Patience in Suffering
Notes
Transcript
The book of Job is likely the oldest book in the Old Testament.
James in this text points us to Job as an example of steadfastness in suffering.
Job loses everything. He loses his success, his possessions, his children. The only thing that is left for him is his nagging wife.
And the proverbs tell us twice that it is better to live on the corner of a roof than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
Prov 25:24, Proverbs 21:9.
So Job is left with almost nothing - and yet the only thing he is left with is a nagging wife, and some discouraging friends.
And through the book Job, though demanding an audience with God, but not getting it until the end, maintains that he did not sin to bring on this suffering. And following that
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
What a remarkable statement to rejoice that God will redeem him even after he has lost everything.
Even at the end of the book in 42:7 while God speaks an indictment against Job’s friends, Job’s innocence is defended by God himself. And then God restores to Job everything he lost twice over.
Blessed is the one who is steadfast. And Job faith in God remains even when everything is gone.
Where other texts teach us to take comfort in Jesus’ suffering when we suffer, James is teaching us that:
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is coming again.
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is preeminent.
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is coming again.
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is coming again.
James at the very beginning of this epistle taught us concerning suffering. To consider it all joy when you meet trails of various kinds. He teaches us to suffer well. And here as we near the end of the letter, he once again returns to the idea of suffering. At the beginning of the letter he instructs us to have joy in our suffering, and near the end here he focuses not on joy but on patience.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to be joyful when we face trials, we now are told to be patient. But James does not merely give us the instruction to be patient but he gives us a promised future event to set our eyes on that should give us patience.
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.
Be patient - because the Lord is coming. Stand tall in your suffering and wait on the coming of the Lord. This is a tough truth at times. But this is also a common theme in the New Testament.
James just a few verses above this, teaches us to be cautious in how we make our plans. Do not boast in your calendar because you calendar is fragile, and you do not know what the future holds.
Be patient in hardship, knowing that Jesus will return.
James makes the comparison of the farmer who is waiting for the rain that it might yield the harvest. There is nothing that the farmer can do to make the rains come faster… the farmer simply must wait.
Verse 8 again, repeats the instruction to be patient.
8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
And again he reminds us of the second coming of the Lord - but he also follows up in this instance by stating that the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Heart here referring to the core of a man. Strength your being, aim to be steadfast because the return of Christ is near.
At hand… in the grand scheme of eternity, and in God’s time the return of Christ is indeed near, even if we do not feel like it. Our definition of near is certainly not the same as the Lord’s.
But also remember that you suffering and your trials are temporary. They might feel like an eternity, but remember that Paul tells us 2 Cor 4:17
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
Your suffering is meaningful, and it is working for your good - but it is temporary - so be patient, and be reminded that the Lord is returning - and that eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison will be realized.
Endure in your suffering, because Jesus is going to return. This is a common theme that is used in the New Testament. Endurance in today because you know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is one of the main purposes of the book of Revelation. Depending on when you date it, either before 70AD or around 90AD, John is either writing to people about to face severe persecution or those who are already in the heart of it. When you know that your king is coming to judge the living and the dead, to wipe away every tear, to bring his bride to himself, and that he will without doubt or question be victorious and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord - how can you not take comfort.
In your suffering you can stand tall, and strengthen your hearts because you have not been abandoned. Your King is coming again.
And as if James has not already unsettled you enough, by telling you to be patient in suffering then in verse 9 he tells us not to grumble.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
One of the easiest things to do when hard times come is to grumble. To envy those who have it easier and to grumble against them. Someone offers you advice and you find the temptation to say “well that’s easy for you to say, you have it so easy.” Or looking at another person and stating “if only they knew how hard I have it.”
Grumbling is the opposite of patience. Waiting is not the same thing as patience. Waiting while constantly groaning about your waiting isn’t patience. You are not being patient simply because you wait if your waiting is matched with constantly grumbling about long it is taking. That’s not patience, that’s grumpy waiting.
Though James’ adds a warning on to this. The reason not to grumble against one another is also tied to the second coming of Christ. When Jesus comes again he will come in judgment. Judgment will come to those who grumble against the brothers.
James has already warned us against quarrels and fights among the community of faith in chapter 4. In that section, he also warns against jealousy. If you do not grumble against your brothers there is no room for quarrels and fights, if you’re not envious of your brother you will not be tempted to grumble against them. So this all fits within one of the major themes of the book of James… tame your feral tongue.
One way in which patience is demonstrated is by how you speak toward your brother.
Notice how James speaks of the Lord here. In verse 9, he describes God as judge. This is after James refers to the coming of the Lord, the 2nd coming of Christ. But he also speaks in verses 10 and 11 of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, and Job demonstrating the purposes of the Lord, and the Lord as compassionate and merciful. James is giving an early and a huge statement of Jesus’ divinity and preeminence.
The preeminence of Jesus is well defended by Paul in Colossians 1.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together we read in
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He has no beginning and no end. Or as we will soon review our Sunday school class on the Nicene Creed “he was begotten not made.”
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is preeminent.
We can be patient in our suffering because Jesus is preeminent.
James uses the same word for Lord several times. In verse 7, he refers to the Lord coming - be patient until the Lord Jesus returns. Take comfort because of the one future event you can take hope in. And then here in verses 10 and 11 he looks back at the Old Testament to show how the Lord has worked in the past.
