“Trials, training, trust, tranquility”
Download discussion questions: James 5:1-11
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I encourage you to look at the passage in James before you read this Blog entry. What do you see in the text yourself? What questions come to your mind? How would you interpret what the writer says? After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.
This week’s handout with the passage from the Letter of James did not include any detailed questions. Instead, we explored the text with the basic methods of Observation, Interpretation, and Application.
A common tendency in a Bible study is to look for practical application immediately. The discrete steps of Observation, Interpretation, and Application guard against over or under applying a passage. We can miss important information, or we can read into the passage ideas that are not truly in the text. Separating the three phases requires intention and diligence.
It should be remembered that at times observation and interpretation are almost inseparable…. There is often an interplay between the different steps which cannot and should not be totally avoided. Nevertheless, it is important that one always be able to distinguish between the various steps when called upon to do so. For if there is ever a blurring of the process to the extent that the various phases of study become indistinguishable, then eisegesis [reading into the text – mw] will inevitably result.
Robert Traina [1]
Observation
Why the emphasis on observation?
The general function of observation is to enable one to become saturated with the particulars of a passage so that one is thoroughly conscious of their existence and of the need for their explanation.[2]
Being “saturated” with details of the passage is a great guardrail against straying outside of the author’s intention. Often what a writer says a few lines down can correct a premature incorrect interpretation. Being saturated with a passage prevents the potential for erroneous exegesis.
Our group discussion brought out a number of notable features of the passage.
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- “Patience” and “steadfastness” are mentioned a number of times (v. 7 twice, v. 8, 10, v. 11 twice). A benefit of studying a passage as a group came out early on. One person commented on the three occurrences of “patient,” and another corrected the count to four. Rather than move immediately into a question about the relationship between those terms, we disciplined ourselves to continue diligent observation, saving such important questions for interpretation later.
- The phrase “coming of the Lord” is repeated (v. 7, 8).
- James addresses his readers as “brothers” for the first time in several sentences. He uses that term twice (v. 7, 9).
- The passage begins with “therefore” (v. 7).
- Several of the themes we have seen earlier in James are mentioned: judging (v. 9), speech (grumbling, v. 9), suffering (v. 10).
- James uses a variety of examples: a farmer (v. 7b), the prophets (v. 10), and Job (v. 11).
- The examples get increasingly specific, from a generic image of a farmer, to the collective group of historical prophets, to the very specific individual named Job.
- The examples continue James’s earlier practice of familiar, simple situations to illustrate his point.
- The examples are interwoven with exhortations to patience and steadfastness.
- Steadfastness is linked to blessedness (v. 11), another early theme in the letter (1:3, 4, 12).
Almost all of these observations spurred immediate questions (as Traina cautioned) that we tried to address in the interpretation phase. And naturally, often our interpretations led to further examination into the text and additional observations, Traina’s “interplay between the different steps.”
Interpretation
With so many insightful observations, it was easy to transition into asking questions, the key to good interpretation. The questions seldom follow the same order as the observations.
Grumbling
Our interpretation started with one person asking about grumbling (v. 9). What is it? How does it relate to previous statements about not speaking evil (4:11) or taming the tongue (3:8), etc.?
Someone commented that grumbling isn’t always out loud. Grumbling (mental or vocal) indicates an attitude. Another member pointed out that James’s caution about grumbling is “against one another” in the context of patience and steadfastness. It would seem that grumbling is a sure sign of failure in both categories.
The overall context of the letter came to one person’s mind: trials and economic struggles and even persecution. James begins with the incomprehensible instruction to “count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds” (1:2). In previous discussions we have seen how the problems James addresses would grow in those circumstances. Stress increases interpersonal tensions. Economic inequity could stimulate grumbling. “I’m being disrespected in our assembly when the rich person is pampered” (cf. James 2:1-4), a specific issue that James brought up early in his letter.
Therefore
Those comments took our attention to the “therefore” in verse 7. What connection is there between the previous passage and the problem of grumbling? What if you had been paid for your harvesting work, but your neighbor’s boss cheated him (v. 4) – or vice-versa? Grumbling is easy to imagine and difficult to avoid. The “therefore” suggests that this passage (nearing the end of the letter) is James’s response to one of numerous specific trials. In such situations, how do we “consider it all joy”? The previous section describes the oppressive injustice by the rich and powerful. James shows that self obsession (life working now – laying up treasure, v. 3; living in luxury and self-indulgence, v. 5) doesn’t endure. Instead, he points to a patient and steadfast God-obsession.
The Coming of the Lord
James offers a repeated reminder: our patience persists directly with our attention to “the coming of the Lord” (v. 7, 8). Anyone expecting pithy advice for making life work better (in the first century or today) would be disappointed. “Yes, of course, we all look forward to Jesus’ return, but what do I do now? How do I get the fraudulent land owner to pay me?” James is silent. He may not provide steps to make life work better. But he offers examples of what a better approach can look like.
Examples
The interspersed examples play a key part in James’s teaching. “Be patient until the coming of the Lord” may sound like a pious platitude, but James points to a real-life situation where patience is presumed. The farmer puts in plenty of hard work (something the cheated workers would understand, noted one of our group). But those efforts are followed by long periods where patience and perseverance are the only options. The oppressed believers also faced circumstances when patience and perseverance were the only options.
James’s example doesn’t end with an empty exhortation to patience. He provides the farmer’s underlying motivation, “precious fruit” (v. 7). The farmer knows what is ahead, and that anticipation enables his endurance. Likewise, the patience and perseverance of believers (then and now) is ultimately enabled by anticipation of what (or Who) is coming.
