James 5: 7-20

James 5;7-20 Read ;1-6 for Review







· In James’s day there was no middle class, you were either very rich or very poor. Because of this kind of a set-up, the lower classes were usually extremely oppressed by the rich class. The rich class had control over the court systems, they could buy off the lawyers & buy off the judges, and thru bribes they had power. They had their own golden rule. He who has the gold rules.
· And because of this, the early church who were mainly slaves & of the low class, were oppressed & persecuted. And James is speaking about the godless rich people who were oppressing the poor. And one of the most beautiful things to see in scripture is that God is on the side of the oppressed, always. God is always rooting for the underdog in most cases, unless the oppression is from that peoples own fault. God is always on the side of those that are downtrodden, in fact one of the beautiful things about Messiah's reign in the Millennium is that the poor will reign and actually have a special place w/ Christ.
· Money is not bad, the love of money...You can use it for evil or good, for yourself or for the Lord or for the devil...But when a person begins to love it to the extent that he's not controlling but it's controlling him or her, then it becomes evil. When a man is under bondage and is ruled by anything, it's sin, he's not free anymore to make choices.
· J Paul Getty, one of the richest men that ever lived, while spending the last few days of his life, a newspaper came out where Getty was quoted as saying," I would give all the money I've ever earned if I could have one happy marriage. Some of us are happily married. We're richer than J Paul Getty ever was.
· Howard Hughes, the last few days of his life, spent the last few years of his life as a recluse, a very sick & miserable man. And so James is speaking to the godless rich, when he says terrible troubles are ahead of you, NKJV says you have heaped up treasure in the last days. As it comes to the very last days, as inflation continues, especially in other parts of the world, money will become valueless. And when people are really hungry, during the tribulation period before the second coming, people will be hungry & their money won't feed them.
· In Revelation it says," a measure of wheat for a penny/actually a quart of wheat for a day's wage, will be the cost during the tribulation. So when it comes down to it, you can't eat gold. Food will become valuable. If you think about it, even if the oil & energy fails us, we can still get by. There are other ways of transportation; people have done it for thousands of years.
· But when it comes to energy for our body being depleted, that's far more serious than just energy for our automobile.
· In; 3-6 James is saying in the end, God will judge the world, & the cries of those who have been defrauded are reaching the ears of God. And God will work, God will intervene. Vengeance is mine says the Lord. Deut. 32; 35.
· There was once a farmer who was an atheist, who was very proud he was an atheist, and he once wrote a newspaper in the town that he lived in and he said," I've been experimenting w/ a certain field of mine this October, he said I've ploughed my field on Sundays. I've planted all the seed on Sundays & didn't go to church while all the other farmers were in church. I plowed/I planted, I fertilized & I reaped my field on Sunday. And in the newspaper it says, what is the result? He said I have more bushels of wheat per acre than any farmer. He's very proud of the fact that he's not keeping God's land laws or Sabbath laws. The editor of the newspaper wrote back and said, God doesn't always settle His accounts in October. God has eternity to settle His accounts.
· And James is reminding his readers here in; 1-6 although they're oppressed, that God is still in eternity & they must face eternity. In these verses he clearly shows us the condition of the world.
· A call for patient endurance in light of the coming judgment.

1. (7-8) Imitate the patient endurance of the farmer.

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

a. Therefore is patient, brethren: James brought the issue of the ultimate judgment before us in his remarks about the ungodly rich and their destiny. Now he calls Christians (especially those enduring hardship) to patiently endure until the coming of the Lord.

b. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently: A farmer does not give up when his crop does not come to harvest immediately. He keeps on working even when the crop cannot be seen at all. Even so Christians must work hard and exercise patient endurance even when the harvest day seems far away.

c. Until it receives the early and latter rain: The pictures of the early and latter rain should be taken literally as James intends. He refers to the early rains (coming in late October or early November), which were essential to soften the ground for plowing, and to the latter rains (coming in late April or May) which were essential to the maturing of the crops shortly before harvest. There is no allegorical picture of an “early” and a “latter” outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church.

