oasisCHURCH

A Hazy History Begins to Clear

For many long years I despised the church…meaning that I detested the “institution” of the church. My problem wasn’t the people who gathered. My problem wasn’t the Bible. My problem wasn’t God or Jesus. My problem wasn’t baptism or communion. My only puzzlement was the eldership, largely because I didn’t really know what it was or how it functioned beyond communion and tithing duties. Yet I wouldn’t even truly say that this was a legitimate problem in my own mind. The irony of all that is this: If my problem was not in any of these fundamental aspects of God’s gathered people (the church local) then what was really my problem? One thing I know for sure now is that my problem really had nothing to do with the church. But for a long time I didn’t really know what else to call it. There were, and are, many conceptualizations about church that have nothing to do with the church local. The reason I say “the church local” or “local church” is because I realize now that so much of my animosity was placed there. But what is the “church local”. 

John Piper has a good definition of the local church: “A local church is a group of baptized believers who meet regularly to worship God through Jesus Christ, to be exhorted from the word of God, and to celebrate the Lord’s supper under the guidance of duly appointed leaders.” I feel that this definition is very biblically grounded, God-centered, and Christ exalting. I can, however, see how someone might look at Piper’s definition and say, “There are many parts of his definition that I can’t agree with.” Let’s imagine a few objections.

(1) Baptized Believers: I believe the objection to this part of the local church definition would probably go something like this: “So you’re saying that if I am a believer in Christ but not baptized then I’m not really a Christian and therefore not really part of the local church.” I’ve heard objections like this, or varying incarnations of it, hundreds of times. My response is always the same: If your faith is truly in Christ, why then would you not be baptized. Do you not know that Christ said that baptism was a righteous act and that it was necessary for any believer to seek to fulfill all that is righteous (see Matthew 3:13-17). Any “believer” who would say that baptism is not an essential, or important, part of a Christians faith, is someone that I would question. Baptism is not your salvation although that is what many churches teach. Faith in Christ is your salvation. However, I believe that baptism will be a natural part of your faith in Christ. If Christ said that baptism was righteous and that it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, why then would any Christian argue against the merit of baptism? 

(2) Meeting Regularly: So much emphasis has been placed on “attendance” in church culture that it almost seems that the validity of your faith in Christ is based upon how often your butt is in the pew. Chris Stewart spoke directly to this in a recent post when he said, “The problem with that line of thinking is that it puts ‘being at the church meeting’ at such an elevated proof or evidence of faith in Christ, when in fact there are many who attend church meetings faithfully yet have no faith.” Now, many people have taken this stance on church attendance to mean that attending a regular church gathering is not important. Chris is well aware that this line of thinking can be, and has been, perverted by people who refuse to hear the whole message of why church meetings are important. Church meetings are not important in the sense of mere attendance as evidence of faith (although it can be in part), yet attendance alone is not enough. I’ve heard many people say, “You don’t have to attend church to be a Christian.” While I would agree with that, only in part, I would also have this question to ask of the one asserting this claim, “If you are a Christian, why would you not desire to seek out a local gathering of believers in Christ and attend it with a level of regularity?” Does Hebrews 10:24-25 mean nothing to your life? Those verses say, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” 

Attending a church meeting on a regular basis can and will have an affect on your life if that “church” is truly a church. Does that supposed church worship God through the truth of Jesus Christ, are they exhorted from the word of God, do they endorse baptism as a valid part of any believers faith (be careful that they’re not teaching that baptism is what brings salvation into your life), do they honor the Lord’s supper in communion, and do they have a clearly identified structure of leadership? If the answer to each of these questions is yes, then you are attending a biblically based local church.

(3) Duly Appointed Leaders: Leadership structures in Christianity, like leadership structures in any area of society, can be made and conducted poorly. Therefore, many young and developing churches are not too hasty to develop them. This can be good and bad. It can mean that time and care is being taken to develop a solid foundation for leadership within the local church body. It can also mean that the development of leadership is being altogether avoided. Some people feel that rigid structuring of leadership leads to legalism within the church body. I would be lying to you if I said that this is not a danger. Such things usually happen when the leadership is not being developed with a firm God-centered, Christ exalting, biblically based mentality about their roles as elders or deacons etc. However, just because this danger exists doesn’t mean that we should simply avoid it. The Bible illustrates very clearly to us that leadership is an integral part of any healthy local church body. If leaders are not important why did Paul appoint elders to the churches at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Acts 14? Leadership was a natural and expected part of the early Christian church. Why should it not be the same for the modern Christian church? If leadership is not important, why then does Paul give us such lengthy descriptions of leadership qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1? If there were no purpose to these roles of leadership, why then does Paul tell us that Christ has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the purpose of building up the body of Christ and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? (see Ephesians 4:12) Leadership in the local church body isn’t just a good idea, it is necessary for the work of the ministry. The Bible supports this claim. Why would any Christian refuse to support it? 

Now that I’ve presented a definition of the local church and developed a few objections and responses to it, I want to close with some brief thoughts regarding why I have since come to love the local church.

I said earlier that my true disdain with “church” really lay within the institution of the local church. What I determined in those days was that I had no need of a local church body. I deemed that there was little to no point in corporate gatherings. My philosophy was that gathered groups of people under a system of governance will always tend to become puppets under an increasingly tyrannical system increasingly obsessed with power and status. The visual representation in mind was that of lab rats following the decrees of aged men (supposedly wise) because these dignitaries of the institution offered salvation in the form of release from Hell (the joy and glory of Christ never seemed to be a big push). Meanwhile, the dewans of the institution were busy picking the well lined pockets of the rats in the sanctuary trap. As you can tell, cynicism ran high in my character. While I still believe that there are many perversions of the local church body in the world, I no longer find myself in a haze of hatred regarding the beauty of a biblically defined local church.

I consider Oasis to be the local church body that I love and participate in. But more than that, I feel a very specific connection, a certain kind of belonging, to the local church body of Oasis in Meigs county. I have come to believe that being part of a local church body is essential for any believer. Can you worship God alone and in very small groups outside of the local church gathering? Of course you can. But you can also do that in a larger corporate setting. Why would any Christian not want to gather together as a local church body with many other like-minded Christians and give praise, glory, and honor to the Lord together? Can you study the word of God alone and be exhorted by it without the help of a pastor in a local church body? Of course you can. But why would you not want to gather with a local church body to hear the word, talk about the word, dig into the word as a community of believers, and strengthen one another through it? We should never meet together out of mere repetitious habit. We should meet together with a purpose. That purpose is this (another Piper quote): “The ultimate goal of the church is to live in such a way that God’s wisdom (and all the other aspects of his glory) will be displayed to the world and the hosts of heaven. The church’s job is to live so that people can see that God is real.” We do this in two ways. We do it as individuals in our everyday lives no matter where we are and we also do this as a gathered body in our local church. 

If a local church does nothing but gather together on appointed days and makes no attempt to make all aspects of God’s glory known to the community around them then they are displaying that they, as a gathered body, have no desire to spread the gospel together. What then is the point of gathering together? Is it just because we come together to make ourselves individually stronger so that we can be strong individuals for the purpose of God? If such was the case then it would mean that you see the benefits of the local church body as primarily serving the interests of the individual, not the purpose of God on a worldwide or even community based scale. The local church body isn’t just a filling station for the spiritually depleted yet that is how thousands of Christians treat it year in and year out. Such a local church body would be dead and in need of burial. 

What is our fruit as the local church body of Oasis in Meigs county? How are we making all aspects of God’s glory known to those within the body as well as those in the community that surrounds our local church body? These are important questions to answer. There are two things we must never do as Christians in relation to our understanding of the purpose of the individual believer and the local church body.

(1) We must never elevate the church meeting above the glory and purpose of God. This would lead to legalism. The presence of legalism often indicates the absence of the genuine local church body. 

(2) We must never elevate the importance of the individual to a place of arrogance that says that the individual has no use or purpose within or for the biblically defined local church body. 

