James's Final Warnings (Part 2)
a commentary on James 5 (Interpretation)
Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome to this week’s Biblit on James chapter 5!
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Yesterday we did a quick overview of chapter 5, and all the topics James packs into this amazing final chapter.
Today, we are going to dive a little deeper. It turns out that every single one of these topics James talks about has a direct correlation to Jesus’s preachings.
Let’s jump into them!
Interpretation
As we did in the context yesterday, let’s take each topic one at a time. This time we’ll see what Jesus has to say on the matter and see how that further emphasizes James’s points.
Warning to the Rich
The first topic James covers is yet another warning to the rich.
He makes it clear that riches will vanish upon death. The only thing riches will do for your soul is destroy it. Or the way James put it, prepare a heart for slaughter.
Jesus uses some very similar terminology in Matthew 6:
“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:29-21 CSB).
And in Luke 6, Jesus makes another point that parallels James.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.” (Luke 6:24 CSB).
James said that a rich person is preparing their heart for slaughter. Fattening it up. It seems like that is what Jesus is saying here too.
Another interesting viewpoint on this fattening the heart for slaughter concept is to realize that the fattened animal is unaware of their impending doom. The same is true for a rich person; they are constantly fed by the world, happy as a clam, unaware of their impending doom.
If you get comfort from riches, indulge in earthly desires and materialistic gain, then you’ve already received your reward. You made your point clear; you’d prefer fleeting riches in a temporary life rather than eternal riches in an eternal life with God.
Waiting for the Lord
If striving for comforts and riches isn’t the answer, that must mean life is full of hardship, right?
Let’s be honest; even if you did strive for comfort and riches, you will face plenty of hardship too.
This whole section is just another reminder that during life there will be times of trial and waiting. James reminds us to live in patience and in hope.
This comes in both a hope and a warning. He says that God’s judgment, the coming of Christ, is soon. And he warns us to be prepared, not to live in sin anymore, but be ready always for the coming of Christ.
But this is also an encouragement and we ought to live in patience and hope for Jesus to come back!
And in Jesus’s own words:
“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 CSB).
Truthful Speech
Right after talking about patiently waiting for the Lord, James jumps into truthful speech.
James uses some wording in this verse to make it seem like above all, this section is of the utmost importance.
And if you think about it, if you look throughout scripture, honesty is always of the utmost importance to God. Keeping the covenants and sanctity are extremely important to Him.
He says some odd things here about not taking an oath by heaven or earth or any other oath. But just let your yes mean yes. In other words, you shouldn’t need to make an oath on something. When you say you’ll do something…do it!
This wisdom is also reminiscent of Jesus’s words too:
“Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, ‘You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.’ But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; or by the earth, because it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:33-37 CSB).
So what are James and Jesus really saying?
The first thing to note is that in that day and age people would make oaths on earthly things. Today this might sound like: “I swear on my mother’s grave.”
What’s really happening is that person is using some earthly idol as a witness to their oath, as if it is going to hold them accountable to it. However, in reality, this is still a form of idolatry and is breaking God’s laws.
But what about not making oaths with God as a witness?
What’s wrong about that? Paul takes an oath by God in Romans:
“God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (Romans 1:9-10 CSB).
So then, what are Jesus and James really getting at here beyond idolatry?
Well, I did some research and it seems what Jesus is getting at is to avoid these kinds of oaths in a legalistic way.
In that culture, you would make oaths to God or the gold of the temple, or the animal for the sacrifice as a traditional oath.
Similar to how if you’re in a courtroom you make an oath on the Bible.
The implication that Jesus is calling out here is that you only need to be honest when you make those kinds of oaths. That if you break that oath and lie, it’s a huge deal. If you lie any other time, not so much.
Jesus and James are both saying that is folly.
It doesn’t matter if you made an oath to God or not, a lie is a lie.
They are both warning us that it is of the utmost importance to God that we are always honest, no matter what kind of oath we’ve taken. That shouldn’t matter.
Effective Prayer
This next section is all about prayer.
This section is divided into 3 main pieces within the subject of prayer:
Prayer in suffering and sickness, including the prayers and anointing from elders
Praises to the Lord
Praying for the lost
Prayer for Suffering and Sickness
The first idea of praying to God for help in suffering or healing of someone else is all about praying with faith.
This idea can be rooted back to Jesus’s words too:
“Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. And if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:21-22 CSB).
Of course, there are also times when the suffering continues and the sickness doesn’t end. What about that?
We can always look backwards in James and ensure we are asking with the correct motives, but that might not be the case here.
One really important thing to note is that if the suffering and sickness continues after praying, that doesn’t mean God is ignoring you.
It could mean that this is a trial He wants you to face, and you just need to trust in Him during this time. As James said in the beginning, trials form us into completeness, so that we may lack nothing.
The trouble is when we believe God abandoned us and we take matters into our own hands.
Paul says this about suffering:
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the commanding officer. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to get a share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2 Timothy 2:3-7 CSB).
The one that stands out to me is the endurance athlete.
You only get the medal if you stick through the entire race. If you get tired and worn out and quit or cheat to cut 7 miles off the race, you are disqualified.
I believe the same is true of our suffering. If we try and find our own ways out without trusting the Lord, then we will not get the reward, which according to James is completeness.
What about being anointed?
The other confusing passage in here is that this is actually the last occurrence of the idea of anointing someone with oil to heal them.
What should we do with that?
Anointing with oil was a pretty powerful concept back then. In fact the Greek and Hebrew words for someone who has been anointed is where we get the words Christ and Messiah.
This means those titles literally mean Jesus the Anointed One.
This is really important for Jesus because throughout scripture 3 different groups of people have ever been anointed or commanded to anoint.
Priests
Prophets
Kings
Jesus is the culmination of all 3 of those roles. He is our High Priest, He is our King from the line of Judah, and He is a prophet, speaking the literal word of God to us.
So then, why are we told to anoint for healing purposes and should we still do that today?
The first thing to note in this passage is that we are called to call the elders to anoint and pray for this person. This implies the sick person is so ill they cannot attend church, otherwise they would see the elders (or prayer team) at church.
The oil part, though?
This is actually a passage the Catholics use to back up their sacraments of extreme unction. I don’t know much about it other than the name.
But that’s not what this is really saying either.
From what I’ve read through commentaries, because of the powerful uses of oil throughout scripture, oil in this context really is just a way to physically show a consecration to God. It is a powerful image going all the way back to the Garden of Eden where God anointed the ground with water so the plants could grow, and anointed us with His breath so we may have life.
It is just a physical act representing the spiritual truth that we belong to God and dedicate ourselves fully to Him.
I’m actually doing a deeper study on the idea of anointing right now, so perhaps we’ll expand this idea a bit more in a bonus Biblit.
For now we’ll leave the oil topic.
Prayers for the Lost
Finally, the oil leads us into the final truth of praying for the lost in Spirit.
This once again roots to the idea of restoring a brother to Christ.
This idea can be expanded upon with Jesus’s words too:
“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.” (Matthew 18:15-17 CSB).
The point here is not to kick someone out of the congregation. But to treat them as someone who doesn’t believe in God. This implies a more intentional relationship with even more love than if they did believe in God.
It also implies a mission critical role for us, as believers, to call out brothers and sisters that are straying from the faith.
James ends this section with a huge encouragement and charge:
“My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20 CSB).
With that, we’ll call it a day and wrap up James chapter 5 tomorrow with our final Biblit in James!