James 5 - Prevailing Prayer
By Bro David Petersen
The Book of James
Introduction |
Chapter 1 |
Chapter 2 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 5
5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
There is nothing wrong with having wealth. It is how that wealth affects its holders and how they use it that counts. Many great men of the Old Testament were wealthy such as Abraham and David. Wealth should be used for the glory of God and not for selfish purposes.
The rich fool said to his soul "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
But God said unto him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Luke 12:19-20.
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. You can't take it with you. I have never seen a hearse pulling a U-haul trailer.
The Greek for word for corrupted in verse 2 means unusable or rotten. When food for example, becomes rotten it is unusable. Cankered is related to the word cancer. The idea is a gradual erosion that destroys.
Not only is all this wealth not going to do you any good; it is also going to destroy you.
The term 'last days' refers to the church age, that is the time from when Jesus ascended into heaven until the time he returns. If you look at God's redemptive calendar, the return of Christ is the next big event on it.
It is a waste of effort to hoarde wealth in the last days, since it will not do you any good. We can save for our retirements, but we should not be trusting in our riches. We should be trusting in God. The things that we have we hold onto loosely. Trials and tribulations came come along and take everything away like what happened to Job.
5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
5:6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
In Bible times most harvesters were day laborers who lived from day to day. Not much has changed since then. There are still day laborers and most of them have trouble getting ahead financially.
The Law required prompt payment of wages to laborers (Lev 19:13, Deut 24:14). The New Testament also teaches proper treatment of employees (Luke 10:7, I Tim 5:18).
Two things were crying out to the Lord. First was the hire of the laborers; and there there was the cries of the laborers themselves.
Even if nobody else sees our sin, God still sees it. When Cain murdered his brother Abel, the Lord said to Cain "
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." Gen 4:10.
Blood doesn't literally cry out to God any more than unpaid wages do. This is a literary construct that the Bible uses to show that nothing gets past God. All sin known or unknown will be punished.
Jesus said "For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad" (Luke 8:17).
The word sabaoth is the Greek form of the Hebrew word 'hosts.' The term Lord of Hosts is a reference to the omnipotent, sovereign ruler of all living creatures in heaven and on earth.
Wanton means life lived in excess or extravagant living. Today people call it 'living large'. Wantoness creates a desire for more and more. This goes beyond keeping up with the Joneses. The wanton person becomes dissatisfied with what they have and coninually wants more intense pleasure. This drives them deeper and deeper into sin. It brings them to the point where they will even exploit the poor and cheat them out of their wages to support their own luxurious lifestyles.
The rich often have an advantage in the legal system. They can have influence with judges and officals and can even use the judicial system to take advantage of poor people.
5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
5:9 Grudge <don't grumble> not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Verses 7 through 9 are meant to be an encouragement to those who were abused and a warning to those who were abusing.
A farmer cannot accelerate the cycle of planting and harvesting. In the same way we cannot accelerate the Lord's return. We need to have patience. We don't know when the Lord is coming, but we know that he is coming. The Lord's coming is even more sure than the farmer's harvest.
The Lord will set everything right when he comes. We should trust in the Lord to bring justice with him and not take matters into our own hands by vigorously pursuing our own rights. We don't have to try so hard to get back at people who take advantage of us. We don't have to sharply insist on our rights.
Paul criticized the Corinthian church for dragging each other into court:
"But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren." 1 Cor 6:6-8.
We should be able to patiently take a little abuse knowing that God will set things right both in this life and in the life to come. When it says the he is "standing at the door" it shows that he will not delay his coming.
The word grudge means to grumble or complain or to find fault. Complaining seems to be at epidemic proportions today. I don't seem to remember the general level of dissatisfaction in the past that runs through society today. Complaining is hazardous to your spiritual well-being. Complaining will make you bitter. Have you ever seen elderly people who frequently compain to themselves out loud when no one else is listening. That's how you end up. Complaining is a sin because it is rebellion against what God has dealt us. As Christians we should see God in our lives working all things together for our good and look for what he expects us to learn from our situation.
That doesn't mean that we can't work to improve our situation. But if we are constantly complaining we are going to miss out on a lot of blessings. It's much more satisfying to be content.
Paul said "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Phil 4:11.
So "godliness with contentment is great gain". I Tim 6:6. Contentment is a Christian skill that is very valuable.
James then encourages his readers by using the Old Testament prophets as examples of keeping a faithful testimony despite the afflictions they endured.
5:10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
The prophets were often persecuted by those to whom they were sent to minister. And generally they endured their suffering with great faithfulness.
5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
James then cites the specific example of o Job. The word patience in verse 11 is not the same Greek word as in verse 10. The word in verse 10 means "forbearance" and carries the idea of acceptance. The term in verse 11 conveys the idea of courageous endurance. The patience of Job is not a passive endurance of whatever happens, but is an unshakable endurance based on faith in the omnipotent God.
5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
The more frequent oath taking becomes, the easier it becomes to not fulfill those oaths. The best guarantee of any statement is the character of the person who made the statement, not an oath. If we live a righteous life in front of people, they will not expect an oath frorm us to validate our word.
5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
If a person is sick it does not necessarily mean that it is because of some sin that they committed. However, when Christian brothers and sisters fight among each other and are constantly complaining against each other, it can literally make them sick. Anointing oil refers to a time when miraculous gifts were still in operation among the early churches before the completion of the Bible.This gift along with other miraculous gifts is no longer in effect. But we should still pray for the sick. We use means today such as doctors and medicines and the anointing oil could be compared to these means.
5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The context of the confession of faults to one another here is in connection with personal wrongs committed against fellow believers. We are to pray for those who "despitefully use" us. Luke 6:28. I know that the Christian walk is not so much about feelings. It is more about faith, trusting in the promises of God, the fruit of the Spirit and obeying his commands. But we are creatures of feeling and if you pray for those who despitefully use you, you will feel pretty good. It is empowering.
In fact James says the the fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Fervent prayer does not mean begging. Fervent prayer is made with the understanding that God is sovereign and will answer us according to his vastly superior wisdom. A righteous man is one who has been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ and who demonstrates that righteousness that comes from God by living a righteous life. A believer who refuses to live righteously will not be able to pray effectively.
5:17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James cites Elijah as an example of effective prayer. Elijah had a sinful fleshly nature like all of us and was subject to temptation as we are. However, his prayers got results were effective: it rained not and then it rained.
5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
The context of the last part of this chapter is the proper relationships between believers. Verses 19 and 20 refer to the restoration of backsliders. Backsliders do not lose their salvation. For more on this topic see our lesson on Assurance.
To "err from the truth" means to exit the path that one should follow. Notice that verse 19 is addressed to brethren, not unbelievers. You need to be on the path in the first place before you can depart from it. The word convert does not mean to convert to Christianity in this context. It means "to turn about". Peter was already saved when the Lord told him that he needed to "be converted" (Luke 22:32).
The Book of James
Introduction |
Chapter 1 |
Chapter 2 |
Chapter 3 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 5