James 5

Notes

Ver. 1. Be alarmed, ye rich, unbelieving Jews. Dreadful calamities shall quickly overtake you except ye repent, and bereave you of whatever you have on earth, yea, of life itself, in the general destruction of your nation; which shall also be followed with inexpressibly more dreadful miseries in hell. 2, 3. Your ill-gotten and ill-employed treasures being cursed of God, instead of profiting you in the day of his wrath, shall, by the loss of them, torment your minds; shall tempt your enemies to ravage your country, pillage your houses, and murder your persons; and shall occasion you more terrible torments in hell. 4. The Most High, who ruleth over all creatures, has heard the complaints of your poor labourers, whom ye have fraudulently deprived of their wages, and will render that which ye have unjustly withheld from them a plague and mean of terrible destruction to yourselves. 5, 6. Ye have luxuriously and sensually rioted on the bounties of God's providence, as if every day had been a festival; and, under pretence of law, have condemned and murdered the righteous Lord Jesus and many of his faithful servants, who never offered you the least violence or injury. But the time is at hand when God shall fully punish these and your other abominations.—7, 8. As God therefore permits and overrules these unrighteous persecutions for the trial of your faith and patience, do you, my Christian brethren, labour to bear them without murmuring at his holy hand therein; and with patience, meekness, fortitude, and calm composure of mind, steadfast faith, and resolution to bear testimony for him and his ways, wait till the Lord Jesus, by executing his purpose on your nation, deliver you from their cruel persecutions, and, by death and the last judgment, usher in your complete and everlasting happiness. 9. And since he, the great Judge of the world, is so ready to punish your persecutors, let none of you expose yourselves to a share in their condemnation and punishment, by venting any envious, fretful, and revengeful complaints or wishes against them for the injuries they do you. 10, 11. And to encourage you to such a becoming conduct, reflect much on the behaviour of the ancient prophets under their sore trials—with what patience and courage they endured the manifold persecutions which they suffered for adherence to the truth. And learn, especially from the singular afflictions of Job, his marvellous patience under them, and the merciful issue thereof in redoubled honours and happiness, what a God of infinite compassion and kindness ye have to uphold you under, carry you through, and give you the blessed fruits of all your trials and afflictions. 12. As your unbelieving brethren are so dreadfully addicted to that unprofitable, Heaven-daring, and soul-ruinous sin of profane swearing, I beseech you earnestly to guard against every rash, passionate, or unnecessary oath, whether by God himself or by his creatures; and let your whole conversation be so evidently honest and upright that your plain affirmation or denial may gain you sufficient credit. 13. If any of you be in afflicted circumstances, let him exercise himself much in solemn and fervent prayer, for support under, relief from, and a sanctified improvement of them. And if any be surrounded with the blessings of providence and grace, let him express his gratitude to the God of his mercies in cheerful thanksgivings and praises. 14, 15. If any of you appear to have any bodily distemper inflicted on him, as the punishment of some remarkable sin, let him desire the rulers of the church, especially such as are vested with miraculous powers, to meet together and pray over him; and let them, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus, from regard to his appointment, and in dependence on his influence, anoint him with oil, as a mean of his recovery; and in answer to their prayer of faith Jesus Christ shall render the means effectual for his relief, and shall, through the man's own exercise of faith in his blood, pardon the sinful cause of the trouble, as to its temporal or eternal punishment. 16-18. Always show a readiness to acknowledge whatever offences you have given one to another, or even other sins which lie heavy on your consciences, in order that ye may cheerfully forgive, sympathize with, and affectionately and earnestly pray for each other, as your distresses of body or mind require. And to encourage your fervent prayer for one another, observe, from the miraculous drought or rain procured by Elijah's prayer, what a wonderful power and success the prayer of true and lively saints hath, when, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, it is excited, conducted, and animated by a sacred warmth of heart. 19, 20. And if any of you are successful in your endeavours for the recovery of some apostate or backslider from the truth, and from his erroneous notions or sinful practices, thank God for it, as a high honour, that thereby you are made instrumental in the salvation of an immortal soul, in recovering him from spiritual and eternal destruction, and in leading a neighbour into the way of life, pardon, and peace; and thereby preventing a multitude of sins which he and others, tempted by his example and influence, would have committed.