It is proper to have a love for your local church body. It is proper to have a commitment to your local church body. While the local church body is not more important than God himself, the local church body is clearly part of God’s design for believers. Therefore we should not have a disdain for it. We should instead seek God’s wisdom on how to exist as the local church body for the purpose of revealing all aspects of His glory. I believe that God calls us to be strong as individuals, strong as the local church, and strong as the universal church (the collective whole number of the redeemed who look to Christ as their life and their sovereign authority). In order to do this we must first embrace a true love and passion for the commands that God has handed down to us through the Bible. We must learn to look to God as the all glorious creator of our lives (which we’ve been given to exalt him). God must be our strength, our sufficiency, our fulfillment, and our true joy. Once we have that, we can then begin to learn what it means to be a steadfast servant of the Lord. It is only then that we can begin to truly love and appreciate the universal and the local church body. I pray that all of us who call Oasis our church “home” would be filled with the clarity of God’s understanding for the design of the local church body. I pray that we, as a local body of God’s purpose in Meigs county, would seek to make all aspects of his glory known through the good works (the fruit) of faith. I pray that we would not be found guilty as a body of believers whose faith is dead. Father, help our actions, decisions, and words to be all satisfying and all glorifying to you. 

All-Stars Baseball vs. Church

This weekend begins a 4-week season of All-Stars Baseball for our 8 year-old son. Brock was actually selected to play on an All-Star team last year, but this year we have had more time to prepare and discuss all of the issues of being on a traveling all-star baseball team. The first and most obvious issue for a Christian family is the dilemma of every tournament being played on weekends. Typically the way an all-star tournament goes is like this: on Saturday all the teams play one another in a "round robin," and according to their records from those games they are seeded in a tournament, which is played on Sunday. The reason this can be a dilemma for Christian families is because tournament games are often played out of town, or could even be scheduled during the morning hours, the same time as most church worship gatherings.

I have chosen to title this article "All-Stars Baseball vs. Church" because it states the tension that so many Christian families have faced over the years of playing sports, taking vacations, going to band or cheer competitions, or any number of different community activities family members have been involved in. Traditionally, whenever anything caused us to consider missing a worship gathering or church meeting many families have been made to feel as though the event they were considering and the church meeting were two things that were against one another. Thus the title "All-Stars Baseball vs. Church." This brings up a very interesting conversation. One that I have been having for several weeks as this year's all-stars season has approached. There are a few other Christian families on Brock's team this year, and together we have been discussing this "dilemma," which has caused us to come up with some very creative ideas for how to help alleviate the felt tension among families who desire their children to be able to participate in other community activities while also honoring Christ and glorifying God in all they do. Here are some thoughts to consider.

Probably the most common answer to this dilemma is to simply state a hard line of right and wrong when it comes to church attendance. For instance, in my youth this question seemed to be a no-brainer: where a person was on Sunday morning was the ultimate test of their loyalty to Christ. Everyone who was truly committed to Christ was expected to be at church regardless, and would be considered a hero of the faith for making the choice to miss a baseball game in order to attend the church meeting.

The problem with that line of thinking is that it puts "being at the church meeting" at such an elevated proof or evidence of faith in Christ, when in fact there are many who attend church meetings faithfully yet have no faith. Therefore we must be careful of saying there is only one right answer to this so-called dilemma. To do so would be dangerously close to a legalistic view of church attendance, and could possibly lead someone down a similar path of the Pharisees, who praised such acts over true and living faith. As you have heard me say many times over the past 4 years, we are called to BE the church, and to live out our faith and glorify God wherever we happen to be, and in whatever we happen to be doing. I would rather see a person of active, living, daily faith in Christ miss a church meeting than see a person come to every meeting of the church but show no evidence of faith any other day of the week.

On the other side of this discussion is the fact that while it is important to live and be part of the world as believers in Christ, it is vitally important that we regularly gather with other believers in a community of faith for our strengthening, encouragement, and spiritual nourishment. To habitually neglect this at the expense of community activities or personal vacations is just as wrong.

As those of you who know me know, I am not interested in old legalism. I have missed church meetings here and there in order to attend games I am coaching or to be with my kids who are playing. But there is also something about the discipline of church attendance (actual participation in a family of faith—the kind of thing that gives Hebrews 10:24ff life!) that is vital. We believe that we’re forming a certain kind of person through such disciplines as this. And it is our hope that our children see our regular attendance at church meetings as not a ritual we keep, but a healthy part of the formation of our lives as believers in Christ.

Someone once attempted to quote me a couple years back and said they heard me say: “God doesn’t care whether or not you attend church.” I never recall saying exactly that, and I hope none of you have ever processed anything I have said in that way. The fact is, I do believe God is very interested in our commitment to be with other believers in a community of faith. What I do not believe is that He is keeping a record of church attendance, from which we will be rewarded as heroes of the faith.

I understand the frustration we have all experienced with old legalism. But we must also be just as careful to not say that this spiritual discipline, this matter of community, this place of being intentional about regularly worshiping and fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in the faith, does not matter. It most certainly does.

I know that April and I want to be sure that the message we are sending to our children is that God is a priority in ALL of our lives, whether Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or etc. Church meetings are obviously a priority because we have created a regular habit of attending. But more importantly, they know that God is a priority because we have created regular habits of honoring God in a variety of ways: at meal times, at bed times, while driving in the car, while going to school, while on the gymnastic floor, while on the baseball field, etc. and etc.

We are most certainly thinking about priorities, and we are also thinking about the larger understanding of spiritual formation. Our deepest hopes for our son and daughter have nothing to do with playing baseball, cheerleading, or even going to church. Our greatest hopes for our children is that they will develop genuine, living faith in Jesus Christ.

Just 15 years ago, the decision to “miss church” for a ballgame would have been a no-no for me. As I have continued growth in age and in the Lord, I have grown to see church through the lens of relationship—being a way of life, a people—rather than a meeting that happens once a week at a particular place or building. BEING the church means that we are the church—and not a time slot on Sunday morning—which means being the church could happen at the baseball game just as well.

IMPORTANT: do not hear me saying, “Everything is church,” because I am a firm believer in attending regular assemblies with a common Christ-community for worship, Bible teaching, and communion. But these kinds of activities in our lives that we often deem as “in conflict” with church, I believe actually provide us opportunities to teach a deeper lesson about the essence of “church.”

This Sunday morning before I come down to our Oasis worship gathering I will be hosting an All-Star team worship gathering/Bible-study/prayer meeting at the shelter house in the park in Athens at 7:45am. Then, the team will play a game at 9:00am, which I will attend for the first hour. Then I will leave the rest of the game to my assistant coaches and drive down to be with my Oasis family and preach from James chapter 1. After that gathering I will go back to Athens and be with the team for the remainder of the tournament.

Choosing to be involved with the All-Star team the way we are (as a coach and having our son play) has provided us with some wonderful conversations with other brothers and sisters in Christ (who also have kids on the team) regarding church and faith in Christ, and it has even given me the opportunity to answer questions from some who are not yet believers in Christ. I am looking forward to how the next 4 weeks may in fact provide our family with an opportunity to be a witness for Jesus.

I pray that this article will be helpful as you process these kinds of things in your own family. I know that there are a number of varying opinions on these issues, and I respect others who may stand in a different place. Not everyone faces these kinds of issues. But if your family is one that is involved in sports or any kind of community, school activity or group in the world there is a good chance you will be faced with the same "dilemma" at some time or another. Just fill in the blank: "__________________ vs. Church." My hope is to convince you that it does not have to be a hard line one way or the other. Remove the "vs." from the title of this article, and replace it with an "AND." And... "whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Sermon MP3s Are Caught Up

Several of you have asked me what has happened to our sermon MP3s on the Oasis Media page or our podcast links. Well, the past several weeks there have been some technical glitches in our recordings, and I have had to go through each one and clean them up as best as I could. Hopefully everything is now resolved. Today I uploaded sermons from the past 9 weeks. You can get them directly from our media page or from our iTunes podcast.

"Amen."

Bethechurch friends, below is one of the best videos I have seen in a long time. After watching this, go listen to Chad's sermon from last Sunday (James 1:2-18) if you have not already.

