James: Where Faith
and Life Meet
Patience & Suffering
5/27/12
Introduction:
Evangelist
John Wesley
was riding along a road one day when it dawned on him that three whole days had
passed in which he had suffered no persecution. Not a brick or an egg had been
thrown at him for three days.
Alarmed, he stopped his horse, and exclaimed,
“Can it be that I have sinned, and am backslidden?”
Slipping from his horse, Wesley went down on
his knees and began interceding with God to show him where, if any, there had
been a fault.
A rough fellow, on the other side of the
hedge, hearing the prayer, looked across and recognized the preacher. “I’ll fix
that Methodist preacher,” he said, picking up a brick and tossing it over at
him. It missed its mark, and fell harmlessly beside John. Whereupon Wesley
leaped to his feet joyfully exclaiming, “Thank God, it’s all right. I still have
His presence.”[1]
Not too many of us would respond the way Wesley did when we
think our lives are too comfortable. In
fact many of us wouldn’t consider persecution or trials as being the sure sign
that we are truly following God. I would
go even so far as to say many Christians in the United States believe just the
opposite. I have met many Christians in
the U.S. who believe that if they are facing any sort of trial, tribulation or
persecution that God is punishing or judging them for something or they are
facing an attack by the enemy. This may
be the case sometimes but many often
forget that God also allows difficulties or trials in our lives for good and
his glory. The problem is very few
(if any) of us actually welcome and/or quietly endure suffering and trials in
our lives. Nobody I know personally
(myself included) like trials or suffering but I do know many who do endure it and
grow from them because their hope and faith lies in something far bigger than
the temporal and fleeting pain they face here on earth.
In today’s passage James reminds his readers the importance
of having patience during trials and suffering.
If you recall in the opening of this letter he tells his readers to
“Count it all joy… when you meet various trials” (which is a strange and
difficult request in the first place) and it was a direct response he tells the
members of this congregation who were being oppressed by the rich both in and
outside of the body of Christ to have. Now
five chapters later he begins his conclusion with yet another reminder of the
necessity of enduring trials.
Patience and Suffering
As James concludes his letter are
reminded about the oppression the Christian recipients are facing by the
ungodly wealthy. His letter has
contained some very practical, godly and biblical advice (that we can still use
today) as to how these men and women should respond in these difficult
situations. He mentions that retaliation
in anger is not a solution as he states in 1:19 for it does not produce the
righteousness of God; instead they are to endure.
Verse 7: James
begins his concluding thoughts by admonishing his readers by using the dreaded
“P” word. This is the word so many of us
dislike so much. He says, “Be patient
(or patiently endure), therefore brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” The word “therefore” shows that he is
directly responding to these people should respond to the way the rich are
treating them as he spoke about in Chapter 5 verses 1 – 6. He tells his readers to have the mindset of
patiently enduring in their trials.
I am sure these were not the words they
were hoping to hear from James. They
like most of us when wrongfully persecuted and oppressed wanted swift and
immediate justice by God. Nobody wants
to be told, don’t retaliate; instead wait patiently. The question then could have been how long
are they supposed to patiently endure these trials?
James tells them even better news; they
are to endure until “The coming of the Lord.”
What exactly did he mean by this?
The coming of the Lord is what
the early Christians believed (and still do today) about Jesus’ physical return
to judge (as judge) the wicked and deliver (Savior) the saints. The early Christians lived with this hope
and with this expectation and this is what helped most of them through their
trials they had to endure. The return of
Jesus is not a secret thing, it is referred often in the Bible in both the Old
and New Testament (One commentator says there are 300 references to Jesus’
return in the New Testament). Jesus
spoke often about his physical return in one of his famous talks called the
Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24).
James is encouraging the believers to
wait patiently and in faith… just like a farmer patiently waits for his
crop. James uses the example of a farmer
to show how they are to wait. I think a
farmer knows better than anyone about faith.
He works hard to till the ground, plant the crop and prepare it so he
will get his crop for the year and have enough crops to get him through the
year… Yet that is all you can do. He cannot
control the weather (amount of rain or sunshine), he can’t make a seed grow,
and he can’t determine whether it will be a bountiful and healthy crop or
not. He realizes his livelihood depends
on so many factors other than himself (namely God). R. Kent Hughes writes,
“All
farmers must patiently submit to this process (the growing process). To fight against it, to bite their nails, to
insist they must have fruit in the middle of the process is futile.