Ver. 1. Ye rich men. Not those who are rich, and have learned to use their riches, but those who trust in riches, live in luxury, and forget their God. C.

Ver. 2. Riches. Not silver or gold, but 'corn, and wine, and oil,' the emblems of luxury, 'corrupted' through keeping for revelry, instead of being timeously distributed in generous charity, ver. 5. C.

Ver. 5. As in a day of slaughter. When all your vengeful passions being let loose, ye revelled in the death of the defenceless. C.

Ver. 7. Be patient. The simple mention of the word 'patient' shows that the apostle is addressing the sufferers. C.

Ver. 14. This 'anointing' was evidently the symbol of miraculous healing, for the person prayed for was to be certainly 'raised up' as evidence that the sin of which the sickness was the punishment was as certainly forgiven as the disease was healed, 1 Co. 11. 29, 30; Mar. 2. 5, 10, 11. Therefore, to continue the ordinance of anointing without the miraculous power, and for the purpose of healing, is an act of wilful perversion, and not of divine obedience. C.

Ver. 16. Confess, &c. This mutual confession is as general as mutual prayer; and to confine confession to him who is called priest, as the Romanists do, is, by consequence, to confine prayer for the sick to him also: an absurdity this against which nature and revelation equally protest.—Effectual fervent prayer. Rather, 'the earnest supplication.' Some would render it 'the inwrought prayer'—inwrought by the Spirit; but all Christian prayer must be so, Ro. 8. 26, 27; and there appears no sufficient authority for such translation, nor does the context point to it. C.

Reflections.—Worldly riches are an unavoidable snare to a covetous carnal heart. Often are they abused in luxury and oppression, and hasten their owners into eternal perdition. For the cries of the poor and oppressed infallibly draw down the vengeance of Heaven upon their oppressors. There is great need of patience in this world, where wickedness and distress abound. Nor, as repeated instances manifest, can anything issue more honourably or happily.—It is base and criminal for any, but especially professed Christians, to swear rashly, ignorantly, unrighteously, or in common conversation.—But very honourable is it to accommodate our religion to our lot; to give ourselves to effectual fervent prayers for ourselves and others; to be always ready humbly to acknowledge our own faults, and carefully to prevent or reclaim our neighbours from sin. Lord, if this be practical Christianity, how little of it is to be found on earth!

Concluding Remarks on the General Epistle of James.

The abrupt termination of this epistle, so unlike the apostolic formality of its opening, has led many to conclude that it was never finished, but was cut short by the sudden martyrdom of the apostle. The conjecture is a probable one, and, whether accurate or not, may well serve to remind every man to 'work while it is called to-day.'

The mind of the attentive reader can scarcely fail to be struck with the peculiarity of the style, which may be called catenated: that is, the third verse, by the word 'trying,' is linked, as it were, into the second, by the word 'temptations;' the fourth into the third verse by the word 'patience;' the fifth into the fourth by the words 'wanting' and 'lack,' &c.—a peculiarity that continues to be largely exemplified throughout the whole epistle. Nor are peculiarities without their value. (1) Peculiarities of style are well suited to peculiarities of minds; and he that may be little impressed with one mode of diction, may have his attention rivetted by another. In this respect nature and revelation agree. Nature presents an object of study and interest to every peculiarity of taste—a similar variety is presented in the teaching of the Spirit. (2) Peculiarities of style serve to demonstrate that the apostles were not imitators of each other; and, if compared with all pretended revelations—in which the stamp of one mind, or the concerted plan of two or more, is easily and certainly detected—the mere variety of Scripture style will go far to prove that the writers have delivered no 'cunningly devised fable.' That they wrote independently of each other, at different times and places, and with different objects, while yet their agreement is such, and so complete, that it can be rationally accounted for upon no other principle than that they wrote under the guidance of one common Spirit. (3) The apparent discrepancy between Paul and James, on the subject of justification by faith, will also serve, when carefully examined, to illustrate the same fact—the most accurate agreement without the possibility of concert;—for had there been concert, there could never have been such an approach to apparent contradiction; while it will further demonstrate the wisdom of God in the progressive development of the Scriptures, whereby the obscurities of one book are illustrated by the light of another, and the misapprehension or abuse of one doctrine corrected by a practical commentary, so soon as the misapprehension or abuse had budded, and before it could take root in the field of the church. C.