Verses 1-20
Chapter 5
5:1-3 Come now, you
rich, weep and wail at the miseries which are coming upon you. Your
wealth is rotten and your garments are food for moths. Your gold and
silver are corroded clean through with rust; and their rust is proof to
you of how worthless they are. It is a rust which will eat into your
very flesh like fire. It is a treasure indeed that you have amassed for
yourselves in the last days!
James 5:1-6
has two aims. First, to show the ultimate worthlessness of all earthly
riches; and second, to show the detestable character of those who
possess them. By doing this he hopes to prevent his readers from placing
all their hopes and desires on earthly things.
If you knew what you were doing, he says to the rich, you would
weep and wail for the terror of the judgment that is coming upon you at
the Day of the Lord. The vividness of the picture is increased by the
word which James uses for to nail. It is the verb ololuzein (Greek #3649),
which is onomatopoeic and carries its meaning in its very sound. It
means even more than to wail, it means to shriek, and in the King James
Version is often translated to howl; and it depicts the frantic terror
of those on whom the judgment of God has come (Isaiah 13:6; Isaiah 14:31; Isaiah 15:2-3; Isaiah 16:7; Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:14; Isaiah 65:14; Amos 8:3). We might well say that it is the word which describes those undergoing the tortures of the damned.
All through this passage the words are vivid and pictorial and
carefully chosen. In the east there were three main sources of wealth
and James has a word for the decay of each of them.
There were corn and grain. That is the wealth which grows rotten (sepein, Greek #4595).
There were garments. In the east garments were wealth. Joseph gave changes of garments to his brothers (Genesis 45:22). It was for a beautiful mantle from Shinar that Achan brought disaster on the nation and death on himself and his family (Joshua 7:21). It was changes of garments that Samson promised to anyone who would solve his riddle ( 14:12). It was garments that Naaman brought as a gift to the prophet of Israel and to obtain which Gehazi sinned his soul (2 Kings 5:5; 2 Kings 5:22). It was Paul's claim that he had coveted no man's money or apparel (Acts 20:33). These garments, which are so splendid, will be food for moths (setobrotos (Greek #4598, compare Matthew 6:19).
The climax of the world's inevitable decay comes at the end.
Even their gold and silver will be rusted clean through (katiasthai, Greek #2728).
The point is that gold and silver do not actually rust; so James in the
most vivid way is warning men that even the most precious and
apparently most indestructible things are doomed to decay.
This rust is proof of the impermanence and ultimate
valuelessness of all earthly things. More, it is a dread warning. The
desire for these things is like a dread rust eating into men's bodies
and souls. Then comes a grim sarcasm. It is a fine treasure indeed that
any man who concentrates on these things is heaping up for himself at
the last. The only treasure he will possess is a consuming fire which
will wipe him out.
It is James' conviction that to concentrate on material things
is not only to concentrate on a decaying delusion; it is to concentrate
on self-produced destruction.
Not even the most cursory reader of the Bible can fail to be
impressed with the social passion which blazes through its pages. No
book condemns dishonest and selfish wealth with such searing passion as
it does. The book of the prophet Amos was called by J. E. McFadyen "The
Cry for Social Justice." Amos condemns those who store up violence and
robbery in their palaces (Amos 3:10).
He condemns those who tread on the poor and themselves have houses of
hewn stone and pleasant vineyards--which in the wrath of God they will
never enjoy (Amos 5:11).
He lets loose his wrath on those who give short weight and short
measure, who buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes,
and who palm off on the poor the refuse of their wheat. "I will never
forget any of their deeds," says God (Amos 8:4-7). Isaiah warns those who build up great estates by adding house to house and field to field (Isaiah 5:8). The sage insisted that he who trusts in riches shall fall (Proverbs 11:28). Luke quotes Jesus as saying, "Woe to you that are rich!" (Luke 6:24). It is only with difficulty that those who have riches enter into the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:24).
