James 5

James 5:7–20 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. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 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. 12 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. 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is 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. 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. 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. 17 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. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Patience in Suffering

Things are bad, take heart because Jesus will return

“Establish your heart”

Keep right relationship with God

Don’t allow your heart to be polluted by the mess around you

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 5

James encourages these suffering Christians to get their eyes on the promise of Christ’s coming. The word “patient” (v. 8) does not mean that they were to sit idly by, doing nothing. Rather, the word carries the idea of endurance, bearing the burdens and fighting the battles until the Lord comes. He uses several illustrations to hammer home this lesson of patience. (1) The farmer (vv. 7–8). The farmer plants the seed and prepares the soil but does not reap a crop immediately. God sends the rains to water the soil, and then comes the harvest. (The early rain came in October and November and the latter rain in April and May.) Even so, the Christian must be patient, knowing that “in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9).

Don’t Grumble

Don’t turn it into a finger pointing game

Complaining turns to gossip quickly

Look to the OT examples for hope

Use the word of God to see how God worked for others and know he will work for you.

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 5

(3) The prophets (vv. 10–11). James refers these Christians to the OT believers, who suffered under the hands of sinners yet left their trials with God and won the victory. Job is the classic example. God had a wonderful purpose and result in mind when He permitted Job to be tried, even though Job did not understand what God was doing. Regardless of what trials may come to our lives, we know that God is full of love and mercy and that all things work together for good.

Let “yes” be “yes”

Christians should always tell the truth and keep their word

The oath that James is referring to is about people having to make extraordinary oaths to back up their own “yes” or “no”

Back up your “yes” by doing what you said

Prayer of Faith

James 5:13–18 ESV

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is 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. 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. 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. 17 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. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Prayer Changes things and is effective

Prayer is powerful enough to stop and start the rain. Prayers of a righteous person has much power, James tells us. I have to be honest with you. There have maybe been a couple times in my life that I have prayed for the weather to be favorable, and it was, where I felt like my prayer had an impact on it. But that was for a day or an afternoon. Elijah stopped the rain for 3 ½ years and then prayed again and it started raining again. That is a level of prayer that I strive for. Not because I want to have that kind of power, but because I want to have that level of relationship and connection to God.

Lessons from Elijah

Elijah was no different than us

James uses the example of Elijah for his teaching on prayer. The first thing James states about Elijah is that he was a human just like us. In other words there wasn’t anything special about Elijah in his nature. It wasn’t that he was a divine being or had any superpowers. James teaches us that the difference is Elijah prayed fervently. Prayer is not a special act reserved for special spiritual people. Prayer is an act for all believers. I can agree with you in prayer, and I can pray over you, but I cannot do your praying for you.

Elijah was persistent in Prayer

Persistence in prayer is important. When Elijah prayed for rain to start again, it did not happen on the first time he prayed. He sent his servant up to look out towards the sea 7 times. It wasn’t until the 7th time that there was a result. It does not tell us how long it took to go through the 7 trips to check for rain clouds, but we can pull from this the principle that it may take more than one prayer to produce a result. You might pray for years, but don’t give up. Because at some point you are going to see a cloud on the horizon.

Effective Prayer requires faith

I want us to see from Elijah is the faith that goes with prayer. James tells us that it is the “prayer of faith” that works. The servant returned on the 7th time saying, “there is a cloud the size of a man’s hand.”. Now I don’t know about you, but to me, a single small cloud doesn’t scream “Rain is coming!”. But the faith of Elijah said, “you better tell Ahab to get moving before the rain stops him.”.

There is delay between the response and the answer

Sometimes there is a delay between the response and the answer. The small cloud was the response, the rain that followed was the answer. God may say you are healed, but it takes some time to see the healing. God may say the marriage is fixed, but it takes some time to see the fixing. God may say “yes” but the fulfillment of the response does not come until later.

We Should Restore Others

James 5:19–20 ESV

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

We should seek to restore a brother or sister in Christ

It is not judging to remind someone of the truth

Verse 20 declares how valuable it is to lead someone to saving truth

“Saves his soul from death”

“covers a multitude of sin”