i. The Bible does explain that there will be a significant outpouring of the Holy Spirit in these last days (Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18); but this passage from James doesn’t seem to be relevant to that outpouring.

d. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand: The soon return of Jesus requires that we have established hearts, hearts that are rooted in Jesus and His eternal resolution of all things.

e. For the coming of the Lord is at hand: There is a real sense in which the coming of the Lord was at hand in the days of James as well as our own day today. One might say that since the Ascension of Jesus, history has been brought to the brink of consummation and now runs parallel along side the edge of the brink, with the coming of the Lord . . . at hand.

2. (9) Practicing patient endurance among God’s people.

Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

a. Do not grumble against one another: Times of hardship can cause us to be less than loving with our Christian brothers and sisters. James reminds us that we cannot become grumblers and complainers in our hardship - lest we be condemned even in our hardship.

b. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! Jesus comes as a Judge, not only to judge the world, but also to assess the faithfulness of Christians (2 Corinthians 5:10). In light of this, we cannot allow hardship to make us unloving towards each other.

3. (10-11) Following examples of patient endurance.

My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord; that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

a. Take the prophets . . . as an example of suffering and patience: James reminds us that the prophets of the Old Testament endured hardship, yet practiced patient endurance. We can take them as examples.

i. Jeremiah stands out as someone who endured mistreatment with patience. He was put in the stocks (Jeremiah 20:2), thrown into prison (Jeremiah 32:2), and lowered into miry dungeon (Jeremiah 28:6), yet he persisted in his ministry.

b. You have heard of the perseverance of Job: We are reminded of Job as an example of patient endurance. His story shows both the necessity of a constant trust through times of calamity, and God’s compassionate and merciful resolution of seasons of hardship.

c. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful: The compassion and mercy of God may seem far away in times of trial. But examples like Job encourage us to be those who, by our patient endurance, see the goodness of God in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13-14).

4. (12) An exhortation in light of the coming judgment before Jesus.

But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes,” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

a. Do not swear: The Jews of James’ time made distinctions between “binding oaths” and “non-binding oaths.” Oaths that did not include the name of God were considered non-binding, and to use such oaths was a way of “crossing your fingers” behind your back when telling a lie. It is these kinds of oaths that James condemns.

i. The Bible does not forbid the swearing of all oaths, only against the swearing of deceptive, unwise, or flippant oaths. On occasion, God Himself swears oaths (Luke 1:73, Hebrews 3:11, Hebrews 6:13).

b. Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath: James again echoes the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:34-37). The need to swear or make oaths, beyond a simple and clear yes or no betrays the weakness of your word. It demonstrates that there is not enough weight in your own character to confirm your words.

c. Lest you fall into judgment: This lack of character will be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ. This motivates us all the more to prepare for that judgment by our speaking with integrity.