Riches are a temptation and a snare; the rich are liable to foolish and
hurtful lusts which end in ruin, for the love of money is the root of
all evils (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
In the inter-testamental literature there is the same note. "Woe
to you who acquire silver and gold in unrighteousness.... They shall
perish with their possessions, and in shame will their spirits be cast
into the furnace of fire" (Enoch 97: 8). In the Wisdom of Solomon there
is a savage passage in which the sage makes the selfish rich speak of
their own way of life as compared with that of the righteous. "Come on,
therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present; and let us
speedily use created things like as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with
costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be withered; let there
be no meadow but our luxury shall pass through it. Let none of us go
without his part of our voluptuousness; let us leave tokens of our
joyfulness in every place; for this is our portion, and our lot is this.
Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor
reverence the ancient grey hairs of the aged.... Therefore, let us lie
in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn and is clean
contrary to our doings; he upbraideth us with our offending of the law,
and objecteth to our infamy, the sins of our way of life" (Wisdom of Solomon 2:6-12).
One of the mysteries of social thought is how the Christian
religion ever came to be regarded as "the opiate of the people" or to
seem an other-worldly affair. There is no book in any literature which
speaks so explosively of social injustice as the Bible, nor any book
which has proved so powerful a social dynamic. It does not condemn
wealth as such but there is no book which more strenuously insists on
wealth's responsibility and on the perils which surround a man who is
abundantly blessed with this world's goods.
5:4-6 Look you, the
pay of the reapers who reaped your estates, the pay kept back from them
by you, cries against you, and the cries of those who reaped have come
to the ears of the Lord of Hosts. On the earth you have lived in soft
luxury and played the wanton; you have fattened your hearts for the day
of slaughter. You condemned, you killed the righteous man, and he does
not resist you.
Here is condemnation of selfish riches and warning of where they must end.
(i) The selfish rich have gained their wealth by injustice. The
Bible is always sure that the labourer is worthy of his hire (Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18).
The day labourer in Palestine lived on the very verge of starvation.
His wage was small; it was impossible for him to save anything; and if
the wage was withheld from him, even for a day, he and his family simply
could not eat. That is why the merciful laws of Scripture again and
again insist on the prompt payment of his wages to the hired labourer.
"You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy.... You
shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down
(for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it); lest he cry against you
to the Lord, and it be sin in you" (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). "The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning" (Leviticus 19:13). "Do not say to your neighbour, 'Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it'--when you have it with you" (Proverbs 3:27-28).
"Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper
rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbour serve him for nothing, and
does not give him his wages" (Jeremiah 22:13). "Those that oppress the hireling in his wages" are under the judgment of God (Malachi 3:5).
"He that taketh away his neighbour's living, the bread gotten by sweat,
slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire,
defraudeth his Maker, and shall receive a bitter reward, for he is
brother to him that is a blood-shedder" (Sirach 34:22). "Let not the wages of any man which hath wrought for thee tarry with thee, but give it him out of hand" (Tobit 4:14).
The law of the Bible is nothing less than the charter of the
labouring man. The social concern of the Bible speaks in the words of
the Law and of the Prophets and of the Sages alike. Here it is said that
the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts!
The hosts are the hosts of heaven, the stars and the heavenly powers.
It is the teaching of the Bible in its every part that the Lord of the
universe is concerned for the rights of the labouring man.
(ii) The selfish rich have used their wealth selfishly. They
have lived in soft luxury and have played the wanton. The word
translated to live in soft luxury is truphein (Greek #5171).
It comes from a root which means to break down; and it describes the
soft living which in the end saps and destroys a man's moral fibre. The
word translated to play the wanton is spatalan (Greek #4684).
It is a much worse word; it means to live in lewdness and
lasciviousness. It is the condemnation of the selfish rich that they
have used their possessions to gratify their own love of comfort and to
satisfy their own lusts, and that they have forgotten all duty to their
fellow-men.
