5:7-12 Prepare for the final Christmas
Mike Flynn (Vicar)
This, our final blog post for 2020 is a longer study than usual becuase the passage is an important one in the contemporary church especially on the topic of healing.
Endurance
- As James finishes his letter he returns to the themes he opened with – how to endure, suffering and prayer. He gives us the encouragement of examples of endurance (the prophets in verse 10 and Job in verse 11) and warns that our sins of the tongue can undermine our ability to endure (9 & 12). He then returns to the theme of prayer (13-20) to show how we as the church are to sing and pray together as we deal with our individual and corporate trials.
- Q: In verses 7 and 8 James describes the Christian life as a process of growth. What seasons of preparation and growth have you been through? What part did suffering play in that growth?
- Q: James asks us to be patient for the Lord’s coming to complete his work in us (7,8, 9), patient with growth in ourselves (7, 8) and patient with God’s work in others (9). How do the sins of the tongue (9) undermine our patience with God’s work in these areas?
The final Christmas
- James assumes that the Christians he wrote to were well aware of the promise of Christ to return to this earth to renew the creation (2 Pet 3:12-13) and bring about the judgement. (Mt 24:3, 27). His second coming will be vivid and obvious to all – leaving no room for false messianic claims. The time it will occur is unknowable – leaving no room for false prophecies about the end times (Matthew 24:36ff). It will separate the people of God from others (Matthew 24:8ff, 1 Corinthians 15:23, 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 2 Thessalonians 2:1) who will be transformed to be like him (1 Thessalonians 3:13; 5:23). We expect others to mock this hope (2 Peter 3:3-4), but this hope is a call to endure (James 5:8; Revelation 13:10) and to prepare for Christ’s return by learning how to be holy (1 Jn 2:28).
- Q: How does an expectation of the second coming of Christ affect your prayers and daily life?
Happiness
- In verse 11 James says the prophets and Job are counted blessed (literally: ‘Happy’) because they endured. This reflects the way the ancient world assessed the value of our lives – they did not declare a life happy until it was over. The reason is that someone may have been born into difficult circumstances or suffered set-backs in their life but the key question was whether a man or woman was constant as they faced their troubles and joys. In other words, did they maintain their integrity, values, purpose or calling and faith? If they did, in spite of what ever happened to them, then their lives were held up as an example for younger people to learn from. There is wisdom in this; our version of assessing happiness depends upon our success – which, in many cases turns out to be a cruel standard, as often things outside of ourselves determine whether we succeed or not. We are also prone to letting the modern idea of happiness undermine our values, integrity, purpose, faith or calling by setting happiness above our other human commitments.
- Q: Thomas Jefferson, in the American Declaration of Independence made it a modern right for human beings to pursue especially economic happiness. How do you assess your happiness?
- Q: Thinking about the hardships of the prophets and Job – how does our understanding of blessing (happiness) compare with James’?
- Are you happy?
- There is another sin of the tongue that can undermine our pursuit of happiness – the use of false oaths (12). In James’ day oaths had become a means of clever lying and often, in times of trial, we are tempted to do deals with God and make oaths to get us through. James’ point here is don’t even play the game. That is false religion and could get us into trouble (Matthew 5:33-37; 23:16-22; Ecclesiastes 5:4)
Prayer, healing and reconciliation
5:13-20
- James concludes with encouragements to prayer that have been often misunderstood. Here are two ways this passage has been misapplied:
- Traditional ideas – over the centuries as the rites of extreme unction (last rites or anointing of those who are dying) and confession (private confession to a Priest) developed in the Roman Catholic church, these verses became the Biblical justification for maintaining these practises as sacraments.
- Contemporary ideas – in some Pentecostal theology the prayer of faith was claimed to always be effective to heal the sick person otherwise there is something wrong with someone’s faith (the ill or the elders) or there is hidden sin in the ill person that needs first to be confessed. Likewise, confession became a form of spiritualised therapy whereby divulging our quietest secrets to another (or even a whole congregation!) would bring psychic and spiritual health.
- Some things to observe:
- In Verse 15 the sick person is very unwell – the elders of the church need to travel to him/her to pray but they pray for healing not for a peaceful death.
- James uses phrases like: ‘raise them up’ or ‘be forgiven’ which implies he is not only thinking of immediate healing but also of the permanent long term healing of the resurrection.
- As is the style of wisdom literature, this passage on healing is set in contrast to a passage on enduring suffering (7-12) – it would be odd to claim that Job and the prophets suffered because they did not have faith, when James is using their endurance through suffering as an example of faith.
- In the passage it is a group of elders who pray, not individual Priests. James has been very concerned about relationships within the church. Favouritism, care of the poor, reconciliation and forgiveness matter. In this passage he encourages us to confess to the people we have sinned against about the particular wrongs we have done to them in order to restore relationships so that right lives can grow in the church. (3:13-18)
- Q: Do you know of examples where the misuse of these passages caused harm? (3:1)
- Q: What would it take to confess a wrong to a person we’d harmed?
- Q: How can our church develop its ministry of prayer for each other?
- Q: Why are verses 19 & 20 the final act of caring love that James wants us to do?
- Spend time in prayer for each other, ask for the wisdom from above for each other to endure the trials we are undergoing, confess the wrongs you have done to those you did them to, pray for healing for those in need, pray for those who are wandered from trust in Christ and discuss ways to approach them that may help them turn back to truth. Finally, sing together in praise of a God who has given us so much of himself in this world and even more for the world to come.
Amen.
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