13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
by King Duncan
Have you heard about the pastor who was out painting his fence one day? He was meditating on this passage from the book of James. He was meditating on the fact that life is so brief. It's just a vapor. About that time, a man came along the road pulling a horse. The pastor looked up and said, "Where are you going with that horse?"
The man said, "I'm going to go to town to sell it."
The pastor said, "You ought to say you're going to sell it if it be the Lord's will."
The man said, "The Lord's will has nothing to do with it. I raised the horse to sell, and I'm going to go sell it."
The pastor said, "I'm telling you, life is short. You ought to say `if it be the Lord's will.'"
The man said, "Look, I raised this horse to sell. I've got an appointment with a potential buyer. The Lord's will doesn't have anything to do with it." With that he walked off, dragging the horse. The pastor kept painting the fence. About an hour and a half later he looked up and saw the man walking back toward him. His pants were gone, his boots were gone, he was trying to cover himself with his shirttail, his face was cut, and his hair was messed up.
The pastor asked, "What in the world happened to you?"
The man said, "Well, I stayed here and talked to you so bloomin' long I was late for my appointment. I cut across a corn field to save time. The farmer who owns the field saw my horse, but didn't see me. He shot my horse. The horse fell on me, then kicked me in the eye. I couldn't get out from underneath him without pulling off my boots and britches. I got up and the farmer started shootin' at me. Gettin' away, I caught myself in a barbedwire fence. That's what happened to me."
The pastor asked, "Well, where are you going now?"
The man said, "Well, I'm goin' homeif it be the Lord's will."
In his little epistle, James says to us to exercise caution. When making plans about buying and selling, he says we should always say, "I will do such and such, if it is the Lord's will." What does he mean?
FOR ONE THING HE IS AFFIRMING THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. Take the case of Lynn Ray Collins. For 17 years, Collins hardly said a word. Now he'll hardly let you get a word in edgewise. Why? Because in 1989 he fell through a plate glass window. As a result, for the first time in 17 years he is able to do more than grunt.
Before the accident, Collins communicated only using a computer and sign language. Often he would become depressed and refuse to communicate at all. Now he wakes up in the night and sings, "Amazing Grace."
Lynn Ray had not talked since being struck by a car on Dec. 12, 1972. He suffered brain damage from the accident and was partially paralyzed on his left side for several years. He was in a coma for 11 weeks after the accident. Every day he was in intensive care, the doctors would shake their heads and say, "It's just a matter of minutes now." He survived, but his throat was paralyzed for four years after the accident. He had to be fed through a tube. But now he is talking, and singing and praising God.
"I just can't believe it," his mother said. "We thought we were going to lose him after the first accident and now to have another accident cure him. Someone out there must be looking out for us." (1) Who could predict such a thing? Are such things Providence or merely coincidence? Let's look at another welldocumented casethis one from over four centuries ago.
On June 1, 1676, the Swedish ship Kronan tried to make a tight turn in a naval battle. It capsized and exploded. Of her crew of 850 sailors and troops, only 42 survived. Most of those 42 survived by swimming away before the explosion and the quick sinking. However, a soldier named Anders Sparrfelt was on deck when the ship exploded, and yet he lived.
The explosion propelled him high into the air, over the masts of two attacking Danish ships, and into the sail of another Swedish ship, the Draken. Sparrfelt was entirely unhurt and was now safe on another Swedish vessel. While almost everyone else on the Kronan perished that day, Sparrfelt was fortunate beyond anything a man could hope. How do you account for such a thing? Luck or divine intervention? Let's look at one more example.
During the invasion of Normandy in France in 1944, army jeep drivers were helped out in blackouts by glowworms living along the sides of the roads. The tiny lights of these creatures, flashing to attract mates, kept the drivers on the roads. These lights helped greatly in making the invasion a success. What do you think? Was it luck or was a sovereign God working to defeat Hitler? We could have an interesting discussion following the worship service, couldn't we?
One thing we will all agree on is that life is unpredictable. Anybody who thinks they have it all figured out and tightly under control is misleading himself or herself. What would happen to your job if the stock market crashed tomorrow morning? Can't happen? It has before. Suppose you were out on the road this evening and, out of the blue, a drunk driver crossed the road and you became another tragic statistic. Or suppose you were to win the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes? Who knows what tomorrow may bring. Life is unpredictable. That is one thing that James is surely saying.
ANOTHER IS THAT ULTIMATELY GOD IS IN CONTROL OF HIS CREATION. None of us would argue with that. We might argue about how much control God chooses to exercise in this world. There are Christians who sincerely believe that everything that happens is a result of God's will. Others equally sincere believe that God has created a lawful world and that everything that happens is a result of his lawful creation. He may under certain remarkable circumstances intervene, but most things happen according to His laws. Which is right? Who can say? We're not God. We do know that however God chooses to act, His way is best.
According to an ancient legend a certain small village sought to strike a bargain with God. They had been experiencing many years of poor harvests. They thought they could improve on God's way of doing things. They asked God for permission to plan the weather for the next year's harvest. God agreed. Whenever they asked for rain, God sent rain. Whenever they asked for sun, God sent sun. That year, the corn and the wheat were higher and thicker than ever before.
When harvest came, however, the farmers discovered that the tall corn had no ear, and the thick wheat had no head of grain. They complained bitterly to God. God replied, "When you asked for rain, I sent rain. When you asked for sunshine, I gave sunshine. You never asked for the harsh north winds, however. Without the harsh north winds, there is no pollination, and with no pollination, there is no crop." We may not not understand God's ways, but we know His heart. For He has revealed it in Jesus. We know that God is for us. We know He can be trusted. We know His way is best.
Sometimes it strains our faith to affirm that. Some of us have had some difficult blows in our life. We're like the farmer who had a fine ewe which gave birth to two lambs. When one lamb died the farmer remarked, "Well, I'd rather have one fat lamb than two skinny ones." Still later, the other lamb died, and he reflected, "Well, it's all for the best. Now the ewe won't be bothered with them." A week later, when the ewe died, the farmer was still philosophical. "Well, it's all for the best," said he, "but I'll be darned if I can figure it out."
We can sympathize. The ways of God are not our ways. Still we trust in His divine care. He is in control of His creation. Of that we can be sure.
The writer of James would want us to know that. But before we leave here this morning, I want to stress something James is not saying. JAMES IS NOT SAYING THAT WE ARE TO PASSIVELY ACCEPT WHATEVER LIFE MAY SEND US AS THE WILL OF GOD.
Do you know what I am talking about? I am talking about the person who caves in too easily when life gets rough. I'm talking about the person who is content to sit on his or her sofa and whine, "Well, if this is God's will, I'll just have to accept it. If God wants me to have a job, He will open the right door. All I have to do is sit and wait on Him." The Christian faith has been given a bad name by people who excuse their timidity, their irresponsibility, their outright laziness by blaming everything on God's will.
They did not get such a faith from Jesus. Jesus' faith was an active faith. It was not only about asking, but seeking and knocking. He praised the widow who persisted until she got what she needed. He praised others who were doers, risktakersmovers and shakers, we would call them today. The man with five talents who did something with his talent was praised, while the one who hid his talent in the ground was condemned. Even the dishonest steward is cast in a good light because he took charge of his situation. There is no foundation in all the Gospels or the epistles for the whiny kind of passiveness that excuses every situation as God's will. That includes the Epistle of James.
How do I know James is not endorsing such a philosophy? Read his epistle. It is about doing, working, giving. Indeed, part of the reason he wrote this letter was to caution those who were relying too heavily on affirmations of faith and ignoring the importance of works. The Christian life is a life of action. It is a life of striving, of never giving up.
Why do I stress this? There are times when a Christian needs to know how to fight. For example, research shows that people can sometimes improve their odds in battling cancer if they do not give up. The person who caves in and says, "Oh well, this is just God's will," may very well be decreasing his or her odds to stay alive. There are times when a Christian needs to fight. For example, sometimes God calls us to battle injustice or oppression. Indeed, life itself is a battle. God means for us to fight the good fight with everything that is within us.
There is an ancient fable about a man walking through the forest who saw a fox that had lost its legs. He wondered how it lived. Then he saw a tiger come in with game in its mouth. The tiger had its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day the same thing happened again. The man began to praise God for providing for the fox and said to himself, "I too shall just rest in a corner with full trust in the Lord and he will provide me with all I need."
He did this for many days, but nothing happened. He almost starved. He was nearly at death's door when he heard a voice say, "O, you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox." (3) That's good advice for us. It was Ben Franklin, not the Bible, who said, "God helps those who help themselves." There's a lot of honest truth there. We are not to depend on God for matters that we can handle ourselves. We are to acknowledge the unpredictability of life. We are to acknowledge His sovereignty over life. We are to surrender ourselves to His guidance. But, we are also to take responsibility for making something out of our livestrusting that when we get to the end of our resources, he will step in and supply what we lack.
1. Kay Taylor and Nancy Bereckis, Scripps-Howard News Service
2. Franzen, Anders. "Kronan Remnants of a Mighty Warship," NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, (April, 1989), pp. 438, 444, 454.
3. Anthony de Mello, THE SONG OF THE BIRD, Image, 1984.
This central section of the letter deals with wisdom, specifically how wisdom is demonstrated through our speech (or the “tongue”). James warns people against presuming to be teachers, since that role relates directly to speech and carries both great responsibility and additional accountability (3:1–2). In 3:3–6, James provides three illustrations of the power of the tongue: bits that control horses, rudders that control ships, and sparks that start forest fires. Our speech has great potential for bringing good or causing evil. Unlike the animal kingdom, our speech is untamable (3:7–8), and unlike nature, …
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
4:13–5:11 Review · Looking at Life from a Christian Perspective: The paragraphs in this section focus on the way we should look at ourselves (4:13–17), our material possessions (5:1–6), and our present difficulties (5:7–11) in the light of God’s person and purposes.
4:13–17 · Recognizing who we are before God: James addresses self-confident businesspeople in 4:13—whether Christian or non-Christian is unclear. These businesspeople have decided where they are going, how long they will stay, what they will do there, and even what the outcome of their efforts will be. James has nothing against making plans, but he does condemn the arrogance of those who think they can make their plans without reference to God. We must recognize that we do not control what will happen tomorrow and that our very lives are nothing more than “a mist,” or smoke, that quickly vanishes (4:14). When we recognize who we are before God, we will see the need to consider the Lord’s will in everything we do. The very continuation of our lives depends on his will (4:15). When James encourages us to say, “if it is the Lord’s will,” he does not mean, of course, that the simple repetition of these words in our prayers takes care of the need. Rather, we are to consciously place all our plans and hopes under the lordship of Christ, recognizing that he is the one who prospers or brings to grief those plans. At heart, the sin these businesspeople are committing is the sin of arrogance, of thinking that they, rather than God, are in the driver’s seat (5:16). With a principle that has wide application, James concludes the paragraph by reminding us that sin consists not just in doing those things we should not but also in failing to do those things that we should. Similarly, James’s readers are now responsible for putting into practice the attitude he has just set forth.
Throughout the book James has been dealing with the root causes of disharmony within the community. In the previous section, he has dealt with their complaining, their criticizing, and their roots in worldliness (3:1–4:12). Now he turns to another theme, the test of wealth. The poor person is totally dependent and knows it. Although such a person may well be consumed with envy and ambition, Christians are more likely to turn to prayer and humble dependence upon God. The wealthier person, however, may be lulled into a false sense of security and trust in money by the relative comfort of his or her station in life. It is this problem that James now takes up.
4:13 Now listen shows that James is making a new departure in his thought. Those who should listen are a group of merchants making typical plans: Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. James does not call these people rich, for he reserves that term for unbelievers (2:6 and 5:1). These people are Christians, who may not be exactly wealthy, but are at least “middle-class.”