(iii) But anyone who chooses this pathway has also chosen its
end. The end of specially fattened cattle is that they will be
slaughtered for some feast; and those who have sought this easy luxury
and selfish wantonness are like men who have fattened themselves for the
day of judgment. The end of their pleasure is grief and the goal of
their luxury is death. Selfishness always leads to the destruction of
the soul.
(iv) The selfish rich have slain the unresisting righteous man.
it is doubtful to whom this refers. It could be a reference to Jesus.
"You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be
granted to you" (Acts 3:14). It is Stephen's charge that the Jews always slew God's messengers even before the coming of the Just One (Acts 7:52). It is Paul's declaration that God chose the Jews to see the Just One although they rejected him (Acts 22:14). Peter says that Christ suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18).
The suffering servant of the Lord offered no resistance. He opened not
his mouth and like a sheep before his shearers he was dumb (Isaiah 53:7), a passage which Peter quotes in his picture of Jesus (1 Peter 2:23).
It may well be that James is saying that in their oppression of the
poor and the righteous man, the selfish rich have crucified Christ
again. Every wound that selfishness inflicts on Christ's people is
another wound inflicted on Christ.
It may be that James is not specially thinking of Jesus when he
speaks about the righteous man but of the evil man's instinctive hatred
of the good man. We have already quoted the passage in The Wisdom of
Solomon which describes the conduct of the rich. That passage goes on:
"He (the righteous man) professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he
calleth himself the child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our
thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not
like other men's, his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of
him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he
pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that
God is his Father. Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove
what shall happen in the end of him. For if the just man be the son of
God, he will help him and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let
us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his
meekness and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful
death: for by his own saying he shall be respected" (Wisdom of Solomon 2:13-24). These, says the Sage, are the words of men whose wickedness has blinded them.
Alcibiades, the friend of Socrates, for all his great talents
often lived a riotous and debauched life. And there were times when he
said to Socrates: "Socrates, I hate you; for every time I see you, you
show me what I am." The evil man would gladly eliminate the good man,
for he reminds him of what he is and of what he ought to be.
5:7-9 Brothers. have
patience until the coming of the Lord. Look you, the farmer waits for
the precious fruit of the earth, patiently waiting for it until it
receives the early and the late rains. So do you too be patient. Make
firm your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. Brothers, do not
complain against each other, that you may not be condemned. Look you,
the judge stands at the door.
The early church lived in expectation of the immediate Second
Coming of Jesus Christ; and James exhorts his people to wait with
patience for the few years which remain. The farmer has to wait for his
crops until the early and the late rains have come. The early and the
late rains are often spoken of in Scripture, for they were all-important
to the farmer of Palestine (Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24; Joel 2:23).
The early rain was the rain of late October and early November without
which the seed would not germinate. The late rain was the rain of April
and May without which the grain would not mature. The farmer needs
patience to wait until nature does her work; and the Christian needs
patience to wait until Christ comes.
During that waiting they must confirm their faith. They must not
blame one another for the troubles of the situation in which they find
themselves for, if they do, they will be breaking the commandment which
forbids Christians to judge one another (Matthew 7:1);
and if they break that commandment, they will be condemned. James has
no doubt of the nearness of the coming of Christ. The judge is at the
door, he says, using a phrase which Jesus himself had used (Mark 13:29; Matthew 24:33).
It so happened that the early church was mistaken. Jesus Christ
did not return within a generation. But it will be of interest to gather
up the New Testament's teaching about the Second Coming so that we may
see the essential truth at its heart.
We may first note that the New Testament uses three different words to describe the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
(i) The commonest is parousia (Greek #3952), a word which has come into English as it stands. It is used in Matthew 24:3; Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:37; Matthew 24:39; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 John 2:28; 2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 3:4.
In secular Greek this is the ordinary word for someone's presence or
arrival. But it has two other usages, one of which became quite
technical. It is used of the invasion of a country by an army and
specially it is used of the visit of a king or a governor to a province
of his empire. So, then, when this word is used of Jesus, it means that
his Second Coming is the final invasion of earth by heaven and the
coming of the King to receive the final submission and adoration of his
subjects.