· As we get to; 13 to the end of the chapter, a lot of it deals w/ the issue of healing & it's one of the most interesting passages in the NT on healing.
· ; 13 Suffering=speaks of emotional duress more than anything, not talking about physical illness, we'll come to that. Are you smitten w/ something that's eating @ you, driving you out of your mind, it's bothering you; you find your life falling apart over it, it says simply let him pray.
· God's prescription is prayer. I don't find anywhere in the NT, " if you're hassled & afflicted go tell everybody else about it". Some people love to go from person to person...And there is a point where we share our burdens w/ one another. But the interesting thing is, as you look @ the answer, in light of the scripture, when you're afflicted, it's to go to the Lord. He's the only one who can straighten it out anyway.
· The scripture really indicates that if we're really going through those deep waters in our hearts & in our minds & we're troubled, that Jesus is the answer. And I've discovered that human beings are so complicated, who could ever understand them anyway? I’ve lived inside of me for 41 years, & I don't understand me yet. So how am I ever going to understand you?
· People go through emotional situations that affect their health, that affect them in remarkable ways, we're very complicated & integrated, & I don't understand all the problems & all the dynamics of a human being but, I understand the answer.
· Jesus Christ is not just a force, He's a shepherd, and a Father, and He's a groom, & He's a living Saviour.
· And He calls us that are afflicted into fellowship w/ Him, but it is by His power, & His Spirit, that we're delivered & are given peace.
· So is anyone suffering, James says let them pray. Then it goes on & it says are any of you cheerful? If you're cheerful, sing. Don't waste it just skipping down the street, if you're having a great day, remember to praise God too. I find in my own life, when things are falling apart, when things are desperate, I pray desperate prayers. Desperate men do desperate things. I find when everything's falling apart around me, I'm praying; oh God, oh God, oh God...And then when things are going great, usually I'm thinking, "I know the Lakers can do it". So my mind is somewhere else. I'm not at that time going; oh God oh God...
· And that's what it says; hey if you're going through a valley, seek God. It says if you're on a mountaintop, then sing to God. Remember that He's the one that created that circumstance too. And lift your hearts to Him. And some indicate that the phrase here, "to sing psalms", is to literally pluck on strings. In case you know anyone who says that instruments are not to be used in church, there is an indication here of that.
· ; 14 is interesting now, I'll read down to ;16 & we'll back up & look @ this. Now James moves on to those that are sick in the body of Christ & their responsibility to call for the elders to be prayed for. As we look @ this, we need to determine several things. Who are the sick in the church?
· And it uses a word there that is used by the man who was lying by the pool of Bethsaida, who was unable to move himself down to the waters when the angel troubled the waters. It's the word that is used of Lazarus when it says he was sick unto death. It's the word that's used of Dorcas in the book of Acts when it says she was sick unto death. The word means to be laid down & unable to get up & it actually indicates, some feel, to be in a position where no-one else can help. To indicated someone who's already gone to the doctor & they've said there's nothing we can do. It's not everybody w/ the flu calling for the elders of the church to come to their house.
· It's talking about a situation where it's really fallen to the church where it seems that life is falling away & the medical community says there's no hope that things have obviously fallen into the hands of the Lord. And it says in those circumstances, call for the elders, and the word call their means to call to one's self. I'm mentioning that because as we look @ this, it seems to be a private circumstance, it seems to be the elders plural, are called to the home of this individual there to pray for them as they're requested to come.
· This is not a verse that validates some of the sideshow shenanigans that we see in the name of Jesus, that are called healing on television, where on guy is @ the center of it, & claims to have this power that he can wield whoever he wants to, and he's knocking people down, and if you don't have enough faith, I felt it bounce off of you & come back onto me. We here all of this nonsense. This says that when someone is to that point in their health, that they then should request the elders to where they are, "to call to themselves=KJV", and that the elders plural, it indicates that this person is a part of this body of believers, or has been a part of this body of believers, the elders then should attend them, should come to them to pray for this person who is literally without strength, "and let them pray", the emphasis through here, is on the prayer of the elders & not of the prayer of the sick person.
