Recall from yesterday’s post that James is addressing the injustice of wealthy landowners working their farmhands and failing to pay them properly. Greedy businessmen were holding on to the wages they should have been paying to those under their employ.
This is important to recall as James begins the next passage with the word “Therefore,” a word that suggests he means, “In light of what I have just said.” So we understand that James is providing information that comes on the heels of his previous concern. Here’s how he puts it in James 5:7-11:
7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.
11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
We imagine how those cheated workers may have felt. Surely they wondered how long this injustice would continue. Like any other trial or difficulty in life, we often wonder why it seems to go unnoticed by society—or unchecked by God. We may even wonder whether God is aware of this circumstance or why He doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.
James teaches what Christians are to do when they find themselves in the throes of injustice. In short, he instructs them to remember that the Lord is coming again. And to remember that when He comes He will right all wrongs. James says, “Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” He describes the Lord’s coming as imminent: “The coming of the Lord is at hand,” and “the Judge is standing at the door!”
The Lord’s second coming is the next “Big thing” God has planned. You might think of God’s plan as the next thing He has “calendared.” Many of us have planners or calendars and we have somewhere a list of tasks or maybe a “To Do List.” We list the routine things we do every day and then there is the separate list of bigger tasks, or a separate “To Do List” for larger, more important tasks we aim to attack.
If we think of God this way and imagine that He kept a calendar, and we were able to look at His “To Do List” of big tasks, we would find just one item remaining on God’s list. We would see previous tasks crossed through, finished tasks such as creation, fall, Christ’s first coming and redemption. Then there is that remaining item, the unfinished task: “Second Coming.” There would be no line through it because, of course, it has yet to occur!
The second coming of Christ is God’s next “Big thing” that He has planned. In God’s sovereign, providential working through history, we are they who live between Christ’s first and second comings. So while God is at work in all events, including the daily things that happen at all times, we look forward to the next “Big thing” God will do in fulfillment of His overarching plan for humankind. We look forward to Christ’s return.
**How To Get Through The Tough Times…
It is helpful to think this way every day and especially helpful to think this way when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. Especially when we suffer injustices, James encourages us to “be patient,” to wait patiently for that future time when Christ returns and God settles the score.
This takes us to the first practical action that surfaces from these verses:
Look for the Savior, that you may Endure
The way we can move forward when difficulties come is by looking up and watching for the Savior. By this, I mean we are to have a heart attitude and disposition that looks beyond the present difficulty. We anticipate the fulfillment of a greater plan that God is working out. Doing this results in an ability to endure.
James teaches that just as a farmer waits patiently for the coming of rain so should the Christian wait patiently for the coming of Christ.
I’m not a farmer, but I know how important water is to farming. When I visited my farming cousins I mentioned in a previous chapter, they took me to an aqueduct built by a relative. He had been one of the homesteaders who settled that dry, western area of Nebraska. Of course water is essential for the growing of crops.
In James’ day—and throughout the Old and New Testament—we see Palestinian farmers dependent upon two seasons of rain, the “early” and “latter” rains. The early rain was what God sent in the fall, the rain that occurred just after sowing the fields. The latter rain came the following spring just before the harvest time.
Farmers had to wait patiently for the rain. They could not speed up this process! They had to just wait upon the Lord. They had to believe that He was going to do something and that the timing would be right.
So James says this is precisely the way you and I are to live when we face injustices and difficulties. Whatever our trials and tribulations, we wait upon the Lord. We must believe He will do something and His help will come at just the right time.
God works through our hardships, difficulties, and injustices to produce a steadfastness, a patient endurance, an ability to stand firm and strong. God conforms us to Christlikeness through our hardships and develops in us the virtue of endurance.
Interestingly James comes full circle, providing “bookends” to his letter. In this last chapter he is tying the theme of perseverance to that same theme in the opening of his letter. Recall what he wrote at the beginning of the first chapter:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4).
Though the words are different James is calling for the same kind of patience here in the last chapter. God works through our hardships, difficulties, and injustices to produce a steadfastness, a patient endurance, an ability to stand firm and strong. God conforms us to Christlikeness through our hardships and develops in us the virtue of endurance.
Our role is to look up, to look for the Savior that we may endure. It’s much as Paul teaches in his letters, teaching us to look to the future that we may find encouragement. To the church in Rome, for example, he says: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18),” and to the church in Galatia he writes: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9).”
James says, “You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
That phrase, “Establish your hearts” is a call for Christians to be strong, to shore up their faith, to have a backbone and strengthen their inner resolve to stand in the face of injustices. It’s a call for courage, conviction, and commitment in the face of adversity.
And again, note the key to this: it is not that we just sort of “drum up” this resolve, but rather that we find strength in the truth, the fact of the coming of the Lord. James says, “Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” In other words, “Here’s how to prop up your heart, here’s how to stand in the face of persecution and adversity: remember that the Lord is coming and He could come today.”
Similar encouragements to look for the Savior that we may endure are found in other places in the New Testament:
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light (Romans 13:12).”
“Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).”
“But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers (1 Peter 4:7).”