(ii) The New Testament also uses the word epiphaneia (Greek #2015) (Titus 2:13; 2 Timothy 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 2:9).
In ordinary Greek this word has two special usages. It is used of the
appearance of a god to his worshipper; and it is used of the accession
of an emperor to the imperial power of Rome. So, then, when this word is
used of Jesus, it means that his Second Coming is God appearing to his
people, both to those who are waiting for him and to those who are
disregarding him.
(iii) Finally the New Testament uses the word apokalupsis (Greek #602) (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13).
Apokalupsis in ordinary Greek means an unveiling or a laying bare; and
when it is used of Jesus, it means that his Second Coming is the laying
bare of the power and glory of God come upon men.
Here, then, we have a series of great pictures. The Second
Coming of Jesus is the arrival of the King; it is God appearing to his
people and mounting his eternal throne; it is God directing on the world
the full blaze of his heavenly glory.
We may now gather up briefly the teaching of the New Testament about
the Second Coming and the various uses it makes of the idea.
(i) The New Testament is clear that no man knows the day or the
hour when Christ comes again. So secret, in fact, is that time that
Jesus himself does not know it; it is known to God alone (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32).
From this basic fact one thing is clear. Human speculation about the
time of the Second Coming is not only useless, it is blasphemous; for
surely no man should seek to gain a knowledge which is hidden from Jesus
Christ himself and resides only in the mind of God.
(ii) The one thing that the New Testament does say about the
Second Coming is that it will be as sudden as the lightning and as
unexpected as a thief in the night (Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:37; Matthew 24:39; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10). We cannot wait to get ready when it comes; we must be ready for its coming.
So, the New Testament urges certain duties upon men.
(i) They must be for ever on the watch (1 Peter 4:7).
They are like servants whose master has gone away and who, not knowing
when he will return, must have everything ready for his return, whether
it be at morning, at midday, or at evening (Matthew 24:36-51).
(ii) Long delay must not produce despair or forgetfulness (2 Peter 3:4).
God does not see time as men do. To him a thousand years are as a watch
in the night and even if the years pass on, it does not mean that he
has either changed or abandoned his design.
(iii) Men must use the time given them to prepare for the coming of the King. They must be sober (1 Peter 4:7). They must get to themselves holiness (1 Thessalonians 3:13). By the grace of God they must become blameless in body and in spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). They must put off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light now that the day is far spent (Romans 13:11-14).
Men must use the time given them to make themselves such that they can
greet the coming of the King with joy and without shame.
(iv) When that time comes, they must be found in fellowship.
Peter uses the thought of the Second Coming to urge men to love and
mutual hospitality (1 Peter 4:8-9). Paul commands that all things be done in love--Maran-atha (Greek #3134)--the Lord is at hand (1 Corinthians 16:14; 1 Corinthians 16:22). He says that our forbearance must be known to all men because the Lord is at hand (Philippians 4:5). The word translated "forbearance" is epieikes (Greek #1933)
which means the spirit that is more ready to offer forgiveness than to
demand justice. The writer to the Hebrews demands mutual help, mutual
Christian fellowship, mutual encouragement because the day is coming
near (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The New Testament is sure that in view of the Coming of Christ we must
have our personal relationships right with our fellow-men. The New
Testament would urge that no man ought to end a day with an unhealed
breach between himself and a fellow-man, lest in the night Christ should
come.
(v) John uses the Second Coming as a reason for urging men to abide in Christ (1 John 2:28). Surely the best preparation for meeting Christ is to live close to him every day.
Much of the imagery attached to the Second Coming is Jewish,
part of the traditional apparatus of the last things in the ancient
Jewish mind. There are many things which we are not meant to take
literally. But the great truth behind all the temporary pictures of the
Second Coming is that this world is not purposeless but going somewhere,
that there is one divine far-off event to which the whole creation
moves.
