Awaiting the Return of the King | James 5:7-11
Introduction
Quick riddle for you: What can fly and can creep, be measured, wasted, or even killed, but never truly controlled. Answer: time. Time is a funny thing, isn’t it? Time—maybe the most ruthlessly consistent thing in all of the created order. No matter what we do, no matter what happens, time just keeps ticking by in its ordered rhythm.
Just this past Thursday, the free world remembered and commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day. June 6, 1944 was 80 years ago. That Day of Days, which changed the fate of the world—which veterans will say was the longest day of their lives—only lasted 24 hours, like every other day. Like this day. The last of the veterans that were there on that day are in their late 90s or over 100 years old. In just a few short years, the last WWII veteran will pass away, and all we will be left with is their legend and history of their heroism. Time is relentless.
And yet, in its incredible and inevitable consistency, we can experience that time so differently. I mean, 2020 felt like it was the longest year ever. But can you believe that the COVID-19 lockdowns were over 4 years ago?
Time can feel like it creeps by. Like when it’s 2am and the baby is crying and won’t go back to sleep, and you’re just waiting for the sun to rise…and then you blink and that same baby is 6 and reading in bed at night. Time is a funny thing.
Time really does fly by when you’re having fun, but to the sufferer, time feels as though it has stopped. And it is that existential reality that James is hitting on here in chapter 5. Throughout the letter, from the very beginning, James’ intention is to encourage the dispersed believers scattered throughout the Roman empire to count all their suffering as joy—a very hard thing to do when you’re suffering. When you’re in the midst of terrible circumstances, time just seems to stand still. It just seems to drag on and on and on.
And strangely, the opposite is true as well. Anyone that has experienced a significant loss or tragedy has experienced the harsh reality that even though time feels like it has stood still for you, life cruelly just seems to keep rolling on without you. You’d wish everyone would just stop and pay attention, but such is the relentlessness of time.
So it is in the midst of the various trials and circumstances in life, we need something to cling to, to stabilize us, to produce in us a peace that is a prerequisite to joy. And it is here in this text, we are given such a vision. So let us look now to the riches we have laid out for us in the text.
James is approaching the end of his letter. And it is at the close that we are beginning to hear a barrage of commands. That’s normal. Like my mom warning us as we left the house to “watch out for deer!”, she just wants to make sure we remember all the things that need to be remembered. James is not machine gunning commands in an effort to bury or control the audience, but as an expression of his care and love to remind us of what is worth remembering.
And notice, after a brief rebuke to the wicked rich out there, his attention has returned to the “brothers”—we see that right away in verse 7. That familial address informs us that he is talking to Christians—he is talking to you and to me.
And after describing and dressing down the wicked wealthy in the preceding section, he turns now again to the suffering saints to inform them of how to live. If the wicked are as he described in 5:1–6, what are we to do instead? Or to put it another way: in comparison with the wicked man, what does the righteous man look like?
You remember last week, Pastor Ryan mentioned that James was using rhetorical devices, tones, and imagery that were meant to evoke the voice of the prophets of old. And that’s right. And he is continuing that same tone here. After heralding an oracle of judgment on the unbelieving, he now turns to the people of God to encourage them to endure well.
And I believe that in the command and encouragement James gives here in 5:7–11, we can discern a description of a man. If 5:1–6 described the wicked, v. 7–11 describe the righteous. Like the psalmist in Psalm 1 who says, “and this is the blessed man”, “this is what he is like,” James is set to describe a Christian living in the midst of a pagan, idolatrous, corrupt, and wicked society, awaiting to see how and if God will act. We would do well to listen. And I believe there are 2 key characteristics we are given in this passage.
The righteous man is patient.
Right away, we see James’ command in v. 7.
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord
—James 5:7
To understand that command, we must understand the context indicated by the word “therefore”. Apparently, the dispersed Christians were being persecuted primarily through economic abuses. The rich business owners wouldn’t hire people with such beliefs, or there was an embargo on Christian businesses…whatever it was, the wicked rich were putting pressure on the churches throughout the world. And when we are suffering from anything, we are prone to impatience or despair. So after rebuking and condemning the real wickedness of those around them—he is not downplaying the suffering or wickedness at all!—he is quick to warn the sufferers not to take matters into their own hands.