In
submitting to God’s process, they will inevitably undergo stressful times when
it appears the rains will never come.
But these times can be spiritually beneficial to them as they call upon
their faithful God.” [2]
Verse 8: Once again James reminds his readers about the
coming of the Lord, but now he let’s them know this event is not far away (or
so it seems), yet he does not say when the coming of the Lord will happen. As I stated earlier believers lived with the
expectation his return would happen in their lifetime but they didn’t know
when, in fact Jesus himself does not know when this will happen, only the
Father does. When we read throughout the New Testament from those who wrote about
the coming of Christ they all believed it was going to happen soon and swiftly. We still today live in expectation and in
anticipation for the return of Christ.
We also know that his return can happen at any moment (imminent). We do not know the day, hour, or time so we
are to constantly be ready for when Jesus does come for when he does he will
come to judge the wicked and set up his kingdom here on earth. Jesus tells us three times in Revelation 22
that he is coming soon… verses 7, 12, 20 - 21.
The Christians didn’t need to be convinced Jesus was coming back, they
already believed that. They just needed
to learn to patiently endure and stand firm in their faith.
Verse 9: As the
oppression was heating up it is probable so were tempers and patience with one
another in the church. I think we can
all relate whenever we are stressed, in turmoil or in a difficult situation it
is easy for us to lose our cool or turn against those who care and love us
most. James reminds his readers to not
do this and to patiently endure and not grumble against each other. As you recall he spent a good deal of time in
chapter 3 talking about the dangers of the words we speak and this applies in
the times of trouble and difficulty.
Verse 10 – 11: James sites
the Old Testament prophets as being true examples of patience and
suffering. He pinpoints Job in his
steadfastness and God’s true compassion and mercy in times of trials and
persecutions. After all Job went through
and all he had lost he was able to endure (not without complaining) and come
out of his funk so to speak with a deeper faith in God and truly knowing he is
compassionate and merciful.
Verse 12: This verse
is not necessarily connected to verses 7 – 11 but also very well may be. We do know that James is making reference to
a statement about oaths that Jesus made in Matthew 5:34 – 37. This is simply a statement regarding oaths
and more importantly integrity. At the
beginning James does come across as prohibiting oaths but it does not
necessarily mean this at all. Instead it
more likely refers to our integrity in speech.
Above all we should be men and
women of integrity in our words. We must
speak truth, be men and women of our word, and be aware that every word we speak
will be judged (Matt. 12:36). As
believers we should not have to take oaths to promise to fulfill what is to be
done. Our words should be enough to
ensure that we will do exactly what we say we are going to do.
Practical Application
Patience and suffering are not two words we welcome
with open arms into our lives; especially when the two are connected. Patiently enduring during times of suffering
and difficulty is probably one of the hardest things for humans to do. As humans we all face trials, tribulations
and difficulties. It is part of the
fabric of life. However as believers our
response to trials must be different than that of the world. The world only sees the pain and cries out
because they have no hope. We know our difficulties in life are
temporary even if they last a lifetime.
As believer’s we live in the hope or the expectation that one day there
will be relief from the distresses of life.
So we must patiently endure, until we meet the Lord or He comes to us. Our Lord has an eternity waiting for us where
there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more suffering. We have put all our stock into this
truth. Yet, we do not know when our
suffering will end. It is an open ended
promise. It may come at the end of your
life or it may end when the Lord returns.
This must always be in the front of our minds as Christians. We must live everyday for Jesus as though it
were our last day because, who knows, it may be your last day. Also knowing the return of Christ is imminent
(could be any moment) should help us live victorious lives because we know how
the story of history ends. Our God is
victorious over all evil and because we are his children we are victorious as
well. So let us start living in this
expectation and in anticipation of his return.
Let us not waste our time hear on earth grumbling against one another,
verbally abusing one another, oppressing the weaker in faith and finances,
saying and not doing, living worldly lives, and making selfish plans for the
future because the coming of the Lord is near.
Knowing his coming is near should
either scare you to death (because you have not put your faith in Christ) or
make you shout out with joy (because all of your hope and faith is in
knowing that one day you will be eternally in the presence of our Lord and King
Jesus Christ).
For all of you in a difficult position
today take comfort in this passage. Know
that this suffering is only for a moment.
May you also be reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul who writes in
Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
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