5:10-11 Brothers, take
as an example of patience in hardship the prophets who spoke in the
name of the Lord. Look you, we count those who endure blessed. You have
heard of Job's steadfast endurance and you have seen the conclusion of
his troubles which the Lord gave to him, and you have proof that the
Lord is very kind and merciful.
It is always a comfort to feel that others have gone through
what we have to go through. James reminds his readers that the prophets
and the men of God could never have done their work and borne their
witness had they not patiently endured. He reminds them that Jesus
himself had said that the man who endured to the end was blessed for he
would be saved (Matthew 24:13).
Then he quotes the example of Job, of whom in the synagogue
discourses they had often heard. We generally speak of the patience of
Job which is the word the King James Version uses. But patience is far
too passive a word. There is a sense in which Job was anything but
patient. As we read the tremendous drama of his life we see him
passionately resenting what has come upon him, passionately questioning
the conventional arguments of his so-called friends, passionately
agonizing over the terrible thought that God might have forsaken him.
Few men have spoken such passionate words as he did; but the great fact
about him is that in spite of all the agonizing questionings which tore
at his heart, he never lost his faith in God. "Behold, he will slay me; I
have no hope;" (Job 13:15). "My witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high" (Job 16:19). "I know that my redeemer lives" (Job 19:25).
His is no unquestioning submission; he struggled and questioned, and
sometimes even defied, but the flame of his faith was never
extinguished.
The word used of him is that great New Testament word hupomone (Greek #5281),
which describes, not a passive patience, but that gallant spirit which
can breast the tides of doubt and sorrow and disaster and come out with
faith still stronger on the other side. There may be a faith which never
complained or questioned; but still greater is the faith which was
tortured by questions and still believed. It was the faith which held
grimly on that came out on the other side, for "the Lord blessed the
latter days of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12).
There will be moments in life when we think that God has
forgotten, but if we cling to the remnants of faith, at the end we, too,
shall see that God is very kind and very merciful.
5:12 Above all things,
my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor by any
other oath. Let your yes be a simple yes and your no a simple no, lest
you fall under judgment.
James is repeating the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:33-37),
teaching which was very necessary in the days of the early church.
James is not thinking of what we call bad language but of confirming a
statement or a promise or an undertaking by an oath. In the ancient
world, there were two evil practices.
(i) There was a distinction--especially in the Jewish
world--between oaths which were binding and oaths which were not
binding. Any oath in which the name of God was directly used was
considered to be definitely binding; but any oath in which direct
mention of the name of God was not made was held not to be binding. The
idea was that, once God's name was definitely used, he became an active
partner in the transaction, but he did not become a partner unless his
name was so introduced. The result of this was that it became a matter
of skill and sharp practice to find an oath which was not binding. This
made a mockery of the whole practice of confirming anything by an oath.
(ii) There was in this age an extraordinary amount of
oath-taking. This in itself was quite wrong. For one thing, the value of
an oath depends to a large extent on the fact of it being very seldom
necessary to take one. When oaths became a commonplace, they ceased to
be respected as they ought to be. For another thing, the practice of
taking frequent oaths was nothing other than a proof of the prevalence
of lying and cheating. In an honest society no oath is needed; it is
only when men cannot be trusted to tell the truth that they have to be
put upon oath.
In this the ancient writers on morals thoroughly agreed with
Jesus. Philo says, "Frequent swearing is bound to beget perjury and
impiety." The Jewish Rabbis said, "Accustom not thyself to vows, for
sooner or later thou wilt swear false oaths." The Essenes forbade all
oaths. They held that if a man required an oath to make him tell the
truth, he was already branded as untrustworthy. The great Greeks held
that the best guarantee of any statement was not an oath but the
character of the man who made it; and that the ideal was to make
ourselves such that no one would ever think of demanding an oath from us
because he would be certain that we would always speak the truth.
The New Testament view is that every word is spoken in the
presence of God and ought, therefore, to be true; and it would agree
that the Christian must be known to be a man of such honour that it will
be quite unnecessary ever to put him on oath. The New Testament would
not entirely condemn oaths but it would deplore the human tendency to
falsehood which on occasion makes oaths necessary.