The call to patience is also not a command to just grin and bear it. This is not a call to passivity. Rather, the patience James is commanding is an active disposition that must be undertaken by faith. Look at Psalm 73. After describing a similar situation where the wicked seem to get away with everything and the innocent suffer continuously, the psalmist ends with this…
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
—Psalm 73:23–28
Notice the leaning forward, the proactive trust that is exhibited by the sufferer. “It is good for me to be near God; I HAVE MADE the Lord my refuge.”
To help illustrate this, James gives us a metaphor for us to imitate. Be like the farmer. Be patient like the farmer. Now, even here in the great metropolis of Sioux Falls, we can understand and relate to this metaphor. Everyone knows that the two busiest times of year for the farmer are planting in the spring and harvest in the fall. Yes, those are busy and yes those are pivotal moments, make or break moments for the year.
But if you know a farmer, you know that what he doesn’t do during the time between planting and harvest is sit around and just wait. Far from it! He is active doing a million different things: watering and irrigation, weed control, pest control, fertilizing, monitoring, thinning and pruning, soil maintenance, field maintenance, equipment maintenance…and millions of other things. But, the farmer also knows that, while these things are vital and necessary, no matter what he does, he can not make the crops grow faster, can not make the crops grow healthier, can not do anything but remain patient, waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Regardless of the incredible technology of man, regardless of all our preparations and actions, the farmer knows more acutely than most that all that he has comes from the hand of God. It is he and he alone that sends the rain, but not too much rain! It is he and he alone that gives the heat, but not too much heat! That man is and must be a patient man.
Think about this…imagine if we were to ask someone close to you—a parent, a spouse, a coworker, a close friend—if they would describe you as a patient person. What do you think they would say? Yes? No? Sometimes? Depends….?
For me, just that thought alone is convicting. If you were to ask my wife or my kids, I can’t imagine they would say, “Oh ya. He’s tremendously patient!” I think almost everyday I am reminded of how quickly I am prone to impatience, frustration, or anger. And then I get impatient, frustrated, and angry with how quickly I become impatient, frustrated, and angry—it’s a vicious cycle! And what are the main sources of my impatience? Likely I feel disrespected by my kids, or I can’t find my keys because someone stole them, or I feel like someone is intentionally misunderstanding me…really, I feel as though some injustice is being done to me, so I respond with the fruit of impatience.
Maybe you can relate. Apparently, James’ Christian audience could relate, because they were actually experiencing real injustice and wickedness, not the offended ego that I experience and then respond sinfully.
James also gives them the ways to righteously exhibit this patience—namely, establish their hearts and not to grumble against one another. That establish word, it means to cause to be inwardly firm or committed, to strengthen and to make ready. It means to have your wits about you and to not be tossed to and fro with the waves of this world and the various circumstances we face. Be present, anchored, resolute.
And the second way to exhibit this patience is through refraining from grumbling against one another. Borrowing off the theme from chapter 4, he reminds us here that when we grumble against one another, we assume a position we do not and can not hold—that of the judge. In the midst of the wicked triumphing over us, our temptation is impatience. Why doesn’t God just do something now! They’re going to get away with it and since he’s not doing something, I will do something. Countless stories from the Bible tell us how well that goes when we are impatient with the judgment of God and take matters into our own hands…
But critical to this patience is the goal that James calls us to. What is the north star that can give bearing to the suffering people of God? James names it as “the coming of the Lord.”
The Greek word used here for the “coming” of the Lord is the important word parusia. That word is used 24 times in the NT by a variety of authors: Matthew, Paul, Peter, and here in James. And this word is not the normal word that is used for coming and going and arriving and so forth. This word has a very particular use in the NT. In every instance that this word is used, all 24 times, it is used in the context of the last days, the end of days, the coming of the Lord, the return of the King.
It means “to be alongside of”, “to be in the presence of”. It means to be in the physical presence of the King who is right now ruling and reigning. It means the glorious bodily return of Christ when he comes to put everything right, to make all things new, and to come to judge the living and the dead. This is the great hope that the gospel of Jesus secured…the bodily resurrection of all people unto eternal life or death. On that great day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess. On that day there will be no more haughty and gloating wicked. On that day, their riches and possessions will fade like the flowers of the field, and each of us will stand before him and be judged.