· A lot of these sideshow hucksters that are on television, that's how they get around people who don't get healed, is they claim the person didn't have enough faith. Well the bible talks about the prayer of the elders, it puts the emphasis here,” let them pray for the person".
· It seems to me that is there's a problem in prayer, and I don't believe there is, it's not on the sick person's part, it's on the elders part.
· "Anointing them will oil" is interesting, it's not the phrased that's used for anointing a king or anointing a prophet. It's literally rubbing them w/oil or oiling them w/ oil. The only time we find it used in regards to praying for the sick is in Mark 6;13 where Jesus is sending out the 12 to 70 and then in one place it does say praying for the sick anointing them w/ oil.
· But it's used of the woman who was a harlot, who came to the house of Simon & began to weep @ the feet of Jesus & it says she anointed His feet w/ oil & wiped His feet w/ her hair & tears, that's the word anointing there. It's used of Mary, when there's a memorial made for her, the sister of Martha, how she took her bottle of Spikenard & broke it & anointed Him for His burial. It's used of the body of Jesus on resurrection morning; remember the women came back w/ spices to anoint Him. In that day they would rub the body w/ fragrant oil to prepare it for the burial. Spiro Zhodiates has a very thick commentary on the book of James, & he's left saying that in that culture, that it was the responsibilities of the elders of the church to come to the person's house & actually rub them down, it was a medicinal thing w/ oil.
· Remember as Jesus talked about the good Samaritan it said the innkeeper took & bound up his wounds w/ oil & w/ wine, he says that actually the elders early in the church would go & actually rub the person down w/ oil to sooth them in their affliction, when they come to the point where they're without strength, & then to pray for them, to care for them. There was no Hospice programs back then, that it fell to the elders of the church.
· Now I don't believe that this is laid out for us in a medicinal way, I really believe it's laid out for us in a symbolic way. Because then it talks about anointing them in the name of the Lord & the prayer of faith & the Lord raising them up & I do believe, when people come & want to be anointed, we will do that. It isn't the oil that straightens them out, & it isn't the prayer, it says,” the Lord will raise him up. There is no trick in the prayer itself. There is no emphasis in saying...It's the Lord.
· It was the Lord in the book of Acts, the Lord in the gospels, & if somebody get's healed today, it is the Lord. It's not the nut on TV. If you study the scriptures, you shall know the truth & the truth shall set you free. It does say the elders should go then anoint w/ oil, symbolically, and the prayer of faith, there are about four different words in Greek used for prayer in the NT, this word in ;15 means to wish. It doesn't mean to come & to offer supplication or intercession, it just means to wish & it gives us the indication that it's a submissive prayer.
· We've come to the home of this individual & death's door, he no longer has any strength, in a symbolic fashion we'll anoint him w/ oil, & then seek the Lord, and say Lord we just wish, Lord Jesus please & raise this person up & put the ball in Jesus' court. Because there lies the power & the wisdom of God to minister.
· "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven them." And the tense here is if he has been continually committing sin, the idea is this, and I think we have to watch it & be careful. All sickness is ultimately a result of sin. When Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden creation fell. And all sickness in the world today is a result of that sin, not necessarily as a result of the individual's sin.
· And so often we hear what is so wrong, particularly in the Word of Faith movement, when someone is ill, they'll blame that person for a lack of faith or sin in their life & that's why they're ill & that's ridiculous. We live in a world that's plagued w/ all kinds of illnesses. There are people that say about Joni Erickson, sure God is using her, but if she had enough faith, she'd get out of that wheelchair. It breaks your heart because how many of God's children that are ill for one thing or another, have been put under condemnation/needless heartache because some foolish individual has misrepresented God & told them there must be sin or unbelief in their lives.
· There was a little girl who died of cancer and her elders told her it was because of sin in her life & she died w/ that thought in her mind, a believer who loved the Lord.
· But it does seem that there are times when a believer in rebellion continually lives in sin, habitually takes up a course of rebellion & sin, that God may use illness to judge him. 1 Cor. 11 talks about those who come to the communion table who eat & drink unworthily, not discerning the body of Christ drinking damnation unto themselves. The problem in Corinth is they were suing one another, not discerning the body of Christ, getting drunk, and eating all the food before the poorer brethren got there, it was complete selfishness. And it says some became sick and fell asleep/died as the result of their sin.