5:13-15 Is any among
you in trouble? Let him pray. Is any in good spirits? Let him sing a
hymn. Is any among you sick? Let him call in the elders of the Church;
and let them anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and pray over
him; and the believing prayer will restore to health the ailing person,
and the Lord will enable him to rise from his bed; and even if he has
committed sin, he will receive forgiveness.
Here we have set out before us certain dominant characteristics of the early church.
It was a singing church; the early Christians were always ready
to burst into song. In Paul's description of the meetings of the Church
at Corinth, we find singing an integral part (1 Corinthians 14:15; 1 Corinthians 14:26).
When he thinks of the grace of God going out to the Gentiles, it
reminds him of the joyous saying of the Psalmist: "I will praise thee
among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name" (Romans 15:9; compare Psalms 18:49).
The Christians they speak to each other in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19).
The word of Christ dwells in them, and they teach and admonish each
other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness
in their hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16).
There was a joy in the heart of the Christians which issued from their
lips in songs of praise for the mercy and the grace of God.
The fact is that the heathen world has always been sad and weary
and frightened. Matthew Arnold wrote a poem describing its bored
weariness.
"On that hard Pagan world disgust
And secret loathing fell;
Deep weariness and sated lust
Made human life a hell.
In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
The Roman noble lay;
He drove abroad in furious guise
Along the Appian Way;
He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
And crowned his hair with flowers--
No easier nor no quicker past
The impracticable hours."
In contrast with that weary mood the accent of the Christian is
singing joy. That was what impressed John Bunyan when he heard four
poor old women talking, as they sat at a door in the sun: "Methought
they spake, as if joy did make them speak." When Bilney, the martyr,
grasped the wonder of redeeming grace, he said, "It was as if dawn
suddenly broke on a dark night." Archibald Lang Fleming, the first
Bishop of the Arctic, tells of the saying of an Eskimo hunter: "Before
you came the road was dark and we were afraid. Now we are not afraid,
for the darkness has gone away and all is light as we walk the Jesus
way."
Always the church has been a singing Church. When Pliny,
governor of Bithynia, wrote to Trajan, the Roman Emperor, in A.D. 111 to
tell him of this new sect of Christians, he said that his information
was that "they are in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before
it is light, when they sing in alternate verses a hymn to Christ as
God." In the orthodox Jewish synagogue, since the Fall of Jerusalem in
A.D. 70, there has been no music, for, when they worship, they remember a
tragedy; but in the Christian Church, from the beginning until now,
there has been the music of praise, for the Christian remembers an
Infinite love and enjoys a present glory.
Another great characteristic of the early church was that it was a
healing Church. Here it inherited its tradition from Judaism. When a Jew
was ill, it was to the Rabbi he went rather than to the doctor; and the
Rabbi anointed him with oil--which Galen the Greek doctor called "the
best of all medicines"--and prayed over him. Few communities can have
been so devotedly attentive to their sick as the early church was.
Justin Martyr writes that numberless demoniacs were healed by the
Christians when all other exorcists had been helpless to cure them and
all drugs had been unavailing. Irenaeus, writing far down the second
century, tells us that the sick were still healed by having hands laid
on them. Tertullian, writing midway through the third century, says that
no less a person than the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus, was healed
by anointing at the hands of a Christian called Torpacion and that in
his gratitude he kept Torpacion as a guest in his palace until the day
of his death.