So be patient, James says. That day is coming. Make yourselves ready. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 3…
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
—1 Thessalonians 3:11–13
Now, those believers likely would have heard that call for patience and to hold fast because they assumed that the parusia, the coming of the Lord, could be at any moment. It’s easier to remain patient and bear it if you think it’s almost over. But here we are…some 2,000 years later…and we’re still waiting. What gives?
Clearly, the harvest has not yet come. Clearly, there is more to be done, more of the mission to complete. The leaven has not fully worked through the loaf yet. There are still more lost sheep to be brought into the fold. And so we wait. But we don’t wait with baited-breath, wondering and fearing what the outcome might be. It’s not like the waiting that we might experience when awaiting a medical diagnosis or a loved one to come out of surgery…as though we don’t know and it could go either way. No. Notice what it is we await—the coming of the LORD. He is the Lord right now. He is the King. It is not that we are waiting to find out who that king is…we know who he is! Remember that incredible word in Psalm 110…
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
—Psalm 110:1
The King of Kings, our Lord Jesus Christ, has been seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and is right now putting all the enemies of God under his feet—including the wicked rich mentioned by James 5. The identity and the authority and the majesty of the king is not in question. The only remaining question now is will you bow to him now? How will you be found on that last day?
And so, my friends, remain hopeful and be patient. But how else does James describe the righteous man…
The righteous man is enduring.
Endurance has been a running theme throughout James’ letter. It began all the way back in chapter 1 when he instructs us to count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds BECAUSE it produces steadfastness. The NIV translates that word as perseverance. Steadfastness, perseverance, and endurance are all similar in that they are patience under duress. It’s steadiness, firmness, faithfulness under pressure and over the long haul. But when we’re suffering, it is incredibly difficult to stay patient.
James calls the dispersed and suffering Christians to recall and to remember all those who have gone before them who have suffered and even died in the midst of their suffering. He points them to the prophets who boldly, clearly, directly, sometimes offensively spoke against the sins of their culture. He doesn’t specify which prophet he has in mind, but I believe the ambiguity is the point. Remember all of them! The very role of the OT prophet was only necessary because the nation had grown deaf to the word and law of God. And these were supposed to be the people of God! And prophet after prophet was commanded by God to preach the word to the nation of Israel, and prophet after prophet was persecuted. It seems that doing God’s will often leads to suffering.
Remember Stephen in Acts 7—the very first Christian martyr? In the midst of growing persecution and rising hostility from the Pharisees and Jews, Stephen rises and gives that incredible speech. Listen to how he ends it…
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
—Acts 7:51–53
It was that condemnation and that judgment that was the final straw for the audience. They then rose up and stoned him. This is what is to be expected when the word of the Lord is faithfully preached in a wicked and hostile culture. And that was the model of the prophets of old, of the early church martyrs who James would soon be, and has been the case throughout the history of the church. Even now, in the midst of our current utterly confused culture, seen clearly during this wicked celebration of sin in the month of June, we are called to be faithful witnesses to the truth. And yet, we are called to patiently endure.
R. Kent Hughes comments on the second half of this passage well when he says…
But it wasn’t just Christ’s promise that made those believers ache for the Second Coming—it was the difficulties of life.
—R. Kent Hughes
Life was hard. Life is hard. Life is difficult. And it is in our suffering that we tend to become incredibly tempted toward impatience. We want it to be over. We want it to be done. When will we finally catch a break? When will those who are persecuting me get what’s coming to them? When will it get easier? When will God act?
But it’s not just persecution that James has in mind here. He gives a second potent example of those who have remained steadfast under trial—the remarkable story of Job’s suffering.
Clearly, given these 2 examples—the prophets and now Job—James is assuming a very Jewish audience. They would have known those stories well. Imagine if this letter had been written to the gentiles in Galatia…they would have had no idea who these examples were. And yet, James points them to that great story of Job as an example of someone who gets the worst of all that evil has to offer.
