion of the Omnipotence of the good Being and the duration of evil which unceasingly braves His justice and goodness. God is patient, He tolerates the follies of human liberty until the day which He has Himself fixed upon. What He does, that must we also do. Ay, more than this; we are compelled to do this by our very position, for what is a Christian but a sinner, whom God bears with, towards whom He acts with an often extraordinary patience? I have reminded you of the duty of expectation. The expectation of faith is not inaction of the soul: it is its very opposite. We must act as though everything depended upon us, we must wait as if everything depended upon God--act, that is, accomplish the Fathers will, day by day, faithful to the duty of the present hour, without impatience, without feverish ardour, without personal ambition; wait in the immovable assurance that in all things the final victory shall be on the Lords side. (E. Bersier, D. D.)
Quieting thoughts about life
I. THERE IS A PERIOD HASTENING ON THAT WILL TERMINATE FOR EVER THE TRIALS OF THE GOOD. This period is not far off. It really takes place with the individual man at death. It emphatically draweth nigh, and emphatically may it be said to us all, The Judge standeth at the door. It is not something that is far off in the distant ages; it is all but transpiring. We shall soon have struck the last blow in lifes battle, and won the crown; heaved over the last billows in lifes ocean, and reached the desired haven.
II. THE TRIALS OF THE GOOD ARE CONGRUOUS WITH THE PRESENT STATE OF OUR HISTORY. It is a fitful spring with us--a moral April: the struggle of sunshine and shower--the genial glow and the nipping frost. It is a season of fluctuation, not settledness: outlay, not income: labour, not wages: seeds, not results. It is the season for burying the grain, not for plucking the golden ear. It is wise and well for the husbandman to labour patiently in the spring, for he has the assurance from testimony and experience that the glorious summer will reward him for his toil.
III. A MORAL ENDURANCE OF TRIALS IS ESSENTIAL TO AMIABILITY OF CHARACTER. The man who has not that patience which results from a loving confidence in the character and a loving acquiescence in the will of the Supreme Ruler, will feel an annoyance in every trial. He will pass through the trials of life, as we have sometimes seen a little cur passing through a hailstorm, barking at every step. But the man who cultivates this magnanimous quality of soul will be, in trial, like the imperial bird in the storm, when beaten down from its heavenly flight, it still keeps its wings expanded, looks calmly up, and with the first gleams of sunshine soars away into the radiant and the high again.
IV. THE GREATEST TRIALS HAVE BEEN ENDURED BY THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MEN IN HISTORY. The prophets were men of genius and of God; great in talent and in virtue, the loyal servants and moral organs of Heaven; the most majestic trees in the forest, the brightest stairs in the firmament of their race. Yet they suffered (Mat_23:37; Act_7:32). The morally great have always been sufferers.
V. TRIALS HAVE EVER BEEN THE CONDITION OF TRULY HEROIC AND HONOURED LIVES We count them happy which endure--not only because affliction tendeth to spiritual good (2Co_4:17-18), but because they are enabled by their sufferings, when rightly endured, to display the highest attributes of greatness. In the history of true men, when the sun of prosperity goes down, the brightest orbs of virtue come out to light up the moral firmament of the world.
V. ALL TRIALS BEING UNDER THE DIRECTION OF AN EVER-MERCIFUL GOD, WILL, IF RIGHTLY ENDURED, YIELD A GLORIOUS RETURN. (D. Thomas.)
Waiting upon God
The true Christian idea of waiting upon God patiently implies self-restraint, trust in God, and the exertion of superior elements of manhood. Patient waiting upon God where it exists is not only founded in intelligence, and in that faith which is the handmaid of intelligence, but it is a state of submission and sweet relinquishment of ones own urgent and importunate feelings. It is the yielding up of everything into the hands of God, with confidence that the Judge of all cannot but do justly, and that in His own time and way He will fulfil the desires of our hearts, if they be right; or, if they be wrong, He will meet our wants with things ether than those which we seek. Consider now the text: Be patient, therefore, etc. Here is the measure of the waiting. It is to continue clean through till the Lord appears; till the enigma is solved; till the mystery is cleared. Behold the husbandman waiteth, &c. There could be no more admirable analogue than this of husbandry; for there is in it the most obvious union of persistent natural laws with human activity, which bears the same relation to natural laws that the rider does to the horse. It is the horse that performs; it is the rider that steers and guides him. Natural laws, of themselves, are brute forces, wandering wide, and doing little. It is not until great natural laws, if I may say so, are inspired by human volition and human intelligence, that they become productive of good--that they know how to converge and co-operate so as to multiply blessings upon the earth. Without natural laws man is utterly helpless. Without men natural laws are largely useless. Man, knowing how to use those great physical, permanent laws, directs them to certain purposes. This combination it is that makes fruitfulness in our fields. Human strength makes natural laws productive. What are cities but the insignia of thought applied to brute and dead material? What are gardens, vineyards, orchards, grain-fields, railroads, canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, but the union of Divine natural law and human intelligence? Without the one and the other they were impossible. Human society itself is a vast museum and exhibition-hall, as it were, showing what mans nature has been able to do when it has worked upon the Divine law. See what husbandry does every year. We prepare the soil. We do not make it. It is remedy at our hand. For generations Gods mills have been grinding; the glacier and the rock have come together; the subtle water, made solid by cold, and moving per force, has ground and ground; and behold, the soil that has in it the results of the workings of cycles of centuries. Man finds it ready waiting for him. It is waiting for man as much as man is waiting for it. It is only when by his skill the plough opens the furrow, and he sows intelligently, studying the seasons, the markets, and the pressing necessities of men about him; it is only when, waiting patiently through months if it be fields of grain, or if it be orchards and vineyards through years, that he begins to find remuneration. Farmers wait, and wait patiently, and wait confidently; and their waiting is from no laggards indolence. It is from a consciousness that they have done that which, co-operating with natural law, will produce the desired results. Gods stamp is upon natural law, and it is warranted to cut, and not to fail. The farmer waits in intelligence; the sluggard waits in laziness. The farmer thrives; the sluggard degenerates. The farmer has abundance; the sluggard suffers cold in winter, and want the year round. Men who refuse to do anything in Gods vineyard oftentimes pretend to honour Gods sovereignty by waiting upon God; but who would think that he was honouring natures sovereignty by waiting on it thus? There be those who say it is presumptuous for man to put forth his hand and touch Gods work. They are afraid of interfering with the sphere of Divine authority and Divine sovereignty. It is their own spiritual indolence that leads them to wait, for no one of them that owns a ship sails that ship as he does his soul. No one of them that has a farm manages that farm in husbandry as he does his soul in spiritual things. He must know how to work who is to know how to wait. He must experience fatigue who is to appreciate the blessing of rest. He must have enterprise who is to understand the great charm of patient waiting upon God. Look, then, at the sphere in which this virtue of waiting is to operate. Bearing in mind the nature of that waiting which brings a blessing, we shall see that there is a sphere for it in our lives fully as great as there was in the eyes of those of old, though we are differently placed from what they were. We shall see, also, that one of the most common traits of a true piety is that of patient waiting. As in all the emergencies of secular life we are called to wait patiently, so we are in all the emergencies of religious life. (H. W.Beecher.)
