James Explained | A How-to-Guide to Christian MaturitySample

Day 5 | James 5

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Back again with James 5 on Through the Word. How many times have you heard a pastor or speaker say in conclusion or finally but they just kept ongoing? One pastor I know would usually say in conclusion at least four times before he would actually get to his final point! Today in James we have the grab bag section. It's like James knows he's about to wrap up the letter, but keeps thinking of one more thing to share on how to be a mature Christian. Today we are going to look at what James has to say about power, patience, and prayer.

Now James is not afraid to hit hard when he needs to. He's about to drop an elbow on the rich who are using their wealth to keep others beneath them. Look at verse 1:

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days” (James 5:1-3).

Now being Jesus' little brother, James paid attention to big brother's teachings. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus said:

“Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal” Matthew 6:19.

And we know this to be true. I’m recording this on the same day that we just found out somebody broke into our car and stole a bunch of presents for my son’s birthday.

Now James comes out against the rich of his day. He warned them, Dudes, you haven't been paying attention to Jesus! Everything you have is getting stolen or eaten or rusting away. And then James just starts laying out charges against the wealthy. Verse 4:

“Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you” (James 5:4-6).

So they were just scamming the people that worked for him. They live lives of indulgence and they bribed judges. Not really Christlike. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently evil with wealth. Abraham and David were both wealthy men, and God used them mightily. But what the Bible does speak against is the improper gain of wealth. The wealthy people that James was speaking to were violating the law of God. When it came to their dishonest lives, they were treating the little man as if he were just a stepping stone to use to get rich.

Now, after ripping into the rich, James moves on to share about patience. Verse 7:

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:7-9).

How many of you have a garden that you take care of? And you don't have to raise your hands, I can't see them! But if you do have a garden, you know how much time it takes for your plants to grow. Sure, you can run down to the local nursery and buy some plants, but it's just not the same as growing them yourselves. Every day I used to walk out to my vegetable garden and check out my plants. I would get anxious for my peppers or onions or tomatoes to grow, but they never grew fast enough. The worst time is when I see that one of the plants is close to being harvested. That's when I needed the most patience, waiting for that final day or two before I could make some pico de gallo. When you know that something good is about to happen, you can undergo greater difficulty, because you know that soon all the agony will pay off.

Athletes train on crazy schedules for the chance to win a medal. Students study and cram before the finals, knowing that a degree is coming soon. And it should be the same for Christians. We need to look forward to the future. Christ is coming back soon. What does it matter if we're persecuted? Soon we will hear, "Well done my good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:23). What does it matter that we are in great physical pain? Soon we will be healed and in a place with no pain or suffering. And James reminds us of Job.

Job was a man of God who was extremely wealthy. He would have been on Cribs, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and had his own show on HDTV. He was a great father to 10 kids and had more stocks—well, livestock—than anyone around. But then he lost everything. His livestock was stolen. His kids died. He suffered from what many people believed to be smallpox. Health and wealth, gone. And yet he responds by saying, "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). So be patient in all things, whether God is taking you through a wilderness or you are being persecuted, or even if you have to deal with jury duty.

James then moves on to our final topic, and it's a powerful one to close with. Prayer. Reading through this passage it sounds like James wants us to be continually praying for everything. I mean look at it. Are you sick? You should pray. Happy? Keep praying. Have you been sinning? Pray. Living a godly life? Keep praying. James believed in the power of prayer. He actually had the nickname camel-knees because he prayed so much on his knees that he developed huge, nasty calluses. As an example of the power of prayer, James points us to Elijah.

Elijah prayed and it stopped raining for three and a half years. He prayed again and it started to rain. He would pray and people were healed, and women received back their children who had died, and yet James tells us that Elijah was just a man. There was nothing special about him. He had the same nature, the same sufferings, the same doubts we all face. But he prayed, and when he prayed mighty things happened.

Now earlier I had brought up those pastors that say finally but don't really mean it. Well, I said we were on that final topic but really there's just one more.

James closes out this chapter and his book with an encouragement for believers to go out and bring restoration to our brothers and sisters who have wandered from the faith. Verse 19:

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

Wandering away from God is very dangerous. But often we fail to see the danger because the slide is slow and gradual. We give in to some small sin, which causes us to slip away a bit. It then becomes easier to fall into a greater sin because the closeness we had with God is lessened. Soon our slide away from God is so great that we find ourselves lost. What should we do when we see our brothers and sisters wandering from God? The same thing I'm doing right now. Call them back to the Lord. Perhaps you have been sliding away from God, giving in to sin so gradually that at first, you didn’t feel there was any problem with your relationship with God. But now God feels distant, and you can't remember the last time you heard from him. Well, remember he's not the one who left. You are the one who left. He will always be there. Return to God. Seek His face. Obey his word. Find in him your place of refuge.

That’s it for James, a how-to guide for Christian maturity.

Read James 5

All verses are quoted from the NIV unless otherwise noted.