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.