Christian patience
Christian patience supposeth a sense of evil, and then, in the formality of it, it is a submission of the whole soul to the will of God: wherein observe--
1. The nature; it is a submission of the whole soul. The judgment subscribeth, Good is the Word of the Lord, &c. (Isa_39:8). Though it were to him a terrible word, yet the submission of a sanctified judgment can call it good. Then the will accepteth, If they shall accept the punishment (Lev_26:41); that is, take it kindly from God that it is no worse. Then the affections are restrained, and anger and sorrow brought under the commands of the word. Then the tongue is bridled, lest discontent splash over; Aaron held his peace (Lev_10:3).
2. Consider the grounds and proper considerations upon which all this is carried on; usually there is such a progress as this in the spiritual discourse.
(1) The soul seeth God in it, I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it (Psa_39:9).
(2) It seeth God acting with sovereignty, None can say unto Him, What debt Thou? (Job_9:12). And elsewhere, He giveth no account of His matters.
(3) Lest this should make the heart storm, it seeth sovereignty mitigated in the dispensation of it with several attributes. With justice. With mercy, Thou hast punished us less than we deserved (Ezr_9:13). They were afflicted, they might have been destroyed; they were in Babylon, they might have been in hell. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might keep Thy statutes. Gods faithfulness would not suffer them to want such a sweet help. With wisdom, God is a God of judgment (Isa_30:18); it is meant in His dispensations. Let God alone; He is too just to do us wrong, and too kind and wise to do us harm. (T. Manton.)
Christian patience advocated
Julius Pflugius, complaining to the Emperor, by whom he had been employed, of great wrong done him by the Duke of Saxony, received this answer--Have a little patience; thy cause is my cause. So says God to His abused. (J. Trapp.)
Patience a strength
It would be far easier, I apprehend, for nine men out of ten to join a storming party than to lie on a rack or to hang on a cross without repining. Yes, patience is a strength; and patience is not merely a strength, it is wisdom in exercising it. We, the creatures of a day, make one of the nearest approaches possible for us to the life of God who, because He lives for ever, can afford to wait. (Canon Liddon.)
Stablish your hearts
An established heart
1. Our hearts are settled in our afflictions by the sweet promises we have from God of our deliverance. David thereof saith, Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of all. In another place to like purpose, The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, He st)all be their strength in time of trouble. Therefore Almighty God saith to His people, Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.
2. As by the promises of our deliverance our hearts are settled through patience in our oppression; so also ought they to be settled in the experience we have of the power of God in the deliverance of the righteous. If we look to others, or ourselves, we shall find experience of this truth. Hath not God delivered Moses and Israel, His people, from the army of Pharaoh? What, did not God deliver David from sundry attempts of Saul?
3. Neither thus only are our hearts settled in our miseries, but also when we cast our eyes upon the crown of glory, which we shall receive, and the glorious hope whereof we shall be partakers, if we endure with patience, we should settle and quiet our minds in our miseries. Thus Paul, exhorting the Romans to settle their hearts, and in their afflictions which by the ensample of Christ they should suffer, comforting them, telleth them that the sufferings of their mortal life were not to be compared to the glory which should be revealed to the sons of God.
4. Our hearts shall the better be settled if we would consider that nothing cometh unto us but by the will of God.
5. Our hearts shall be settled in afflictions if we know the manifold uses and good ends of the afflictions which God sendeth to the saints.
6. Our hearts in affliction shall be settled if we did consider that our time of sufferings is limited, and is but short, but the time of rest, of peace, of joy, eternal.
7. If we consider that the saints in all times have suffered adversity, that Jesus Christ Himself, the Lord of Glory, hath by many tribulations entered into His glory, that we are no otherwise fellow-heirs with Him, but upon this condition that we suffer with Him.
8. Finally, our hearts in affliction are settled when we recount often the fearful judgments of God upon them which have afflicted and cruelly persecuted His Church and saints in all times. (R. Turnbull.)
The coming of the Lord draweth nigh
The approaching of Christ in the revolution of time
I. EVERY YEAR BRINGS HIM NEARER TO EVERY MAN TO TERMINATE HIS CONNECTION WITH THIS EARTH.
1. What a solemnity does this give to time.
2. What significance to death.
II. EVERY YEAR BRINGS HIM NEARER TO ESTABLISH HIS SPIRITUAL EMPIRE IN THE WORLD. Indications of His approach are multiplying and brightening as years come and go. Every true thought, every moral conversion, every true revolution in the minds of individuals and nations, announce the fact that He is coming whose right it is to reign.
III. EVERY YEAR BRINGS HIM NEARER TO WIND UP ALL HUMAN AFFAIRS ON THIS EARTH. On this wonderful day He will--
1. Stop the increase of the race.
2. Terminate the infidelities of the race.
3. Open the graves of the race.
4. Settle the destinies of the race. (D. Thomas.)
The impending hour
The feelings with which we await the coming of any person or tiling depend very much upon the nature of the person or thing advancing, or upon the fittedness to meet him or it. It is evening in a very pleasant household. There is a key heard at the front door. The children come down the stairs with a bound, clapping their hands, and shouting, Fathers coming! But disaster has entered that home. The writs have been issued. The front door bell rings, an official is about to enter, and the whisper all through the rooms of that house is, The sheriffs coming! March weather gets through scolding, and one day the windows toward the south are opened, and old age feels the flush of new life in its veins; and invalidism looks up and smiles, and all through the land the word is, Spring is coming! December hangs icicles on the eaves of the poor mans house. No wood gathered. No coal. The cracked window-pane invites the sleet to come in. The older sister, with numb fingers, attempts to tie the shoe latchet of the little brother, and stops to blow warmth into her blue hands, and the father shiveringly looks down and says, Oh, my God, winter is coming! Well, it is just so in regard to the announcement of my text. To one it sounds like a fathers, to another like an executioners, footstep. To one it is the breath of a June morning; to the other it is the blast of a December hurricane. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. I do not see how God can afford to stay away any longer. It seems to me that this world has been mauled of sin about long enough. The Church has made such slow headway against the Paganism, and the Mohammedanism, and the fraud, and the libertinism, and the drunkenness, and the rapine, and the murder of the world, that there are ten thousand hands now stretched up beckoning for God to come, and to come now. I also see a sign of the Divine advance in the opportunity for repentance which is being given to the nations. God, and angels, and men calling. Messages of salvation in the air. Telegraphs flashing the gospel news. Steamships carrying Christian ambassadors to and fro. Yes, we are on the eve of a universal moral earthquake. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. But there is a deeper stop in the organ of my text that needs to be pulled out, and that organ stop is the judgment trumpet. My text distinctly points toward that august arrival. Now, there is one secret that God has never told even to an archangel. The time when. It may come this autumn. It may come next spring. It may be farther off. I cannot tell. But the fact that such a day will come cannot be disputed. The Bible intimates, yea, it positively says, that in that last day God will come in by a flash of lightning. When the roll-call of that day is read your name and my name will be read in it, and we will answer, Here! These very feet will feel the earths tremor, these eyes will see the scrolled sky, these hands will be lifted in acclamation or in horror, when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven, with mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of His Son. It will be our trial. It will be our judge. It will be our welcome or it will be our doom. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. But my subject takes a closer grapple, and it closes in and closes in until it announces to you and to me that Christ is coming very soon to put an end to our earthly residence. The most skilful theologians may make a mistake of hundreds of years in regard to the chronology of the judgment; but it is impossible for us to make a very wide mistake in regard to the time in which Christ will come to put an end to our earthly existence. Oh, if you knew how near you are to the moment of exit from this world, do you know what you would do? You would drop your head and pray just now. If you knew how certainly the door of Gods mercy is gradually shutting against your unpardoned soul, you would cry out, Stop! till I enter. My subject closes in once more, and closes in until I have to tell you that God, who in the text is represented as drawing nigh, has actually arrived. No longer drawing nigh. He is here. Get away from Him, you cannot. Trust in Him, you ought. Be saved by Him, you may. This God who has been arriving, and who is now come; this God who has been drawing nigh, has come for one thing, and that is to save every one of you. He has come a long pilgrimage, treading over nails, and spikes, and thorns, until the sharp points have struck up through the hollow of the foot to the instep. He has come to carry your burdens, and to slay your sins, and to sympathise with your sorrows. He is here to break up your obduracy, and make you feel the palpitations of His warm, loving heart. Oh, the love of God, the love of God! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The great court of appeal
There will be a great court of appeal from all mans injustice. (Dean Plumptre.)
