The Word Made Fresh
1You rich people should cry and moan for the hardships you are going to experience, 2when your wealth has rotted, and your clothes are motheaten, 3and your gold and silver have gone to waste, and what you’ve wasted it on is used against you as evidence. It will make your flesh burn. You think you’ve gathered all this treasure for the last days, 4but take note – you cheated your employees who labored for you. You fraudulently kept back their wages, and their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5You have lived in luxury and pleasure and have grown fat with the slaughter as if every day was a feast day. 6You have murdered the righteous one whom you have condemned, one who doesn’t fight back.
7Be patient, friends, until the Lord comes. The farmer plants and then waits for the valuable crop to spring from the earth. He is patient with it, waiting for the early and late rains to come. 8You should be patient, too. Brace yourselves, for the Lord is coming soon.
9Don’t grumble against each other, friends, or you yourselves will be judged. The judge is there, standing at the door! 10Look at the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name long ago. They are examples of suffering and patience. 11Indeed, those who endured were blessed. You’ve heard of the endurance of Job, and you’ve seen how compassionate and merciful the Lord is.
12Above all, friends, do not swear – not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Just let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, or you might find yourselves under condemnation.
13Is anyone among you suffering? They should pray. Are there any who are cheerful? They should sing hymns of praise. 14Are there any who are ill? Call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them and anoint them with oil in the Lord’s name. 15The prayers of the faithful will save those who are sick. The Lord will heal them and their sins will be forgiven. 16So, you should confess your sins to each other and pray for one another so that you might be healed. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. 17Elijah, remember, was a man like us, and he prayed sincerely that it might not rain, and then for three years and six months it didn’t rain a drop on the ground. 18Then he prayed again, and the heavens poured rain on the earth and the earth yielded its harvest.
19Friends, if one of you wanders from the truth and then is brought back by another, 20know that the one who brings the sinner back will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.
Commentary
1-6: The final chapter begins with a withering diatribe against the wealthy who have contributed to the suffering of the poor.
7-11: Now he moves on to encourage his fellow believers. The clear implication is that the communities to which he is writing are made up mostly of the very poor (which, by the way, argues for an early date for the writing of James before Christianity had become more organized and moved into the cities where well-to-do believers were drawn in). He encourages them to be at peace with one another and to endure with patience, like Job.
12: Compare Matthew 5:34-37.
13-18: Finally, he says, pray. Pray if you’re suffering. Praise if you’re cheerful. If you’re sick, call on the spiritual leaders in the church to pray for you and anoint you with oil. He does not claim that such a ritual will heal the sick, but that it will save them. The anointing with oil may well be intended as a sort of last rites: the story of Mary the sister of Lazarus anointing Jesus’ feet comes to mind (John 12:1-7).
19-20: In the same way, rescuing one who has “wandered from the truth” is an act of salvation. Whoever does that “covers a multitude of sins.” But is that a reference to the one who wandered or to the one who rescued? On that ambiguous statement the letter (sermon?) comes to an end.
Takeaway
We are responsible for each other. When someone seems to have fallen away from the faith (or from the church) it is our responsibility to respond and encourage them. It is too easy to let them go. Engaging them in conversation about faith may even reveal some things about our congregation that need to be addressed. Their withdrawal may be a result of our lack of faith, not theirs!