The Glory of Christ Revealed in Suffering

Below is a story that I heard John Piper tell during the Passion '06 conference.  It profoundly hit me when I heard it.  I can scarcely read it today without becoming very emotional.  Take strength and encouragement from it.  Also take time to see how the glory of Christ is revealed in our suffering. 

This is a true story.

The Story of a Masai Warrior Named Joseph

One of the least likely men to attend the Itinerant Evangelists' Conference in Amsterdam sponsored by the Billy Graham Association was a Masai Warrior named Joseph. But his story won him a hearing with Dr. Graham himself. The story is told by Michael Card.¹

One day Joseph, who was walking along one of these hot, dirty African roads, met someone who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. Then and there he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The power of the Spirit began transforming his life; he was filled with such excitement and joy that the first thing he wanted to do was return to his own village and share that same Good News with the members of his local tribe.

Joseph began going from door-to-door, telling everyone he met about the Cross [suffering!] of Jesus and the salvation it offered, expecting to see their faces light up the way his had. To his amazement the villagers not only didn't care, they became violent. The men of the village seized him and held him to the ground while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire. He was dragged from the village and left to die alone in the bush.

Joseph somehow managed to crawl to a water hole, and there, after days of passing in and out of consciousness, found the strength to get up. He wondered about the hostile reception he had received from people he had known all his life. He decided he must have left something out or told the story of Jesus incorrectly. After rehearsing the message he had first heard, he decided to go back and share his faith once more.

Joseph limped into the circle of huts and began to proclaim Jesus. "He died for you, so that you might find forgiveness and come to know the living God" he pleaded. Again he was grabbed by the men of the village and held while the women beat him reopening wounds that had just begun to heal. Once more they dragged him unconscious from the village and left him to die.

To have survived the first beating was truly remarkable. To live through the second was a miracle. Again, days later, Joseph awoke in the wilderness, bruised, scarred—and determined to go back.

He returned to the small village and this time, they attacked him before he had a chance to open his mouth. As they flogged him for the third and probably the last time, he again spoke to them of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was that the women who were beating him began to weep.

This time he awoke in his own bed. The ones who had so severely beaten him were now trying to save his life and nurse him back to health. The entire village had come to Christ.

Chad's Music Section

I've received a few emails letting me know that some of the music downloads that I have available under the "Chad's Music" section on the right hand side of this page, are no longer working.  So I've checked it out and sure enough...there were several that weren't.  So what I've done is I've gone through the site and I've TEMPORARILY removed those posts.  All totaled there were five songs that, if you tried to download them, led you to that highly annoying "HTTP 404 Error:  File Not Found" thingy.  I'm not sure when those songs will be available again.  They included:  Unrivaled, Sovereign God, Bethany, and Break Me.  The largest reason I'm not sure when I'll be able to post them again is because I personally can't find them.  I think they're on my old computer, which is no longer working.  So I may just have to cut new copies of them and put them out there on the web.  But if anyone out there happens to have a copy of any of those songs...maybe you would let me burn a cd of whatever you have or...you could even try emailing the mp3 to me.  Anyway...as far as I know...everything under "Chad's Music" should work now.  When I personally opened them they came up in another browser window and played via Quicktime.  It might work differently for you but I at least know that if you have Quicktime, it will let you hear the song.  I want to thank all of you who have let me know about the "dead links".  I want to thank all of you who come to the site.  I also want to thank all of you who check out the music that God has generously given to my heart.   May it glorify only Him.  chad is irrelevant.  GOD IS ALL IMPORTANT!!   

Reflections on Bethechurch.com

This post may seem very odd...that might have something to do with the fact that it's 3 a.m. and sleep seems optional right now.  So please...bear with me.

Technology is a double edged sword.  On the one hand it gives us many unique kinds of services that improve our quality of life.  On the other hand, technology can also deginerate the average human being in a number of fundamental ways.  The internet is one of the wonders of modern technology.  But again, the internet is certainly part of that double edged sword that I was just talking about.  This particular website has been out in the cold vastness of cyber space for a fair number of years now.  Like any endeavor that is seeking to glorify God we must always ask the question, "How is this glorifying our Lord?"  I think BeTheChurch accomplishes this in a variety of ways.

First, here are some cool statistics for you:

First post on this site:  January 8, 2003 - Author of that post was Chris Stewart
Total Number of Posts to Date:  578 (if you include this post)
Total Number of Comments to Posts:  860
Number of Current Contributing Authors:  6
Total Number of Times the Site Has Been Viewed Since It's Inception:  77,617

Numbers alone don't make a site successful...but I just figured I'd share with you some things you might not know about this website.  When Chris launched this site four years ago (WOW...it's been over four years already?!) he gave birth to something that would bloom into a station on the information super highway that was a beacon for declaring the glory of God.  The site has changed much in the last four years.  Everything from the way it looked, to the content that was available has changed dramatically.  I'm sure the change is in no way complete.  Chris and I have spitballed around all kinds of ideas for new content that we could bring to this forum.  The possibilities really are limitless.   But what I want to take a moment to do is reflect on what this website has meant to my life. 

When this blog first began I didn't really come to it very often.  I was still doing a lot of reading and posting at a site that no longer exists that was called the Oasis Cafe.  It wasn't long, however, that I began checking this site every single day.  Chris and I began meeting on a regular basis (by then I was in like my 11th year of my undergraduate degree)...content on the site was changing...Chris had all these exciting ideas...he seemed to be learning all these new things...possibilities with the site were really beginning to open up.  For a long time BeTheChurch.com was my daily dose of sanity.  I loved the theology that I was reading when I came here.  I loved the way that the Oasis family was on display.  But most of all I loved how everything about this site seemed to shout...ISN'T GOD WONDERFUL AND GLORIOUS...ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT HE IS OUR KING AND OUR CREATOR AND THE ONE COMPLETELY WORTHY OF ALL WORSHIP AND HONOR!   It was around November of 04 that Chris invited me to become a contributing author to the site.  I was pretty excited about the opporutnity to contribute to the forum of things that were developing.  My first post, I'm ashamed to say, talked about a study that I never did finish on the site.  I think I tried to come back to it later but for some reason it just never materialized on the web.  I know that for me personally, this site has challenged me to grow in my maturity of faith.  It has spurned me forward into many different kinds of endeavors (like the James commentary that has been unfolding here for the last 7 months). 

What has the site meant to you?  Is it the sermons that you come to download?  Do you come here for the music?  Do you come here to remind yourselves what our core values are as the gathered body of Oasis?  Is it all the Oasis 101 stuff that you just can't get enough of?  What is it that draws you back to the site on a regular basis? 

By the way, Chris has no idea I'm typing this post right now...I suppose I could prank call him...it's only 3:41 in the morning...probably shouldn't...Brock and Kaylee (sorry if I mispelled it) need their sleep...besides...April might attack me with a waffle iron or something on Sunday if I did that. 

I think Chris would agree with me when I say that I hope you find this website strenghting, encouraging, educational, uplifting, challenging, funny at times but above all...glorifying to God.  I personally appreciate this site.  I hope that you do as well.  Please feel free to share your reflections on BeTheChurch.com.  I know that I and the other authors will try to continue to keep good quality content rolling your way.   You never know what kinds of new and exciting things will pop up at this address. 

The James Internet Commentary Is Finished

Commentary: James 5:13-20

James 5:13-18
¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? 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. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The Three Basic Conditions of Life
You can essentially boil life down to three states of being. You’re either suffering, cheerful, or sick. You might think that this is a grossly over simplified way of looking at things but take a moment to really consider it.

- Suffering: What kinds of things fall under suffering? How about things like: adversity, affliction, agony, anguish, difficulty, discomfort, distress, dolor, hardship, misery, misfortune, ordeal, passion, torment, torture, bad break, bad news, bummer, catastrophe, rotten break, tough break, sickness, sorrow, tribulation, trouble, woe…that should cover a good bit of the things that you experience in “suffering” throughout your life.