Importance of the end
We were, writes a Christian traveller, on a little steamer on the Volga … A young Russian officer was on board with his wife. They bad plenty of money; they seemed perfectly well; the scenery around was beautiful and the weather was fine; but, for all that, the officer looked sad and was silent. Every day, as we went on and on, he was more and more unhappy, and I soon found out the reason. He was going from home and friends, far off into Siberia. Each mile of progress brought him nearer to the cold, bleak wilderness where he was to spend many long years of banishment. And it is just so in the journey of life. If a man feels that each day he grows older only brings him nearer to a dark, unknown future, his heart cannot be really happy, even if all around seems gay. A little while afterwards I had to return to Moscow with another Russian officer. We travelled in a miserable plight, hurried over rough roads in a cart with only straw to sit on, and a few apples to eat. The scenery was dull, the weather was bitterly cold, but that officer was exulting in buoyancy and delight. He was hastening to the emperor to bear the news of a great victory, and to be decorated with an honourable reward. Even so, again, it is on lifes journey. The man who feels sure he is getting nearer the heavenly King each day he lives, and that he will be welcomed as a faithful servant of that Master who has won a victory over the enemies of God and man--this man will be happy in his heart, even in days of trial and toil, mid darkness, want, and sorrow. (Sunday at Home.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 12 Chapter 24
Chapter 24
PATIENCE IN WAITING-THE ENDURANCE OF JOB-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MENTION OF JOB BY ST. JAMES.
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Jam_5:7-11
"BE patient, therefore, brethren." The storm of indignation is past, and from this point to the end of the Epistle St. James writes in tones of tenderness and affection. In the paragraph before us he, as it were, rounds off his letter, bringing it back to the point from which he started; so that what follows (Jam_5:12-20) is of the nature of a postscript or appendix. He began his letter with the exhortation, "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing" (Jam_1:2-4). He draws to a close with the charge, "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord."
The "therefore" shows that this sympathetic exhortation of the brethren is closely connected with the stern denunciation of the rich in the preceding paragraph. The connection is obvious. These brethren are in the main identical with the righteous poor who are so cruelly oppressed by the rich; and St. James offers them consolation mainly on two grounds: First, their sufferings will not last for ever; on the contrary, the end of them is near at hand. Secondly, the end of them will bring not only relief, but reward.
As has been already pointed out, St. James evidently shared the belief, which prevailed in the Apostolic age, that Jesus Christ would very speedily return in glory to punish the wicked and reward the righteous. This belief, as Neander observes, was very natural: "Christ Himself had not chosen to give any information respecting the time of his coming. Nay, He had expressly said that the Father had reserved the decision to Himself; {Mar_13:32} that even the Son could determine nothing respecting it. But still, the longing desire of the Apostolic Church was directed with eager haste to the appearing of the Lord. The whole Christian period seemed only as the transition-point to the eternal, and thus as something that must soon be passed. As the traveler, beholding from afar the object of all his wanderings, overlooks the windings of the intervening way, and believes himself already near his goal, so it seemed to them, as their eye was fixed on that consummation of the whole course of events on earth."
Thus, by a strange but unperceived incongruity, St. James makes the unconscious impatience of primitive Christianity a basis for his exhortation to conscious patience. Early Christians, in their eagerness for the return of their Lord, impatiently believed that His return was imminent; and St. James uses this belief as an argument for patient waiting and patient endurance. It is only for a short time that they will have to wait and endure, and then the rich reward will be reaped. Ploughing and harrowing are toilsome and painful, but they have to be gone through, and then, after no intolerable waiting, the harvest comes.
Above, when St. James was rebuking his readers for their presumptuous confidence respecting their future plans, he reminded them of the shortness of life. "What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away". {Jam_4:14} Here the shortness of the interval between the present moment and the end of all things is urged as a reason both for circumspection and for patience. In both cases, with his characteristic fondness for illustrations drawn from nature, he employs physical phenomena to enforce his lesson. In the one case life is a vapor, not substantial at any time, and soon dispersed; in the other case life is the work and the waiting which must precede the harvest.
The key-note of the whole passage is patience, which in one form or another occurs six times in five verses. In the original two different words are used-one (μακροθυμειν and μακροθυμια) four times in the first four verses; and the other (υπομενειν and υπομενη) twice in the last verse, where we certainly need "the endurance of Job" rather than "the patience of Job," in order to preserve the transition from the one word to the other. "Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience (μακροθυμιας) the prophets who spake in the Name of the Lord. Behold, we call them blessed which endured (τουναντας): ye have heard of the endurance (υπομενην) of Job." It was perhaps because "the patience of Job" has become a proverbial formula that the Revisers banished "endurance" to the margin, instead of placing it in the text. The two words are not infrequently found together (2Co_6:4-6; Col_1:11; 2Ti_3:10; Clement of Rome, 58; Ignatius, "Ephes.," 3.). The difference between the two is, on the whole, this, that the first is the longsuffering which does not retaliate upon oppressive persons, the second the endurance which does not succumb under oppressive things. The persecuted prophets exhibited the one; the afflicted Job exhibited the other. The oppressed and poor Christians whom St. James addresses are able to practice both these forms of patience, which Chrysostom extols as the "queen of the virtues."
There is a remarkable diversity of readings in the illustration about the husbandmans waiting. Some authorities make him wait for the early and latter rain, others for the early and latter fruit. The best witnesses leave the substantive to be understood, and this is doubtless the original reading; it accounts for the other two. Some copyists thought that rain was to be understood, and therefore inserted it; while others for a similar reason inserted fruit. No doubt it is rain that is intended, in accordance with several passages in the Old Testament. {Deu_11:14; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Zec_10:1} The rains of autumn and of spring are meant, not "morning rain and evening rain" as Luther renders it in his version; and no moral or spiritual facts are symbolized by these natural phenomena, such as the penitential tears of youth and of old age, which would not fit the context. The point of the simile lies in the patient waiting, not in that which is waited for.