The plans that these merchants are making do not seem ungodly. They are making travel plans (perhaps dependent upon when a ship or caravan is finally ready to leave). They have a destination in mind where they realize that their local goods (grain, wine, oil, or spices, if one thinks in terms of Palestine) can be profitably traded. They will carry on business, which means buy and sell goods. They expect the trading expedition to take a year, by which time their stock of goods to sell will be exhausted. They project a profit (make money does not indicate unusual amounts of profit). There appears to be nothing wrong. In trade a person has to plan ahead: Travel plans, market projections, time frames, and profit forecasts are the stuff of business in all ages. Every honest merchant would plan in exactly the same way—pagan, Jew, or Christian—and that is exactly the problem James has with these plans: There is absolutely nothing about their desires for the future, their use of money, or their way of doing business that is any different from the rest of the world. Their worship may be exemplary, their personal morality, impeccable; but when it comes to business they think entirely on a worldly plane.
4:14 In contrast to the secure rationality of their plans stands the insecurity of life: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. In fact, life is utterly ephemeral: You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Their projections are made; their plans are laid. But it all hinges on a will higher than theirs, a God unconsulted in their planning. That very night disease might strike; suddenly their plans evaporate, their only trip being one on a bier to a cold grave. They are like the rich fool of Jesus’ parable, who had made a large honest profit through the chance occurrences of farming. Feeling secure, he makes rational plans for a comfortable retirement. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you’ ” (Luke 12:16–21). By thinking on the worldly plane, James’ Christian business people have gained a false sense of security. They need to look death in the face and realize their lack of control over life.
4:15 Instead of relaxing in the false security of worldly thinking, they need to raise their thinking to a higher level: If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. This, of course, was precisely how Paul lived: Acts 18:21; Romans 1:10; 1 Corinthians 4:19; 16:7; Philippians 2:19, 24. The fact is that God alone controls whether we live. He alone controls whether we are able to do this or that. This acknowledgment recognizes human finiteness and divine sovereignty. But it does not rule out planning. The we will is a plan made in God’s will.
This advice is not simply to add a “God willing” at the end of every plan. Rather, it is to plan with God. Each plan is evaluated by his standards and goals; each plan is laid before God in prayer with adequate time spent in listening for God’s ideas. In such a case the “if God wills” is a prayerful belief that God does will, not a pious hope God won’t interfere. Plans made with careful prayer and aimed at God’s goals need not be insecure.
4:16 These people, however, are far from prayerful planning: As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. The key term is boast, for it indicates the inner attitude. Pride is the claim of the empty boaster, who claims an ability that he or she does not have. It is the claim of control and status in life that 1 John 2:16 cites, but the claim is false, for the world in the context of which the boast is made is passing away. It is “the presumptuous claims and ostentatious behavior of men by which they seek to impress one another, and very often delude themselves” (C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans [Edinburgh, 1975], vol. 1, p. 132.) They boast in their empty plans of grandeur: “You should see the deal I’m going to get,” or perhaps a more modest-sounding, “Well, tomorrow I’m going to Rome. My agent has lined up a fine shop right by the new agora. It is said only the wealthiest shop there.” And on it goes: name-dropping, allusions to places and persons of power, gloating over deals to be made, but all of it empty boasting, for only God controls their lives. James evaluates this harshly: It is evil, for it robs God of his rightful honor as sovereign and exalts a mere human as if he or she were God. Any plan confidently made outside God’s will discerned through prayer and meditation is not just foolish—it is sin.
4:17 To round off his thought, James adds a concluding proverb, which some speculate might be a saying of Jesus because of its tone and topic: Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. On the surface it simply rebukes sins of omission: A person who knows he or she should do something (e.g., give to a poor person) but neglects to do it has not just missed an opportunity for obedience—he or she has sinned. The context, however, lifts this out of the arena of general truth and into the lives of these merchants. There is clearly something they know they ought to do and are thus responsible for (Luke 12:47–48), which is to obey and follow God in business. But their business interests often lead them to worldly planning and hoarding like the rich fool (Luke 12:13–21). To do the good in scripture is frequently to do charitable acts (James 1:21–25 and Gal. 6:9). James, then, may be suggesting that they plan like the world because they are motivated by the world, for God has his own way to invest money: give it to the poor (Matt. 6:19–21). If they took God into account they might not be trying to increase their own standard of living; God might lead them to relieve the suffering around them, that is, to do good.
Having spoken to Christians whose hearts were being seduced by the world, James now turns to address wealthy non-Christians. He roundly condemns them in language similar to Jesus’ (Luke 6:20–26), in order to turn Christians away from the seductiveness of wealth and to prepare them to endure the test of suffering at the hands of the wealthy.
5:1 Now listen, you rich people. In calling these people rich he classes them with the non-Christians he cites in 2:6 and 1:9. These people, unlike those addressed in 4:14, are outside the Christian fold, so there will be no comforting words for them. There may be forgiveness if they turn from their ways, repent, and join the community of Christians, but James expresses no hope this will happen. His intention is to encourage the Christian community, not to convert the rich.
The call is to weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Just as the poor Christian is to rejoice in present suffering (1:2, 12), so this anticipated joy is matched by anticipated sorrow for the rich. In the middle of their wealth and luxury they should wail, crying out in deep sorrow as if in response to death or disaster (e.g., Isa. 15:1–6). James fully realizes that they are not presently suffering, so he says, is coming upon you. They have plenty to eat, reasonable economic security, social status, and power. But like Isaiah (Isa. 13:6), James looks with divine foresight and sees the dark hurricane cloud of the Day of the Lord about to strike them down.
5:2–3 The initial warning leads to a vivid description of their misery seen through prophetic eyes. Your wealth has rotted is a general description of their state: All their security, all that their hopes and dreams are built upon, has already rotted, from James’ eternal perspective. This is made specific by naming the two classes of wealth that were commonly saved. First, moths have eaten your clothes. They have had closets full of clothing, which might have been used by the poor, but before they look worn the moths get to them. Today one might as easily say, “Your clothes are hopelessly out of style.” Second, your gold and silver are corroded. They have stored their wealth, but it helps neither them nor the poor, for it is saved for “a rainy day.” Its very tarnish shows it is not needed. Today, when money is stored in banks, one might say, “Your money is devalued by inflation.” James’ teaching is therefore similar to that of Jesus: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves to not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21).
This stored wealth has a consequence, for their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. The image is that of the final judgment, as if the tarnished coins and the moth-eaten garments were displayed before the court. The evidence condemns them, for if God had been served, the stored goods would have been used to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Like the rich man in the parable (Luke 16:19–31), they are flung into hell, “where the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:43). James pictures this as if the very tarnish that ate into their silver now eats into them like fire, perhaps picturing the inward torment of guilt at the wasted treasure that forever condemns them.
In a sense the day of judgment is already present: You have hoarded wealth in the last days. James is convinced that in the coming of Jesus time has been totally altered, for he announced, “the kingdom of God is near” (e.g., Mark 1:15), which indicated that the old age was ending and the new beginning, inaugurating the last days. When the Spirit came at Pentecost, Peter saw it as a sign of the last days, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:17, as also 2 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2). The end is not a distant future point for the church, for it itself lives in the new life of the coming age, as it serves its king. In this context, the piling up of riches is tragically ironic. The rich gather and invest as if they or their descendants will live forever, yet the last days, the beginning of the end, are already here. James sees as tragic figures well-dressed men and women pondering investments over excellent meals; they act as if they were winners, but in reality have lost the only game that matters.
5:4 Furthermore, James knows accumulated wealth usually indicates injustice, which in Palestine was usually injustice against agricultural workers. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The Palestinian economy used hired day laborers rather than slaves, partly because a slave would cost more should he or she convert to Judaism. The hired laborers would be the younger sons of peasant families or peasants forced off their land due to the foreclosure of mortgages on their property. These laborers lived a hand-to-mouth existence: Today’s wage bought tomorrow’s breakfast. When the wage was not paid at the end of the day, the whole family went hungry. Despite a host of Old Testament laws (Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14–15), ways were found to withhold payment (e.g., Jer. 22:13; Mal. 3:5). One might withhold them until the end of the harvest season to keep the worker coming back, appeal to a technicality to show that the contract was not fulfilled, or just be too tired to pay that night. If the poor worker complained, the landlord could blacklist him; if he went to court the rich had the better lawyers. James pictures the money in the pockets of the rich, money that should have been paid to the laborers, crying out for justice.
The cries have not gone unheard, for the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. Since they are harvesters, there is no excuse that there was no money; there are heaps of grain to be sold. The hungry worker has cried out to the only resource he has—God. By saying the Lord Almighty, James reminds the reader of Isaiah 5:9, where those acquiring large estates are condemned. All Jews knew what happened to those whom Isaiah condemned, and they knew that God’s ears are open to the poor (Pss. 17:1–6; 18:6; 31:2), so James’ statement implies a threat of judgment.
5:5 The rich live in contrast to the suffering of the poor: You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. Many of the rich might have protested that they were simply middle-class and had earned their few pleasures. James looks at them from the perspective of the poor and calls it indulgence, which 1 Timothy 5:6 sees as a vice. And it is indeed indulgence in the face of the suffering of others. To this James adds, You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. The Greek has two meanings. On the one hand, it means: “You have enjoyed yourselves on the day of slaughter.” Since the fresh meat was soon dried or salted, it was customary to have a big barbecue when one slaughtered animals. But on the other hand, James understands the double meaning, which the NIV correctly expresses. The wealthy have plenty to eat; they enjoy life. But it is the biblical day of slaughter, the day God slaughters his enemies (e.g., Isa. 30:33; 34:5–8). They have enjoyed life as if on a day of slaughter, yet ironically they are now the fattened calf and God’s slaughter knife is about to fall.
5:6 To emphasize their impending doom, James adds a final charge: You have condemned and murdered innocent [people], who were not opposing you. The first part of the charge is familiar, for it is a charge of judicial murder, either by active or passive means. Actively the courts are used to have inconvenient righteous people executed. Passively the courts are used to rob the poor of their livelihood by taking their farms or other means of support. It is all “perfectly legal,” and the poor “just happen” to die of diseases related to malnutrition. God calls both types murder.
The last half of the charge is more difficult. It is true that the poor often cannot resist the rich and powerful and so frequently hardly protest. Furthermore, the tradition of the gospel is nonresistance to evil (Matt. 5:39), and this nonresistance might be seen as a sign of the new age and thus of coming doom. But the tone of the passage demands a question: “Do they not resist you?” On earth the poor appear not to resist: The rich do not hear the groaning cry in prayer before the poor person dies. But James knows that that is not the end: In heaven the wronged continue to raise their cry, “How long?” (Rev. 6:9–11), for they have an audience in the very presence of God. This is indeed effective resistance, for God will hear.
James has finished his argument. All that remains for him is to summarize (5:7–11) and to add a proper epistolary conclusion (5:12–20: oaths, health wish, purpose). Here his pastoral heart comes out as he advises the community how to live during these “last days.”
5:7 Be patient is his first advice. Here patience means “enduring,” “keeping steady under provocation.” It is the same as “the ability to endure” of 1:2 or “remains faithful” of 1:12. The answer to unfaithfulness in the community or persecution from without is not to strike back but to continue to be faithful. The life of discipleship is its own witness. Just as patience/endurance (i.e., neither compromise nor confrontation), it is a big demand.
Patience lasts until the Lord’s coming. This does not mean that one should make no efforts to ameliorate conditions beforehand: a faithful witness will help conditions in the world as a demonstration of the new life in Christ, but the hope of the Christian is in the second coming. The world will not be destroyed or evil defeated until Christ returns personally to destroy it, root and branch.