- Cheerful: What kinds of things fall under cheerful? How about things like: bouncy, bright, chipper, contented, enthusiastic, glad, good-humored, good-natured, hearty, hilarious, hopeful, jolly, joyful, light hearted, lively, optimistic, peppy, perky, upbeat, vivacious, zingy, resilient, whimsical, dynamic, eager, energetic, zestful, gracious, kind, lovable, pleasant, pleasing, righteous, warm-hearted, winning, radiant…that should cover a good bit of the things that you experience in “cheerfulness” throughout your life.

- Sick: What kind of things fall under sick? How about things like: ailing, bedridden, confined, debilitated, declining, diseased, feverish, frail, hospitalized, ill, impaired, incurable, infected, laid up, nauseated, queasy, suffering, under medication, unhealthy, unwell, weak, migraine, sinus headache, cancer…your imagination can fill in the rest.

James is a master at understanding the human condition. He looks at our three basic states of being (suffering, cheerful, and sick) and gives us an example of how we should respond to God in each of them. The biggest of these that he emphasizes is prayer. Yet he does not leave it at this. He also tells us to sing praises to God. Singing and prayer…it’s as though they almost go hand in hand. The point being that there are appropriate, and necessary, responses to God. Do we illustrate these responses in our lives? If not, this may be a very clear-cut indication that our relationship with God is nothing but a convenient façade that helps us wear the expected public face of a Christian. Someone will say, “Just because I don’t sing praises to God doesn’t mean that I’m not a Christian. I’m just not much of a singer and I’d rather not do it in public because frankly I’d be a little embarrassed to do such things in front of other people. Also, it doesn’t seem like a natural response for me whether I’m alone or with other people. I don’t feel like I’m worshipping when I sing I just feel silly because I know that I’m no good at it.” People may say the same thing about praying in front of other people. You hear things like, “I just get too nervous when I have to pray in front of other people.” You also hear things like, “I’m just not a very outward person…I’m more of an inward person so most of my relationship with God is something more unseen in areas like singing and praying.” Do you hear the inherent problem with all of these objections? They center on “me, me, me and a little more me”. What they really reveal, and I want to be clear that I’m stating my opinion, is the shackle that sinfulness places upon our responses to God. If you do not feel that singing is an honest response of worship for you then don’t do it. Abstain from singing because you don’t want to offer anything false to God. But by the same token, don’t let that become the crutch you stand on for the entirety of your life as the representative of some kind of free pass that gets you out of responding to God in biblical ways. I don’t know or understand how any Christian could spend the expanse of their lives never singing praise to God, or bowing down before God, or weeping at the beauty of the grace of the cross, or praying to God earnestly and fervently on a regular basis. Listen my beloved family in Christ, I can understand not doing some things for a time (like singing or taking communion or giving an offering or being baptized). It is better that you understand what you do, and do it in full honesty, rather than to do it with no ounce of understanding. This is how “false or dead faith” manifests itself. We do not want to become a mindless sheep following the actions of our fellow sheep. Instead, we should follow only the voice of our shepherd. Our shepherd is the Lord, God. Be patient and still so that you would know how to respond to God when He moves you. Study His word so that you would have an un-clouded perspective on how to respond to him. Listen carefully to the words of the biblical authors as they teach you what humility is, what suffering is, what grace is, and what worship is. Cease to allow your tongue to hold you captive in your responses to God. Don’t let your abstinence from worship be a result of language like, “I don’t feel comfortable doing this or that.” Such reasons only speak about you and your comfort zones. Do you truly believe that God is okay with you failing to respond to Him in worship because your comfort zone never allowed you to do it? Hopefully your immediate answer is, “Well, no of course not.” If so, then consider what it is that truly holds you back from singing, praying, giving an offering, taking communion, making a decision for baptism, and crucial essentials like PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST! If the reasons are mostly about you and your personal reticence then you have poor reasons. Get your nose in the Bible, get your tail to a gathering (house church or Sunday service) and begin tearing down those walls of restraint that are held up largely by the pursuit of unrighteousness.

A Brief Word About Calling for the Elders of the Church
¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? 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.

Many people in Christian culture, particularly people in areas like Meigs county, feel that it is a pastors duty to visit all sick people in the hospital. Where does this idea come from? Is it biblical or is it something born out of small church, small town tradition? First let me say that there is nothing wrong with a pastor going and visiting someone who is sick (either at home or in the hospital). It is not, however, a pastors biblical duty to do this. In fact James says something quite contrary in 5:14. Who does James say that the sick should call upon? The elders (plural) of the church. Also notice that it is the sick who “call upon the elders”. This is different from the way that many of the people in our county feel. It is often believed that when the preacher is informed that someone is sick, the preacher should immediately go and visit that person. Again I ask the question why? James says it is the sick who should call upon the leadership of the church. It doesn’t seem to me that the Bible supports the idea of assuming that when someone is sick elders and/or pastors should flock out to that individuals sick bed. The sick seem to be able to determine if they need this kind of help. If they are sick then they should call upon the leadership of the church for help in prayer. Namely, the sick should call upon the elders. For those of you out there ready to respond, make sure you base your answer upon firm biblical principles. What then is the elders responsibility? To go to that person, pray over them, and (in James day) anoint them with a certain kind of oil. In some churches, even in this area, the elders do precisely what James says here in verse 14. They even go so far as to anoint the sick person with oil.

It is obvious that James expected some form of leadership to have been developed within the early Christian church. Otherwise, how could he assumingly say, “call for the elders of the church.” First you have to assume that there is a plurality of elders to call upon. James says this as though it is a common and expected thing. I say this because this letter isn’t addressed specifically to one church. It likely went out to many churches. Therefore, James no doubt intended some universal things to be assumed among the churches that would receive this letter. One of those things seems to have been the assumption that a plurality of elders would be in place at whatever churches were receiving this letter. The fact that the explicit duties and qualifications of an elder are not exclusively listed in this letter shows that whoever was receiving the letter was (or should have been) well aware of what elders were, how you became one, and what you were supposed to do as an elder. Elders do have specific functions and James is merely giving us a concise glimpse into one of those responsibilities.

The Power of a Righteous Prayer
James 5:15-18 speaks about the effect prayer can have on a life. However, these verses are also greatly misinterpreted by many readers. So let’s break them apart one at a time.

Verse 15
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The first thing we have to clarify in our heads is our concept of “saving”. When we think about saving someone from a sickness we often equate that with healing. But should we? Could not death also be what saves someone from a terrible sickness? For example, if someone battles with cancer for 10 years and finally succumbs people tend to say, “It’s better that he/she no longer has to suffer. They’re free from all that now.” The reason I say this is because I want us all to be very careful about how we see prayer answered. You may pray for someone to be healed and that prayer may well be answered, but not in the fashion that you wished it to be answered. You see God understands “saving” in a much different way. After all, consider how he saved humanity…God extended grace to us through a death on a cross. If you think about how we generally conceive of saving someone, the way God did it kind of seems upside down. Fortunately, because we trust in the sovereignty of God, we know that it is not at all upside down. Therefore, we must not attempt to force our perspective on the Bible. It is easy for us to look at the Bible and make it say what we want it to say. In the case of verse 15 many people want it to mean this: “If we pray, in faith, for so and so to be healed then it will happen the way we desire to see it happen. Their sickness will disappear and they will re-enter everyday life with us as a standing miracle to God’s merciful compassion.” Yet we must know that this may not always be the fashion in which God responds to our prayer. The sick person may be saved and raised up by God, but it may not be according to our desire because, as any Christian should know, God’s desire trumps our desire every time. I will elaborate on the second sentence of verse 15 while I’m covering verse 16.