We explored that “precious fruit” in the second coming of the Lord. Comments included our union with Him, the beatific vision of God, the wedding feast of the Lamb, the eternally increasing joy. We have multiple pictures of the inexpressible future we anticipate.
Those pictures enable our endurance as we remind each other that no matter how good it sounds, the reality will be even better, a lot better. Patience is possible when we wait, like the farmer, in anticipation of that precious fruit.
Back to Grumbling
That close connection between patience and the coming of the Lord (v. 7, 8) took our discussion back to grumbling. Someone pointed out that grumbling (in heart or with tongue) “takes away from what the Lord is doing.” When life is not working the way we want, do we believe God is still at work? Do we really submit to what the Lord wills (4:15)? Can we continue to trust Him through trials? Can we remember that He is working His purposes in us? Do we really believe that the steadfastness that He is building in us has the end goal that we “may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4)? Grumbling is the wrong answer to all those questions. Grumbling short-circuits the process toward steadfastness.
Prophets
The link between trials and grumbling shows more clearly in James’s second example. The general patience of a farmer now narrows to the particular patience in suffering by the prophets (v. 10). The Scriptures (Old and New) are full of examples of those “who spoke in the name of the Lord” and those who remained faithful and steadfast and faced persecution (or worse) as a result.
One person mentioned Joseph, betrayed by his own family and falsely imprisoned. Yet God was working, through his steadfast faithfulness, toward a purpose that no one would have imagined. Actually, Joseph was the second Biblical figure our group discussed on the topic of suffering and patience. Like James (and most people), our minds first turned to Job.
Job
“The patience of Job” is proverbial even among unbelievers. (One person pointed out that Job is described as steadfast, but questioned if patience is ever attributed to him in Scripture.) More on patience and steadfastness later in our discussion.
We agreed that Job certainly struggled with God and with the enigmatic events of his life. Yet he was still able to trust God and to remain steadfast. He refuted his wife’s suggestion, “Curse God and die” (Job 1:9) with his understanding of God’s control of his circumstances, “’Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 1:10). He didn’t succumb when his self-righteous friends challenged him with their distorted ideas about God.
Patience and Steadfastness
In our discussion we recognized that Job did not always seem patient.
Job clearly lays the blame for his situation at the feet of God: “I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces” (Job 16:12). And so Job the impatient demands an audience with God: “Oh, that I knew where to find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments” (Job 23:3-4).[3]
Yet James uses Job as his final illustration of steadfastness. Someone asked a clarifying question about the difference between those two qualities, patience and steadfastness.
The ideas we considered led to the following distinction:
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- Patience is “peace while we are waiting” as one person phrased it. As suggested earlier, grumbling is inconsistent with that peaceful patience. Patience (or lack of patience) is our immediate, short-term response to our circumstances.
- Steadfastness is a deeper level of trust. Steadfastness, or endurance, or perseverance continues even when we are impatient. When we are able to see past the immediate discomfort and remember the character of God (all wise, all loving, all sovereign), we grow in steadfastness.
Job may have been understandably impatient, but he nevertheless exemplified the underlying steadfastness of trust in God.
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God.
(Job 19:25)
Job’s imperfections encouraged us (like our earlier discussions about the flawed saints in Hebrews 11). Even in doubts and questions and impatience, it is still possible to maintain steadfastness and to demonstrate faithful trust in God.
Blessedness
James describes that condition of steadfast faithful trust in God as “blessed” (v. 11), restating a principle from the beginning of his letter:
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. (James 1:12)
Even earlier, he described the core of that blessedness:
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:4).
That steadfastness is an integral part of a “perfect and complete” life of trusting God and resting in Him through any and all circumstances. Recognizing that God is wisely, lovingly, and sovereignly in control enables us to see trials as discipline for our good, as He trains us and refines us. That recognition enables us to trust Him, and our growing trust leads to tranquility, a life “lacking in nothing.”
Application
A member in our group shared a specific sample of steadfastness from a recent experience. A conversation that was expected to result in mercy actually turned to judgment from another person. As painful as the exchange was, Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 1:3 came to mind.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.
Like Job, this person recognized the hurtful words as an opportunity for God to display more of who He is and to reflect on His character. Steadfastness means seeing God at work in difficult situations. And seeing God at work builds our steadfastness.
Processing Life
As we were about to close and move into Communion, another person read from Psalm 73, describing the psalm as a window on how the writer processed the realities of life.
The psalm begins with an affirmation of God’s goodness.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
However, the psalmist’s steadfastness is tested by his painful personal experience, perhaps like the audience James had in mind.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
His complaint about the seeming injustice goes on for nine more verses. Some of his comments sound a lot like grumbling.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
His patience wears thin, questioning the value of following the Lord.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
His steadfastness brought him back to remember the character of God.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
He recognized (again, like James) that life working now is not the end of the story. God is still at work and will bring about His justice.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Perhaps even more importantly, he saw how his grumbling and wavering trust were affecting his soul.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
He affirmed the trustworthy and faithful character of God, that God doesn’t stop loving us even in our dark struggles.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
The Lord offers us something that is better than life working now. He offers us Himself.
[1] Robert A. Traina, Methodical Bible Study (Wilmore, Kentucky: Asbury Theological Seminary, 1952), 48-49, emphasis in the original.
[2] Robert A. Traina, Methodical Bible Study (Wilmore, Kentucky: Asbury Theological Seminary, 1952), 31, emphasis in the original.
[3] https://web-japan.bibleodyssey.org/articles/the-patience-of-job/#:~:text=As%20the%20book%20of%20Job%20goes%20on