Patience is never easy, especially if one is suffering. To bolster their hopes James uses the example of the farmer. For the Palestinian farmer, the crops were literally his life and were therefore valuable. His energy had gone into plowing, weeding, and chasing birds away. He had sowed seed his family might otherwise have eaten. He had waited patiently for the autumn, or early, rains (October–November) before sowing. After the sowing he waited for the spring, or later, rains (March–April) to ripen the crop. All this time his food supplies were getting lower; it was not uncommon for food to be rationed and the children to be crying from hunger during the month or two before harvest. The later the rains, the worse it was. But with his life in his hands he had to wait for conditions outside his control.
5:8 Christians also must be patient. Like the farmer, the Christian bets his or her life on the outcome of a long wait. Like the farmer, reducing the tension (by compromise or attack) would be self-destructive. The Christian must place all hope in a condition outside his or her control, waiting patiently for the coming of the King.
As they wait they are to stand firm. As they wait doubt must be fought at all costs: The inner defenses must be constantly attended, their hearts must be strengthened in the face of suffering.
As a further encouragement he adds, the Lord’s coming is near. For the rich this is bad news (5:3–5); for believers this is good news. The waiting may still be long, but like a runner who has rounded the last curve on the track and sees the finish line down the interminable straightaway, they can receive a new wind from the vision of the end.
5:9 Having summarized Christian patience as a response to testing, James now summarizes his teaching on speech, commanding, Don’t grumble against each other. The term grumble is “to groan.” A groan might be an appropriate response to suffering (Mark 7:34), but the operant word is against each other. Here the sigh is a complaint against a community member, an overt criticism (4:11), or an eloquent sigh that invites a question, and then a reluctant “since you asked” explanation. However expressed, criticism is a great temptation in a community under pressure, both in terms of displaced hostility or jealousy (because someone has life easier than you). James realized that this was destructive to the community, the solidarity of which was vital to support the Christians during hard times. The reason not to complain is or you will be judged, which draws on the teaching of Jesus: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged” (Matt. 7:1–2). God will be as harsh on the believer as the believer is harsh on others, and a person can never endure his own criticism, for people frequently criticize their own weaknesses in others. James goes beyond Jesus in arguing that since God in Jesus commands the believer not to judge, the very act of criticizing or complaining is disobedience.
Furthermore James adds: The Judge is standing at the door! The picture is that of Christ standing before a door of the house church, his hand reaching out to lift the latch and open it. This is no time to be caught criticizing one another. Like children in a schoolroom hearing the hoarse whisper “the teacher’s coming,” so the Christians should quiet down. The nearness of Christ’s coming both warns and encourages.
5:10 With the theme of speech summarized, James moves to that of suffering: Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. By the prophets James includes more than just the writing prophets, but all the worthies, obscure and well known, cited in Jewish martyrologies, as well as in Hebrews 11. By using the phrase who spoke in the name of the Lord, he both excludes false prophets and focuses on the true prophets’ crucial characteristic: They confessed true faith in God by word and deed. There is no need to cite them by name, for Jewish Christians had learned the stories.
The prophets are to be looked at as an example of patience in the face of suffering. Their crucial virtue was the ability to endure, whatever the trials. Whether an Amos commanded not to speak (Amos 7) or an Elijah pursued by Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1ff.) or a Jeremiah imprisoned by King Zedekiah (Jer. 38), these people endured. Reflection on them yields two facts: (1) the lot of a servant of God often involves suffering, and (2) a person can endure the suffering and remain faithful.
5:11 In their own day prophets were regarded as reactionary fossils who did not like the modern trends in worship. They were seen as dangerous visionaries who believed that God, not strategic alliances, would protect the nation. Some were even thought to be weak-kneed traitors who suggested surrender (e.g., Jeremiah). Many people probably said, “I admire his convictions, but he seems to be rather masochistic, virtually demanding martyrdom by going public.” Others were glad when the prophet was dead and gone. The suffering itself was far from glamorous, with no angel choirs lending a glow to the setting. Yet now we consider blessed those who have persevered. Matthew 5:11–12 is the background, for Jesus calls blessed those suffering for good deeds. This is a reversal of the world’s evaluation, and James implies that “the same happiness can be yours.” Since the prophets’ happiness was because they did not give up but persevered, perseverance is also required of Christians. In this vein, Jesus had earlier said that the truly saved is “whoever holds out to the end” (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; Luke 21:19), and Paul will point out that it is those who cross the finish line who gain the prize (1 Cor. 9:24–27; Phil. 3:13–14; cf. 2 Tim. 4:6–8).
As a concrete prophet James cites Job: You have heard of Job’s perseverance, and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The story of Job was a favorite in Jewish circles; he is cited as early as Ezekiel 14:14, 29. By the time of James, many embellished versions existed that enlarged upon the canonical account in two directions: (1) they emphasized Job’s endurance under testing, and (2) they stressed his righteousness, especially his great charity. The important point for James, however, is that as much as Job complained, he refused to give up his trust or to disobey God, and the Lord finally brought about his deliverance. The call to the Christian, then, is not to give up and to lose the reward now, after all that has already been endured, but to keep holding on.
Driving his point home, James adds a single clause: The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. James is citing Ps. 103:8 or 111:4 (probably from memory), and the quotation is most appropriate. God does not like watching people squirm. He would not allow suffering to happen if there were not a far greater good ahead. On this note the summary ends: Trust God and keep on patiently enduring, for the Lord is unimaginably concerned about you.
5:12 James is ready to end his letter, so he puts in his equivalents of the customary endings of a Greek literary letter. The first part of such an ending was frequently an oath to guarantee its truth, so having first used a common ending formula (above all), James takes up the topic: Do not swear. Although the Old Testament regulated oaths and demanded that if one used an oath one must fulfill the promise (e.g., Exod. 20:7), it did not prohibit oaths (cf. Exod. 22:10–11). Throughout the Old Testament period there are a series of warnings against using oaths too lightly (e.g., Jer. 5:2), and later Sirach advised not using oaths, so one would not frivolously use one (23:9, 11). Jesus, however, prohibited all oaths, using the words Do not swear—not by heaven or by earth (the or by anything else in James summarizes the rest of Jesus’ saying in Matt. 5:34–37). James has picked up and summarized the words of Jesus; the readers would recognize the source.
Christians are not to use oaths. Among the common oaths of the day were by heaven or by earth. None are to be used: Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no. If one resorted to oaths it divided speech into two categories: promises one really meant (guaranteed by an oath) and promises that could not be trusted. The Christian demand is for absolute faithfulness and truthfulness in all speech. There should be no social hypocrisy in which one says something other than what is in the heart. This demand is important, for not to observe it means you will be condemned. God is the guarantor of all speech. He will judge every word. God’s judgment is the standard Christians should fear and observe.
5:13 The second topic of a closing in a Greek letter was health; James pursues it extensively, setting the topic within the context of verbal responses to life. First, is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. The trouble James refers to is the misfortunes of life: persecutions, like those the prophets suffered (5:10; cf. 5:1–6); external misfortunes, like Job suffered (5:11); or being slandered by a community member (3:1–12; cf. 2:6–7). All of these are external misfortunes, which one could easily see as outside of God’s will, for they stem from the evil in the world and are attacks upon the righteous. The response to such evil is not counterattack (fighting violence with violence) or resignation (as the Stoics advised) but prayer. The psalmist appealed to God to deal with his persecutors (Pss. 30; 50:15; 91:15), and this is also the Christian response.
Second, is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Too often happiness or joy is taken for granted. James reminds Christians that there is a proper use of the tongue in joy as well, for the New Testament constantly commands Christians to be full of the praise of God, at home or at work, as well as in Church (e.g., 1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; Phil. 4:4).
5:14 Third, is any one of you sick? Illness was a far more difficult situation than external suffering. War, persecution, or ostracism can be blamed on human evil, but illness appears outside the human sphere and thus invites the question, “Why did this happen to me?” Or, more pointedly, “What have I done to deserve this?” And the New Testament treats illness using different terminology and a different response than that reserved for suffering (which always means that which one experiences because one is a Christian).
In line with the general New Testament attitude, James responds to the issue of illness quite differently to his response to suffering: He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. This means that prayer again is the response to suffering, but in this case the counseling and prayers of the leaders of the church are involved. The local church was run by a council of elders; some of them would come to the person when requested. It is interesting that the elders are called, not people with a specific gift of healing (as in 1 Cor. 12:9, 28, 30), although healing gifts were not a requirement for selection as elders. Apparently James felt that because of the relationship of healing to pastoral ministry (cf. 5:15), the elders as a body should be involved and were gifted for the task by reason of their office.
When the elders respond, they do two things. First, they pray for the person. This is the activity that receives the stress by being put first. They call upon God to heal the person; they do not heal by their own virtue. Second, they anoint the person with oil in the name of the Lord. Though oil was often used as a medicine (Luke 10:34), this is not presented as a medicinal treatment. Rather, it is an outward and physically perceptible sign of the spiritual power of prayer, as well as a sign of the authority of the healer (Mark 6:13). It corresponds to healing prayer as water does to baptismal prayer. It is done in the name of the Lord, for as in baptism (Acts 2:38), the name of Jesus is invoked in prayer as the power and authority of the act.
5:15 This action will be effective, for the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. Prayer is the term that covers all of the preceding. Although there was oil and probably laying on of hands, it is not the physical actions that possess potency but the prayer to God, which they physically act out. This prayer is offered in faith: The uttering of even the best and finest prayer is no guarantee of assistance if it does not come from the heart. James had already pointed out that trust in God and obedience to his commands is essential to prayer (1:5–8; 4:1–3), now he applies the teaching. Without the life of commitment to God that the prayer expresses, it will be ineffectual. The faith lies in the elders, not in the sick person (about whose faith nothing is said). The elders’ faith is critical: If something “goes wrong” it is they, not the sick person, who bear the onus.
The promise is the Lord will raise him up. In Greek it is clearly physical healing, not just spiritual preparation for death, that James is concerned with, and it is the Lord’s action that does the healing, not the oil, the hands, or the power of the elders. The Lord remains sovereign: God answers prayer; he is not compelled by prayer.
Finally, If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Sin may well be the underlying reason for the illness, but it is not necessarily the cause. Apparently an opportunity for confession of sins was offered by the elders (this counseling aspect may be why elders in particular were called). The confession was raised to God along with the disease, and the resulting healing confirms that God has forgiven the person. But although such a process should be offered, if no sin is known, that is fine. James’ “If” is an important word, and to push beyond it to demand confession is to violate scripture and pastoral wisdom.
5:16 James summarizes his teaching on healing in two sentences. First, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Confession of sin is important for healing. Pastors experienced in the Christian healing ministry repeatedly witness to times when the confession of a resentment, a grudge, or an unforgiven injury has lead to physical healing with or without further prayer. But James is generalizing beyond the individual healing situation, for now it is not “to the elders” but to each other that confession is made. The picture is that of a church gathering and the confession of sin to the assembled group. The mutual public confession (supplemented by private confession where public confession would not be appropriate) lays the basis for public prayer, in which people freed from all grudges and resentments, and reconciled through confession and forgiveness, pray for healing for each other. In this kind of atmosphere, the services of the elders at the bedside will rarely be needed.
Second, the prayer of a righteous [person] is powerful and effective. The righteous person is not sinlessly perfect, but is the person who has confessed any known sin and who adheres to the moral standards of the Christian community. With a clear conscience and in unity with God, this person prays a prayer that is powerful and effective. The Greek adds a difficult expression that probably means “when it reaches God and he answers it” (lit. “when it works”). Prayer is not itself powerful; it is not magic. But its power is unlimited in that the child of God calls on a Father of unlimited goodness and ability.