"Murmur not, brethren, one against another." The literal meaning of the Greek is "Groan not"; that is, "Grumble not." Earlier English versions have "Grudge not"; and "grudge" once had the meaning of "murmur," as in "They will run here and there for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied." {Psa_59:15} It is altogether a mistake to suppose that "one against another" includes the wealthy oppressors spoken of in the preceding section. It is the common experience of every one that men who are irritated and exasperated by trying persons or circumstances are liable to vent their vexation on those who are in no way responsible for what tries them. St. James is well aware of this danger, and puts his readers on their guard against it. "Be longsuffering," he says, "and do not retaliate on those who maltreat you; and do not let the smart of your troubles betray you into impatience towards one another. He who is to judge your oppressors will judge you also, and He is close at hand." We can hardly doubt that Christs saying, "Judge not, that ye be not judged," {Mat_7:1} is in his mind. The way to lighten ones burden is not to groan over it, still less to murmur against those who are in the same case, but to try to console and help them. "Bear ye one anothers burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." It is a good thing to take as an example of patience the prophets and others among Gods suffering saints; but it is a still better thing to give such an example ourselves.
By the prophets St. James no doubt means the prophets of the Old Testament-Elijah, Jeremiah, and others. It is not likely that he includes any of the persecuted disciples of the New Testament, such as James the son of Zebedee, and Stephen. Here again we seem to have an echo of Christs words: "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you" (comp. "We call them blessed which endured"): "for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you". {Mat_5:11-12} It is the ceaseless reproach against the Jews that they boasted that theirs were the prophets, and yet were the persecutors of the prophets. "The children of Israel have slain Thy prophets with the sword," says Elijah. {1Ki_19:10; 1Ki_19:14} "That I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets," says God to Elisha. {2Ki_9:7} They "slew Thy prophets which testified against them. to turn them again to Thee," says Nehemiah, in his prayer. {Neh_9:26} "Your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion," is the accusation of Jeremiah. {Jer_2:30} "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her!" is the lamentation of Christ. {Mat_23:37} And Stephen, just before he was himself added to the number of the slain, asks, "Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them which showed before of the coming of the Righteous One". {Act_7:52} Certainly those who try to do Gods work in the world have no lack of examples of patient suffering for such work. The reasonable question would seem to be, not, "Why should I be made to suffer for endeavoring to do good?" but, "Why should I not be made to suffer? Seeing what others have had to endure, why should I be spared?"
"Ye have heard of the endurance of Job." It is possible that this refers specially to the reading of the Book of Job in public service; but there is no need to restrict the hearing to such occasions. We need not doubt that the endurance of Job was a familiar topic among the Jews long before this Epistle was written, and independently of the book being read in the synagogues. Yet, in spite of this familiarity, the passage before us is the only reference in the whole of the New Testament to the story of Job, and there is only one quotation from the Book: "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness" {Job_5:13} is quoted by St. Paul. {1Co_3:19} There are several loose quotations from it in the Epistle of Clement of Rome (17, 20, 26, 39, 56); and the remarkable insertion in the Vulgate Version of /RAPC Tob 2:12 is worthy of quotation: "This trial the Lord therefore permitted to happen to him, that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job. For whereas he had always feared God from his infancy, and kept His commandments, he repined not against God because the evil of blindness had befallen him, but continued immovable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life. For as the kings insulted over holy Job, so his relations and kinsmen mocked at his life, saying, Where is thy hope, for which thou gavest alms, and buriedest the dead? But Tobias rebuked them, saying, Speak not so; for we are the children of saints, and look for that life which God will give to them that never change their faith from Him."
"Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful." A well-supported, but, on the whole, less probable reading, gives us the imperative, "see the end of the Lord," instead of the indicative, "ye have seen" (Mere instead of ειδετε). If it be correct, it may be taken either with what precedes or with what follows: either, "Ye have heard of the endurance of Job: see also the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful"; or, "Ye have heard of the endurance of Job and the end of the Lord; see that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful."
But a more important question than either the reading or the division of the clauses is the meaning of the expression "the end of the Lord." Bede follows Augustine in understanding it of the death of Christ, which no doubt many of the readers of the Epistle had witnessed-"Exitum quoque Domini in cruce quem longanimiter suscepit, adstantes ipsi vidistis"; and in this interpretation Bede is followed by Wetstein, Lange, and some other modern writers. It cannot be considered as probable. St. James would hardly couple the endurance of Job with the death of Christ in this abrupt way; and the words which follow-"that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful"-do not fit on to this interpretation. "The end of the Lord" much more probably means the end to which the Lord brought the sufferings of Job. It may have special reference to the concluding portion of the Book of Job, in which Jehovah is represented as bringing the argument to a close: "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" etc., etc. {Job 38} This appearance of Jehovah to endthe trials of Job would then be analogous to the appearance of Christ to end the trials of the persecuted Christians; and it is possible that the combination "ye have heard and have seen" was suggested by the last words of Job: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes". {Job_42:5-6}
Stier remarks that the mention of Job in Ezekiel, {Eze_14:14; Eze_14:16; Eze_14:20} and here by St. James, shows us "that the man Job actually lived, like Noah, Daniel, and all the prophets; that the narrative of his life is not a didactic poem, but a real history." But is that a necessary conclusion? Let us leave on one side the question whether or no there really was such a person as Job, who experienced what is recorded in the book which bears his name, and let us consider whether the mention of him by Ezekiel and by St. James proves that there was such a person. It proves nothing of the sort. It shows no more than this, that the story of Job was well known, and was employed for moral and spiritual instruction. Let us suppose that the Book of Job is a parable, like that of Dives and Lazarus. Would the fact that its contents are not historical prevent Ezekiel or St. James from speaking of Job as a well-known person of exemplary life? There would be nothing unnatural in coupling together Dives, who is probably an imaginary person, and the rich young man, who is certainly a real person, as examples of men to whom great wealth has proved disastrous, nor, again, in speaking of Lazarus and the penitent thief as instances of souls that had passed from great earthly suffering to the rest of Paradise. Such combinations would not commit the writer or speaker who made use of them to the belief that Dives and Lazarus were historical persons. Why, then, should the fact that an inspired writer couples Job with Noah and Daniel commit us to the belief that Job is a real person? He may have been so, just as Lazarus may have been so, but the mention of him by Ezekiel and by St. James does not prove that he was. We know too little about the effects of inspiration to be justified in saying dogmatically that an inspired writer would never speak of an unhistorical person as an example to be imitated. Is the merchant who sold all that he had in order to buy one pearl of great price a historical person? and is he not put before us as an example to be imitated? It is quite possible that the story of Job is in the main a narrative of facts, and not an inspired fiction; but the mention of him by Ezekiel and by St. James is no proof of it. It is neither fair nor prudent to cite either of them as witnesses to the historical character of the Book