Be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. The idea is to persevere, to not quit, to keep moving. So as you wait patiently look for the Savior that you may endure. Secondly, as you wait patiently:
Look to your Speech, that you may Edify
The idea here is that when we go through hardships and difficulties we must watch our mouths. When facing persecution or battling difficulties we may find ourselves grumbling or complaining. When things don’t go our way we are tempted to lash out and take out our frustrations on others. James warns: “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!”
James seems to understand our propensity for taking out our frustrations upon others. The very reason he is teaching patience is because of our immediate fallen reaction to grow impatient. Growing increasingly impatient with God, Christians may begin taking out their frustrations on each other. So James says, “Do not grumble against one another, brethren.”
The problem is not with “one another.” This is nearly always helpful to remember in our dealings with others. When a person lashes out at you, you are usually not the problem. Don’t take it personally. Frequently there is something else going on in that person’s life and you just happen to be the nearest target. Have the wisdom to remember this the next time someone unfairly criticizes you or grumbles against you.
So James warns against lashing out when it seems that God’s promises to address injustices are taking too long. Don’t be impatient. James adds that if we fail to be patient we will “be condemned.” We will be found at fault by the Lord. He adds: “Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” In other words the Lord is right outside, standing at the door, and He’s not going to knock first. He’s just going to fling the door open suddenly and come in. It’s that sudden.
Now we may think, “Well, it’s been a long time since Christ’s first coming. Shouldn’t He have come by now? Didn’t the early Christians live as though they believed He would come soon?” And the answer is yes, the early Christians lived as though they believed He would come soon. It’s the same way Christians should live today—as though they believe He will come soon.
Peter reminds us in his second letter in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack (or slow) concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
In other words, if it seems like the Lord is delaying His coming, remember His love for mankind. He is “long-suffering…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance,” that all would be ready when He does come—whether by coming to us or in calling us home to Himself.
Remember that Jesus warns in Matthew’s Gospel: “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect (Matthew 24:44),” and “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming (Matthew 25:13).”
If He came today, would you be ready? What if He calls you away in death, will you be ready? That too could happen suddenly. He could either come or call us to Himself. Will you be ready to face Him?
To us it may seem like a long time between Christ’s first and second comings but remember in that same passage from 2 Peter that Peter reminds us “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).” God works according to His own timetable.
Jesus Himself hints that there will be a long interval between His first and second comings such as in Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents: “After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them (Matthew 25:19).”
So be patient. The Lord is coming again. Don’t grow impatient and start lashing out at one another. Look for the Savior and look to your speech; watch for your Lord and watch your mouth. Thirdly, as you wait patiently:
In essence, he is saying: “Hey if you want to be encouraged when you’re going through trials and hardships, read the Bible. Look to the Scriptures and find encouragement.”
Look at the Scriptures, that you may be Encouraged
James now encourages Christians by reminding them that in the Scriptures they will find godly examples of those who persevered through times of persecution, injustice, and adversity: “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.”
It is as though James is saying, “Just open your Bibles and you will read throughout the Old Testament about the prophets who persevered through times of hardship. They are good examples to you of how to move forward, to keep going when you suffer.”
And this is true, isn’t it? We do better when we find that others have experienced what we are experiencing and discover that they got through it okay. It really encourages us. So James says just read the Scriptures and you will be encouraged by the examples of prophets who persevered during hardships snd difficulties.
The writer of Hebrews seems to encourage us this way by reminding us of the many Old Testament heroes who persevered under hardship. He writes:
James means to encourage Christians. In essence, he is saying: “Hey if you want to be encouraged when you’re going through trials and hardships, read the Bible. Look to the Scriptures and find encouragement.”
Do you read the Bible regularly? You can’t be encouraged if you don’t read it. James continues: “Indeed we count them blessed who endure…”
That’s true. “We count them blessed who endure.” Those who endure receive the prize at the end of the sufferings. To quote the Apostle Paul again: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).”
Finally, James provides Job as the quintessential example of persevering during times of trials and affliction: “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”
We often speak of the “patience of Job,” but the word “perseverance” is better. Truth is, Job occasionally comes across as a bit impatient (as we typically understand the term) and who can blame him? He lost all of his children and he lost his home and his stuff and then he’s covered in boils. It’s so bad that Job’s wife does what James warns against in verse 9. She grumbles and says, “Job, why don’t you just curse God and die?”—just the kind of encouragement we need, right?!
But James reminds us that God had a sovereign plan He was working in and through Job’s circumstances. James says, “You and I can see the end—(the word means ‘purpose’)—the end intended by the Lord.”
God had a purpose He was working out in the life of Job. And James gives us something of that purpose in verse 11: “that we may see that “the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”
God blesses Job in the end with twice as much as he had before. Job didn’t know that God would do this back at the beginning of the ordeal. He could only persevere during the “question marks” of his life. He persevered through the afflictions and God honored his faithfulness.
Matthew Henry says, “The best way to bear afflictions is to look to the end of them.”
Remember that God is sovereign and that He is working out an “end,” a purpose, and that His purpose will be good and right. Never forget that. He is always, as James says at the end of verse 11, “very compassionate and merciful.”
Be patient. Don’t quit on God! He doesn’t quit on us. Why should we quit on Him?
What About You?
- Why do you think the Lord has delayed His second coming?
- Why do you think the Lord permits so much injustice?
- Does reading in the Bible about the oppression of others encourage you? Why or why not?
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