· There are times when God will do that. And if you’re worried about it it hasn't happened to you. To say that all sickness is the result of sin is wrong. Here it indicates if that person had been continually sinning, those sins will be forgiven. So...
· ;17 So if that is the problem, we're to confess our faults to one another, by the way, this doesn't mean that married women are to be confessing their faults to someone else's husband...There are certain parts of the church that emphasize "the body ministry" & being open...You can't improve the unity in the body of Christ because the bible tells us that there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond-slave, neither male nor female. You're not going to improve on that.
· We are one in the Spirit & God will link us together w/ people in the body that we're to have friendships w/. You can't have friendships w/ everybody in the body of Christ. And if you're sensitive, God will give you meaningful relationships & I encourage you, as you build those relationships, build relationships w/ those that are godly, not
Prayer for the Nation (James 5:17–18)
· James cited Elijah as an example of a “righteous man” whose prayers released power. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16, NIV).
The background of this incident is found in 1 Kings 17–18. Wicked King Ahab and Jezebel, his queen, had led Israel away from the Lord and into the worship of Baal. God punished the nation by holding back the rain that they needed (see Deut. 28:12, 23). For three and one half years, the heavens were as brass and the earth unable to produce the crops so necessary for life.
Then Elijah challenged the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel. All day long the priests cried out to their god, but no answer came. At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah repaired the altar and prepared the sacrifice. He prayed but once, and fire came from heaven to consume the sacrifice. He had proven that Jehovah was the true God.
· But the nation still needed rain. Elijah went to the top of Carmel and fell down before the Lord in prayer. He prayed and sent his servant seven times to see if there was evidence of rain; and the seventh time his servant saw a little cloud. Before long, there was a great rain, and the nation was saved.
Do we need “showers of blessing” today? We certainly do!
· “But Elijah was a special prophet of God,” we might argue. “We can expect God to answer his prayers in a wonderful way.”
“Elijah was a man just like us,” stated James (5:17, NIV). He was not perfect; in fact, right after his victory on Mt. Carmel, Elijah became afraid and discouraged and ran away. But he was a “righteous man,” that is, obedient to the Lord and trusting Him. God’s promises of answered prayer are for all His children, not just for ones we may call the spiritual elite.
· Elijah prayed in faith, for God told him He would send the rain (1 Kings 18:1). “Prayer,” said Robert Law, “is not getting man’s will done in heaven. It’s getting God’s will done on earth.” You cannot separate the Word of God and prayer, for in His Word He gives us the promises that we claim when we pray.
Elijah did not only believe in his praying, but he was persistent. “He prayed... and he prayed again” (James 5:17–18). On Mt. Carmel, Elijah continued to pray for rain until his servant reported “a cloud the size of a man’s hand.” Too many times we fail to get what God promises because we stop praying. It is true that we are not heard “for our much praying” (Matt. 6:7); but there is a difference between vain repetitions and true believing persistence in prayer. Our Lord prayed three times in the Garden, and Paul prayed three times that his thorn in the flesh might be taken from him.
Elijah was determined and concerned in his praying. “He prayed earnestly” (James 5:17, NIV). The literal Greek reads “and he prayed in prayer.” Many people do not pray in their prayers. They just lazily say religious words, and their hearts are not in their prayers.
A church member was “praying around the world” in a prayer meeting, and one of the men present was growing tired of the speech. Finally the man cried out, “Ask Him something!” That is what prayer is all about: “Ask Him something!”
Prayer power is the greatest power in the world today. “Tremendous power is made available through a good man’s earnest prayer” (James 5:16, PH). History shows how mankind has progressed from manpower to horsepower, and then to dynamite and TNT, and now to atomic power.
But greater than atomic power is prayer power. Elijah prayed for his nation, and God answered prayer. We need to pray for our nation today, that God will bring conviction and revival, and that “showers of blessing” will come to the land. One of the first responsibilities of the local church is to pray for government leaders (1 Tim. 2:1–3).