of Job. It is not fair, because we are ignorant of their opinion on the subject, and are also ignorant as to whether their opinion on the subject would be under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And it is not prudent, because it may be demonstrated hereafter that the story of Job is not historical; and then we shall have pledged the testimony of inspired persons to the truth of a narrative which is, after all, fictitious. If St. Paul may cite Jannes and Jambres as instances of malignant opposition to the truth, without compelling us to believe that those names are historical, St. James may quote Job as an example of patient endurance, without obliging us to believe that Job is a historical personage. In each case the historical character of the illustrations must be decided on other grounds than the fact that they are employed by writers who were inspired. Questions of this kind are among the many spheres in which we need that virtue on which St. James here insists with such simple earnesthess-patience. When certainty has not been attained, and perhaps is not attainable, let us learn to wait patiently in uncertainty. Was there ever such a person as Job? Who wrote the Book of Job? What is its date? Does inspiration produce infallibility? and if so, what are the limits to such infallibility? There are men to whom uncertainty on such questions as these seems intolerable. They cannot "learn to labor and to wait"; they cannot work patiently, and wait patiently, until a complete solution is found. And hence they hurry to a definite conclusion, support it by evidence that is not relevant, and affirm that it is demonstrated by what is perhaps relevant, but is far short of proof. Intellectual probation is part of our moral probation in this life, and it is a discipline much needed in an age of great mental activity. Impatience of the intellect is a common blemish, and it is disastrous both to him who allows himself to be conquered by it and to the cause of truth. He does good service both to himself and to others, who cultivates a dread of jumping to unproved conclusions, and who in speaking and writing watchfully distinguishes what is certain from what is only probable, and what is probable from what is only not known to be untrue. The great example of patience is not given by St. James, although we can read it into his words. In a sense not meant by him there is the Husbandman, who waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, until it receive the early and the latter rain. There is that precious harvest of human souls which must receive and welcome the dew of Gods grace before it is ready for His garner. On some it has never yet fallen; on some it has fallen, but as yet in vain; and meanwhile the Husbandman waiteth, "being patient over it," until it receive the one thing needful. Through long, long centuries He has been waiting, and He continues so doing. St. Augustine tells us why. God is "patient, because He is eternal" (pattens quiaaeternus). He who is "from everlasting to everlasting" can afford to wait. He waits patiently for us, generation after generation. Can we not wait for Him one hour? Let us patiently abide until "the end of the Lord" comes, the end which He has prepared for us, and towards which all things under His guiding hand are working. When we have seen it we shall once more see "that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7–9. Be patient, therefore, brethren. James now turns from…
7–9. Be patient, therefore, brethren. James now turns from the rich, wicked Jews, to his suffering brethren. Let them be patient. Unto the coming of the Lord. That would bring relief. The primary reference is to the relief from Jewish persecution which followed the Lord's coming in judgment on the Jewish nation. Behold, the husbandman. The tiller of the soil has to sow and wait long in patience for fruit. Be you like him. Early and latter rain. The early rain was the November showers which prepared the ground for the seed; the latter rain, the spring showers needed to bring the harvest to maturity. Compare Deut. 11:14.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv7, 12 Jas_5:7. Margin, “suffer with long patience.” St. James inculcates…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Jas_5:7. Margin, “suffer with long patience.” St. James inculcates a systematic course of action. Early and latter rain.—Early rain fell from October to February, latter from March to end of April.
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Jas_5:9. Grudge not.—A caution against an impatient, querulous temper. “Complain not.” “Groan not.”
Jas_5:11. Endure.—Some prefer “endured.” Pitful.—Large-hearted; tender-hearted. The word used, πολύσπλαγχνος, is peculiar, and it is thought may have been coined by St. James.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_5:7-11
Our Duty in the Waiting-times of Life.—Throughout his epistle St. James keeps before him the suffering and distressed condition of the Jewish Christians. There was grave fear lest they should be led to give up their faith in Christ; but there was even a greater fear lest they should come to reproach one another, and so spoil their life of kindly relations, and deteriorate their own Christian characters. The times called for the spirit of endurance. The call of the hour was to waiting-work. In every sphere of life and relationship, in those days, the Christians were called to quiet waiting. There was so little that they could do. They had no power of control over the social and national movements of the age. Their strength was to sit still, holding their own with a quiet persistency. Their endurance was their witness to their age. But that waiting is the hardest thing ever given to man to do; and it is a great help to him in the doing if he can have the inspiration of an ideal, if he can have some great waiting in mind to which he may be constantly lifting himself, and in the great effort making all lesser efforts at waiting come easier. The typical waiting then was for the “coming of the Lord.” The typical waiting still is for the “coming of the Lord.” It was not realised then as men imagined it, but it was realised. It is not realised now as men imagine it, but it is realised. This is the mission of that expectation of the Lord’s coming which so many devout souls still cherish: it inspires endurance; it nourishes the spirit of quiet bearing of present ills; it enables a man to be patient amid the cares and disappointments of the earthly life; it uplifts with the cheer of a high hope. No doubt our Lord’s great discourse on the “last things,” which is recorded in Matthew 24, led to a general belief of His speedy return in human form, but with heavenly powers, to rectify those abuses and disorders of society, which pressed so heavily upon His disciples. It was only the form of His coming that was misconceived. It is only the form of His coming that is still misconceived. He did come to waiting souls. He does come to waiting souls. He came in providences. He came in spiritual manifestations. He came as the relieving angel “Israfil.” It was, and it is, the support of our waiting moods that His disciples keep quite sure that He is always just upon coming to help them. That leads them on, enabling them cheerfully to bear their burdens day by day. And it is but the Christian translation of the feeling that has been cherished by God’s saints in all the ages. It expressed itself in this way in the older times—“Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.” And in this way in the newer times—“Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly.”
I. What are the duties of Christians during their waiting-times?—St. James does not deal with all the duties—only with such as were relative to the needs of those to whom he wrote.
1. They ought to keep from restlessness. That is the idea of “patience” as here commended. The restlessness that keeps going to the door, or looking out at the window, and so takes men off from the duty of the hour. We cannot do our work well while we keep a restless state of mind. If we are expecting an arrival at our home, but are uncertain of the precise time, it altogether spoils our work for the day; it compels us to do nothing, if we suffer ourselves to become restless and anxious. In this way our hope of Christ’s coming may become morally mischievous. It will, if it makes us restless and dissatisfied. We shall undervalue our present work, and think lightly of our present responsibilities; and instead of spending our strength in service, we shall spend it in worrying and restless watchings. Our Lord pointed out this danger, when He taught that the servant who expected his master’s home-coming watched best by quietly waiting, fully occupied at his servant-duties, and actually found at work when the master entered the house. Restlessness never becomes a Christian virtue by disguising itself in pietistic forms. “Be patient unto [in respect of] the coming of the Lord.”