5:17–18 To back up his assertion of the power of prayer, James cites Elijah (1 Kings 17:1–18:46). Though the Old Testament says very little about it, later Jewish tradition focused on Elijah’s prayer. James cites the length of the drought to underline the power of the prayer. Moreover, the prayer was not just destructive but also healing, for he prayed and the drought promptly ended (much more important for the Christians James is addressing, who presumably are interested in healing and thus will be more encouraged by prayer’s causing rain to fall and grass to grow than by its causing a drought).
Furthermore, Elijah was a [person] just like us. In Jewish tradition, as in the Old Testament, Elijah is very human. He is godly, but often falls prey to doubts and depression. Elijah does not stride across the stage of history ten feet tall but as an ordinary man with an extraordinary God. Since he is like us, any Christian, as a person obedient to God, has the same power. The mission may be different, but if simple prayer was enough for Elijah’s great mission, it will surely suffice for that of any believer.
5:19 Finally, James is ready to end the letter, but as he does he follows the customary procedure of stating his purpose. Addressing the believers (my brothers), he proposes to them a situation: if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back. To speak of wandering is to speak of a serious departure from the true faith, such as idolatry (e.g., Isa. 9:16). The Christian life can be described as a way of life opposed to the way of death; to wander from the way of life is to stumble onto the broad road to hell (Matt. 7:13–14). The ways of life and death do not cross, for as James has argued (4:4), the world and God are mutually exclusive. The picture brings John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress to mind.
The truth is not intellectual facts but a way of life. James is not concerned about doctrinal error, the dotting of eschatological i’s or the crossing of ecclesiological t’s, but about one central truth: Jesus is Lord! The whole of the book has been demonstrating what this Lordship means in the concrete life of the people. If Jesus is not obeyed, one has lost the central truth and become entangled in a morass of sin and death.
If a person wanders away, the rest of the community is not just to let him or her go, but to try to bring him back. As Paul (Gal. 6:1) and John (1 John 5:16–17) also taught, the goal is not judgment but restoration. Yet restoration and forgiveness cannot come without repentance (cf. Luke 17:3–4). So the first task is not to “accept” someone as he or she sinks, but to reach out to the person, turn the person, and get him or her back on the path.
5:20 This task of bringing the sinner to repentance will not be without its rewards: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. James recognizes that the person who has left the truth is a sinner, whose way is in error. The Didache begins, “There are two ways—one of life, and one of death. And there is a great difference between the two ways” (1:1). This sober fact is fundamental, for it comes from Jesus (especially the Sermon on the Mount). Where the distinction between the ways is blurred, no rescue effort can begin.
Furthermore, the sinner’s soul is in danger of death. Though James might mean physical death, which he knows can result from sin (5:14–16; 1 Cor. 11:30), it is far more likely he means spiritual and eternal death (Jude 22–23). James recognizes the seriousness of the person’s situation, and this conviction drives him to a rescue effort. He has written 108 verses to try to rescue some from what he knows is death.
But the story does not end there. The wanderer has been brought back again. God does not desire the sinner’s death, but his or her repentance. God’s grace is still available no matter how much he has been wronged (4:6). The sinner, then, is delivered from death. The jaws of hell snap shut on air as the believer once again walks the way of life. The rescue has resulted in the forgiveness of a multitude of sins, which are covered over, forgotten. The person is not branded in the church as someone who once went astray but is part of a company in which all are forgiven sinners. This is James’ goal in writing. He points out the wrong way in hope that the people will turn back and their sins will be forgotten forever. With this note of grace and forgiveness he ends his work.
Additional Notes
4:13 In Greek the now listen is exactly parallel to the “Now listen” of 5:1, which shows that the two passages fit together.
The merchants were upwardly mobile in Palestine. In that day the oldest son took over the property of his father and younger sons were given money and told to make their own fortune. Trade was the best way to make money. It entailed risk, but it was the only way to get ahead, for small farming was too uncertain and the large population of Palestine put pressure on the land, keeping prices up and interest fairly high. So one took a large stock of goods to a place they were scarce and attempted to trade at a profit for the rare goods of that land (e.g., Matt. 13:45–46). When all had been sold, one took the foreign goods back to Palestine and sold them at a profit. The ideal was to repeat the cycle until one was able to buy a large estate and become part of the landed gentry, who had the highest social status. See further S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, vol. 1, pp. 255–59; F. C. Grant, The Economic Background of the Gospels, pp. 72–76. and J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, pp. 30–57, 195.
4:14 The idea that life is like a mist was common in the ancient world. The Old Testament uses the image frequently (Job 7:7, 9, 16; Ps. 39:5–6; Prov. 27:1; Eccles. 8:7), as did the intertestamental wisdom tradition (Sirach 11:18–19; Wisdom 2:1–2; 3:14); 1 Clement quotes a similar saying (17:6). Though the teaching of Jesus might be the immediate basis of this teaching, it draws on a widespread biblical background.
4:15 Many Greek and Jewish writers knew the wisdom of if it is the Lord’s will. The late first-century rabbi Jose said, “Let all thy actions be to the Name of Heaven” (m. Aboth 2:16, cf. 2:14). A confession of this truth occurs in a Dead Sea Scroll (1 QS 11:10–11). Ignatius said the same years later (To the Ephesians 10:1). See further G. Schrenk, “Thelō,” TDNT, vol. 3, p. 47.
4:16 The term boast is rarely used in the New Testament in this form (only in 1 John 2:16), although the same phrase, proud and you boast or boast in your pride, is found in 1 Clement 21:5. Yet a related word for pride appears in two New Testament vice lists (Rom. 1:30 and 2 Tim. 3:2) as well as in the Greek Old Testament (Job 28:2; Prov. 21:24; 2 Macc. 9:8). It is always a vice, never a virtue; it is closely related to boasting in all New Testament contexts, as pride and conceit normally are related. John makes it a characteristic of the world (1 John 2:16). In secular Greek the emptiness of the boast becomes clear, for it designates primarily the person who claims an ability or virtue he or she does not have. See further G. Delling, “Alazon,” TDNT, vol. 1, pp. 226–27; and E. Gutting and C. Brown, “Pride” NIDNTT, vol. 3, pp. 28–32.
Boasting is rarely virtuous. One may boast legitimately in God, in suffering and humiliation, or in service (Rom. 5:2–3; 1 Cor 13:3b; Phil. 2:16; 1 Thess. 2:9; cf. 1 Clement 21:5), but most boasting is an evil self-sufficiency (Rom 3:27; 4:2; 1 Cor. 1:20; 5:6; Gal. 6:13–14). See also the comment on James 3:14.
4:17 The teaching about not doing good that it is possible to do is also in the Old Testament (e.g., Job 31:16–20) and is based on teachings such as Deut. 15:7–11. It is the basis of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), for the rich man is condemned to hell simply because there was a need at his gate that he could have met but did not; he should have known better from the Old Testament.
The ability of business to distract a person from proper devotion was proverbial in James’ day: Sirach 11:10; 31:5–11 (“he who pursues money will be led astray by it”). That may be why Agur asks for neither poverty nor wealth (Prov. 30:7–9).
5:1 In addressing you rich people James goes beyond the warnings of Wisdom 2 and Hermas Vision 3.9.3–6, which both see the danger of wealth, and reaches the “how terrible for you who are rich now” of Jesus (Luke 6:24) and the “woe to you, you rich, for you have trusted in your riches, and from your riches shall you depart,” of 1 Enoch 94:8 (cf. 94:6–97:10). For James, as for Jesus, hoarded wealth is evil.
Weep in the Old Testament comes in the face of disaster (Lam. 1:1–2; Jer. 9:1; 13:17) The term wail is not found elsewhere in the New Testament but is frequent in Old Testament prophets (e.g., Isa. 10:1; 14:31; Jer. 31:20, 31; Ezek. 21:12; Hos. 7:14; Amos 8:3). See further H. W. Heidland, “Ololyzō,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 173–74.
Misery is another prophetic term, used elsewhere in the New Testament in Rom. 3:16 (quoting Isa. 59:7; cf. Isa. 47:11; Jer. 6:7, 26). A related term appears in James 4:9. Like Amos (6:1–9) or Jesus (Matt 8:12; 13:42; 19:24), James sees beyond the present comfortable state of the rich and calls for mourning in the face of impending misery.
5:2–3 The images in these verses are traditional in the intertestamental tradition. “To rot” is found in Sirach 14:19 and Baruch 6:72; moths have eaten occurs in Job 13:28; Prov. 25:20; Isa. 33:1; 50:9; Sirach 42:13; and corroded occurs in Sirach 12:11; 29:10; Baruch 6:12, 24. James knew gold and silver did not rust, but they would build up heavy tarnish. So the analogy was used, in the tradition, for stored and useless money: “Help a poor man for the commandment’s sake.… Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend, and do not let it rust under a stone and be lost. Lay up your treasure according to the commandment of the Most High [i.e., give it away in charity] and it will profit you more than gold. Store up almsgiving in your treasure, and it will rescue you from all affliction” (Sirach 29:8–13; cf. Matt. 6:19–21 and Luke 12:13–34). James applies Jesus’ teaching about the rich man in Luke 16: The stored wealth is not just lost; it will condemn the person to hell. See further, P. H. Davids, “The New Testament Foundation for Living More Simply,” in Living More Simply, R. Sider, ed., (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980).
The connection of eat your flesh like fire with final judgment is made in Judith 16:17: “The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment; fire and worms he will give to their flesh; they shall weep in pain for ever”; cf. Num. 12:12; Isa. 30:27; Ezek. 7:19; 15:7; Amos 1:12; 5:6; Wisdom 1:18; Acts 11:5. The flesh means the whole person (Lev. 26:29; Job 4:15). Fire, as a metaphor for hell, comes from the teaching of Jesus (e.g., Matt. 25:41) and later apocalyptic works (2 Pet. 3:7; Jude 23; Rev. 11:5; 20:9). See H. Bietenhard, “Fire,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 652–58; and “Hell,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 205–10.
The last days, meaning judgment and the day of God’s action, is drawn from the Old Testament: Isa. 2:2; Jer. 23:20; Ezek. 38:16; Dan. 2:28; Hos. 3:5. This idea is foundational to the tension in James, for whom the judge is “at the door” (5:8–9). See further S. S. Laws, James, pp. 198–99; O. Cullmann, Christ and Time; or G. E. Ladd, The Presence of the Future (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1974) or A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans), pp. 57–80, 91–119, 193–212.
5:4 The workmen who mowed your fields also appear in Jesus’ parables (Matt. 9:37; 10:10; Mark 1:20; Luke 10:2; 15:17). In the Old Testament righteous people might protest that they always paid their workers on time (Job 7:1–2; 24:10; 31:13, 38–40).
The cries are cries for justice (Gen. 4:10; Exod. 2:20; 1 Sam. 9:16; Ps. 12:5; Rev. 6:9–10; Hermas Vision 3.9.6).
The Lord Almighty is a term characteristic of Isaiah, who uses it sixty-one times, versus nine times in the rest of the Old Testament.
The charge of withholding wages may be intended literally, or it may stand as a typical example of a class of abuses, including building large estates (Isa. 5:7–9; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47).
5:5 Luxury and self-indulgence are condemned throughout scripture (Ezek. 16:49; Amos 2:6–8; 8:4–6; Luke 16:19–31). James uses the same word Jesus used to describe the lifestyle of the rich man in Luke 16 (cf. 1 Enoch 98:11; 102:9–10; Hermas Similitude 6.1.6; 6.2.6; Barnabas 10.3).