· Prayer for the Straying (James 5:19–20)
While James did not specifically name prayer in these verses, the implication is there. If we pray for the afflicted and the sick, surely we must pray for the brother who wanders from the truth.
These verses deal with our ministry to a fellow believer who strays from the truth and gets into sin. The verb err means “to wander,” and suggests a gradual moving away from the will of God. The Old Testament term for this is “backsliding.” Sad to say, we see this tragedy occurring in our churches regularly. Sometimes a brother is “overtaken in a fault” (Gal. 6:1); but usually the sin is the result of slow, gradual spiritual decline.
Such a condition is, of course, very dangerous. It is dangerous to the offender because he may be disciplined by the Lord (Heb. 12). He also faces the danger of committing “sin unto death” (1 John 5:16–17). God disciplined the sinning members of the Corinthian church, even to the point of taking some of them to heaven (1 Cor. 11:30).
But this backsliding is also dangerous to the church. A wandering offender can influence others and lead them astray. “One sinner destroys much good” (Ecc. 9:18, NASB). This is why the spiritual members of the church must step in and help the man who has wandered away.
The origin of this problem is found in the statement “wander from the truth” (James 5:19). The truth means, of course, the Word of God. “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). Unless the believer stays close to the truth, he will start to drift away. “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb. 2:1, NASB). Jesus warned Peter that Satan was at hand to tempt him, and Peter refused to believe the Word. He even argued with the Lord! When he should have been praying, Peter was sleeping. No wonder he denied three times.
The outcome of this wandering is “sin” and possible “death” (James 5:20). The sinner here is a believer, not an unbeliever; and sin in the life of a Christian is worse than sin in the life of an unbeliever. We expect unsaved people to sin, but God expects His children to obey His Word.
What are we to do when we see a fellow believer wandering from the truth? We should pray for him, to be sure; but we must also seek to help him. He needs to be “converted”—turned back into the right path again. Do believers need to be converted? Yes, they do! Jesus said to Peter, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32).
It is important that we seek to win the lost, but it is also important to win the saved. If a brother has sinned against us, we should talk to him privately and seek to settle the matter. If he listens, then we have gained our brother (Matt. 18:15). That word gained means “won.” It is the same word translated “get gain” in James 4:13. It is important to win the saved as well as the lost.
If we are going to help an erring brother, we must have an attitude of love, for “love shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Both James and Peter learned this principle from Proverbs 10:12—“Hate stirreth up strife: but love covereth all sins.”
This does not mean that love “sweeps the dirt under the carpet.” Where there is love, there must also be truth (“speaking the truth in love” says Paul in Eph. 4:15); and where there is truth, there is honest confession of sin and cleansing from God. Love not only helps the offender to face his sins and deal with them, but love also assures the offender that those sins, once forgiven, are remembered no more.
While the basic interpretation of these verses is as I have explained, the application can be made to the lost sinner. After all, if a straying brother needs to be restored, how much more does a lost sinner need to be brought to the Savior? If the wandering believer loses his life, he at least goes to heaven; but the lost sinner is condemned to an eternal hell.
“Seeking the lost” is a common Bible picture of soul winning. In Luke 15, Jesus pictures the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, all of whom needed to be found and brought back to where they belonged. Our Lord also compared winning souls to catching fish (Mark 1:17). Peter caught one fish individually with his hook (Matt. 17:24–27), but he also worked with his helpers and used the nets to catch many fish at one time. There is a place for both personal and collective evangelism.
Proverbs 11:30 compares evangelism to hunting: “He that catcheth souls is wise” (literal translation). Sin is out to catch and kill (James 1:13–15), but we ought to be out to catch and make alive.
The soul winner is also an ambassador of peace (2 Cor. 5:20). God has not declared war on this world; He has declared peace! One day He will declare war, and judgment will fall.
Both Zechariah 3:2 and Jude 23 picture the soul winner as a fireman, pulling brands out of the burning. John Wesley applied Zechariah 3:2 to himself, for when he was but a child, he was pulled from a burning house when it looked as though it was too late. Sometimes we must take risks of love to snatch people from the fires of judgment.
· Jesus compared evangelism to sowing and reaping (John 4:34–38) and Paul used the same illustration (1 Cor. 3:6–9). There are seasons of sowing and seasons of reaping; and many people are needed for the work. We are “laborers together with God” (1 Cor. 3:9). Both the sower and the reaper will receive their rewards, for there is no competition in the Lord’s fields.