One of the earliest books concerning Church administration is
the Canons of Hippolytus, which goes back to the end of the second
century or the beginning of the third. It is there laid down that men
who have the gift of healing are to be ordained as presbyters after
investigation has been made to ensure that they really do possess the
gift and that it comes from God. That same book gives the noble prayer
used at the consecration of the local bishops, part of which runs:
"Grant unto him, O Lord...the power to break all the chains of the evil
power of the demons, to cure all the sick, and speedily to subdue Satan
beneath his feet." In the Clementine Letters the duties of the deacons
are laid down; and they include the rule: "Let the deacons of the Church
move about intelligently and act as eyes for the bishop.... Let them
find out those who are sick in the flesh, and bring such to the notice
of the main body who know nothing of them, that they may visit them, and
supply their wants." In the First Epistle of Clement the prayer of the
Church is: "Heal the sick; raise up the weak; cheer the faint-hearted." A
very early Church code lays it down that each congregation must appoint
at least one widow to take care of women who are sick. For many
centuries the Church consistently used anointing as a means of healing
the sick. In fact it is important to note that the sacrament of unction,
or anointing, was in the early centuries always designed as a means of
cure, and not as a preparation for death as it now is in the Roman
Catholic Church. It was not until A.D. 852 that this sacrament did, in
fact, become the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, administered to prepare
for death.
The Church has always cared for her sick; and in her there has
always resided the gift of healing. The social gospel is not an appendix
to Christianity; it is the very essence of the Christian faith and
life.
5:16-18 Confess your
sins to each other, and pray for each other, that you may be healed. The
prayer of a good man, when it is set to work, is very powerful. Elijah
was a man with the same emotions as ourselves, and he prayed earnestly
that it should not rain, and for three years and six months no rain fell
upon the earth. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain; and the
earth put forth her fruit.
There are in this passage three basic ideas of Jewish religion.
(i) There is the idea that all sickness is due to sin. It was a
deeply-rooted Jewish belief that where there were sickness and
suffering, there must have been sin. "There is no death without guilt,"
said the Rabbis, "and no suffering without sin." The Rabbis, therefore,
believed that before a man could be healed of his sickness his sins must
be forgiven by God. Rabbi Alexandrai said, "No man gets up from his
sickness until God has forgiven him all his sins." That is why Jesus
began his healing of the man with the palsy by saying, "My son, your
sins are forgiven" (Mark 2:5).
The Jew always identified suffering and sin. Nowadays we cannot make
this mechanical identification; but this remains true--that no man can
know any health of soul or mind or body until he is right with God.
(ii) There is the idea that, to be effective, confession of sin
has to be made to men, and especially to the person wronged, as well as
to God. In a very real sense it is easier to confess sins to God than to
confess them to men; and yet in sin there are two barriers to be
removed--the barrier it sets up between us and God, and the barrier it
sets up between us and our fellow-men. If both these barriers are to be
removed, both kinds of confession must be made. This was, in fact, the
custom of the Moravian Church and Wesley took it over for his earliest
Methodist classes. They used to meet two or three times a week "to
confess their faults to one another and to pray for one another that
they might be healed." This is clearly a principle which must be used
with wisdom. It is quite true that there may be cases where confession
of sin to each other may do infinitely more harm than good; but where a
barrier has been erected because of some wrong which has been done, a
man must put himself right both with God and his fellow-man.
(iii) Above all, there is the idea that no limits can be set to
the power of prayer. The Jews had a saying that he who prays surrounds
his house with a wall stronger than iron. They said, "Penitence can do
something; but prayer can do everything." To them prayer was nothing
less than contacting the power of God; it was the channel through which
the strength and grace life. How much more must this be so for a
Christian?
Tennyson wrote:
"More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
As the Jew saw it, and as indeed it is, to cure the his of life
we need to be right with God and right with men, and we need to bring
to bear upon men through prayer the mercy and the might of God.
Before we leave this passage there is one interesting technical
fact that we must note. It quotes Elijah as an example of the power of
prayer. This is an excellent illustration of how Jewish rabbinic
exegesis developed the meaning of Scripture. The full story is in 1 Kings 17:1-24; 1 Kings 18:1-46. The three years and six months--a period also quoted in Luke 4:25 --is a deduction from 1 Kings 18:1.
