James’ Call for Patience

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Patience in Time of Testing

Translation

Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Look! The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient! Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord is near.

James 5:7–8

Overview

These verses stand as something of a hinge between 4:11–5:6 and the final exhortations in 5:12–20. The exhortation responds to James’ depiction and denunciation of the three modes of arrogance and, in particular, his attack on the oppressive rich. This is shown not only by the connective oun (“therefore”), which joins 5:6 and 5:7, but also by the continuation of the theme of God’s judgment, which began in 4:11. But it is equally clear that this section begins an explicit turn to the community of readers that continues in 5:12–20.

In terms of the overall composition, these verses bring to explicit expression two themes. First, just as 4:13–5:6 filled out the negative side of the reversal sketched in 1:9–11, so do these verses fill out the positive side as sketched in 1:12: those who endure to the end are blessed. Second, the theme of God’s judgment, which underlay so much of James’ exhortation (1:12; 2:12; 3:1; 4:12) is here brought to clear expression in terms of a vivid expectation of the parousia of the Lord. The two themes are interrelated.

In terms of the immediate context, the exhortation in these verses takes its character above all from the atmosphere of crisis established by the attack on the rich in 5:1–6. The affirmation that God hears the cries of the laborers and is preparing a day of slaughter and is opposing the oppressors naturally raises the questions of when and how. And the characterization of the rich as oppressing the community of the poor and righteous through judicial violence raises with even greater force the question, “how should we respond?” This eschatological setting then frames the remainder of the community exhortations in 5:12–20.

Notes on Verse 8

You also be patient:

Several excellent MSS add the inferential particle oun (“therefore”), which makes so much sense that its absence is the harder and, therefore, the preferred reading. The emphatic kai hymeis, in any case, does the job of oun: the analogy is driven home by means of the vivid imperative.

Strengthen your hearts:

The verb stērizein with a direct object means to “set firmly” or “establish” first of all in the physical sense (LXX Gen 28:12; Luke 16:26; I Clem. 33:3). It is used for “strengthening” the self through the ingestion of food (Gen 27:37). Figuratively, it is used for “strengthening one’s hands” (Exod 17:12) or “strengthening” others in their commitment (see Luke 22:32; Acts 18:23; Rom 1:11; 16:25; 1 Thess 3:2; 2 Thess 2:17; 3:3). In the prophetic literature, the “setting of the face” denotes steadfastness of purpose (Amos 9:4; Jer 3:12; 21:10; 24:6; Ezek 6:2; 13:17; 14:8), a meaning carried over in Luke 9:51.

But James’ language evokes a Septuagintal idiom, “strengthening the heart,” which, depending on context, can mean to gain physical strength, as for a journey (Judg 19:5, 8; Ps 103:15), or courage that comes from trust in the Lord (Ps 111:8), or firmness of intention (Sir 6:37; 22:16; see also 1 Thess 3:13). It is undoubtedly one of these latter two meanings James intends. He does not want his readers to remain simply passive in their waiting (Vouga, 133); they are to focus themselves: “… make your courage and purpose firm” (Ropes, 297; see Cantinat, 235). Note the similarity to the call for “purity of heart” in 4:8. These exhortations stand in contrast to the “deception/indulgence of the heart” in 1:26 and the “stuffing of the heart” in 5:5.

Because the coming of the Lord is near:

The exhortation to strengthen the heart is followed by a hoti clause, creating the possibility of two distinct readings. If stērizein is taken in the sense of “fix one’s attention/be certain of,” then the hoti clause can be understood as a noun clause, yielding “be established (certain) in your hearts that the Lord’s coming is near.” More probable, however, is that hoti introduces an explanatory clause: the readers should strengthen their purpose/commitment, because of the Lord’s proximity. Some MSS add hēmōn, to create the phrase “Our Lord,” which heightens what is already probably a Christological reference.

The verb engizein means “to approach/draw near,” whether in terms of space (Gen 18:23; 27:27) or time (Ezek 12:23). James uses the perfect tense (ēngiken), whose employment in other NT passages dealing with the kingdom of God has often been understood as pointing to a “realized eschatology” (Dodd, “The Kingdom of God,” 138–41): see, e.g., Mark 1:15; Matt 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11. It is found with reference to an eschatological moment also in Luke 21:8; Rom 13:12; 1 Pet 4:7. Here, however, the sense may be as much spatial as temporal, for James notes at once that “the judge stands at the gate,” and in 4:8 James has said, “approach (engizein) God and he will approach (engizein) you.” The use of spatial and temporal categories with reference to God is always, in any case, necessarily metaphorical.

Comment

James’ fundamental exhortation is placed in 5:8: “strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” As we have seen throughout, the language of the “heart” expresses human disposition: “indulging the heart” (1:26) was the opposite of pure religion acceptable to God; “stuffing the heart” was the expression of self-indulgence leading to oppression and murder (5:5); “bitter jealousy in the heart” was symptomatic of friendship with the world opposed to God (3:14); therefore, “purifying the heart” was the necessary gesture of conversion to cease from double-mindedness (4:8). Now James enjoins on the entire community that they “establish/strengthen” their hearts in the proper perception of reality—the Lord is approaching to judge—and the proper behavior that follows from that perception.

Positively, they are to “be patient” (5:7). Considerable space was given in the notes to the precise nuance attached to this expression: they are not simply to endure their suffering; they are to adopt the same attitude toward their oppressor that the judge does, who waits for the proper time of intervention. The readers, in a word, are not to usurp God’s functions in violent retaliation for the violence done them.

Nor are they to “grumble against each other” (5:9). The classic ploy of oppressors is to divide in order to conquer; the constant temptation of those oppressed is to turn on each other in abuse. James does not excuse such behavior. Oppression done to us does not justify oppression done to each other. James reminds the readers, indeed, that they can also “fall under judgment,” which lies so close at hand (5:9). They are to strive, rather, as the succeeding instructions will make clear, to create a community of solidarity that alone can effectively resist, with its peaceful cooperation, the insidious effects of oppression from outside.

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