The Ethics of Patience

James 5:7-8a ESV

7 Be 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. 8a You also, be patient.

This morning marks the second day in April and the first Sunday of the month, which means that today, we begin a new series of sermons.

And this month, I want us to look at a rather short passage from the Epistle of James. But don’t let its short length fool you, for it is jam packed with dynamite.

This month it is my goal to exposit and preach through 5 sermons from James, chapter 5, verses 7-12.

And the main theme that we are going to be looking at as we study this passage is doctrine and ethics. Now I know that that may not sound really exciting, but in passages like this one, where both Christian doctrine and ethics are exposed, we really get down to the meat and potatoes, the basic fundamentals of how we should live in this world.

And doctrine and ethics really go together as naturally as the sun and warmth go together. We experience warmth because the sun exists, without the sun, there is no warmth. And in the same sense, ethics proceed from doctrine. In other words, we follow a certain ethical guideline, and the doctrine that is attached to those guidelines tells us why we follow such guidelines.

What this means is that everything that God, through His Word has declared to be true, is doctrine. And because these doctrines have been set forth, how exactly we live in response to these doctrines is known as ethics.

Now, throughout this series that we are going to be working through from James 5:7-12, we are going to look at a few different doctrines that are emphasized just in this short passage. And what I really like about the epistle of James is that when he states a doctrine, he almost always follows it up by stating the ethics that surround that doctrine, the practical points that we can apply to our own lives as a result of the stated doctrine.

And this morning, as we begin this series, the doctrine that we are going to be briefly looking at is the second coming of the Lord, and the ethical principle of patience that is attached to this doctrine.

And last of all, we are going to bring out a practical application from the text as to how we can apply the ethical principle of patience to our own lives in light of the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord.

So, let’s go ahead and get into it.

We see first the ethical command of James and what it is that causes James to make this ethical command in the first place at the very beginning of verse 7, where we read James saying:

James 5:7a ESV

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers,

As we begin our exposition, I want us to start from the middle of this part of the verse, with the word “therefore”.

Now, I’ve always told you that when we come across the word “therefore” in the Scriptures, we know that it is there for a reason. When we see the word “therefore” it tells us that we need to stop and reread what comes before it because what is being said after we read the word “therefore” is in connection with whatever is written before it.

So, if we look at what comes before verse 7, verses 1-6, and we take a quick look at it we see that what James is describing in those first 6 verses are rich and powerful people who were not Christians, oppressing the mostly poor Christians who James is writing to here.

The majority of early Christians were those who were poor, those who had been ostracized from their communities for various reasons, quite often because of their Christian faith, and most of all, they were those who held very little to absolutely no influence or power whatsoever. On top of it all, the early Christians were misunderstood and the target of much hate, discrimination, and persecution.

They weren’t liked by the majority of society and so it was pretty normal for people to mistreat them and then get away with it simply because they could.

And in light of what is written in verses 1-6, we can safely assume that these Christians were suffering persecution and abuse from the rich. The rich and powerful were already rich and powerful, but their persecution of the early Christians made them even more so as they took what little the early Christians possessed.

But James also tells them in those first 6 verses that though this is the case, God will indeed avenge those who persecute them. These rich and powerful have disregarded God and persecuted God’s people, and God will be sure to avenge His people for His own name’s sake.

Because of this, James tells these brothers in the faith to be patient… the temptation is there for these Christians to despair, or worse, to seek vengeance themselves, but James tells them that rather than act on these temptations, they are to instead, be patient.

He tells them that God will avenge them, that God will make plain that those who are being persecuted are those whom He has chosen and those who are doing the persecuting will be put to open shame… so be patient until this happens.

But when will this happen? James tells us next when he says:

James 5:7b ESV

7b until the coming of the Lord.

Brothers, wait patiently until the coming of the Lord! James tells his readers that they are not to avenge, that they are not to despair as though things will never get any better, instead, he tells them to remain patient until the Lord returns.

It’s almost like a kid who is constantly being picked on by a bully who is much bigger and stronger than him, but the kid who is being picked on has an older brother who is a lot bigger than his bully who tells him not to worry, that he himself is going to deal with his little brother’s bully, so the kid who is being picked on patiently waits and continues to be bullied because he knows that very soon his big brother is going to come to his defense.

Thus, we as believers who are misunderstood and persecuted by the world around us should not try to take matters into our own hands. This world is not our home, so it should not surprise us that those who are of the world mistreat us.

And because we are not of the world, we should not resort to the methods of the world. We should not seek revenge or hope that they get what’s coming to them. Rather, in light of the fact that these will suffer God’s wrath if they do not change, we should pray that God would change their hearts, and patiently wait for Him to do whatever He deems best.

So, we read of how we as legitimately born-again Christians are to patiently wait for the Lord to come and make everything right, for Him to publicly make plain to all that we are His favored people, chosen in His Beloved Son before the foundation of the world.

But James doesn’t just say, “wait patiently” and stop there, no, he goes on to tell us how we are to wait patiently in the last part of verse 7, when he says:

James 5:7c ESV

7c 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.

James speaks of the ancient farmer here. He bids his readers to observe how the farmer waits. And what he waits for is what he describes as the precious fruit of the earth.

The farmer sows his seed in the soil and patiently waits for it to grow, completely depending on God to send the early and late rains. These early rains were a short season of rain that came a little before the farmer sowed the seed and the late rains were a short season of rain which would fall a little before the ripening of the crop.

These early and late rains were imperative to the success of the crop, and of course, they came only as God provided them, and the farmer knew that God was faithful to provide these rains, thus every year they patiently waited for that which God was faithful to provide them with.

They knew that there was nothing that they could do to cause these rains to come and produce a bumper crop, they had done what they were supposed to do, they sowed the seed, but they had no control over what would happen next. It’s not like they could speed up the process or anything like that, all they could do from that point on was patiently wait for their crops to appear as a result of God’s sovereignty.

In the same way, there is nothing that we can do to somehow speed up the coming of the Lord. It’s not like Jesus is saying, “Well, I’d like to come and make everything new, but you’re down there holding everything up!”. No, the Lord will return when the Father tells Him to return, in the fullness of time, and that time is fixed, not on anything that we do, but according to the days and seasons which the Father Himself has already appointed.

So, with this in mind, with the fact that we live in a spiritually hostile world, and being given the analogy of the farmer, we finish off with an exhortation from James in the very beginning of verse 8, when he says:

Hebrews 5:8a ESV

8a You also, be patient.

James says, “Like the farmer, be patient for the Lord’s return”. As we’ve already said, the farmer does what he’s supposed to do, he sows his seed because he believes that God will be faithful to send the early and late rains, then he waits patiently for it to happen, knowing that there is nothing else that he can do.

And in the same way, James proclaims that the born-again Christian is to wait patiently. And the way that we wait patiently is by doing what we are supposed to do, that is, placing our total trust in the finished work of Christ Jesus on our behalf and then living out our lives in light of this fact, trusting, serving, believing what God has proclaimed.

He has told us that He is returning, there is nothing that we can do to somehow speed that return, the times and seasons have already been determined. The only thing that we can realistically do is what the ancient farmer had done, patiently wait. Patiently wait for God to fulfill His word and to make His coming manifest.

And beloved, He will do just that!

Thus, with patience and expectation, may we say as the apostle said, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

Amen?