A LETTER FROM JAMES

Chapter 5 – part 2

Patience and Endurance

7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!

10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

12 But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.

Notwithstanding his harsh words to the rich, James shows his compassionate heart; Dear brothers and sisters. Christian leadership is not blinded by compassion and soft emotions. There is a place in Christian ministry for direct conversation even when the subject is difficult. However, there is no room for grudges and resentment. Matters need to be dealt with in a Christian manner and every effort to move on past the conversation.

Obviously, there was a degree of impatience among the members of the early church who were expecting the imminent return of Jesus and James is dealing with one the great human deficiencies:  lack of patience. In Paul’s list of the Christian virtues/characteristic of love in I Corinthians 13, patience heads the list. We have probably all at times muttered under our breath, or aloud for that matter; Lord, grant me patience, but hurry, and that is no doubt we often feel. Why Paul put patience at the top of his list of the qualities of love is unclear, but what is evident is that most of the other qualities associated with love, flow from and are impacted by patience.

The truth is that patience is probably the first casualty when we are under stress and that is true of relationships in any part of life, including the community of believers. Consequently, once patience is diminished many of the other characteristics of love, which are crucial in the Christian community, are immediately impacted. Accordingly, it is imperative to nourish and sustain our well of patience.

Some would say that it is too much to expect people in this day and age to actively exercise such patience and that such an attitude is too idealistic. The truth is that the Bible deals in ideals, not current, human realities, and the critics would say that is fairyland living and we need to face up to the real world! But ideals are important, they are uncontaminated and uncorrupted, and they give us a measuring stick against which we can evaluate human behaviour.

As we have noted James is talking about some nuts and bolts, human issues in the fledgling church and unwarranted criticism and complaint about fellow believers was the issue, and an ongoing dilemma within the community of believers. The reality is that we cannot close our eyes to unchristian and erroneous behaviour with the community and hope it will somehow disappear, but neither should we be super-sensitive to the weaknesses and faults of our fellow believers, remembering that we too, are fallible sinners saved by grace. Perhaps we should actively seek to try and see our fellow believers through the eyes of the Good Shepherd and, where possible, try and encourage and enable fellow believers to grow in grace. At the end of the chapter, James will return to this subject.

When Paul writes to the church at Galatia he addresses a similar problem: 6 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. (Galatians 6:1-15 – NLT)

At the end of the day it is our own attitude and actions that are the primary issue with the Judge [who] is standing at the door! One of the vagaries of human nature is that it is far easier to see and highlight the faults and failings of others around us, than confront and address our own. It is the personal responsibility of the pilgrim endeavouring to discern and live the kingdom lifestyle, to follow the example of King David in Psalm 51, and genuinely confront their own issues.

To ensure his readers get the message James returns to one of his key thoughts: the need for patience, and uses the example of Job to illustrate that God will honour and reward the patient pilgrim trying to live the kingdom lifestyle.

He rounds this section off by reminding his readers that they need to be transparently honest and straight-forward in their communication with each other. We live in a world of hyped-up public relations jargon and word spin. However, the glaring reality is that there is absolutely no room or excuse, for word spin, or the clever use of language to mask intentions and actions within the kingdom lifestyle. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.