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.
James is either making an early assertion of Trinitarian theology, or an early assertion concerning Jesus’ preeminence, or eternality. Both is also possible.
James here seems to be doing the same thing that Jude does in verse 5 of Jude. Jude states that Jesus saved the Israelites out of Egypt.
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Remembering that both of these men, brothers of Jesus, were at one point skeptical of his ministry - and are now demonstrating that this
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
You can endure and be patient in suffering because Jesus was, and is and is to come. He was working when Job was suffering, the prophets in their suffering were writing of him, and James is telling the audience he is writing to - and us - that Jesus is going to return and we should take comfort in hardship for that reason.
Jesus was present, active, and sovereign over the events that occurred when the prophets were weeping. When Elijah is running from Jezebel, when the other prophets were being put to death - Jesus was present, active and working.
We can trust him in our suffering because he has seen it before, and he was present when the saints of yesteryear were suffering.
And we can trust him in our suffering, because he also suffered for us.
But I also do not want to breeze by the examples given here:
Examples of the prophets:
Consider what the prophets endured. In the Old Testament, the prophets weep, they run from oppressive monarchs, the witness they people they are ministering sin over and over again, many of the prophets have been traditionally viewed to have been martyred.
Jesus teaches the disciples on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24 that the Old Testament ultimately pointed to him. The prophets were writing of the Lord Jesus. They endured in their suffering because they looked forward to the first coming of Christ. We can endure and be patient in our suffering as we look back at the suffering of Christ for our sake, also as we look to the second coming of Christ, and as we reflect on the eternality of Jesus.
The second example that James gives us is the example of Job.
The example of Job teaches us that we can be steadfast in suffering by remembering God’s character.
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.
Earlier in this letter James writes something similar.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. James seems to suggest that this man inherits salvation. As we already mentioned earlier in James, salvation is by faith and not by works. But steadfastness is a work that is demonstrated by a saving faith. And for the example of steadfastness he points us to Job.
Job loses everything.
And the book of Job repeats to us several times that Job did not sin in accusing God of wrongdoing.
But looking again at the example of Job, as I mentioned Job at the beginning. Job remains steadfast in the midst of the hardest suffering.
And this teaches us of the Lord’s purposes. Job is glorified even in Job’s suffering. God is glorified in Job’s steadfastness.
And following the example of Job, James reminds us that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
A reminder of Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”
God is compassionate and merciful. These characteristics of God are quoted time and time again in the Bible. Cling to that truth in all aspects of life.
Endurance in suffering is supported by being reminded of who God is. As Job did over and over again - remember that God is always good.
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.
Verse 12 here almost reads as if it is tacked on. James needed to throw it somewhere so he put it here.
Well not exactly.
Notice, how he begins that verse… above all…
Beyond being patient, beyond not grumbling, beyond his warnings to the poor, beyond his statements not to judge your brother, or speak evil against them, and beyond not being quarrelsome - mind your words. If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you say you are not going to do do something do not do it.
This condemnation against swearing here has nothing to do with profanity, but it is concerning the taking of oaths.
This is a summary of what Jesus states in Matt 5:34-35.
34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Some have taken this to the extreme and refuse to take any sort of oath or vow.
Mennonites, Quakers and Anabaptists, not historically related to our kind of baptists, they will not take any sort of office that would require an oath not will they enlist in the military, or
And this goes overboard. While it maintains the letter of the law, it ignores the spirit of the law.
If someone wants you to sign a document to prove you will keep the agreement that’s acceptable. If someone wants you shake hands over an agreement that’s acceptable. The problem however, is that people are always trying to find a way out of the agreement they made when they realize it will not benefit them.
Christians should be so committed to truth telling that no one even fathom requiring them to take an oath. And the furthest thing from your mind should be how to get out of something you have committed to do when it is no longer convenient.
If everyone around you expects that you will not keep your promises, or you will break your oaths, or you regularly say things and regularly do the opposite this is the problem.
The deadbeat dad trope that was over played in media in the 90’s shows this pretty clearly. Dad tells his son that he will be at his karate meeting where he will be awarded the next belt level, son responds with you better you missed the last one, and dad says don’t worry I will be there. Only for Dad to get held up at work, leave late, hit travel, get a moving violation ticket and the miss the performance - then the son later responds with “you always say you will be there and you never come.” The Scriptures are not only saying, do not be that - they are saying be so far from that - where no one will ever make you go beyond your word to do something.
It ought to be unnecessary for you to take an oath, because it would be unfathomable that you would not keep your word.
So what does this have to do with patience? It’s a catch all summary statement as James reiterates the words of Jesus. James has spilled much ink to state that the manner in how we speak is of the utmost importance. Here he teaches us to be patience, which includes the words we use - do not grumble - but also above all else let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
So James teaches us to continue to tame our tongues. To tame our tongues in suffering to be patient in our speech and not grumble against our brothers, but also not to grumble against God, and accuse him of wrongdoing - to do as Job did - remain blameless and not curse God as Job refused to do - even when life is in shambles. But instead to remember that Jesus was and is and is to come. Remember that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Remember that God is always good and God is always faithful. Regardless of whatever AWFUL circumstance may come your way.