Verse 16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James ends verse 15 with a bridge into verse 16 by saying, “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Confessing your sins in personal prayer is difficult enough. Confessing your sins to one another is even more difficult. Yet it is in this way that we can be healed and forgiven of our sins. The confession of sin reveals much about the character of an individual. The one who has no sin to confess about might seem as though they have no sin. We know this is not true. What is most likely happening is that they are keeping their sinfulness to themselves. This runs contrary to what the Bible, particularly this passage of James, tells us to do. You might ask, “Why confess your sins to one another? Is it not good enough to confess your sins to God?” It is good and cathardic to confess your sins to God. However, you should also be able to reveal the sinfulness of your heart to others. But why? So that you could be strengthened and encouraged by one another. God gives us the opportunity to fellowship for a reason. God is well aware that it is of great value for us to have relationships in our lives that seek to glorify Him. When we are confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another, we not only strengthen and encourage one another…WE GLORIFY GOD. We are putting on the banner of the meekness of wisdom and the beautiful tapestry of humility. In this posture we confess our sinfulness and reveal our greater desire to see sin die daily in our lives so that we could be steadfast servants of God, pursuing his righteousness for the sake of His glory.

You’ve often heard it said, “There’s power in prayer.” While I would agree with that, I also feel that we must add something to that statement. Essentially we must say what James says in the second sentence of verse 16. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I find it interesting that James says “righteous person”. Remember back in chapter 1 James said, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man and unstable in all his ways.” People who never pray often pray when they are at a desperate moment in their lives. Sometimes it seems as though their prayer is answered. Other times it seems as though their prayer is ignored altogether. It seems strange that people who do not make a habit out of pursuing righteousness with their lives sometimes seem to get what they pray for. The question we must ask is this, “Is God genuinely answering their prayer or is He doing something else that we cannot see or understand?” The reason I bring this up is because if you’re thinking about things like this it may be easy for you to think of prayer as nothing special or exclusive to either the righteous or the unrighteous. What I do know is that James is making a very clear distinction in verse 16 that it is the prayer of the righteous, not the unrighteous, that has great power as it is working. While things sometimes seem to work out for the unrighteous, it does not mean that prayer is necessarily working in a powerful way for them. Let’s consider the example James gives us in verse 17 and 18.

Verse 17 and 18
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

Elijah was a great prophet of God. In many ways he is one of the most “famous” characters from the Bible. You don’t even have to know much about the Bible to have heard of Elijah. Yet James points out that Elijah had the same nature as any of us walking around today. Elijah wasn’t bionic or anything like that. He wasn’t Superman. He was no different than you or I in our basic nature. The difference between Elijah and many Christians is that Elijah was more concerned about pursuing righteousness rather than his own selfish will. Sure, Elijah had some not so great moments but don’t we all? If you want to read the fascinating story that James is referencing here go to 1 Kings 17 and begin reading.

James uses Elijah as an example of how the “prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” What you notice in the story of Elijah (if you’ve read the account in 1 Kings) is that Elijah was doing only that which was according to the word of the Lord. When in Elijah told of the drought in 1 Kings 17 he was doing it in accordance with the word of God. When Elijah prayed for rain in 1 Kings 18 it was in accordance with the word of God. Elijah’s prayer was effective because he was righteous and he was righteous because all that he did was in accordance with what God had commanded him to do.

Bringing Home the Wayward
¹⁹My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

There are two interpretive dangers that I want to make sure we avoid in these verses.

(1) An Alternate Road to Salvation?: If you look at verse 20 you might be inclined to say this: “If I bring back a sinner from their wandering I will save my soul from death, meaning that if I steer this person back to the truth then I can save my soul through my righteous works…meaning that I don’t need the grace of Christ.” Well, obviously that’s a severe perversion of what James says in verse 20. But I can promise you that it has probably been said by someone, somewhere, at some time. You’ll notice that James doesn’t talk about Christ very much. In fact, the only reference he makes about Christ comes in the early stages of chapter 2 when he says, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” When he speaks about holding our faith in Christ I believe that he means that we should never forsake the fact that faith in Christ is our only hope of salvation. James never denies this fact in his letter. Some people assert that James lack of emphasis on this fact makes his whole letter very shaky. I disagree. I believe that one of the reasons that James did not go into great detail about Christ and what Christ accomplished on the cross is because it wasn’t necessary. Let me explain what I mean by “wasn’t necessary”. When he told his audience “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” I think you have to assume that those people reading/hearing the letter would have known who Jesus was and they also would have known what he had accomplished. Therefore, those hearing or reading the words of James were most likely well informed about the basic principles of salvation through Christ…ergo…they didn’t need more instruction on that principle. What they needed encouragement in was holding the faith that they had in Christ. So James is helping them understand how to be steadfast, how to be pursuers of righteousness, and how to become doers of the word so that the fruit of their lives will show that their faith is alive and not dead. So when James says, “…whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death,” he’s not saying that this is a way, apart from Christ, that you can bestow saving grace upon yourself.

(2) The Credit Card Christ: Another incorrect way that verse 20 could be viewed is like this: “If I wander away from the truth and someone convinces me to come back to it, then I will save my soul from death. Not only that but I will also cover a multitude of sins by making this decision. So what that means is that I can take some time being a good, loyal Christian and then, when I start to feel the need to break free again, I can go out, pursue unrighteousness for a while and then come back to the truth. I can do this over and over again just as long as I always come back to the truth. If I continue to come back to the truth my soul will continue to be saved from death and the multitude of sins that I’ve be piling up will be, for the most part, covered.” Again, this is a disgusting perversion of James 5:20. Many Christians in the world today don’t really feel the true weight of sinfulness. They tend to have what I’ve heard referred to as a credit card mentality. What that means is this: With credit cards you can often max one out and then simply go get another and continue spending money that you don’t have. You can continue this cycle until finally you have to do something drastic like declare bankruptcy. There is a belief amongst a startling number of Christians that this is how salvation works. They believe that we can be good Christians for a while and then we’ll start to wander away from the truth (in the old country churches I believe they call it “backsliding”). Then eventually we’ll realize that we’ve “backslid” and we’ll say things like, “I really felt like the Lord was about to kick me to the curb…it’s a good thing I straightened up when I did.” So we’ll go on being good for a little while longer and then eventually we’ll start to wander away from the truth again. Maybe one of those times we wander away so far that we feel that God really has washed His hands of us and that it’s up to us to get our lives straight and for God to receive us into grace once again. Some might even get re-baptized to signify their new start in the Lord. That’s credit card faith. We max out our chances with God, then we get a new start (usually with some kind of a public re-dedication). What’s sad is that this is a popular belief yet I can’t find anything biblical to support it (and I know I’m not alone in that proclamation). To such people I believe that James might be more inclined to say that their lives reflect that of someone who has no genuine love for the ways of God. The actions of their lives could be proving that their faith is in fact dead.

I believe that what James is really driving at in verses 19 & 20 could be summed up like this: If you wander from the truth and come back to it (in unbridled submission to God) then you will illustrate that your faith is being shown by your works. You are showing with your life that you are cleansing your hands as a sinner, you are purifying your heart as a double minded person, you are being wretched with mourning and weeping, your laughter is turned to mourning and your joy disintegrates into gloom as you feel the full weight of your sinfulness upon you. Then you confess your sins to both God and someone you trust as an upright person who pursues righteousness with every fiber of their lives. You pray that you may be healed. You pray that you may be forgiven. You kill that which is earthly within you. You die to your selfish desires. You rejoice in God. You glorify Him. You sing praises to Him. You pray to Him. You respond to Him in whatever way He calls you. You serve Him steadfastly in whatever way He calls you. Your joy becomes only that which comes from Him. Your greatest joy is the name of Christ and the work of the father exalted above all things. In this way you show, through the meekness of wisdom, that your faith is alive….alive in Christ, the Lord of glory! 