On fattened yourselves as an image of indulging pleasures, see Isa. 6:10; Ps. 104:15; Mark 7:21; Luke 21:34; and T. Sorg, “Heart,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, p. 182.
The day of slaughter occurs in Jer. 46:10; 50:26–27; Ezek. 39:17; Pss. 22:29; 37:20; 49:14; Rev. 19:17–21. In 1 Enoch the judgment on the rich is described, “Ye … have become ready for the day of slaughter, and the day of darkness and the day of the great judgment” (1 Enoch 94:9; cf. 97:8–10; 99:15; Jubilees 36:9–10). The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of it as “the day of massacre” (1 QH 15:17–18).
5:6 The concept of judicial condemnation (condemned and murdered) is frequent in the Old Testament: Pss. 10:8–9; 37:14, 32; Prov. 1:11–14; Isa. 3:13–15; 57:1; Amos 2:6; 5:12. Wisdom 2:20, “Let us condemn [the righteous] to a shameful death, for according to what he says, he will be protected,” has been seen by some commentators as the source of this verse in James. The theme is close to James, but there are no verbal parallels to prove literary dependence. Much of the tradition sounds as if murder of the poor were involved. Many of these passages are poetic (e.g., Ps. 10) and may give God’s view of a matter that the people saw differently. Some poor suffered like Naboth (1 Kings 21), but far more suffered from legal confiscation of goods (as in Isa. 3), which only God saw as unjust and immoral. This was frequently termed “murder” in Jewish tradition (e.g., Sirach 34:21–22: “the bread of the needy is the life of the poor; whoever deprives them of it is a man of blood. To take away a neighbor’s living is to murder him; to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood.”)
The term innocent [people] is actually singular. The NIV correctly reads it as a collective noun, but because of its singular form, some few commentators have felt it referred to a specific righteous person, either Jesus (as in Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14) or James (called “the Just” or “the righteous” in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 2.23). But the strength of the Old Testament parallels is so strong that it is far more probable that the reference is to the suffering Christian poor viewed generically. See further S. S. Laws, James, pp. 204–6.
The who were not opposing you again has a “he” (singular), not a “they” (plural). The NIV reads it as a collective. As an alternative it has “Will God [i.e., he] not resist you?” Others have suggested, “Did [or does] he [i.e., Christ] resist you?” Whereas this commentary suggests “Do they not resist you?” The problem is that the “he” is ambiguous and in Greek only context can differentiate a question from a statement. There is a strong teaching of nonresistance in scripture (Isa. 53:7; Matt. 5:39; Rom. 12:19; 1 Pet. 2:23; cf. Hermas Mandate 8.10, where “resist no one” is a “good thing” pointing to salvation), which led to the pacifist tradition of the early church (see J. M. Hornus, It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight [Scottdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1980]). Yet though James clearly does not expect the Christians to resist (cf. 5:7) but to suffer patiently (itself a warning that the new age had dawned), given the Rev. 6 passage and the lack of a clear interpretation of nonresistance in James, it is more likely that heavenly resistance is in mind.
5:7 Although a different word for patient is used here than in 1:2, 12 (makrothymē vs. hypomenō), the two terms are used in parallel in Col. 1:11. Thus, as in 4:1–3 vs. 1:13–15 there is variety in vocabulary as sources change but similarity in content. Patience is a frequent demand in scripture, e.g., Rom. 12:1–21; Heb. 6:12, 15; 10:32–39; 12:1–24; 1 Pet. 4:12–19; Rev. 13:10; 14:12. The Christian is not called to destroy the world, but to endure its attacks and overcome it by the power of the Spirit. See further U. Falkenroth and C. Brown, “Patience,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 768–76.
Until the Lord’s coming has sometimes been seen as God’s coming, as in 1 Enoch 92–105. However, by the time of James the term parousia had become a technical term for Christ’s coming: Matt. 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 2:19; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:1; 2 Pet. 1:16; 3:4; 1 John 2:28. Thus it would be unusual if it suddenly changed here to mean God’s coming. The fact that James does also refer to God as judge in 4:1–5 is not a real problem. Those who urge this objection fail to note two things: Revelation, John, and other works refer to God as judge and then shift to speak of Christ as judge; and James 5:6 marks the end of a major section. For the various positions, see further G. Braumann, “Present,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 898–901; M. Dibelius, James, pp. 242–43; S. S. Laws, James, pp. 208–9.
The autumn and spring rains are characteristic of the east end of the Mediterranean south of the Taurus Mountains. The further south one goes, the less reliable and more important these rains are. Though mentioned in the Old Testament (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:24; Zech. 10:1), there is no evidence that James has a specific scriptural passage in mind. See further D. Baly, The Geography of the Bible, pp. 47–52.
5:8 Stand firm is a translation of the idea found in Pss. 57:7; 90:17; Rom. 1:11; 1 Thess. 3:13; 2 Thess. 2:17; Heb. 13:9. The idea of internal stamina and strengthening must somehow be included, even if the more literal “strengthen” or “establish your hearts” is unacceptable in a modern English version. See further G. Harder, Sterizō, TDNT, vol. 7, pp. 655–57.
The is near formula occurs frequently outside the Gospels for the coming of the Lord: Rom. 13:12; Heb. 10:25; 1 Pet. 4:7. These are not so much time references as indications of immanence: “be prepared,” “hold on.”
5:9 The term to grumble (lit. “groan”) is frequently found in the Greek Old Testament in Job and the prophets. In the New Testament the creation groans (Rom. 8:23) and Christians (including Paul) groan (2 Cor. 5:2). But Christians must not make others groan (Heb. 13:17).
In or you will be judged James shows a typical use of the Jesus teaching tradition. In a similar manner in 1 Cor. 7:10, Paul takes a teaching of Jesus and applies it pastorally in two ways. First, it binds a couple within the church so that Paul permits no divorce. Separation may be necessary, but it can never be recognized as permanent (therefore no remarriage is allowed), for Jesus’ word is authoritative. But second, when one of the partners is outside the church and church discipline, Paul must extend the implication of Jesus’ teaching. The Christian must not end the marriage, but he or she is not bound if the other partner does. This illustrates the application of Jesus’ teaching to a new situation. James takes Jesus’ teaching in Matt. 7:1 and draws an implication in another direction. If Jesus taught that Christians should not judge, then they will be judged for the act of judging.
That the Judge is standing at the door! is a typical New Testament teaching with respect to both the judgment of believers (1 Cor. 3:10–17; 2 Cor. 5:10) and the imminence of judgment (Matt. 24:33, 45–51; Mark 13:29, 34–37; Luke 12:42–46; Rev. 3:3, 20). This tension is a motivation in the Christian life.
5:10 In take the prophets James presents the numerous lists in canonical and extracanonical literature: 1 Macc. 2:49–64; Sirach 44–50; Jubilees; Matt. 23:29–31; Heb. 11. Other apocryphal books (e.g., the Martyrdom of Isaiah) reported tales of deaths of prophets. All of this material, along with histories (2 and 4 Maccabees are extensive martyrologies), played the same role that Foxe’s Book of Martyrs or The Martyr’s Mirror played for past generations of Christians. Significantly, James does not cite Christian martyrs, which means he is too early for a large number of such stories to exist.
5:11 The blessedness of those who persevered is a key theme in scripture. The term for “persevere” here is the same one found in 1:12 and also in 4 Macc. 7:22. See further N. Becker, “Blessing,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 215–18 and F. Hauck, “Hypomenō,” TDNT, vol. 4, pp. 585–88.
Job is mentioned in Testament of Abraham 15:10 and 1 Clement 17 as an example, but the full extent of the tradition appears in the Greek Testament of Job, which James may never have seen but which contains oral traditions he surely knew. The whole Testament revolves around patient endurance. The Testament also underlines Job’s charity (cf. Job 29:12–17; 31:16–23) and stresses his sufferings as a test from Satan, similar to the tradition of the testing of Abraham. Thus the allusion to Job catches up the theme of James 2. See further P. H. Davids, “Tradition and Citation in the Epistle of James.”
The phrase for what the Lord finally brought about is simply, “the end of the Lord.” Some believe this end refers to the coming of Christ, others that the end refers to the results of Christ’s sufferings. In both these cases Lord must mean “Christ.” Most likely, however, in the context of Job, Lord means “God” and the end is how God cared for Job in Job 42.
The term full of compassion is found in the New Testament only here. It is an intensive term created by the early church to express God’s compassion (cf. Rom 8:28ff.). The term is stronger than the word used in the Greek Old Testament in the Psalms (103:8; 111:4). It occurs later in Hermas (Vision 1.3.2; 2.2.8; 4.2.3; Mandate 4.3.5; 9.2) and other early Christian literature.
5:12 Though the Old Testament regulates swearing and oaths (Lev. 19:12; Num. 30:3) and God swears oaths (Num. 14:21; Deut. 4:31; 7:8), they were a constant problem during the Old Testament period (Jer. 7:9; Hos. 4:2; Zech. 5:3–4; Mal. 3:5). The Greeks had similar problems. In the Dead Sea Scrolls almost all oaths were prohibited. Paul still uses oaths in the New Testament (Rom. 1:9; Gal. 1:20; 2 Cor. 1:23; 11:11; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5, 10), although he uses them, not to imply he might not be speaking truth elsewhere, but to state that no matter how unbelievable his point might seem God knew it was true. Paul is so far from having two levels of truthfulness in language that in 2 Cor. 1:5–2:4 he defends himself for changing travel plans. Once he announced the plans he was bound by them unless other, then unknown, weighty matters came up later.
Jesus’ saying in the Greek text and in some translations has a doubled Yes, and No. Some argue that this is a substitute oath; “yes, yes” is a firm promise, “yes” is not. But the NIV correctly understands Matt. 5:34–37, for in Jewish parallels the “yes-yes” formula means that one’s outer “yes” should match an inner-heart “yes,” i.e., there should be absolute truthfulness and no hypocrisy. James’ verbal differences from Matthew simply show that he has a variant version of the oral tradition.
See further S. S. Laws, James, pp. 219–24; H. G. Link, “Swear,” NIDNTT, vol. 3, pp. 737–43; P. Minear, “Yes or No, the Demand for Honesty in the Early Church”; J. Schneider, “Omnyō,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 176–85; and “Horkos,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 459–61.
5:13 The word for trouble refers to the inner experience of misfortune or misadventure. For example, Josephus uses it for military reverses. See further W. Michaelis, “Kakopatheō,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 936–37.
Sing songs of praise is used fifty-six times in the Greek Old Testament, originally meaning a song with string accompaniment (Pss. 33:2, 3; 98:4, 5; 147:7; 149:3). Later it meant any song of praise (Pss. 7:17; 9:2). In the New Testament one might sing praises in painful circumstances (Acts 5:41; 16:25) as well as in more comfortable circumstances (1 Cor. 14:15). Songs might be Old Testament psalms, traditional hymns (e.g., 1 Tim. 3:16), or improvised (1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:19–20). The important thing was to be constantly thankful to God for whatever blessings one had (Phil. 4:4, 6; 1 Thess. 5:16–18).
5:14 On the differential attitude towards suffering and sickness in the New Testament see P. H. Davids, “Suffering and Illness in the New Testament,” in Understanding Power Evangelism (forthcoming; title tentative), eds. Douglas Pennoyer and C. Peter Wagner (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1989).
