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James 5:7–11 (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.
You’ve probably heard the cliché, “The best things in life are worth waiting for.” Well, what exactly are those “best things” that are worth the wait? We could talk about commonplace things: a good meal, a good wine, a good book, a good movie. We could also talk about things that are much more significant and require a deliberate investment of substantial amounts of time from us: in other words, patient, long-term, repeated work on our part. That includes such things as wisdom, a meaningful career, the fulfillment of our aspirations and dreams, great friendships, true love, a wonderful marriage or great relationships with your kids. All of those things are worth the wait, but that requires patience on our part as we wait for those things to ripen to amazing fruition.
Our passage is all about patience, and there are some things that catch my attention in the passage.
First, there are two keywords connected with patience in our passage. The first is the Greek word that we translate into English as patience in verse 7. The Greek word is better translated as long-suffering, and it carries the undertone that something isn’t right, just, or fair. However, the thing is, we can’t do anything about the situation. Whatever it is, it will persist, possibly for a long while, and we simply have to put up with it.
The second word in the passage is steadfast in verse 11. In Greek, the word literally means to stay under, to hang in there under the pressure. Whatever the issue is, you can’t avoid it or remove it, you simply must endure.
In the passage, James uses these two key words to call believers to wait on the Lord, and to trust the Lord to bring about healing, restoration, and reconciliation, all in His good timing. “Have patience”, that’s an easy thing to say, but we may have questions regarding why we should care about and even want to cultivate patience in our lives.
“Why be patient?” Patience is not really part of the DNA of our culture. We want things now (see yesterday’s video clip as a good example). Fast food, movies, documents through email, and packages delivered the next day or overnight. Why should we wait or seek to cultivate patience apart from those times when we are forced to be patient?
Patience is a matter of trust. As we wait, we are trusting that the Lord is at work in the middle of things. God is always working and moving in our lives, but the truth is that we just don’t often see it. That’s what James is driving at in the illustration about the farmer in verse 7. Wonderful stuff happens with that seed, which was planted until the time of harvest.
We don’t often see how the Lord is working and moving, but He always is, fulfilling His promises even if we can’t perceive God’s work in the moment.
The second question we might have is “How long; how long do we have to be patient?” James gives us the answer in verse 7, “until the coming of the Lord.” There are some things that we suffer through that don’t last long (thank you, Lord!), there are some things that we are waiting on the Lord for, which may take longer; there are some things that may be resolved in part but not fully, and there are other things which we may never know how they are resolved. So, we wait and trust the Lord during those times, just like the prophets, just like Job; that’s the long-suffering stuff. We wait and trust the Lord as long as needed, until Jesus comes or until we go and see Him. The reality is that there is a rich treasure from the Lord that can only be found in times of waiting and even long suffering.
“And then what?” Good question. What happens when the Lord comes? When the Lord comes, what was wrong will be set right. That’s the point James makes when he says the judge is standing at the door in verse 9. The judge will set it all right: wrong will be punished, justice affirmed, and what’s broken will be healed and made whole again.
Then, there is one last question. “What do we do now in the meantime?” Right now, we remain alert and expectant for what the Lord is doing. We expect that the Lord is working in our circumstances, and we are alert to the opportunities for us to let the Lord shine through us as we’re invited to be part of the unstoppable progress of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reaching others with His love and grace, nurturing and equipping others and ourselves in faith, and being sent out in His name.
That’s the kind of passionate patience that the Lord desires to cultivate within you. Are you up for that?
God bless you, and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott
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