 

Commentary: James 5:1-12

James 5:1-6

¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ²Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

The Love of Money

Perhaps you’ve heard it said by many that the Bible says that money is the root of all evil. If you instinctively find yourself agreeing that this is what the Bible says then you have allowed yourself to be deceived. When people quote “money is the root of all evil” they’re actually leaving out the most important part of the quote. This concept is derived from 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” So you see, money is NOT the root of all evil, it is the LOVE OF MONEY that is “a root of all kinds of evil”. Remember this lesson from Romans 14:14, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself…” Money is not unclean or even evil. We cannot talk about money as though it is sinful in and of itself. Money is, after all, an inanimate object that has been given a purpose through the workings of humanity. In our society, as in most societies both ancient and modern, money is very important. It is important in the sense that virtually every organization requires money to run and be effective in their purpose. Even charitable organizations need money to function. Schools need money to function. Businesses need money to function. Fine arts centers need money to function. Local festivals need money to function. Churches need money to function. Practically everything in our society needs money to operate effectively within its target community. This is a fact of life that we cannot get around. That being the case, we desperately need a good, Biblically grounded foundation in how we conceive of money, how we spend money, and how we give our money.

In order to conceive of money properly you must first realize that money does not exist to first serve your purposes. All capital that you have is first intended to serve the purpose of God. Someone may immediately object to this by saying, “If God is truly all knowing, all powerful, and all present, what possible need could He have for money?” The reality is that God has no need of money. Though God has no need of money, our society functions in an economic arena. In an ideal world we would have no need for many different kinds of societal systems. The basic idea of Communism was to try and create a society like this. The ideal goal of Communism was to create a society that was classless, stateless and based on common ownership of the means of production. It sounds great on paper but in reality it didn’t really work out so well for the former Soviet Union. There were a number of inherent flaws in the system. As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, ideal systems very rarely work out because no one really has the same set of ideals. As far as economy goes, there are many different kinds of systems in the world (capitalist, corporate, natural, socialist, etc.). None of these are God-engineered systems but they still all exist under the permission of His sovereignty. They are man made systems in which different societies function. That’s the reality of our fallen, sinful world. Therefore everyone, including church bodies, needs money to effectively operate within its respective economic system. The difference in a church body should be the focus of what that money is serving. In some church bodies their budget is serving the purpose of God. In other church bodies their budget is really serving their own desires. Again, this is not because money is inherently evil but rather because it is the love of money that produces all kinds of sinfulness within us.

A Warning to the Rich...and To Us All

Verses 1 thru 6 of James 5 can be easily lost on us if we don’t have the proper focus. The opening line can make you think that this section of James doesn’t really apply to you. “Come now, you rich…” You may stop reading right there and say to yourself, “Well I’m not rich so I guess this part doesn’t really have any relevance to my life.” Such an interpretation could not be more flawed. It is true that James is addressing the rich but the lesson embedded within these verses has universal application. For those who love money, rich or not, there are terrible consequences. After all, you don’t have to be rich to love money.

Verse 1: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.”

Universal Application: Those who love money will find that the only things that will come upon them are an array of miseries. But why? Money is something that buys “temporaries”. Money buys temporary happiness. Money buys temporary comforts. Money buys temporary friends. Money buys temporary esteem. Money buys temporary importance. Money buys temporary social standings. Many of the things that money can buy usually end in some kind of misery. Happiness that is derived from worldly things will usually end in disappointment or resentment. The creature comforts of worldly things will fade once the newness of it has gone. You can see a pattern emerging in the worldly things that money can bring you. The harsh reality is that of all things that money can provide you with, the one essential thing that you need is the one thing that money cannot get for you. That essential is God. Money cannot buy God. You cannot “purchase” grace in the same sense that you can a yacht. Therefore, those unfortunate souls who love money love only what is fading from this world. How true it is to say that misery awaits such as these.

Verse 2 and 3: “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.”

Universal Application: There is nothing permanent in this world. Your computer will eventually get old and possibly stop working altogether. Your furniture will wear down and possibly break after a certain period of time. Your clothes will become faded, get ripped, get stained, become too small, become too big, or you’ll eventually throw them away, put them in a yard sale, or donate them to a cause. Your TV will someday lose its quality and you’ll get a new one. Shoes will get old and nasty and need replaced. Look at how much we have that will one day be nothing at all (which is almost everything). We often do things thinking that they are forever. Some things may endure for the full capacity of our own lifetimes but that does not make them immortal. I’m sure that the Romans felt like their empire would endure forever but did it? We must not put our faith in things that are fading. If we do such things will only consume us with the sickness of greed and inspire within us to do all kinds of evil.

Verse 3 (cont.) and Verse 4: “You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”

Universal Application: Some might read this and say, “So does that mean it’s bad to lay back a little retirement money, or money for my kids college, or save up money for a rainy day?” Well, to answer this question we must examine the example James gives us in verse 4. In that example a person is guilty of illegally withholding money from people who were owed it for services that they had rendered. This is a selfish hording of money to no doubt serve some kind of selfish desire. So the question that you should be asking in conjunction with these verses is, “Do I desire money to serve the purpose of me or the purpose of God.” In James example it is obvious that the person guilty of fraud wanted money only for selfish ends. This could very easily describe any person at any time at any point in their life. Even if we’ve never committed “fraud” it is still very easy for us to use money in a sinful way.

Verses 5 and 6: “You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.”

Universal Application: Verses 5 & 6 are, in many ways, a culmination of many of the things that I’ve already said. Self-indulgence, over-indulgence, and acting as a lawgiver and a judge are all things that infect our hearts with sinfulness. Therefore, do not indulge yourself with luxury for the sake of self-pleasure. Gorging yourself with such things are empty pursuits. Do not consume more than a person needs (this one hits very close to home for me). As it regards food, America is a super sized nation. As someone who struggles with weight, I know this fact all too well. So when I hear something like “you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” I find myself hanging my head with shame at my own sinfulness. Yet again it also convicts me to pursue righteousness rather than unrighteousness.

James 5:7-12

⁷Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸You also, be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. ⁹Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold the judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. ¹²But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Suffer With Patience

James is ending his letter in a similar fashion to the way that he began it. James opened this letter by saying, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” In verses 7 through 11 James is offering some further perspective on how we can “count it all joy” when we encounter the suffering of various trials in our lives. The keyword here is patience. We live in a society that does not truly endorse the concept of patience. Our society is all about “high speed” things. People are so consumed with busying themselves that the commodity of speed has become more valuable in the lives of many. If there is some invention in the world that can help us split our time in half we want it. Convenience and ease are great things. However, such concessions can also have a negative impact on our perspectives. In verses 7 through 12 James is revealing a biblical perspective on what God-centered patience looks like.

Verse 7: “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” This one statement is perhaps one of the most important statements in the entire letter of James. It may seem ordinary and unremarkable at first glance but consider for a moment what James is really saying. The question is often asked, “Why doesn’t God do something about…” you fill in the blanks. One reason that people often refuse to accept God as God is because they can’t understand why an all knowing, all powerful God would let certain things in the world continue to go on without doing anything to stop it. To such people this paints a very illogical portrait of God. Therefore, since the actions of God do not often equate themselves to solid rational foundations as outlined by the constructs of humanity, many people simply take this stance: “If the choices of God do not equate themselves with good logic, then that must negate the very existence of God.” This belief is symptomatic of the reality that most people see their treasure as only here on earth. This is exhibited by the fact that they seem to think that God will forever hold his wrath and that no judgment will ever come against the wicked. The idea is usually summarized like this: “If the wrath and judgment of God has not yet come against the world, why should we believe that it ever would. There is no evidentiary proof that it will be coming soon. There is no concrete evidence that would suggest that it will manifest itself in even the far away future.” All such thinking illustrates the fact that people who hold such beliefs have no concept of what it means to have God-centered patience.

God centered patience could be defined as follows: One who clings steadfastly to God centered patience is one who realizes that God has already defeated all the things of this world that run contrary to his will. Sin has been defeated. Satan has been defeated. God has always held true to his promises. Those who have been chosen for adoption as Sons and Daughters of glory will one day see all that God has not yet shown or done in our scope of time. Those conformed to the image of Christ understand that nothing is futile. Those in Christ do not labor in vain. The sufferings of the righteous are not without great meaning. That meaning is pursuing righteousness for the sake of the glory of God. God is glorified in the sufferings of the righteous. Therefore, those who love Christ and desire only the ways of the almighty God do not seek for any kind of worldly renown. They merely seek to do his will. They are most satisfied when God is most glorified. Seeing his glory revealed and his will accomplished is their fulfillment of joy in this life on earth.

