Reflections on James 5

James 05 (Contemporary English Version)
1. You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you.
   
2. Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
   
3. Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days.
   
4. You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops.
   
5. While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered.
   
6. You have condemned and murdered innocent people, who couldn't even fight back.
   
7. My friends, be patient until the Lord returns. Think of farmers who wait patiently for the spring and summer rains to make their valuable crops grow.
   
8. Be patient like those farmers and don't give up. The Lord will soon be here!
   
9. Don't grumble about each other or you will be judged, and the judge is right outside the door.
   
10. My friends, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They were patient, even when they had to suffer.
    
11. In fact, we praise the ones who endured the most. You remember how patient Job was and how the Lord finally helped him. The Lord did this because he is so merciful and kind.
    
12. My friends, above all else, don't take an oath. You must not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. "Yes" or "No" is all you need to say. If you say anything more, you will be condemned.
    
13. If you are having trouble, you should pray. And if you are feeling good, you should sing praises.
    
14. If you are sick, ask the church leaders to come and pray for you. Ask them to put olive oil on you in the name of the Lord.
    
15. If you have faith when you pray for sick people, they will get well. The Lord will heal them, and if they have sinned, he will forgive them.
    
16. If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you have done. Then you can pray for one another and be healed. The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot.
    
17. Elijah was just as human as we are, and for three and a half years his prayers kept the rain from falling.
    
18. But when he did pray for rain, it fell from the skies and made the crops grow.
    
19. My friends, if any followers have wandered away from the truth, you should try to lead them back.
    
20. If you turn sinners from the wrong way, you will save them from death, and many of their sins will be forgiven.

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The central point in these verses seems to be verse 7 - "Therefore, brothers, be patient until the Lord's coming." The first six verses address the rich, then James turns to the "brothers" in verse 7 to encourage their patience with their oppression at the hands of the rich until "the Lord's coming." And in their patient wait for the Lord's coming, he gives additional counsel.

James seems to lump all rich in his comments of verses 1-6, but that is not the general understanding of these verses. Rather they are a commentary on the rich who have gained their wealth at the expense of others and who hoard their gains for their own pleasures rather than using them for the relief of those in need. While James assures the rich that their life of ease and wealth will not last, the tacit message to those who have suffered at the hands of those rich people who have gained their wealth by oppressive means is that the tables will eventually be turned. A day is coming when the rich will have their own miseries and their wealth will be ruined. During the intervening period, the oppressed should be patient for the Lord's coming when He will make all things right.

Why doesn't the Lord make things right now? Why must some be allowed to oppress while others must endure the oppression? James does not address this question which falls under the topic of man's free will to make his own choices. God has not made us puppets who He dangles on a string, controlling our every move. Either we have the freedom to make choices of our own volition or we do not. And if we have that freedom we must also have the freedom to make bad choices, which we all do - some more so than others. And the bad choices of one usually infringes on the wellbeing of another. However, the Lord has not set us adrift to making choices in life without help in making good choices. Choices that benefit not only ourselves but others as well. This, in fact, was James' message in the previous chapter when he said, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." (4:8) By choosing to draw near to God, He will guide us through the sea of choices in life.

James' message through the remainder of this chapter is advise on how to live as we wait patiently for the Lord's coming. During this intervening time he says:

• Do not complain about one another.
  
• Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Your "yes" must be "yes," and your "no" must be "no."
  
• Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him after anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. 
  
• Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful. 
  
• If any among you strays from the truth, . . . he should know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his life from death and cover a multitude of sins.