Part 13: True Faith is Patient

Introduction

Has anyone ever tried your patience?

Ever since I have switched over to Verizon for my phone service, they have tried my patience. And I might add, I probably did not handle every trying situation with them in the very best of ways.

1. True Faith is Patient (5:7)

James 5:7 NASB95

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.

A Command

Patience = long-suffering = “to be even-tempered while enduring trying circumstances”; “to defer one’s anger even-temperedly under provocation” (Lexham)

Proverbs 19:11 “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.”

Prov 19:11: HCSB: “A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.”

Until He Comes

“the coming” (parousia) = mostly refers to Jesus’ second coming in the NT; sometimes to his first coming

The command to be patient is, therefore, always in effect. Once we put faith in Jesus Christ, one of the practices we are to get better at is patience.

Illustration:

The King’s Rice

Once there was a king who got lost while traveling alone in a forest. As night started to fall, he looked around from a hilltop, but didn’t see any people or villages nearby.

After some time, he noticed a light shining from a long distance. He started to walk toward it and eventually reached a hut where he found an old lady cleaning up.

Seeing him, she welcomed him, thinking that he was a soldier from the army. She offered him some water to clean himself and drink. She then made a bed for him to lie down.

She gave him a plate of hot rice and curry, and he was so hungry that he quickly grabbed the hot food, which burnt his fingers, causing him to spill some rice on the floor.

The old lady noticed and exclaimed, “Oh, you too are impatient like your king! Wanting all of it at once, you have burnt your fingers and lost some food!”

The king was surprised and responded, “Why do you think our king is impatient?”

The old lady explained, “Our king has a big dream of capturing all his massive enemy forts all at once, and he is ignoring all the small forts.”

The king interrupted by asking, “What is the problem with that?”.

She smiled and replied, “The king’s impatience to defeat the enemies resulted in the loss of men in his army, just like your impatience resulted in the loss of your food. Instead, if you eat the cooler food at the edge of your plate first and then make your way to the center slowly, you wouldn’t have burnt your fingers or wasted your food.

Similarly, the king should focus on the small forts to strengthen his position bit by bit so he can capture the massive forts without losing his men in the army.”

The point: The king wanted success immediately, and so he focused on taking over his enemies in one fell swoop. We, like the king, want patience right now. We are impatient to receive patience. Oh, the irony!

But there is a false assumption here: that God can and does just zap us with patience. But patience is something we work on, and it takes time. We must put the effort in, we must practice it, and we make slow, small steps. Eventually, we can reach having more patience and being more perfect at it.

Patience is endurance in action.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Application:

James tell us in v.7b: “The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.”

Do we practice this kind of patience? Or are we impetuous, wanting what we want now, or expecting God to zap us with it?

Important: Patience must be practiced (it is not given)

Dallas Willard here from “Omission”: “Spiritual transformation into Christ-likeness is not going to happen to us unless we act.” (p.57) It is “an active, not passive, process, one that requires our clear-headed and relentless participation.” (p.74).

God in “Evan Almighty” played by Morgan Freeman: “If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience, or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?”

Areas to be patient:

Patience with the biblical text. One of the reasons we probably do not read and study the Bible is bc we do not have patience with it. We are too hurried and rushed in life.

Patience with others

True faith has patience

Where there is no patience, there is not even a spark of faith.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

But true faith is also more:

2. Patience Is Resolute (v.8)

James 5:8 NASB95

You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Picking up from the previous verse about the farmer being patient, James reiterates for us to be patient. But he now adds the command to “strengthen your heart.”

Heart-strengthening

“strengthen” = resolute, resolve, confirm = “to make more marked by firm determination or resolution” (Lexham)

“heart” = refers to “the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind), volition, emotions, and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience)” (Lexham)

“heart” = “inner man”

Romans 7:22 “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.”

2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

Ephesians 3:16 “. . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”

“strengthen your hearts” in contrast to “fattening your hearts” in James 5:5 “You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”

The fattening of hearts = self-indulgence

Strengthening your hearts = opposite of self-indulgence = self-control, self-restraint; even self-sacrifice, servanthood

Douglas Moo:

The Letter of James C. Patiently Enduring Trials Earns God’s Reward (5:7–11)

As they wait patiently for their Lord to return, believers need to fortify themselves for the struggle against sin and with difficult circumstances.

Struggle against sin is about sanctification, what we call “progressive sanctification.”

How is the strengthening of one’s heart accomplished?

God does it:

1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 “May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”

2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.”

But we also do it: It is a command

James himself commands us to strengthen our hearts.

Get a quote from Willard: “Our part in this transformation, in addition to constant faith and hope in Christ, is purposeful, strategic use of our bodies in ways that will restrain them.”

Recall how our bodies are yet to be redeemed. As such, the sinful habits still remain. The effects of sin are still alive and well in our bodies.

Romans 6:13 “And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

How long do we have to struggle against sin? How much time do we put into being patiently resolute?

Until He Comes

“ . . . for the coming of the Lord is near.”

Here we see, again, it is until the Lord returns. James, however, adds a different sense to this idea. He adds sense of urgency. He says that our faith ought to be producing resolute, confident faith because the Lord’s return in “near.”

The NT Christians always lived in such a way as to expect Jesus’ return at any moment. This was because of Jesus’ constant teaching to always be ready for his return. He told many parables about this.

Matthew 24:42–44 ““Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

Application:

When Jesus returns, he wants to find us struggling against sin, working on our sanctification, putting patience into practice—in short, strengthening our hearts.

As CS Lewis says, “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight to harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs a present. And you cannot You cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

And that, by the way, is the point of the Church: “The church exists for nothing else but to draw people into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.”