The one who is in Christ wants only that which God wants. But that want will not truly manifest itself within the believer until the full depth and magnitude of the sovereignty of God is realized. The believer must learn to throw away unrighteousness. The believer must learn to be an “infant in evil”. Patience, as defined by the Bible, can help any believer do that very thing. I love the example that James gives us in the latter half of verse 7, “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.” If the farmer got over zealous and did not wait for the late rains, then his crop would not be what it could have been. God has already done some amazing things. The early rains of God have come. We can be assured that there are even more amazing things to come. We, as believers, are yet waiting for the late rains. We cannot force these things to take place nor can we demand that God do it sooner rather than later. This would reveal a unique kind of sinfulness in our hearts. Instead, be patient. God will do what he has ordained. It may not happen in our lifetime. It may not happen for another million years. I’m not one of these people who has the audacity to say, “I really think the end times are getting closer…I mean don’t you think so…look at everything that’s going on in the world…I’ve been reading this book series called “Left Behind” and it really has some pretty frightening observations…” It’s sad how easily popular culture can make us forget the resounding truths of the Bible. Why do so many people seem to think that Matthew 24:36 doesn’t apply to them, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the FATHER ONLY.” Review that list. Not only do we not know when the coming of the Lord will happen, the angels (WHO ARE ALREADY IN HEAVEN) have no idea when it’s going to happen, and Christ (the Son…the Word…God incarnate) doesn’t know when it’s going to happen. Only God the Father knows when it’s going to take place. Therefore, STOP TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHEN THE COMING OF THE LORD IS GOING TO HAPPEN…IF THE ANGELS DON’T KNOW…IF CHRIST DOESN’T KNOW…THEN WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES MAKES YOU THINK THAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIGURE IT OUT!! You would do better to spend your time doing what James says in verse 8, “You also, be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

The Coming of the Lord is at Hand

What did James mean when he said, “for the coming of the Lord is at hand”? Many modern day readers of the Bible read this verse and exclaim with pre-doomsday glee, “You see…the Bible says that the return of God is close…closer than we all think.” Consider this: James made that statement roughly 2,000 years ago. The average life expectancy of people in the world today is in the mid 60’s. To put that into perspective, 2,000 years ago is about 29 lifetimes ago for the average person in the world today. I’m not very good at math but I’m pretty sure we could qualify that as a really long time ago. 2,000 years ago is not something that I consider as “not that long ago”. 29 lifetimes ago (assuming that I lived to be at least 67) is not something that I consider as “not that long ago”. In the grand scheme of the universe, 2,000 years isn’t even a drop in the bucket but still…it’s difficult for people who often live less than 70 years to intelligently talk about things in thousand year increments. In relation to the time that we live, 2,000 years really is quite some time ago. We need a bigger perspective of time and it is this: God is not bound by time. We have no reason to believe that time is something that God really values. Humans, however, are constrained by time. As true as that may be, don’t say what James isn’t saying. James isn’t saying that the coming of the Lord is “close” (i.e. some time in the next couple hundred years because God is on a schedule like the rest of us). He’s saying that the coming of the Lord is inevitable. It’s going to happen. That being the case, it’s important for us to “establish our hearts”.

Perhaps the easiest way to say what James meant by saying “establish your hearts” is simply to say “learn to pursue righteousness”. Every human being is staring down the barrel of an absolutely terrifying inevitability. Romans 14:12 describes this inevitability like this, “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” Notice that Paul didn’t say that some, a few, a select group, a small portion, only the bad, only the good, or any other exclusive group of people, will give accounts of themselves. ALL will give an account. That completely freaks me out. I think about every stupid thing I ever did in my life, every intentionally sinful decision I’ve ever made, every intentional defilement of God’s commands that I’ve ever committed, and I start to sweat. I have no good response for those kinds of things in my life. However, I can’t change what I’ve done but I can learn what God expects from me, thanks to the Bible, and do everything possible to adhere the rest of my life to those expectations.

Déjà vu: Looking back at James 4:11-12

James 5:9 sound very similar to James 4:11. James 5:9 says, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold the judge is standing at the door. James 4:11 (the first sentence of it) says, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.” In a previous commentary I remarked that the true danger of speaking evil against another or judging another. The true danger in this is that if we commit this sin we elevate ourselves to a status that is only held by God. The remainder of James 4:11-12 illustrates this point. If we judge the law we cannot be doers of the law (see James 1:22-25). By speaking evil against another we make ourselves judges. The flaw in this is that this is an office that is impossible for us to hold. James illustrates this very simple fact in 4:12, “There is only one lawgiver and one judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.” The only true giver of law is God. The only true judge is God. The reason for this is because it is only God who knows how to deliver law righteously and God is also the only one able to judge His law righteously. Human beings naturally pervert law and judgment. God does not do this. So if you try to make yourself a judge (an impossible office for humans) then you yourself will be judged and fall under condemnation by the one true lawgiving judge.

James concludes verse 9 by saying, “…behold, the judge is standing at the door.” Humans often make the mistake of thinking that God doesn’t really know all things done by all people at every place during every time. Again, this is a falsehood of belief. God’s presence, his sovereignty, and his will never take a vacation. To conceive of God as “the judge standing at the door” is merely a way of reminding readers that we should, for no reason, every knowingly allow ourselves to lapse into apathy regarding the pursuit of righteousness. Some people feel insulted by what they feel to be an Orwellian “Big Brother is watching” mentality whenever they hear people say things like “God is standing at the door…SO TURN FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS AND REPENT YOU SINNER!” The simple fact of the matter is that those who love God will feel an increasing reluctance to sinfulness as the fullness of their spiritual maturity begins to flesh out. In other words, as your spiritual maturity grows you will find an increasing desire to pursue righteousness. You will see sinfulness in a new light and it will repulse you. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be immediately free of temptation. It doesn’t even mean that you’ll never commit certain sins again. But you will find that your powers of discernment in regards to what is righteous are being trained, hardened, and turned into steadfastness. Your desire to do that which is unrighteous will diminish. This requires that you let go of selfish desire. In the end selfish desire is generally the root of the problem that most people have in learning how to pursue righteousness. Righteousness requires that you die to what is earthly within you.  Colossians 3:5-10 gives you a very explicit list of what these “earthly” things are. Verse 9 & 10 really punctuate this list by saying, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self, with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

The whole reason that we hold on to ideas like “judgment is coming” and “the judge is standing at the door” is not because we want to scare people into salvation. If you hold a view of salvation like the one I hold (a more Calvinist slant or what I prefer to call a Romans 8:29 slant) it’s impossible to scare people into salvation because that’s not how salvation works anyway. We hold on to ideas like this because we desire to “put off the old self” and its practices. We replace that old self with the new self. The fundamental characteristic of the new self is that it is “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (God).” Putting off the old self truly requires a shift in our understanding of what is selfish within us and what needs to die within our personal natures. This kind of “death” is very hard because we must commit ourselves to killing the unrighteous things that plague our lives. This might mean that certain things that we hold very dear to us may need put off to be replaced with a God centered point of view. To better understand this concept I would recommend that every one of you reading this make it a point to put “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis on your must read lists. It’s very short. You can read it in an afternoon but you could struggle with its challenges for a lifetime. It’s a great book for helping you mature your faith and your understanding of God’s sovereignty.

Those Who Have Suffered Before Us

I once heard John Piper say, “There are better ways to maximize pleasure on the earth than being a Christian.” He’s right. In this same speech I also heard Piper say things like, “Christianity is not the good life!” By that he meant that those who believe choose to suffer much more than they normally would if they knew that Christianity was false. Think about people like the apostle Paul. Consider his life. He spent the bulk of his adult life in prison for the cause of Christ. He was beaten, nearly to death, on more than one occasion. He lived out the end of his life under poverty, hard labor, and the constant threat of death. Suffice it to say that Paul didn’t lead a charmed life. He could have. Remember, Paul was quickly moving through the ranks in Jewish society. He very well could have lived a life of luxury and comfort if he had so chosen. Paul was well aware that there were better ways of maximizing pleasure on the earth than being a Christian. Yet he considered the sufferings of his present condition to be nothing compared to the glory that was to be revealed (see Romans 8:18). The joy of seeing God’s glory revealed was something that Paul considered greater than all the sufferings and the creature comforts of the world.