2. St. James points out another duty of the hour. They should keep from doubting. Restlessness might make them neglect their work; but doubting would altogether change the character of their work. It would soon cease to be work for Christ, and come to be work for self. If the servant began to say within himself, “My lord delayeth his coming”; if he said to himself, doubtingly, “He will not come soon, and I question whether he means to come at all,” that servant would soon begin to lose all wise restraint of himself, and “to eat and drink with the drunken.” St. James bids the Jewish Christians who were tried by the seeming delay of their deliverance from present evils, “stablish,” or “strengthen,” their hearts. If we gave the advice in these days we should say, “Don’t lose heart,” “Don’t give way to doubts and fears,” “Buttress your hearts against all temptations to doubt,” “Nourish your souls into such spiritual strength that you can throw off from you all poison atmospheres of doubt.” Hearts are stablished and strengthened, not by trying to force a way into the mysteries of God’s doing or delaying, but by meditating on what God has done, by realising what God is, and by inquiring, with a full purpose of obedience, into what God would have done by us. Three things are always at hand for the mastery of temptations to doubt:
(1) the revelation of God, which contains the “exceeding great and precious promises”;
(2) communion with God, which brings personal satisfactions to the soul; and
(3) active service, which takes a man off from perilous broodings. Those who dwell unduly on the “coming of the Lord” are especially liable to doubt, if they are active-minded; for they are compelled to recognise that He never has come, never does come, and never will come just as men have expected Him to. Those who wait must not only wait quietly; they must wait hopefully. Our time is alway ready. He who is coming will come; He does not really tarry.
3. St. James further points out the duty of keeping kindly relations with one another while we wait. “Grudge not one against another.” “Murmur not, brethren, one against another.” So easily, in their waiting-times, even Christians can get to wranglings and mutual reproaches. One man has his explanation of the Lord’s delay. Others are not able to accept his explanation. One man is sure that he can fix the day and the hour of the coming. Others remind him that he has fixed it before, and the time has gone by; and he becomes angry at the reminder. It may be comparatively easy for an individual Christian to wait patiently; it is always very hard for a number of Christians to wait patiently together. A Christian man is seriously strained and tested in the time when he can do nothing. A Christian Church gets into all sorts of contentions, misunderstandings, mutual reproaches, bickerings, and jealousies, when it is doing nothing, when it is waiting for some “coming of the Lord.” An inactive Church will often have a good deal of pietistic talk; but that may only be an insincere covering over of rankling enmities, mischievous murmurings, and mutual grudgings. It is like the servant that our Lord pictures who, because he did not keep on with his work, began to “beat his fellow-servants.” That was the mistake that was made by the early Jewish Christian Churches. They had taken up this notion, that Christ was coming at once in some outward way, to redress all their wrongs, overwhelm all their enemies, and enrich them with all benedictions; and in the excitement of this sentiment, they had become restless, they were neglecting their work, and they were quarrelling among themselves. “Every doctrine is known by its fruits”; and the doctrine of the “second coming,” as men usually hold it and teach it, is certainly not commended by its fruits. There is a true doctrine of the “second coming,” but the unduly occupied ear of Christ’s Church is not now open to receive it. There are waiting-times in all our lives. There have been; there will be. St. James’s advice may be fitted precisely to our waiting-times. Keep from restlessness. “Be patient.” Keep from doubting. “Stablish your hearts.” Keep from envying. “Grudge not one against another.”
II. What are the helps to the fulfilment of duty, in their waiting-times, which are at the command of Christians?—
1. They may keep the inspiration of good examples. For other people have had to wait, and have waited well. Nay, looking around them, Christians may learn from the spheres of business and social life; and turning over the pages of their Scriptures they may find inspiring instances of heroic endurance.
(1) There is the yearly example of the husbandman. “He waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.” The husbandman worketh. If he does not plough and clean and smooth his soil, and cast in the living seeds in their season, he will have no waiting-work to do, and nothing to wait for. It is not sufficiently impressed upon us in moral and spiritual spheres that only workers can be waiters. If a man has not worked, what has he to wait for, what has he to wait about? In all true waiting there is expectancy; but expectancy must be based upon something. The husbandman bases it upon his work. Waiting that has no work behind it, and no work in it, is dreamy sentiment, and is no good to anybody. The husbandman has to wait, and work while he waits, for the fruitage of his sowing. The fields must be guarded, tended, nourished, while the crops are growing. But the results of his work get beyond him. He finds himself in the midst of forces that he cannot control; and no efforts of his can possibly hurry on the results. During the months of growing, what a life of waiting-faith every farmer has to live! And what a lesson of the patience of faith comes to us as we walk the fields, and see the crops so slowly, but so surely, growing unto harvest! Our Christian work starts influences which get altogether beyond our control. We work for issues; and want them to come immediately, and they will not. We work in the upbuilding of character, but character grows and unfolds very slowly; and we can no more hurry on our results than can the farmer. God takes all good work into His keeping, and makes His rains and His sunshine nourish the growing crops, which will be reaped to the unspeakable joy of the worker some day. The husbandman may have much anxiety, and much trial of faith and patience, while he waits. Everything depended, in those older days, on the “early” winter rains and the “latter” spring rains; and sometimes they failed altogether, or they were insufficient, or they were excessive. The cold seasons kept the crops back. Wild storms just before harvest laid the heavy-headed stalks; prevailing damp made the grains sprout; prolonged drought burned up the grass, and dried up the seeds of the root-crops as they lay in the ground. Many and many a morning during the growing months the farmer wakes and listens anxiously for the sound of rain, pulls the blind aside, and nourishes or crushes his hope for the day. It is hard indeed for him to see all the fruitage of his toil being hopelessly ruined, and to know that his harvest can only be a “day of grief and desperate sorrow” True, the issues are not often as the fears. Nature—God in nature—has a wonderful recovering power. Constantly we find we have to reap the harvest of God’s mercy, instead of the harvest of our fears. Are not Christian waiting-times anxious times? Parents work in their boys for noble manhood; and the day comes when the boy must go out into life, and battle for himself amidst manifold evils; must soul-thrive amid stormy winds and pelting rains of temptation, and it may be amid blazing suns of success. How can we measure the parental anxiety? See how every letter from the boy is scanned! how mother reads what father cannot see! how the tone of the letter is appraised! All those years of unfolding while out of parental control bring their grave anxieties; and, full of fears, those parents often say to one another—What will the harvest be? It is but the type of all the waiting-times of Christian workers. It is part of our discipline that they shall be full of grave anxieties; and if we are full of concern about the issues of our work, we may realise how concerned God is about us, wanting the very anxieties of our waiting-times to be sanctified to us. But the husbandman keeps the cheer of the certain result while he waits. There stands the word; the years have rolled into centuries, and the centuries have heaped up one upon another, but the word has never been belied—“While the earth remaineth … seedtime and harvest shall not fail.” Get the barns ready, though the cold chills, the heavy rains, or the untempered sunshine do come upon the growing crops. Get the barns ready; they will be filled, as they always have been. Earth never rolled through one of its years, without its people singing unto God their song of harvest home. Must we wait? Is it hard to wait? Does our Lord seem to delay His coming? We too may keep the cheer in our souls while we wait. He has promised. We grip His word so tight that the surge of life’s storm-tossed sea can never loosen our hold. He has said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, ye may be also.”
