James 5:11 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.
12 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.
The Greek word translated as “happy” means to “pronounce blessed”. To endure is to bear bravely and calmly. That is not a human character trait. That is a gift that God gives to His humble servant. The flesh wants to find a way to fight back or flee into hiding. John Mark could not handle what he witnessed on his first trip with Paul and Barnabas. He witnessed the hostilities against Paul and he went back home. He needed more time to learn how to weather a storm successfully. The true saint does not look for trouble. He seeks to honour God. That is what Paul was doing, but the Judaizers did not appreciate what he was doing. They tried to stop him. They did not understand the nature of a true child of God.
The true child of God does not boast about his strength. He understands that if he is going to stand, it will be by God’s grace. The world needs to see individuals who actually believe what they claim to believe. Talk is cheap. Talk needs to be matched with walking.
God directed James to refer to Job. Job was a patient man. He endured the bad counsel of his wife. Rather than coming alongside and praying for her husband, she told him to curse God and die. That certainly would not have been a good choice. As a man who feared God and eschewed evil, Job could not do that. Job had some things to learn. God loved Job and dealt with him in a loving manner. He reminded Job of His greatness. He reminded him that he really had not accomplished much in comparison to what God had done in Creation week.
Job came to understand that he had been foolish to demand an audience with the Lord. He had assumed on things that he had no right to assume on. God was not punishing Job. The devil was trying to prove to God that Job’s faith was quite superficial. Job proved his faith was real, even though he did not know what was going on behind the scenes. He was not putting on a show. He was genuine. His friends figured they knew what the problem was. They were sure Job was being punished by God. They began to pick apart his words and tried to justify their false accusations. Job tolerated this, but he wanted to talk to God. God heard him. God appeared to Job and He challenged Job’s assumptions. After that He rebuked Job’s three “friends” and told them to bring an offering for Job to bring to the Lord. God did not want to receive an offering directly from those men. Job was told to be the mediator between them and God. Job was a type of Jesus Christ. He is the Mediator between God and men.
James reminded us that the Lord is very pitiful. That word “pitiful” means extremely compassionate. God knew what Job was going through. He limited Satan’s access to him. He only allowed Satan to attack Job for a certain time. Then He stepped in and delivered Job from the testing. God blessed Job with more than he had before. The Lord is of tender mercy. He knows how frail we are. He does not make fun of His child. He comforts us in the midst of our trials.
In verse 12 we are reminded of the need to watch how we talk. He is not talking of cursing. He is talking of using God’s name in vain. We have no right to make a promise and then invoke God’s name to try to make it seem more genuine. Christians should never “swear to tell the truth” in court. Our word should always be truthful. If the judge or jury does not want to believe it, that is their problem. Christians should never use slang words like “gosh” or “darn” or “heck”. Those words are all a distortion of other words that are given to us by God. A person that has to resort to such vulgar language is sinning against God. The lost cannot help themselves on these things. The saved need to purge such language from their vocabulary.
As James wrote here, “above all things”, Christians do not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. As we see here, Christians need to have a reputation of being truthful and honest. Anything less than that brings the Christian into condemnation. That is not what a Christian wants.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
True saints are accountable to God. He does not whitewash sin. Christians cannot lose their salvation, but they can miss out on blessings now and rewards in heaven. It is important to keep short accounts with God. The Holy Spirit dwells inside the true saint, and He is there to help the true child of God to grow in the Lord. That growth requires dealing with sin through confession to God first of all.
Pastor Bartel