Examples such as Job were what James had in mind when he said, in 5:10-11, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. 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 again draws our attention to what is key in suffering and that is patience. Patience that realizes that God endures above all things and that God will do all things that He has promised. The Christian must never see futility in suffering because the cross of Christ has changed all that. Therefore, read the accounts in your Bible. See how the saints have suffered before you. Store their examples in your hearts. Let them spurn steadfastness within you. Let God be glorified in suffering and find joy in Him. Not joy that is fueled by earthly desire, but joy that is solely focused on God’s sovereignty.

Oaths

James 5:12 says, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

This is a difficult verse to interpret. In many ways it seems somewhat random. By opening this verse with “But above all” James is alerting us to something very important so we don’t want to make the mistake of glossing over it. There is a range of interpretations to this verse. Some people feel that this verse is saying that oaths, or any kind of promise or agreement, is something that leads to unnecessary systematizing between people. In other words, the varying terms of an oath could be so vast and ranging in certain cases that it is better to just keep things simple. By keeping things simple people tend to avoid the trap of legalism in their agreements. In other words, don’t vow to pay someone back a cash loan. Talking about it or making promises about it isn’t actually paying back that debt. Do what you say you will do. Be honest and timely in paying back that debt. Let the actions of your life prove your trustworthiness. But we quickly run into sticky ground with interpretations like this. Questions come up like, “So if I borrow a dollar from someone I shouldn’t promise them that I’ll pay them back tomorrow? You’re suggesting that I just take the money and then surprise the person when I pay them back? That’s just rude.” People like assurances. People like to know that they’re protected from things like fraud, theft, and natural disasters. I doubt we would find many people disputing the agreement that they have with their insurance company when it comes time to shell out no more than the co-pay for the hospital visit. I doubt we would find many people disputing their contracts with their employer when it comes time for the paycheck to be delivered. Contracts, which are really just oaths on paper, are things that protect us in many ways. We make a number of oaths throughout our careers, and our daily lives, that benefit us greatly. Should we get rid of them?

Whether we like it or not America is, in many ways, a society of contractual obligations. Think about it. If we get a bank loan to buy a car or a house, what do we have to do? We have to sign a contract that says we vow to pay back the money that we owe over a certain period of time. Is this not an oath? How about wedding vows? Are these not also oaths? As parents do you not promise your children certain things? Are you not making an oath to them when you do these things? So what then? Is it the advice of James to never do any of these things? We must be careful with how we treat this verse. If we look at it one way it could be said that we should never make any kind of a promise at any time nor under any circumstance. This would mean that the purpose of calendars would suddenly become a mute point. Never make an appointment because what you’re really doing is making an oath that you will appear somewhere for a meeting. Never plan a location for the date of your child’s birthday ever again because you are making an oath that you will hold an event on a date that has not yet arrived at a certain location. Do you see how silly that all sounds?

To see this passage in James properly we must first consider everything that James has said leading up to this point. James has spent four and a half chapters giving us a portrait for what our lives must look like if we claim that our faith is alive. One of the overriding themes of his letter has been “be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. In other words, let the actions of your life (your works) be active along with your faith and let those works complete your faith so that you may be proven true to be a friend of God. Therefore, do not merely swear or make oaths for it is in this way that your life will fall under condemnation. What good is an oath with no action? What good is the swearing of allegiance without any real allegiance? What good is an oath without a yes? Who can count on honesty from a person who never deals in square yes’s and no’s? James is calling us back to the lesson of learning to be doers of the word. Let your life be one of clarity. If you can do something for someone then let your yes be true and let your actions prove the worthiness of your yes. However, if you cannot do something for someone then let your no be true and let your actions prove the clarity of your no. In this way your life will not fall under condemnation.

The Danger of Looking Only Outward
Often times people look at the messages of the Bible and they think first of how those lessons apply to their relationships with other people. James is a perfect vehicle for this kind of thinking. This kind of thinking is what I call “outward thinking”. This kind of thinking is important. It is crucial to know and understand how we interact with those around us who are also made in the likeness of God. James has much to say on this subject. But we would prove ourselves fools if we felt that James was only teaching us about interacting with others in a righteous fashion. James focus throughout his letter is not so much outward centered as it is God centered. James sets that tone from the very beginning by identifying himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James is serving the purpose of God in this writing. From there, every lesson that James gives us is purely God centered.

Chapter 1
Why would you want to have the full effect of steadfastness upon you? So that you would not lack in serving the purpose of God. If you lack steadfastness in some area of your life, say wisdom for example, then ask God to receive wisdom. Ask not to receive for your own personal glory but rather for the glory of the purpose of God. Realize that God is the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. We exist only because of His will and only for the purpose of accomplishing His will. If you think you are religious, stop and double check yourself. Do you do God’s word or are you merely a hearer that is deceiving himself/herself? Are you keeping yourself unstained from the world? These are all essential questions in helping you know whether or not you are truly a steadfast servant of God or just someone who is riding along because the scenery is nice. While chapter 1 will greatly affect your outward thinking, its first purpose is to turn your mind inward to develop your perception of God-centeredness in your life.

Chapter 2

If you show partiality you are showing yourself to be a transgressor against the law (i.e. an enemy of God). Instead, speak and act as one who is to be judged under the law of liberty. Or do you not realize that judgment is without mercy to one who has no concept of mercy? Do you not know that mercy triumphs over judgment? Are you not aware that by failing to be a doer of the law you show that your faith is dead…and if your faith is dead then do you not realize that your body, which is obviously void of the Spirit, is also dead? The correction to all this means that your entire focus must be shifted. If you are in such a state as the one described in chapter 2 you must break your mind of the me-centered way that you are living. While chapter 2 will greatly affect your outward thinking, its first purpose is to turn your mind inward to develop your perception of God-centeredness in your life.

Chapter 3
The tongue produces within us all manner of unrighteousness because it is, in and of itself, a world of unrighteousness that is inhabited with all manner of restless evils which bring to bear nothing but deadly poison. While we use the tongue to praise the gloriousness of God we also use it to curse people who are made in the likeness of God. How can this be? For the one who loves God these kinds of slander are not natural, much like a spring producing fresh and salt water would be most unnatural. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition show only that we love disorder and every vile practice of the world. Again, how can this be for the one who loves God? The simple answer: It cannot. What is revealed in this chapter is something dreadful…that we could bear in our lives the kind of evidence that proves we have no love for God’s will. While chapter 3 will greatly affect your outward thinking, its first purpose is to turn your mind inward to develop your perception of God-centeredness in your life.

Chapter 4
Those who desire only for those things that they can spend on their own passions reveal that they are adulterous in their relationship with God. They want God, but they want their own desires more. Do you not know that if you are such a person then you have made yourself an enemy of God? Do you think that He does not yearn jealously over the spirit He has made to dwell in you? The Lord is compassionate and merciful and he gives grace. Yet to the proud he has only opposition to offer whereas to the humble, he gives grace. Therefore, put yourself in a posture of humility (cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be wretched, mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom). Let the full weight of your own sinfulness bring you to the realization that you are making choices that align you as an enemy of God. Do not elevate yourselves in status to a place of judge for God is the only one able to give law and judgment. Do not fail in the doing the right thing for if you do, it will be sin for you. While chapter 4 will greatly affect your outward thinking, its first purpose is to turn your mind inward to develop your perception of God-centeredness in your life.

Chapter 5 merely continues this theme. To close out this commentary we will begin breaking down James 5:13-20. James began this letter in powerful fashion, and now he will end it in much the same way. I encourage you to continue to pour over James and consider not only what it means for you and the interaction that you have with the world around you, but also how the letter seeks to re-shape your thinking into God-centeredness.