James 5:7-10 Commentary

Except in response to various crises, I don’t hear many Christians express impatience for Jesus’ return. Most of Jesus’ friends who I know (including, candidly, me) would just as soon Jesus wait a while to come again. After all, for many of us life on this side of the new creation can, at its best, be quite wonderful.

So, for example, while the holidays can provoke some stress, they don’t often make many of us impatient for Jesus’ return. Instead, at least some of us probably hope that he’ll wait to come back until after Christmas. After all, many of us look forward to celebrating Jesus’ birth with family members and friends.

Why, then, would James begin this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson with a summons to “Be patient [makrothymesate*] … until [heos] the coming [parousias] of the Lord” (7)? Why does the apostle feel the need to invite his readers to, in the words of The Message, “wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival”? While we profess the Spirit inspired James to make this invitation, it seems fair to wonder why.

Even the most careful readers of James 5:7-10 won’t learn from it why James calls his fellow Christians to patiently await Christ’s return. For that we’ll need to read its context. So preachers might consider including verses 1-6 as well as 11-12 in this morning’s Scripture reading.

But, candidly, even verses 1-6 don’t explicitly explain why James calls his readers to “wait patiently for the Lord’s coming.” So wise preachers may choose to let the Spirit help us to offer both a bit of speculation and humbly admit that we can’t be completely sure of this Epistolary Lesson’s summons’ roots.

It seems somewhat likely, however, that James addresses this call to patience for the Lord’s return to his readers whom people who are rich are oppressing. After all, the apostle says in verse 1, “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.”

What sorts of misery have those people who are rich caused those they oppress? In verse 4ff. James accuses them: “The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty … You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”

It may not be too big a leap to speculate that the Christians whom James calls to be patient for the Lord’s coming are those who have cried out to the Lord because they have not been paid a fair wage. At least some of James’ readers who are becoming impatient have likely been condemned by and have even lost loved ones to murderous rich people. Those oppressed peoples may well have become impatient for the Lord to return and give them justice.

From where might James’ readers learn such patience? In verse 7b the apostle directs their attention to “the farmer [georgos] [who] waits [ekdechetai] for the land to yield its valuable crop [timion karpon], patiently waiting [makrothymon] for the autumn and spring rains.”

At least some of our younger selves planted in a paper cup a seed that our teachers gave us, promising that with the right care it would sprout into some kind of young plant. But how many of us also monitored that growth daily, expecting a mature plant to spring up overnight? It provided a lesson in patient waiting.

James directs our attention to farmers who must patiently wait for the rain showers that will help produce valuable crops. They must rely on things like timely rains over which they have no control. The apostle summons Jesus’ friends to be patient the way farmers are patient. He at least suggests that we have no more control over the timing of Jesus’ return than farmers do over rain and its timeliness.

In fact, in verse 8 James repeats his call to be makrothymesate (“patient”), adding to it a summons to “stand firm [sterixate tas kardias hymon],” to literally “strengthen your hearts.” It’s almost as if he calls God’s dearly beloved people to whom he writes to “Stay patient and don’t become discouraged.”

After all, “the Lord’s coming is near [engiken]” (8b). As we noted in an earlier commentary, Christ’s coming’s “nearness” has several components. His return is certainly chronologically nearer than when we first received God’s grace with our faith in Jesus Christ.

But in this Advent season in which we think about Christ’s coming in three ways – in the incarnation 2,000 years ago, by his Spirit here and now, and at his return — preachers might summon Jesus’ friends to a kind of holy watchfulness for the ways in which Christ comes near to us here and now. He certainly comes to us by the Holy Spirit. But we might invite Christians to also watch for Christ’s nearness in signs of God’s loving concern for us as well as other Christians’ love for us.

That offers a possible antidote for the kinds of divisions that James alludes to as sometimes plaguing God’s adopted impatient family. “Don’t grumble [stenazete] against one another, brothers and sisters,” the apostle warns in verse 9. “Or you will be judged [krithete]. The Judge is standing [hesteken] at the door.”

Krithete is variously translated as “grumble” (NIV and NRSV), “murmur” (KJV) and “complain” (The Message). All suggest an expressed hostility toward our fellow Christians. But this leaves unanswered the question of the identity of their fellow believers whom James’ audience was grumbling about. Is it their rich oppressors? Is it James’ readers’ fellow Christians who were being so mistreated? The latter might seem to be a better option. After all, it’s not just that impatient people are vulnerable to harping on each other. It also reflects the historic tendency of people who are oppressed to turn on each other.

James may also be deliberately adding weight to his warning against complaining about our fellow Christians by referring to them as his adelphoi (“brothers and sisters”). Those with whom his readers bicker aren’t just the apostle’s brothers and sisters or his readers’ fellow Christians. They’re also adopted members of their family in Christ.

Yet James also at least seems to imply in his use of krithete an element of judgment. It’s as if he’s implying Jesus’ friends must consciously resist the temptation to judge each other. After all, he warns against his readers grumbling against each other lest they be “judged” by the Judge of the living and the dead who’s coming soon.

At first glance this warning about being judged by the returning Christ might seem to conflict with the nature of grace. However, Christians may also view it as a reminder that God expects those who receive God’s grace with our faith to always seek to fully love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves.

In verse 10 James returns to his theme of patience in the face of suffering. “Brothers and sisters,” he writes there, “As an example [hypodeigma] of patience [makromythias] in the face of suffering [kakopathias], take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”

The prophets didn’t just speak for and in the name of the Lord. They also had to do so with great patience and persistence. After all, prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Joel didn’t find naturally receptive audiences, even among God’s Israelite people. In the words The Message uses to paraphrase verse 10, “They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.”

There are worse ways for Jesus’ friends to wait for his coming.

*I have here and elsewhere added in brackets the Greek words for the English words the NIV translation uses.

Note: In addition to our weekly sermon commentaries each Monday, check out our special Advent and Christmas Resource page for more sermon ideas and other Advent/Christmas resources. 

Illustration

In his book Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose chronicles the explorers Lewis and Clark’s need for patience when they entered Sioux Country near today’s Yankton, S.D. President Jefferson had warned Lewis that the Sioux had turned back previous white men trying to enter their territory.

But Lewis was determined. He met with a few of the Yanktons and invited them to a council. The indigenous people entered the council in “full regalia” and cooked “a fat dog” for their visitors. The white men, too, wore their dress uniforms and ran up the flag. Lewis gave his standard Indian Speech about the Indians’ new great white father in the East and about how if they only did what he said they would prosper through new trade options and in other ways.

Yet as Ambrose continues: “When [Lewis] finished, the chiefs said they would respond in the morning — obviously they would need time to confer on this business of accepting a new father and becoming part of a new trade system. Lewis recognized that patience was not just a virtue in dealing with Indians, it was a necessity and handed out medals to five chiefs.”