Both Old Testament Judaism (Exod. 3:16; Ezra 10:14) and New Testament Judaism (Matt. 26:3; cf. Susanna 5, 29, 34) were governed by elders. Each synagogue, town, and national unit had its elders. The early church borrowed this organization; hence Paul appointed elders under the inspiration of the Spirit (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2; 20:17). Later writings indicate the standards for selection of elders and their proper functions (1 Tim. 3; 5:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Pet. 5:1; 2 John 1). Thus the readers of the epistle would have been very familiar with elders as the leaders of their local congregation and of the church of a citywide area (a group of house churches, none of which had more than forty to sixty members). See further G. Bornkamm, “Presbyteros,” TDNT, vol. 6, pp. 651–83, and L. Coenen, “Bishop,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 192–201.
Praying over him is prayer at the bedside in the hearing of the person, probably including the laying of hands upon the person.
The oil (olive oil) is not the medicinal oil of Isa. 1:6 or Jer. 8:22 or other Jewish and Greek sources, although it may be related to the heavenly “oil of gladness” of the coming age (Isa. 61:3). It is an important part of the rite of healing, as water is of baptism, and thus has been retained to this day in the more formalized rites of healing of the more liturgical churches (as in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, pp. 455–56). In those rites, however, it runs the risk of taking on a magical power, an idea foreign to James, who never blesses the oil but simply calls upon God. See further H. Schlier, “Aleiphō,” TDNT, vol. 1, pp. 230–32. On healing in general see F. MacNutt, Healing (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1974) and The Power to Heal (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1977); and Roy Lawrence, Christian Healing Rediscovered (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980); even more up-to-date and practical are K. Blue, Authority to Heal (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1987) and J. Wimber, Power Healing (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986).
The name of the Lord was named over people in baptism (Acts 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; cf. Matt. 28:19), healing, and exorcism (Mark 9:38; Luke 10:17; Acts 3:6, 16; 4:7; 9:34). It was a calling out of the name of Jesus to ask him to intervene as appropriate: initiate the candidate into his church, heal, or drive out the demon. Thus it was an act that showed it was God’s power doing the work and at the same time opened the situation to God’s power. See further H. Bietenhard, “Onoma,” TDNT, vol. 5, p. 277; M. Kelsey, Healing and Christianity, pp. 104–99; and S. S. Laws, James, pp. 225–32.
5:15 The relationship of faith to prayer is also important for Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; and Acts 14:9. The locus of faith in most Gospel miracles and many miracles in Acts is in the person who prays (normally Jesus); only rarely is the person who is healed said to have faith. Rejection of Christ prevents healing, but the amount of faith in the patient is biblically unimportant.
Scripture teaches that sin can cause illness, but it also teaches that not all illness is caused by sin (2 Kings 19:15–19; 20:3; Job; Mark 2:5; John 5:14; 9:2–3; 1 Cor. 11:30). Thus James uses a conditional clause: “if he may have committed sin.” Total healing will include the forgiveness of sin (Matt. 12:32; Mark 2:5; Luke 12:10), so the opportunity for examination, confession, and a declaration of forgiveness should be offered. The rabbinic advice “if a person is visited by painful sufferings, let him examine himself” (b. Berakoth 5a) is still good for the Christian, but where dutiful self-examination reveals nothing, the person should remember Job. The rabbis also taught there were chastisements of love (undeserved sufferings) as well as chastisements of reproof (suffering deserved due to sin).
5:16 The Old Testament is full of confessions. Many of the psalms, for example, are public confessions of sin, often with a response of forgiveness and healing. See Lev. 5:5; Num. 5:7; Job 33:26–28; Pss. 32:5; 38:3–4; 40:12; 51:2–5; Prov. 20:9; 28:13. There were also prayers of confession for the community (Lev. 16:21; 26:40; Dan. 9:4–10). The intertestamental period continued this tradition (Psalms of Solomon 9:6; Judith 9:1–14; Tobit 3:1–6; 3 Macc. 2:2–20; 6:2–15). The Dead Sea Scrolls prescribed confession before the community (1 QS 1:23–2:1; CD 20). All of this forms the background to early Christianity, in which John the Baptist began with public confession (Matt. 3:6; Mark 1:5), church discipline demanded confession (Matt. 18:15–22; Gal. 6:1–3), and the documents of the New Testament witness to it (Acts 19:18; 1 John 1:9). In the postapostolic church, public confession of sin continued, particularly as a prelude to prayer (1 Clement 51:3; Didache 4:14; Barnabas 19:12; Hermas Visions 1.1.3; 3.1.5–6; Similitude 9.23.4). If the later church forgot forgiveness, became prudish in what it described as sin, and then formalized, ritualized, and individualized confession, this should not obscure the healthiness of the early practice. Confession leads to forgiveness (for the forgiver as well as the sinner, Matt. 6:14–15), and this leads to health in general (1 Cor. 11:30–32; 1 John 5:16–17). This relationship between confession, public and private; discipline; forgiveness; and health must not be forgotten. See further M. Jeschke, Disciplining the Brother (Scottdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1979).
The righteous person is not a specially holy person but the community member who has confessed his or her sins and so is living in harmony with God. In the Old Testament many people are declared righteous (Gen. 18:16–33; 20:7; Num. 21:7; Job 42:8; Jer. 15:1), but the same is true in the New Testament (Matt. 1:19; Heb. 12:23; 1 Pet. 4:18; 1 John 3:7; Rev. 22:11). See further H. Seebass and C. Brown, “Righteousness,” NIDNTT, vol. 3, pp. 358–77.
The final word in the verse is a participle, energoumenē (NIV effective). A study of S. S. Laws, James, p. 234; J. H. Ropes, James, p. 309; J. B. Mayor, James, p. 177–79; and J. B. Adamson, James, p. 199, reveals as many attempts to interpret the word as there are commentators. James is surely not referring to how hard one prays (Laws), but more likely to the effectiveness of prayer (Mayor).
5:17–18 Elijah prays in 1 Kings 17:20–22, but that is in a story other than the one cited. Yet by the time of 2 Esdras 7:109, he is a powerful man of prayer: “and Elijah [prayed] for those who received the rain, and for one who was dead, that he might live.” Later Jewish tradition presents him as an intercessor for Israel who occasionally returns to earth. See further P. H. Davids, “Tradition and Interpretation in the Epistle of James,” pp. 119–21; and J. Jeremias, “Elias,” TDNT, vol. 2, pp. 929–30.
The three and a half years (cf. Luke 4:25) are not in the Old Testament but come from tradition, perhaps as one-half of seven, the standard period of judgment (Gen. 41:25–36; Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2; 12:14). Thus it is a symbolic round figure.
5:19 On the structure of the epistle, see the Introduction and F. O. Francis, “The Form and Function of the Opening and Closing paragraphs of James and 1 John.”
In the Old Testament wander was frequently used for serious error: Prov. 14:8; Jer. 23:17; Ezek. 33:10; 34:4. It is similarly used in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. This sense of a moral departure from the faith (often due to demonic entrapment) also is frequent in the New Testament: Matt. 18:12–13; 24:4–5, 11; Mark 12:24; 13:5–6; Rom. 1:27; Eph. 4:14; 2 Thess. 2:11; 2 Tim. 3:13; Titus 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:25; 2 Pet. 2:15–18; 1 John 2:26; 4:6; Rev. 2:20. The early church took most seriously a consistent moral departure from its standards, whether over money, speech (gossip), food (gluttony, intoxication), anger, or sex. These were all grounds for excommunication. See further M. Jeschke, Disciplining the Brother; and W. Gunther, “Lead Astray,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 457–61.
Truth was a way to live in Judaism (Pss. 25:4–5; 26:3; 86:11), as it is in the New Testament (Matt. 22:16; John 3:21; 14:6; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 1:6). This is clear in 1 John where the phrase “doing the truth” occurs. The truth is not so much believed as acted upon.
To bring him back is literally “to cause him to turn around.” It is an “about-face,” which is the way scripture usually pictures repentance (Isa. 6:10; Ezek. 33:11; Acts 3:19; 9:35; 2 Cor. 3:16). The person must be brought to recognize the error of the wrong way of life, to reject that life, and to reverse course and begin following the correct way of life. People are encouraged to help in this process from Leviticus (19:17) to Jude (23). See further Ps. 51:13; Ezek. 3:17–21; 33:7–9; 1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Thess. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:25; 1 John 5:16; and F. Laubach, “Conversion,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 353–55.
5:20 The idea of death as the penalty for sin is usually that of eternal judgment: Deut. 30:19; Job 8:13; Pss. 1:6; 2:12; Prov. 2:18; 14:12; Jer. 23:12. The soul is not a part of the person, but the whole person, physical and spiritual. See further C. Brown, “Soul,” NIDNTT, vol. 3, pp. 676–89; W. Schmithals, “Death,” NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 430–41.
The covering over a multitude of sins means to forgive, pictured as cultic atonement (i.e., sins are covered by sacrificial blood): Pss. 32:1; 85:2; Dan. 4:24; Rom. 4:7. The multitude of sins is not to stress the wickedness of the sinner but the extent of God’s grace (Ps. 85:2, Ezek. 28:17). A related expression from Prov. 10:12, “Love covers over all wrongs” or “Love covers a multitude of sins,” is quoted in 1 Pet. 4:8. It became a favorite of the church fathers, who believed Jesus coined James’ version of the saying.
The one problematic issue in this verse is whether the action will save him [that sinner] or him [the rescuer]. The Greek is not clear, but the NIV has probably made the correct choice. There is a scriptural tradition that places responsibility on the rescuer (Ezek. 3:18–21; 33:9; 1 Tim. 4:16); to callously watch someone go to his or her death spiritually (and often physically as well) without trying to warn that person is to endanger your own soul, for now you are the one outside of the way of Jesus, who never failed to warn and save people. This may not be James’ meaning (although M. Dibelius, James, pp. 258–60, and S. S. Laws, James, pp. 240–41, believe it is), but it is in scripture and may well have motivated him to do the act of warning and rescue that is his Epistle.
Direct Matches
The tangible presence of God, experienced as overwhelming power and splendor. The main Hebrew word referring to glory, kabod, has the root meaning “heavy” (1 Sam. 4:18), which in other contexts can mean “intense” (Exod. 9:3; NIV: “terrible”), “wealthy” (i.e., “heavy in possessions” [Gen. 13:2]), and “high reputation” (Gen. 34:19; NIV: “most honored”). When used of God, it refers to his person and his works. God reveals his glory to Israel and to Egypt at the crossing of the sea (Exod. 14:4, 17 19). He carefully reveals his glory to Moses after Israel’s sin with the golden calf in order to assure him that he will not abandon them (33:12–23).
In the NT the glory of God is made real in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3). He is, after all, the very presence of God. When he returns on the clouds, he will fully reveal God’s glory (Matt. 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27).
Sin enters the biblical story in Gen. 3. Despite God’s commandment to the contrary (2:16 17), Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at the prompting of the serpent. When Adam joined Eve in eating the fruit, their rebellion was complete. They attempted to cover their guilt and shame, but the fig leaves were inadequate. God confronted them and was unimpressed with their attempts to shift the blame. Judgment fell heavily on the serpent, Eve, and Adam; even creation itself was affected (3:17–18).
In the midst of judgment, God made it clear in two specific ways that sin did not have the last word. First, God cryptically promised to put hostility between the offspring of the serpent and that of the woman (Gen. 3:15). Although the serpent would inflict a severe blow upon the offspring of the woman, the offspring of the woman would defeat the serpent. Second, God replaced the inadequate covering of the fig leaves with animal skins (3:21). The implication is that the death of the animal functioned as a substitute for Adam and Eve, covering their sin.