(2) There is the example of the saints of the older days. “Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” It is not possible now to do any more than let the great “cloud of witnesses” pass before us, in a seemingly endless panorama; and then say, after the eloquent writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, when he had set before us the long list of those who had “endured, as seeing Him who is invisible”: “Time would fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens.” They had their anxious waiting-times, but they waited well; and they came through to victory and their Lord’s “well done, good and faithful.” And
(3) there is the familiar example of Job. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job.” He could wait for God, and wait on God. And while he waited, Job sang in his soul, and cheered his soul with the singing, of such things as the psalmist puts into poetic words, “Clouds and darkness are round about Him, justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne”; “I wait for the Lord; my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.”
2. They may keep the confidence that God has His gracious purpose in every call to endure. The “end of the Lord”—and He always has an “end”—will be sure to justify the means. We may never think of God as acting on impulse. He has a distinct aim, a purpose of infinite wisdom and goodness, towards which He moves with infinite adaptations of His means. St. James assures us that He is “large-hearted,” “tender-hearted.” He can deal graciously with all the weaknesses that we may show—all the failures from duty—in our waiting-times. He will not let them hinder the carrying through of His purpose. They shall never spoil His harvest. Wait; wait on; wait worthily. Be patient. Keep confidence. Look up, even if there be clouds in the sky. Hold fast by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though His way may seem to you to be “in the sea, and His path in the great waters.” Wait on. Work while you wait. “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find so doing: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself; and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants.… Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Jas_5:7. The Coming of the Lord.—“Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming [margin, presence] of the Lord.” Jas_5:8 : “For the coming of the Lord is at hand.” It is perfectly clear that all the early Christian teachers had the distinct expectation of something, which they agreed to call “the coming of the Lord.” It is also certain that they looked upon this coming as the fulfilment of the Lord’s own promises, both in the “upper room” and at His ascension. But it is by no means clear what it was that they expected. It may indeed now be quite impossible to recover their precise thought, because very different thoughts have grown up round the expression “the coming of the Lord” in the course of the Christian ages. It very materially helps us toward the apprehension of the apostolic idea, if we get an answer to this question—Did Christ come to the early Church, in the manner, and at the time, the apostles expected He would? It is quite clear that they understood their Lord to mean that He would come in some material and visible manifestation, and that He would come before the apostolic age closed. The question requires the answer Yes or No, and it can be satisfied with no other answer; it will have no qualified answer that merely turns it aside or puts it from consideration. The answer may be—Yes, He did come in the apostolic age, and He did come in a formal and material manner. Then there is nothing in the historic record of those times which can, by any possibility, be identified as our Lord’s coming, save the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, and final breaking up of the Jewish national and ecclesiastical systems. The answer may be—No, He did not come as apostles expected, and has not so come even yet. Then it is impossible to prevent the reasonable suggestion of devout souls, that the apostles may have misapprehended. His meaning, both as to the manner, and as to the time, of His coming. And it is quite open to devout souls to suggest, that if our Lord had been understood spiritually, it would have been seen that He did fulfil His promise, and does fulfil it; but our mistaken apprehensions have prevented our recognising the fulfilment.
Jas_5:10. Examples of Christian Endurance.—“Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord.” It is questioned whether only the ancient prophets are referred to, or whether the term is intended to include the persecuted and martyred teachers of the Christian age. But even if we assume that St. James thought only of the Old Testament prophets, there is no reason why we should hesitate to include all, in prominent and official positions, who present the example of suffering and patience. And our life is encircled with such examples. History is full of them. Imaginative literature is constantly creating fresh types of heroic sufferers. The actual experience of our lives brings us into fellowship with those who are triumphantly bearing the burdens of lifelong pain or loss or disability.
I. Examples of endurance are constantly presented to us.—Apart altogether from religious motives and helps, there is a heroic endurance in humanity. A power to bear; and even to bear for others, which ennobles man. There is never any occasion for trying to debase humanity in order to exalt religion. It may be necessary to do that in order to lay suitable foundations for a religious creed; but not to maintain revealed and spiritual religion. We can fully admire the moral greatness of man’s endurance and patience, while we recognise his lost standing relations with God.
II. Examples of Christian endurance have a particular influence upon us.—Because they indicate the inspiration of the very highest motive upon which men can act. And they convince us that there can be a Divine presence with man, and a Divine power on man, which can raise him altogether beyond anything that of himself he could attain. Suffering patience with the supreme motive of doing and bearing God’s holy will is an attainment which is wholly impossible save with an indwelling inspiration of God.
Jas_5:11. The End of the Lord reveals Him.—It has often been pointed out that the final reward and restoration of Job is given after the “poetical justice” with which we are familiar in works of imagination. In actual history or biography we do not meet with such exact restorations. In a book which is the illustration of a great principle, by the use of a historical figure, and conversations in dramatic form, such an ending is befitting, and its precision of detail need not be overpressed.
I. The Lord always has an end.—It is this conviction which gives a man such satisfaction when he sees that his anxieties have come from God. Troubles that are manifestly of our own making are our supreme anxiety, because we can only think of God as overruling them. They are not His mind; He has to come into them in a gracious kind of interfering way. Job’s troubles were not brought on by his own wrong-doing; they were distinctly disciplinary troubles sent by God. God never afflicts willingly. God never smites in any “acts of sovereignty.” There is a distinct purpose in every Divine act, in every Divine permission. He has an end towards which He is ever working. If we are in His chastisement, it is for our profit.
II. The Lord’s end is seldom understood by the Lord’s way.—That need be no surprise to us if we are familiar with the complicated machinery involved in our manufactures. Take the process by which sheep’s wool is turned into clothing; or what seems but rubbish becomes white paper. The tearings, and burnings, and boilings, and rollings can neither be understood separately, nor in their connections; and yet we can believe that each strange thing helps to accomplish the end which has been, all along, held in view. God’s ways cannot but seem strange, and we had better not try to imagine the end by the help of the means.
III. The Lord’s end is always in harmony with Himself.—It is a wisely ordered end, for He is infinitely wise. It is an end of infinite blessing—adapted to us, satisfying to us—for He is love.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv7, 12 7. The people in the Apostolic age were on…
ARGUMENT 13
THE FORMER AND LATER RAINS
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7. The people in the Apostolic age were on the constant outlook for the Lord to return to the earth. If the Apostolic Church had been true to the Pentecostal experience our Lord would have returned in the glory of His kingdom before the expiration of that generation. Mat 16:28. It is certain that the true attitude of saintship is that of constant expectancy of our Lord’s return to this world. It is the normal inspiration of all saints to be robed and ready every moment to salute our glorious King. Inspired truth is very simple and unique, consisting of the isolated dogma of sin and its remedy. However, the Holy Ghost utilizes infinitesimal imagery, deduced from every ramification of the material world, to elucidate and enforce this grand primary truth. The autumnal rains are indispensable to soften the earth preparatory for the farmer’s plow and the reception of the seed wheat. Then he is dependent on the spring rains to produce the crop. Here the Holy Spirit uses this familiar agricultural illustration to enforce the great truth in the gracious economy, involving the absolute necessity of the two experiences. Regeneration sows the seed and sanctification produces the crop of holiness for the heavenly garner.
8. “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” The Greek parousia, “coming,” literally means presence, setting forth the fact that our Lord will come to stay and reign upon the earth. Oh, what an inspiration to a soul!