Further, the Old Testament narrative does not say that either the
coming or the cessation of the drought was due to the prayers of Elijah;
he was merely the prophet who announced its coming and its going. But
the Rabbis always studied Scripture under the microscope. In 1 Kings 17:1
we read: "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,
there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." Now
the Jewish attitude of prayer was standing before God; and so in this
phrase the Rabbis found what was to them an indication that the drought
was the result of the prayers of Elijah. In 1 Kings 18:42
we read that Elijah went up to Carmel, bowed himself down upon the
earth and put his face between his knees. Once again the Rabbis saw the
attitude of agonizing prayer; and so found what was to them an
indication that it was the prayer of Elijah which brought the drought to
an end.
5:19-20 My brothers,
if any among you wanders from the truth and if anyone turns him again to
the right way, let him know that he who has turned a sinner from his
wandering way will save his brothel's soul from death and will hide a
multitude of his own sins.
In this passage there is set down the great differentiating
characteristic of Christian truth. It is something from which a man can
wander. It is not only intellectual, philosophical and abstract; it is
always moral truth.
This comes out very clearly when we go to the New Testament and
look at the expressions which are used in connection with truth. Truth
is something which a man must love (2 Thessalonians 2:10); it is something which a man must obey (Galatians 5:7); it is something which a man must display in life (2 Corinthians 4:2); it is something which must be spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15); it is something which must be witnessed to (John 18:37); it is something which must be manifested in a life of love (1 John 3:19); it is something which liberates (John 8:32); and it is something which is the gift of the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus Christ (John 16:13-14).
Clearest of all is the phrase in John 3:21,
he who does what is true. That is to say, Christian truth is something
which must be done. It is not only the object of the search of the mind;
it is always moral truth issuing in action. It is not only something to
be studied but something to be done; not only something to which a man
must submit only his mind but something to which he must submit his
whole life.
James finishes his letter with one of the greatest and most uplifting
thoughts in the New Testament; and yet one which occurs more than once
in the Bible. Suppose a man goes wrong and strays away; and suppose a
fellow-Christian rescues him from the error of his ways and brings him
back to the right path. That man has not only saved his brother's soul,
he has covered a multitude of his own sins. In other words, to save
another's soul is the surest way to save one's own.
Mayor points out that Origen has a wonderful passage in one of
his Homilies in which he indicates these six ways in which a man may
gain forgiveness of his sins--by baptism, by martyrdom, by almsgiving (Luke 11:41), by the forgiveness of others (Matthew 6:14), by love (Luke 7:47),
and by converting a sinner from the evil of his ways. God will forgive
much to the man who has been the means of leading another brother back
to him.
This is a thought which shines forth every now and then from the
pages of Scripture. Jeremiah says, "If you utter what is precious, and
not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth" (Jeremiah 15:19).
Daniel writes: "And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness
of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the
stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:3).
The advice to the young Timothy is: "Take heed to yourself, and to your
teaching; for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers"
(1 Timothy 4:16).
There is a saying of the Jewish Fathers: "Whosoever makes a man
righteous, sin prevails not over him." Clement of Alexandria says that
the true Christian reckons that which benefits his neighbour his own
salvation. It is told that an ultra-evangelical lady once asked
Wilberforce, the liberator of the slaves, if his soul was saved.
"Madame," he answered, "I have been so busy trying to save the souls of
others that I have had no time to think of my own." It has been said
that those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it
from themselves; and certainly those who bring the lives of others to
God cannot keep God out of their own. The highest honour God can give is
bestowed upon him who leads another to God; for the man who does that
does nothing less than share in the work of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of
men.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)
FURTHER READING
James
E. C. Blackman, The Epistle of St. James (Tch; E)
J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (MmC G)
C. L. Mitton, The Epistle of St. James
J. Moffatt, The General Epistles: James, Peter and Jude (MC E)
J. H. Ropes, St. James (ICC G)
Abbreviations
ICC: International Critical Commentary
MC: Moffatt Commentary
MmC: Macmillan Commentary
Tch: Torch Commentary
E: English Text
G: Greek Text
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)