In one sense, the rest of the OT hangs on this question: How will a holy God satisfy his wrath against human sin and restore his relationship with human beings without compromising his justice? The short answer is: through Abraham and his offspring (Gen. 12:1–3), who eventually multiplied into the nation of Israel. After God redeemed them from their slavery in Egypt (Exod. 1–15), he brought them to Sinai to make a covenant with them that was predicated on obedience (19:5–6). A central component of this covenant was the sacrificial system (e.g., Lev. 1–7), which God provided as a means of dealing with sin. In addition to the regular sacrifices made for sin throughout the year, God set apart one day a year to atone for Israel’s sins (Lev. 16). On this Day of Atonement the high priest took the blood of a goat into the holy of holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat as a sin offering. Afterward he took a second goat and confessed “all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness. . . . The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness” (Lev. 16:21–22 NRSV). In order for the holy God to dwell with sinful people, extensive provisions had to be made to enable fellowship.
During the next four hundred years of prophetic silence, the longing for God to finally put away the sins of his people grew. At last, when the conception and birth of Jesus were announced, it was revealed that he would “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). In the days before the public ministry of Jesus, John the Baptist prepared the way for him by “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). Whereas both Adam and Israel were disobedient sons of God, Jesus proved to be the obedient Son by his faithfulness to God in the face of temptation (Matt. 2:13–15; 4:1–11; 26:36–46; Luke 3:23–4:13; Rom. 5:12–21; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 5:8–10). He was also the Suffering Servant who gave his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45; cf. Isa. 52:13–53:12). On the cross Jesus experienced the wrath of God that God’s people rightly deserved for their sin. With his justice fully satisfied, God was free to forgive and justify all who are identified with Christ by faith (Rom. 3:21–26). What neither the law nor the blood of bulls and goats could do, Jesus Christ did with his own blood (Rom. 8:3–4; Heb. 9:1–10:18).
After his resurrection and ascension, Jesus’ followers began proclaiming the “good news” (gospel) of what Jesus did and calling to people, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). As people began to experience God’s forgiveness, they were so transformed that they forgave those who sinned against them (Matt. 6:12; 18:15–20; Col. 3:13). Although believers continue to struggle with sin in this life (Rom. 8:12–13; Gal. 5:16–25), sin is no longer master over them (Rom. 6:1–23). The Holy Spirit empowers them to fight sin as they long for the new heaven and earth, where there will be no sin, no death, and no curse (Rom. 8:12–30; Rev. 21–22).
As even this very brief survey of the biblical story line from Genesis to Revelation shows, sin is a fundamental aspect of the Bible’s plot. Sin generates the conflict that drives the biblical narrative; it is the fundamental “problem” that must be solved in order for God’s purposes in creation to be completed.
Direct Matches
Life is a complex, multifaceted concept in the Bible. Various Hebrew and Greek terms convey the idea of life. Life is described in both a natural and a theological sense.
Life in the Natural Sense
In its natural sense, “life” may convey the following: (1) the vital principle of animals and humans, (2) the length of time that one has life, (3) the complete plot and cast of characters of an individual’s lifetime, or (4) the means for maintaining life.
First, life is the vital principle of animals and humans. This use of the term is its popular sense. It refers to the quality of having an animate existence or the state of being animate. Therefore, it is expressed in terms of ability or power; one who has life has the power to act. On the other hand, “death” is its antonym; one who is dead no longer acts. In the Bible, life in this sense applies to both animals and humans; however, the quality of life differs because humans are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26; 5:1; 9:6). Life is manifested in the breath of life, so that one who no longer has the breath of life no longer has life (Gen. 2:7; 6:17; Job 12:10; 27:3; Rev. 11:11). At the same time, life is seated in the blood. For this reason, blood should not be consumed but should instead be poured out and buried (Gen. 9:3–5; Lev. 17:10–16; Deut. 12:23–25). Although life may cease because of physical causes (whether disease, murder, accident, etc.), God is ultimately the Lord of life. He gives life through his breath of life (Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 37:4–14); he sustains life through his spirit (Ps. 104:29–30; cf. Gen. 6:3; 1 Cor. 15:45); he delivers from death (Gen. 5:24; Ps. 30:3; 1 Cor. 15); he gives life and puts to death (Deut. 32:39; 1 Sam. 2:6). Life, therefore, is first and foremost a gift from God.
In a discussion of life as the vital principle, it is important to address the question of the afterlife. The Bible affirms the significance of both the material and the immaterial components of a human being. The body is not merely a shell in which the true person is housed. Death is not the soul’s escape from the body’s prison, as evidenced by the resurrection of the dead (Ezek. 37:1–14; Dan. 12:2; Luke 14:14; 1 Cor. 15). Human beings are not created to live a disembodied existence ultimately. The fate for those who experience eternal life is the resurrection of the body made from an incorruptible source (1 Cor. 15, esp. vv. 42–50). For others, their fate lies in eternal death (Matt. 25:46; Rev. 20:6–15; 21:8).
Second, in both Testaments, “life” may also refer to the duration of animate existence—one’s lifetime. The duration of one’s life in this sense begins at birth and ends at death (Gen. 23:1; 25:7; 47:9, 28; Luke 16:25; Heb. 2:15). This period of time is brief (Ps. 90:10; James 4:14). The Bible describes two ways that one’s lifetime may be extended: first, God gives additional time to a person’s life (2 Kings 20:6; Ps. 61:6; Isa. 38:5); second, one gains longer life by living wisely and honoring God (Prov. 3:2; 4:10; 9:11; 10:27).
Third, sometimes “life” refers to the complete plot and cast of characters of an individual’s lifetime. In other words, “life” may refer to all a person’s activities and relationships (1 Sam. 18:18 KJV; Job 10:1; Luke 12:15; James 4:14).
Fourth, “life” rarely may refer to the means of livelihood (Deut. 24:6; Prov. 27:27; Matt. 6:25; Luke 12:22–23). These passages highlight two aspects of life in this sense: (1) people are responsible to guard life; (2) God gives this life because of his great concern, which exceeds his care for the birds and flowers.
Life as a Theological Concept
Beyond its natural sense, life is developed as a theological concept throughout the Bible.
Old Testament. The first chapters of Genesis set the stage for a rich theological understanding of life. First, God creates all things and prepares them for his purposes. He is the creator of life, and life is a gift from his hand. The pinnacle of his creative activity is the creation of humankind. God blesses the man (Adam) and the woman (Eve) whom he creates. God prepares a special place, a garden, for them, so that they may be able to live in perfect communion with him, under his blessing. At the center of the garden lies the tree of life. The tree of life demonstrates that the garden is both the sphere of God’s provision and the symbol of life itself. At the same time, God commands the man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:17).
At this point, life and death take center stage. What follows in the narrative (Gen. 3) is a presentation of the meaning of life and death as theological concepts. Adam and Eve disobey the divine commandment. As a result, they die. However, their death is not death in the natural sense. Instead, when they disobey God’s commandment, there are three results: (1) a curse is pronounced, (2) they are exiled from the garden away from God, and (3) they are prevented from eating from the tree of life (3:14–24). Death in this case is not ceasing to breathe and move but is curse and exile; in other words, to die is to be removed from the place of God’s presence and blessing and be placed under a curse. Life, then, is the opposite: to live is to be settled in the place of God’s presence and blessing.
It is also important to recognize in this narrative that obedience to God’s commandment leads to life, but disobedience to his commandment leads to death. This principle is picked up throughout the Bible. Its clearest expression is found in Lev. 18:5: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them.”
This narrative also draws an important connection taken up in other parts of the Bible, especially Proverbs: the connection between life and wisdom. In the garden there are two trees at the center: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Although there is some question concerning what is precisely meant by the knowledge of good and evil, it is likely that wisdom is in view. Two pieces of evidence support this conclusion: (1) knowledge and wisdom as well as good and evil are central concerns for the book of Proverbs; (2) the narrative associates the tree with wisdom. When Eve considers eating from the tree, she notices that it is like the other trees in that it has a pleasant appearance and is good for food (Gen. 2:9), but it is also distinct from the other trees because it is desirable for making one wise (3:6). By eating the fruit, she and Adam attempt to gain wisdom contrary to God’s command. As a result, this type of wisdom leads to death. However, true wisdom has the opposite effect. It leads to life, being a tree of life itself (esp. Prov. 3:18; also 3:1–2; 4:10–23; 6:23).
Although these themes—life, blessing, obedience, and wisdom—are found in various places throughout the Bible, they come together most explicitly in Deuteronomy. There devotion and obedience to God are viewed as the means of attaining wisdom and understanding (Deut. 4:5–9). Following God leads to living in the land that God had promised and enjoying his blessings there (28:1–14); however, forsaking God leads to all kinds of curses and ultimately to utter defeat and exile from the land (28:15–68). The choice to follow God and obey him or to forsake God and disobey him results in either life or death, good or bad, blessing or curse (30:15–20).
Life as a theological concept therefore has the following characteristics: being in the presence of God rather than exile, and experiencing his blessings rather than his curses. Such life may be attained through devotion and obedience to God and through the wisdom that comes from God.
New Testament. This concept of life forms the background for that of the NT as well. The NT often speaks of eternal life, especially in the writings of John. Eternal life is being in fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ (John 17:3). One may experience eternal life before natural death and beyond it into the eternal future (John 3:36; 5:24; 6:54; 10:28). At the same time, eternal life may refer more narrowly only to the time of perfect fellowship with God that lies beyond natural life (Matt. 25:46; Mark 10:30; Rom. 2:7). Because life consists of being in fellowship with God and living in his blessings, John can state that the one who believes in Jesus “has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). In other words, the person who believes in Jesus has been transferred from God’s curse to his blessing, from death to life. Furthermore, Jesus declares that he is life, and that those who believe in him will live and not die; that is, they will never be removed from his presence and blessing (John 11:25–26).
The biblical writers use mist in a figurative sense to refer to something that fades away. Although God would sweep away the Israelites’ sins “like the morning mist” (Isa. 44:22), he also spoke of their fickle love as mist (Hos. 6:4). James described human life itself as a fleeting mist (James 4:14). The word also occurs in a literal sense to describe water that arose from the earth in the time of Eden (Gen. 2:6 KJV, NASB), and in one instance, “mist” depicts the nature of blindness (Acts 13:11).
Secondary Matches
Little, if anything, in the Bible directly addresses financial planning, but some principles are relevant. The obvious need for basic financial planning was used by Jesus as an illustration for the cost of discipleship: those who seek to build a tower must count the cost before they begin (Luke 14:28). The motivation for financial planning ought not to be fear or anxiety (Matt. 6:25–26), for God can be trusted to provide. Appropriate motivations for good financial planning include the desire to store up wealth as an inheritance for one’s children (Ps. 17:14), to provide for one’s household (1 Tim. 5:8), and to avoid the dangers of debt and dependence on others (1 Thess. 4:11–12).
Financial planning ought not to be considered a guarantee of wealth, since the future is unknown to people, and the success of any venture is dependent upon God’s will (James 4:13–15). Neither should storing up wealth be viewed as a goal in its own right, for such wealth will be of no ultimate benefit to its owner (Ps. 49:10; Prov. 11:4). Hoarded wealth will only rot away (James 5:2–3); wealth is given by God to be used (Luke 16:11). In particular, the acquisition of wealth by ungodly means will not benefit its owner and will end up in the hands of the righteous, although this may not occur until a future generation (Prov. 13:22; 28:8).
God the Worker
A biblical theology of work starts with God as the creator of all things. In the OT, the verb bara’ (“to create”) is used only with God as subject. The first verb in the Bible (Gen. 1:1), it occurs also in many other texts that describe God accomplishing what only God can do. Other terms such as yatsar (“to form, fashion”) and ’asah (“to make, do”) are used numerous times throughout the OT with either God or humans as subjects.
