Patience of the Saints: A Meditation on James 5

As the Church of Christ enters the season of Pentecost, she enters a time of work and trial.  Jesus sends His people out forgiven and free, but He sends them to work in His Name, and according to His Word.  Such work is arduous in a world that is often actively rejecting Him, a world marked by sin and death.  But it is a broken and dying world our Lord came to heal and to save.  It is this broken and dying world for which He gave His body to be broken, and His life to ransome.  It is this broken and dying world into which He sends His redeemed people, to bear witness of His great love and redemption for all mankind.

And it is a hard labor.  Not only are the saints themselves wrestling with the sin and death present in their own bodies, but they wrestle with the sin and death running rampant throughout the world—and against principalities and powers of evil, that use sin and death to enslave mankind.  The work of the saints is a labor surpassing human endurance and capacity, a work of being poured out in martyrdom as a witness to the love of Christ for all.  The saints of Christ battle every day against the sin which wars within them, and the sin which rages without.  And whether that war continues for but a few years, or many decades, its only culmination is by death.  Every saint of Christ will be called to bear the cross of martyrdom in this world, as they live and die in the grace of their Crucified and Risen Savior.

Such labor would seem insurmountable from a human perspective.  Who can look within himself, and see the resources necessary to remain patient and dutiful, when their own body begins to fail?  Who can imagine themselves equal to the task of martyrdom, when even the synapses of the mind begin to degrade, and the bright light of intellect begins to fade toward darkness?  Who can stand alone, like Jeremiah before an apostate nation, and be faithful in his witness when all the world derides, condemns, and persecutes the Word of God?  In fact, none of us can do this.  None of us is up to this great work.  None of us can stand against the evils within and without, and be victorious.  We are broken, and we are dying.

But thanks be to God, that our salvation does not rest on the labors of our hands.  God has seen the frailty of our frame, of our bodies, our minds, our communities.  And into the death and dying of our very selves, He pours the redemptive grace of His Son, by the power of His Holy Spirit.  For the Son of God has born the full labors necessary for us; He has fought the good fight; He has conquered sin, death, the devil and hell.  Where we could not stand, He has stood fast.  Where we could not reason, He has been all wisdom.  Where we could not endure public contempt, He has presented Himself as our Sacrifice.  This is the comfort of the saints—that they do not work their own works, but enlivened by their Victorious Lord Jesus Christ, they are raised up to a newness of life that by His power, bears witness of Him.  The labors of the saints are too much for any of them to accomplish—but they are not too hard for Him, who has called us out of darkness, and into His marvelous light.  We are not equal to the tasks set before us, but we are made more than conquerors through Christ who lives and reigns through us.  The darkness of the world, and the darkness within ourselves, is passing away—but we who live by grace through faith in the Son of God shall abide forever, by the work and witness of Jesus Christ.

This is the patience St. James calls for at the end of his epistle.  Are there struggles within and without?  Most surely.  Will nations rise and fall?  Indeed.  Shall the lives of the saints come and go upon this world, as some are born and others die?  Yes, they shall.  But the Word of the Lord endures forever, and His life, His witness, to and through the saints shall never depart from us.  To we struggling and suffering saints, St. James still speaks the Word of our Lord:

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of

the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious

fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he

receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient;

stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth

nigh.

Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest

ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the

door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have

spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering

affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them

happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job,

and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very

pitiful, and of tender mercy.  But above all things,

my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the

earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and

[your] nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let

him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call

for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him,

anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And

the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall

raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be

forgiven him.

Confess [your] faults one to another,

and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The

effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are,

and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained

not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and

the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of

you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let

him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the

error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide

a multitude of sins.

Are you a saint who has lost his patience with the labors of your cross?  Establish your heart in the labors of Jesus and His Cross.  Are you a saint grumbling and begrudging against another?  Surrender your grudge to the Lord, who has forgiven you all things which you have committed against Him.  Are you a saint who is afflicted?  Pray to the Lord who was afflicted for you.  Are you a saint who rejoices?  Sings songs of thanks to Him who is your joy.  Are you a saint who is ill?  Yield yourself to the pastors whom Christ has established, to pray over you, to anoint you, to forgive you your sins, and to heal you.  For the prayers of the saints shall avail much, always working the great miracle of the healing of the soul, and according to the will of the Father, the healing the body, as well.  But whether your body is healed today, or in the final resurrection of the dead, the Lord shall keep His Word to you.  For while the prayers of the faithful avail much, they are a small thing in comparison to the prayers of our faithful Lord Jesus Christ, who has prayed for you to remain always in His grace and mercy.  His prayer for you never fails—He will keep you forever by His Word, even though you die in this world as all men must, He shall raise you up again on the Last Day.  He has said it, and so it shall be.

Let not your heart be troubled, dear saint of God:  He who keeps you, keeps you forever.  Amen.