9. The momentary anticipation of our Lord’s return to the earth should silence all cavil, vilification, strife, controversy and unkind criticism forever.
10. We derive infinite value from the patience and heroism of our noble predecessors in the Lord’s kingdom, whose testimonies light up all by- gone ages. The mob having assaulted John Wesley’s meeting, extinguished the lights, and stampeded the audience in the darkness; seizing the preacher, they dragged him away and beat him till they thought he was dead, then skulked away. While the man of God lays suffering in his blood till day dawned, he composed that beautiful hymn,
“Shall Simon bear the cross alone, And all the world go free? No; there is a cross for every one, And there’s a cross for me,”
thus manifesting the most angelic spirit of the man amid the bloody persecutions.
11. Here James makes pertinent and beautiful allusion to the patient suffering of Job and the end which the Lord brought to the memorable tragedy when those three great anti-holiness preachers, i.e.; Eliphas, Bildad and Zophar, united in a debate with Job against his testimony of Christian perfection. Upon his final appeal from their verdict to God, behold, Jehovah descends in a whirlwind and accepts the situation, turns the debate into a holiness meeting, says to Eliphas, Bildad and Zophar, “You have not spoken that which is right concerning me as my servant Job hath; therefore offer a sacrifice of some rams and some bullocks and my servant Job shall pray for you.” Four represents humanity, i.e., the world North, East, South and West. Three represents God. Therefore seven throughout the Bible represents our Savior the incarnation of all perfection. Hence we see that God required them to make a perfect consecration. Behold the beautiful scene Eliphas, Bildad and Zophar, all on their knees, seeking sanctification, Job praying for them, God Almighty conducting the service, and Elihu, that young holiness evangelist who had been scared out of his testimony by these big preachers till God came, when he said he would burst if he did not testify, shouting aloud. Job was not a Jew, but an Arab, belonging not to the Mosaic but to the Patriarchal dispensation. History says he was one hundred and forty years old at the time of his afflictions. After his wonderful restoration he lived one hundred and forty years more. Meanwhile his estates were all given back double and the same number of children given back, which added to his former family, who were not destroyed but in heaven, made them also double.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv7, 12 Admonition to patience:
Admonition to patience:
v. 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain.
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v. 8. Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
v. 9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.
v. 10. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.
v. 11. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
Probably the thought of the uncomplaining patience of the righteous under the ill treatment of the wealthy caused the apostle to add this paragraph concerning the patience which the believers should show at all times: Be patient, then, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Patient, uncomplaining endurance should characterize the Christians at all times. For it is only for a short while that they are obliged to suffer. One fact always is held before their eyes, namely, that their Lord is coming, that He will surely return in glory. Yet a little while, and He that is coming will come, and will not tarry, Heb 10:37.
The apostle refers to the example of the farmer: See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the land, having patience with regard to it until he receives the early and the late rains. If there is anyone whose labor necessitates a great deal of enduring patience, it is the man that depends upon the soil for a living. He realizes how fully mankind is dependent upon the Lord for food. He puts his seed into the land which he has prepared, patiently biding his time in order that he may receive his reward in the form of a plentiful harvest. In Palestine he knew that his success rested upon the timely falling of the former or autumnal rains, which, after the hot summer months, brought the land into a condition where it could be cultivated, and of the latter or spring rains, in April, which aided the crop in maturing. So all his labor was a matter of patient waiting.
This example the Christians should follow. Have patience also you; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Patient endurance should be the keynote in the lives of the Christians. Times innumerable their hearts are on the verge of growing faint and of giving up the apparently unequal struggle. But with help from above they find themselves able again and again to strengthen and confirm their hearts. For that thought upholds them, that the coming of the Lord to Judgment is near, that His return means everlasting bliss for them. There is only a short time of waiting, and then the harvest will be gathered with joy ineffable.
Meanwhile they should heed what the apostle tells them: Murmur not against one another, brethren, lest you be judged; behold, the Judge stands at the doors. The apparent delay of the Lord in returning according to His promise has caused many people to give way to impatience, to make invidious comparisons between their own lot and that of others, and to begrudge the greater happiness of others. A behavior of this kind, being altogether out of harmony with the Word of the Lord and with the disposition which He expects in them that are His own, will call forth His condemnation upon the guilty ones. For those that by patient continuance in well-doing wait for His coming, salvation is near, but for those that are full of envy toward others and spend their time in nursing their supposed grievances it is the Judge, the righteous Judge, that is coming. He is even now standing at the door, and His entrance to Judgment is only a matter of a short time, controlled largely by the fact of His merciful love for the fallen whom He is striving to gain for eternal salvation.
There are also examples of the saints of old which may well encourage and strengthen the believers: As an example of the suffering of evil and of patience, my brethren, take the prophets that spoke in the name of the Lord. See Heb 11:1-40. Most of the prophets of old, although they were engaged in preaching in the name of the Lord, in bringing to their countrymen the wonderful message of the coming Messiah, yet were subjected to many kinds of persecution; they were obliged to bear evil in many forms. They may, therefore, well serve as examples of patience and endurance which we should always keep before the eyes of our mind. If the Lord gave them strength to endure the manifold afflictions which came upon them to the end, He will be at our side also with His comfort and with His power.
And there is another point that deserves mention: Behold, blessed we consider sufferers that did endure. Of the patience of Job you have heard, and the end of the Lord you know, that very compassionate is the Lord and full of pity. Job was a favorite example of patience among the Jews of all times, as he is today. Christians should remember that we commonly, and rightly, ascribe blessedness, the happiness of salvation, to those that endured to the end. See Mat 5:11. With the story of Job-the readers of this letter were familiar; they knew the end and purpose of the Lord with regard to this patient sufferer. It was just in his history that one point became so emphatically apparent, namely, that the Lord is so very compassionate with regard to them that are His own, that His heart yearns in pity and mercy for His children. Thus there is both comfort and strength in this allusion for the Christians of all times.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 12 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
James changes topics from a rebuke of the rich people to an exhortation to the believers.
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General Information:
In closing, James reminds the believers about the Lord's coming and gives several short lessons on how to live for the Lord.
So be patient
"Because of this, wait and be calm"
until the Lord's coming
This phrase refers to the return of Jesus, when he will begin his kingdom on the earth and judge all people. AT: "until Christ's return" (See: Metonymy)
the farmer
James makes an analogy using farmers and believers to teach what it means to be patient. (See: Metaphor)
Make your hearts strong
James is equating the believers' hearts to their will to remain committed. AT: "Stay committed" or "Keep your faith strong" (See: Metonymy)
the Lord's coming is near
"the Lord will return soon"
translationWords
brother
lord
harvest
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 10, 11, 12 5:7-8 be patient: This is the ultimate resolution for…
5:7-8 be patient: This is the ultimate resolution for the poor in their economic pressures and for the unjust treatment by the wicked rich (5:1-6; see 2:6-7). Even though the poor have been marginalized and oppressed, they must not give up or strike out at their oppressors. At the Lord’s return, the faithful will receive their final reward (Isa 40:10; Luke 6:20-35; 1 Cor 15:23; 1 Pet 1:17; 5:4; Rev 22:12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.