James Chapter 5 — Commentary and Notes on Verse 8

    You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

    Here James applies the simile, again enforcing patience; it is a lesson that needs much pressing.

    Standfirm. The Septuagint uses this term for the holding up of Moses’ hands (Exodus 17:12). And here it denotes an immovableness in the faith and hope of Christianity, notwithstanding the many oppressions they had met with. In short, it implies two things—firmness of faith and constancy in grace.

    (1)      Firmness in faith, when, out of the encouragement of a sure trust, we can sit down under God’s will and good pleasure.

    (2)      Constancy in grace, when we are not so bowed with our troubles as to depart from our innocence.

    It is the duty of God’s children in time of trouble to standfirm and to put on a holy courage. It is said of a good man that “his heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes” (Psalm 112:8); that is, he will neither be discouraged in respect to trust nor miscarry in respect to constancy and perseverance. Oh, that we would labor for this firmness! We lose hope, and therefore we lose patience; we are soft-hearted, and so we are overborne. There is a holy obstinacy and hardness of heart that is nothing but a firmness in our Christian purposes and resolutions. We need this in these times; there are persecutions and troubles. Soft and delicate spirits are soon tired due to errors and delusions; wanton and vain spirits are soon seduced due to scandals and offenses by false brothers going wrong. Weak and easy hearers are soon discouraged.

    In Nehemiah’s time there were troubles outside, delusions from the Samaritans and Tobiah, and oppression by false brothers (Nehemiah 5). To fortify you against all these, think of this: the Lord hates those who draw back. The crab is counted among the unclean creatures (Leviticus 11:10); the four beasts of prophecy each went straight forward (Ezekiel 1:9). If you do not know how to get this holy hardness or strength of spirit, go to God for it. Human strength is small and soon overborne: “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14). “God … after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10). Ask him to give you courage and to strengthen and settle your faith against all temptations and dangers.

    BecausetheLord’scomingisnear. This may mean, first, near to them by a particular judgment, for there were only a few years before all was lost. This is probably what the apostles meant when they spoke so often about the nearness of Christ’s coming (Philippians 4:5; Hebrews 10:25; compare 1 John 2:18). But you will say, “How could it be propounded as an argument for patience to the godly Hebrews that Christ would come and destroy the temple and city?” I answer:

    (1)      The time of Christ’s solemn judiciary process against the Jews was the time when he acquitted himself with honor against his adversaries, and the scandal and reproach of his death was rolled away.

    (2)      The approach of his general judgment ended the persecution; and when the godly were provided for at Pella, the unbelievers perished by the Roman sword.

    Secondly, this may mean the day of general judgment that, because of its certainty and the uncertainty of its particular approach, has always been represented to the church as near at hand. Or else this may mean that, in comparison with eternity, all the time between Christ’s ascension and his second coming seems as nothing.

    The world’s duration, in comparison with eternity, is short. “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). People count time long, because they measure it by the terms of their own duration; but God brings all ages into the indivisible point of his own eternity, and all is as nothing to him—just a moment, “like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). Though there were more than two thousand years between the first separation and the calling of the Gentiles, God says, “For a brief moment I abandoned you” (Isaiah 54:7). The Word does not judge by sense and appearance. We, being impatient of delays, count moments long; but God does not judge these things “as some understand slowness” (2 Peter 3:9)—that is, as we conceive it. To short-lived creatures, a few years may seem an age; but Scripture, measuring all things by the existence of God, reckons otherwise. Human reason relies altogether on external sense and feeling; and therefore, just as man measures his happiness by incidents in time, so he measures his duration by temporal existence.

    When will we look within the veil and learn to measure things by faith and not by sense? We count moments long; but God, who exists eternally, counts thousands of years as a brief moment. All external things have their periods, beyond which they cannot pass; but eternity is a day that is never overcast with the shadows of night. Certainly all time should be brief to those who know the greatness of eternity. And the whole globe of the earth is simply like a middle point to the vast circumference of the heavens. This life, too, is but a moment compared to eternity. If we valued everything as the Word does, it would not be so irksome to us to wait for Christ’s coming. Too much softness cannot brook a little delay.