You recall that story—Job, under the total sovereignty of God, is set upon by Satan. He is pummeled by everything from natural evils leading to loss—a tornado whips out the house killing all his children—to moral evil from wicked people leading to financial loss—raids from warring tribes that whip out his flocks. And then, if that wasn’t enough, he himself is ridden with boils and disease. Job goes through it…and if you know the rest of the book, Job is an interesting choice as a model in suffering. Surrounded by unhelpful friends, eventually Job loses patience with God and complains bitterly to God for his treatment of him. Something we might be tempted too as well.
But crucially, although Job suffered and complained bitterly, his petition was always Godward. He petitioned the only one who could hear him and the only one who was in control. William Barclay summarizes this well…
Job’s is no groveling, passive, unquestioning submission; Job struggled and questioned, and sometimes even defied, but the flame of faith was never extinguished in his heart.
—William Barclay
The flame of faith…Faith in what? Look again in James 5:11…
You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
—James 5:11
Patient endurance is only possible by putting our faith not in our own strength, but in the purposes of the Lord. The sovereignty of God is the balm and hope for suffering souls. Calvin sums up what this great phrase means when he says…
By these words he intimates that afflictions ought ever to be estimated by their end. For at first God seems to be far away, and Satan in the meantime revels in the confusion; the flesh suggests to us that we are forsaken of God and lost. We ought, then, to extend our view farther, for near and around us there appears no light. Moreover, he has called it the [purposes] of the Lord, because it is his work to give a prosperous [outcome] to adversities. If we do our duty in bearing evils obediently, he will by no means be wanting in performing his part. Hope directs us only to the end; God will then shew himself very merciful, however rigid and severe he may seem to be while afflicting us.
—John Calvin
What Job needed in his suffering, what we need in our suffering, is to see the purposes of God. What we need are the promises of God—what he has revealed of who he is and what he has done for us and what he will do for us. To view what we experience in isolation from their purposes is to be tempted toward impatience and bitterness and idolatry. But to view our suffering in light of God and his eternal, good, and glorious purposes and promises, we find hope.
But how can we see these purposes? How can the man seeking to be righteous secure this assurance and hope that leads to patience and endurance? What has God done and what has he promised to do?
The righteous man is Christ.
Notice again verse 11, and at the very end of this passage how the Lord is described…
You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
—James 5:11
Remember James’ Jewish audience. That description would have been immediately triggered in their mind the covenantal name of God. Remember Exodus 34…
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
—Exodus 34:6–7
This is the personal, relational, loving, and utterly just and holy name of God as he identified with his people at Mt. Sinai. That same God, who has always kept his word, who is working, right now, all things according to his purposes, is also working all things for your good. And the chief thing that he has done—his supreme act of compassion and mercy—was in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the very King over all, who laid down his life to save yours.
It is in union with him and in him alone that patience is possible. We can be patient in our suffering because God the Father has been patient with us in Christ. He has dealt with our rebellion, and it is because of that miraculous work of Christ that we receive his Spirit. Patience is a supernatural fruit of the Spirit. Supernatural…I can not produce the patience James is commanding apart from the miraculous work of the Spirit, which is my only because of Christ and his work. And I can only endure—patience over the long haul—because of Christ and his enduring of the cross.
Look at how Paul describes this union with Christ in 2 Timothy 2…
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
—2 Timothy 2:8–13
Because of Christ’s righteousness, you are righteous. Because of all that Christ patiently endured, you too can patiently endure. Whatever you’re facing right now, whatever trials, hardships, frustrations, you can face them, endure them, be patient in them because, above all, you belong by faith to the righteous King who has walked that path before you and who has promised to walk through it with you. Remember that great comforting passage in Psalm 23…
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
—Psalm 23:4
At the cross, he really did crush the head of the serpent. He has secured the victory. If God is for us, who can be against us? It is only in Christ that to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
So, my friends, take heart. The resurrection really did change everything. It allows you and me to patiently endure all that this world has to offer. Because our King is not dead, he lives, and he reigns, and is working all things, including our suffering and the wickedness of our surroundings, for our good and for his glory, and he will come again in majesty and power and justice to put everything right, as he promised.
Samuel Medley describes this well in his 19th century hymn…
I know that my Redeemer lives
Glory, Hallelujah!
What comfort this sweet sentence gives
Glory, Hallelujah!
Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground
Glory Hallelujah!
The dead’s alive, and the lost is found
Glory Hallelujah!
—Samuel Medley