Do we truly understand what it means to “strengthen our hearts?” Christ is looking to change us. The HS wants to work in us to change us. But too many times we shut him down by merely going to church or playing church. Or having the attitude of “I’ve been won, so now I’m done.”

Aphorisms: “Sitting in the pew will do.” “I’ve been saved but I’ll stay depraved.” “I’ll have a spiritual fire until I retire.”

True, genuine faith is resolute in strengthening one’s heart, to following Christ and becoming sanctified unto the end. And this takes patience.

But Patience is also about avoiding complaining

3. Patience Avoids Complaining (v.9)

James 5:9 NASB95

Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.

A Command

“complain” = bemoan, groan = “to vocally indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure” (Lexham)

Probably one of the easiest and most committed sin in all of human life is complaining, esp against each other in the church.

OT examples:

Exodus 15:24 “So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’”

Exodus 16:2 “The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.”

Exodus 17:3 “But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’”

Deuteronomy 1:26–27 “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.’”

Numbers 14:26–30 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

Israelites continued to complain. In Num 21 their grumbling was so bad that God sent poisonous serpents among them as punishment.

God does not like complaining.

Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.”

James specifically has in mind complaining against one another.

One of the greatest sins is to complain and grumble with those inside the church, among Christians themselves.

In fact, we see James telling us that it is one of the worst sins. He warns us of what happens to complainers: they are judged.

To Avoid Judgement

James 5:9 NASB95

Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.

Grumbling brings judgment.

And the judge (Jesus Christ) is right here!

Complaining shows we have no patience for others. But if we are to have true faith as we say we do, then it must show itself by avoiding grumbling.

Illustration:

Have you ever heard of a store banning a customer? An AP story back in 2003:

1000 Fresh Illustrations Complaining

Nancy Singer and her sister . . . had been loyal customers of Filene’s Basement for years when one day they received a letter from the chain of stores asking them not to return. They acknowledged they had returned many items and occasionally complained about the service and that they had had a few run-ins with store mangers, but neither sister felt their actions were excessive. Singer said, “The sales staff is always telling you to go ahead and buy it, and return it if it doesn’t fit or look right.”

David Sherer, Vice President of loss prevention at the Ohio based discount chain wrote a letter to the sisters. He wrote, “Given your history of excessive returns and your chronic unhappiness with our services, we have decided that this is the best way to avoid any future problems with you and your sister.” James McGrady, chief financial officer for the chain admitted that customer bans are “extremely rare.” He noted that the sisters had returned an “incredible” number of items and said sales associates were spending too much time handling the sister’s returns and complaints. McGrady added, “There comes a point in time when you say enough is enough on both sides.”

Application

Have you ever been around someone who does nothing but complain and grumble? Complaining and grumbling gets old. Eventually, people do not want to be around you. They also will not take you seriously.

Additionally, the constant complaining shows what kind of person you really are:

Luke 6:45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

When you complain and grumble about others it shows you are selfish, vindictive, prideful and arrogant.

Moreover, complaining about others hurts people (when we are to be building up), breaks trust (when we are called to rely upon one another), causes division (when we are called to unity), and sows discord which often can lead to church splits. As a result, not only have we destroyed one another by our own mouth, but we have shown the world that the church is dark rather than full of light of Christ.

Is that the kind of blood we want our hands? The reason for destroyed relationships and/or a church split? For driving people away from Christ?

Scripture warns us of such things:

Galatians 5:14–15 “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

Complaining and grumbling spread like gangrene.

Ephesians 4:1–2 “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”

Patience is esp needed in times of suffering.

4. Patience and Suffering Often Go Together (v.10-11)

James 5:10–11 NASB95

As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

The Prophets

E.g., Jeremiah: his brothers and relatives formed a conspiracy against him to have him killed

Priests of Israel tried to have him killed; when unsuccessful, they banned him from the Temple; they also destroyed much of his first written copy of the book Jeremiah and had to re-write it;

Israelite commanders of the army had him labeled as a traitor and threw him into prison.

Job

Everything of Job’s was taken away. His wealth, all his children, his health, and even his wife cursed him and God and told him to die.

Point: all these people suffered, but they suffered with patience. They had true faith, a faith that endured. And why were they able to have patience and endurance? Because they knew something very important about the character of our Lord.

The Lord

They knew that God is a loving and merciful God and will never abandon those who are his.

True patience is to suffer the wrongs done to us by others in an unruffled spirit and without feeling resentment. Patience bears with others because it loves them; to bear with them and yet to hate them is not the virtue of patience but a smokescreen for anger.

Gregory the Great

What is interesting in the examples James gives:

Prophets were typically beat, persecuted, and killed by their own people. In addition, many of the prophets never reaped any kind of material or earthly blessings. Jeremiah probably died in Egypt as he went along with those Israelites who stayed behind during the Babylonian captivity.

Job, on the other hand, although going through great turmoil was eventually blessed materially double-fold when it was all said and done.

What do we learn from this?

Application:

We must be patient and endure no matter what the outcome will be during this temporal life.

Sometimes our entire life may be one great battle after another. Sometimes it may be one in which the battle lasts for a season and we will be greatly blessed in this world, materially or otherwise, at the end of that season.

No matter the outcome, we are to have a true, genuine faith that shows itself through patience.

Patience is the fruit and proof of faith.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

We must keep our eyes focused upon the Lord’s promise.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Why are we able to trust in God’s promise? Because we know who he is.

Compassionate:

Psalm 40:11 “You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.”

Psalm 103:13 “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

Merciful:

Psalm 86:15 “But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”

Conclusion

One characteristic of true faith is patience. And under the umbrella of patience are resolve, a strengthening of the heart (or becoming like Christ), and avoiding complaining, esp against one another. Patience must esp be practiced in times of suffering.

Patience, like all other Christian character traits (or virtues), is to be practiced continually until Christ returns.