These three terms reinforce the portrayal of God as worker in Gen. 1–2 (cf. Isa. 45:7). God creates light and darkness; sky and earth; sun, moon, and stars; land and sea; plant and animal life; and humankind—in sum, all that is. He forms the “man” (Heb. ’adam) from the dust of the ground, bringing him to life by breathing into him the breath of life.
Elsewhere in the OT God is said to build, build up, or rebuild/restore (Heb. banah [e.g., Pss. 102:16; 147:2; Jer. 24:6; Amos 9:11]). Interestingly, God takes a rib from the man, which he then makes (lit., “builds into” [Heb. banah + le]) a woman (Gen. 2:22). He founds (Heb. kun) the earth (Isa. 45:18) and stretches out (Heb. natah) the heavens (Zech. 12:1). Further, wisdom is God’s “craftsman” (Heb. ’amon), taking part in the world’s creation (Prov. 8:30). The NT reveals Christ as the one through whom God creates all things (John 1:1–3; Col. 1:16). This brief sketch suggests the range of ways in which God’s work is described.
Human Labor
Ideally, work is performed as service to God (Col. 3:17, 22–24). Work is one way we express the divine image. God’s creation mandate to fill, subdue, and rule the earth implies work (Gen. 1:26–28), and God places the man in the garden “to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). The importance of work for human dignity as well as survival undergirds the laws of gleaning that make provision for the poor to gather their own food (e.g., Deut. 24:19–22). The expansion of human technologies and occupations (mela’kah [see Exod. 12:16]) reflects that dignity and God’s own diverse workmanship. Job 28 celebrates human industry and achievement while subordinating all to the prevailing value of wisdom, rooted in “the fear of the Lord.” Given the indispensable role of work within the limits of human life, diligence is commended (Eccles. 3:9–10), idleness condemned (Prov. 10:4; 12:24; 21:5; 2 Thess. 3:6–10). Work is essentially God’s good gift to us in creation.
But work now has negative aspects. In response to Adam’s sin, God curses the ground, introducing “painful toil” into the work cycle (Gen. 3:17–19; 5:29). We now eke out our living by hardship, finding frustration instead of bounty—a lifelong reminder that we are made of dust and will return to dust. The book of Ecclesiastes echoes this note of futility and raises sharp questions about the lasting value of human labor (1:2–3, 14; 2:4–11, 17–23; 3:9; 4:4–6; 8:16–17). Sin and death haunt the unfolding occupations in Gen. 4, and the episode of the tower of Babel in Gen. 11 signals God’s judgment on human pretension (cf. James 4:13–16). Excessive toil (workaholism) is a pitfall, not a virtue, for it expresses reliance on self rather than on God, who builds, protects, and gives rest (Ps. 127:1–2). Oppressive, unjust working conditions are cause for lament, and they incur God’s judgment (Exod. 5:6–19; Prov. 14:31; James 5:4–6).
Thus, Israel’s labor policy is to reflect God’s covenant faithfulness, generosity, and concern for the vulnerable. Moses’ law places limits on employers/masters to protect employees, slaves, and foreign workers from exploitation. The primary limit is God’s command that Israel keep the Sabbath holy by a complete cessation of labor (Exod. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15). This move prioritizes God’s covenant above human labor and sets a rhythm of work and rest. Exodus grounds the Sabbath in God’s rest from his work of creation on the seventh day. Deuteronomy ties it to Israel’s history of slavery in Egypt and deliverance by God; by keeping the Sabbath, Israel shows gratitude to God and guards against replicating Egypt’s oppressive policies.
Exodus 31–32 portrays work in its best and worst lights. The proper interplay of work and rest is seen in chapter 31, which narrates the divinely empowered work on the tabernacle, followed by a strong reminder to keep the Sabbath as a “sign” between God and Israel. In contrast, chapter 32 portrays artisanship put to the worst use, the making of a golden idol. Aaron fashions gold with a tool and makes the calf image, but later he tells Moses, “I threw [their gold jewelry] into the fire, and out came this calf!” (32:24). This remark anticipates the prophets’ later mockery of idol-makers (e.g., Isa. 44:9–20) and raises the issue of personal responsibility for the outcome of one’s labor: Aaron seeks to avoid being implicated in Israel’s idolatry by concealing his own role in the project.
Public labor issues increase in complexity when Israel adopts human kingship and engages in international trade (e.g., 1 Sam. 8; 1 Kings 9:15–23). Babylon deals a decisive blow to Judah’s statehood by deporting leaders and skilled workers. Many of these establish such viable, productive new lives in Babylon that when Cyrus later allows the exiled Judeans to return, they choose to remain.
The NT assumes the legitimacy of work and adopts the OT’s view that within proper limits work is a good gift of God. Jesus, however, has come to do his Father’s “work” (John 5:16–18), which entails calling some people away from their normal occupations to follow him, as well as a new approach to Sabbath observance (Mark 2:21–27; 3:4). These moves signal the urgency and newness of the kingdom of God. Consequently, the apostles are “co-workers in God’s service” (1 Cor. 3:9), and Christians are “God’s handiwork” (Eph. 2:10). In light of the resurrection, we offer to God work (Gk. ergon) and labor (Gk. kopos), not in futility but in hope (1 Cor. 15:58; cf. Rev. 14:13).
Those who earn a profit by selling or trading. During the biblical period, this required extensive travel (Prov. 31:14). The Phoenicians were famous for their maritime trade (Ezek. 27:1; Pliny the Elder, Nat. 5.66–67). Trade, the primary engine of the Roman economy, was greatly facilitated by the construction of an extensive highway system and the curbing of piracy. Romans traded with the Chinese through the Silk Road. A particularly large industry was spice and aromatics (see Song 3:6). Nard, the fragrant oil that Mary pours over Jesus’ feet, is derived from a root that grows in the mountains of northern India (John 12:3). But somewhat paradoxically, mercantilism was not a highly respected profession. Members of the Roman senate and their families were not supposed to engage in trade (although many did so quietly). They were the “newly rich,” and they had a reputation for being ruthless and greedy. The prophet Hosea rebukes merchants who use dishonest scales (Hos. 12:7). James rebukes merchants for their presumption and arrogance about future travel and profit (James 4:13–16). Jesus’ treatment of merchants is therefore surprisingly neutral (Matt. 13:45).
God the Worker
A biblical theology of work starts with God as the creator of all things. In the OT, the verb bara’ (“to create”) is used only with God as subject. The first verb in the Bible (Gen. 1:1), it occurs also in many other texts that describe God accomplishing what only God can do. Other terms such as yatsar (“to form, fashion”) and ’asah (“to make, do”) are used numerous times throughout the OT with either God or humans as subjects.
These three terms reinforce the portrayal of God as worker in Gen. 1–2 (cf. Isa. 45:7). God creates light and darkness; sky and earth; sun, moon, and stars; land and sea; plant and animal life; and humankind—in sum, all that is. He forms the “man” (Heb. ’adam) from the dust of the ground, bringing him to life by breathing into him the breath of life.
Elsewhere in the OT God is said to build, build up, or rebuild/restore (Heb. banah [e.g., Pss. 102:16; 147:2; Jer. 24:6; Amos 9:11]). Interestingly, God takes a rib from the man, which he then makes (lit., “builds into” [Heb. banah + le]) a woman (Gen. 2:22). He founds (Heb. kun) the earth (Isa. 45:18) and stretches out (Heb. natah) the heavens (Zech. 12:1). Further, wisdom is God’s “craftsman” (Heb. ’amon), taking part in the world’s creation (Prov. 8:30). The NT reveals Christ as the one through whom God creates all things (John 1:1–3; Col. 1:16). This brief sketch suggests the range of ways in which God’s work is described.
Human Labor
Ideally, work is performed as service to God (Col. 3:17, 22–24). Work is one way we express the divine image. God’s creation mandate to fill, subdue, and rule the earth implies work (Gen. 1:26–28), and God places the man in the garden “to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). The importance of work for human dignity as well as survival undergirds the laws of gleaning that make provision for the poor to gather their own food (e.g., Deut. 24:19–22). The expansion of human technologies and occupations (mela’kah [see Exod. 12:16]) reflects that dignity and God’s own diverse workmanship. Job 28 celebrates human industry and achievement while subordinating all to the prevailing value of wisdom, rooted in “the fear of the Lord.” Given the indispensable role of work within the limits of human life, diligence is commended (Eccles. 3:9–10), idleness condemned (Prov. 10:4; 12:24; 21:5; 2 Thess. 3:6–10). Work is essentially God’s good gift to us in creation.
But work now has negative aspects. In response to Adam’s sin, God curses the ground, introducing “painful toil” into the work cycle (Gen. 3:17–19; 5:29). We now eke out our living by hardship, finding frustration instead of bounty—a lifelong reminder that we are made of dust and will return to dust. The book of Ecclesiastes echoes this note of futility and raises sharp questions about the lasting value of human labor (1:2–3, 14; 2:4–11, 17–23; 3:9; 4:4–6; 8:16–17). Sin and death haunt the unfolding occupations in Gen. 4, and the episode of the tower of Babel in Gen. 11 signals God’s judgment on human pretension (cf. James 4:13–16). Excessive toil (workaholism) is a pitfall, not a virtue, for it expresses reliance on self rather than on God, who builds, protects, and gives rest (Ps. 127:1–2). Oppressive, unjust working conditions are cause for lament, and they incur God’s judgment (Exod. 5:6–19; Prov. 14:31; James 5:4–6).
Thus, Israel’s labor policy is to reflect God’s covenant faithfulness, generosity, and concern for the vulnerable. Moses’ law places limits on employers/masters to protect employees, slaves, and foreign workers from exploitation. The primary limit is God’s command that Israel keep the Sabbath holy by a complete cessation of labor (Exod. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15). This move prioritizes God’s covenant above human labor and sets a rhythm of work and rest. Exodus grounds the Sabbath in God’s rest from his work of creation on the seventh day. Deuteronomy ties it to Israel’s history of slavery in Egypt and deliverance by God; by keeping the Sabbath, Israel shows gratitude to God and guards against replicating Egypt’s oppressive policies.
Exodus 31–32 portrays work in its best and worst lights. The proper interplay of work and rest is seen in chapter 31, which narrates the divinely empowered work on the tabernacle, followed by a strong reminder to keep the Sabbath as a “sign” between God and Israel. In contrast, chapter 32 portrays artisanship put to the worst use, the making of a golden idol. Aaron fashions gold with a tool and makes the calf image, but later he tells Moses, “I threw [their gold jewelry] into the fire, and out came this calf!” (32:24). This remark anticipates the prophets’ later mockery of idol-makers (e.g., Isa. 44:9–20) and raises the issue of personal responsibility for the outcome of one’s labor: Aaron seeks to avoid being implicated in Israel’s idolatry by concealing his own role in the project.
Public labor issues increase in complexity when Israel adopts human kingship and engages in international trade (e.g., 1 Sam. 8; 1 Kings 9:15–23). Babylon deals a decisive blow to Judah’s statehood by deporting leaders and skilled workers. Many of these establish such viable, productive new lives in Babylon that when Cyrus later allows the exiled Judeans to return, they choose to remain.
The NT assumes the legitimacy of work and adopts the OT’s view that within proper limits work is a good gift of God. Jesus, however, has come to do his Father’s “work” (John 5:16–18), which entails calling some people away from their normal occupations to follow him, as well as a new approach to Sabbath observance (Mark 2:21–27; 3:4). These moves signal the urgency and newness of the kingdom of God. Consequently, the apostles are “co-workers in God’s service” (1 Cor. 3:9), and Christians are “God’s handiwork” (Eph. 2:10). In light of the resurrection, we offer to God work (Gk. ergon) and labor (Gk. kopos), not in futility but in hope (1 Cor. 15:58; cf. Rev. 14:13).
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