টীকা বর্তমানে শুধুমাত্র ইংরেজিতে উপলব্ধ। বাংলা অনুবাদ চলছে।
James 5 — Be Patient — the Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh
James thunders against rich oppressors heaping treasure for the last days, then turns to comfort the oppressed believers: be patient as the husbandman waits for harvest. Take the prophets and Job as examples of patient endurance. Let your yea be yea. Pray when afflicted, sing when merry, call the elders when sick. Confess faults, pray for one another, restore the wanderer. Elijah was a man of like passions, and his prayer moved the heavens.
“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.”
— James 5:16
- v.1-6 A woe to rich oppressors
- v.7-11 Be patient — the Lord cometh
- v.12 Above all, swear not — let your yea be yea
- v.13-15 Prayer for every season — and the prayer of faith
- v.16-18 Confess, pray, be healed — Elijah's example
- v.19-20 He that converteth a sinner — saves a soul
Gold does not actually rust — and James knows it. The image is symbolic and devastating. The treasure that was supposed to defend you will accuse you.
Heaped treasure for the last days — the irony is total. The very moneys gathered against the future will be the prosecution's exhibit at the last day.
Lord of sabaoth — Lord of hosts, the commander of heaven's armies. The unpaid wages of one peasant farmhand have reached the throne of the Captain of armies.
God hears what employers do not. The withholding of due wages is a sin the Old Testament repeatedly judges (Deut 24:14-15, Lev 19:13, Jer 22:13). The New Testament does not relax it.
After the woe to oppressors, a tender word to the oppressed. Be patient — Greek makrothumeō, "long-souled," the same word used of God's patience with sinners.
The farmer cannot rush the rain. He plants and waits. So with the believer awaiting the Lord's return — there is work to do, and beyond that, simply to wait.
Grudge — Greek stenazō, to groan, sigh against. Silent, internal hostility toward a brother is included, not just spoken complaints.
The judge standeth before the door — about to enter at any moment. James pictures the Lord on the threshold, hand on the latch.
Job is held up as the supreme example of patient endurance. Not patience in the sense of never complaining — Job complained loudly — but patience in the sense of refusing to let go of God in the dark.
The end of the Lord — the outcome the Lord brought about. The story did not stop at the ash heap; it went on to the double restoration. So with every saint's story.
James echoes Jesus directly (Matt 5:34-37). A Christian's ordinary word should carry the weight of others' oath. We do not need to swear because we have settled to tell the truth.
The verse does not forbid courtroom oaths or covenants (Paul calls God to witness in Romans 1:9). It forbids the casual, manipulative swearing that tries to manufacture credibility we should already possess.
No season is godless. Affliction calls for prayer; gladness calls for song. James will not let either mood become an excuse to drift from God.
Many believers can pray under pressure but forget to praise in plenty. Both are equally commanded.
The sick believer takes the initiative — let him call. Not the elders' job to seek out every sufferer, but the suffering's privilege to summon the elders.
Oil — in the ancient world both medicinal (Luke 10:34) and symbolic of the Spirit. Both meanings may stand together: take ordinary means and pray; do not pit them against each other.
The prayer of faith — not just any prayer, but prayer offered with confidence in the will and power of God. The Lord, not the oil and not the elder, is the healer.
The conditional if he have committed sins hints at the connection between unconfessed sin and certain illnesses — not always, but sometimes. The next verse will pursue the thought.
Confess your faults one to another — not as a formal sacrament but as honest Christian fellowship. Sin grows in secret; light kills it.
Effectual fervent — Greek energoumenē, energized, working in. Prayer that prays with the Spirit's power moves things.
The promise is glorious and the condition is gentle: not the perfect prayer of the perfect man, but the working prayer of a righteous man — any believer made righteous by Christ.
James deliberately deflates the legend. Elijah was of like passions — the same emotional makeup, the same vulnerabilities. He fled from Jezebel, asked to die, doubted his usefulness.
If Elijah's prayer could shut and open the sky, ours can move the things in front of us. The verse is meant to make us pray.
The letter ends not with a flourish but with rescue. The highest ministry James can name is the patient turning back of a wandering brother.
Hide a multitude of sins — those forgiven in repentance are no longer counted. Restoration is real, total, and final in Christ.
Take three steps from this chapter this week. First, identify one season you are in right now — affliction or gladness — and obey verse 13. Pray if hard, sing if happy. Second, name one fault to a trusted brother or sister and ask their prayer; let verse 16 leave the page. Third, identify one believer drifting from the Lord and pray patiently for their return — verse 20 is the ministry no one else may notice and the Lord will not forget.
Christ is the Judge standeth before the door (v.9), the coming of the Lord (v.7), the One whose blood gives weight to the prayer of faith (v.15) and makes any believer a righteous man whose prayer avails (v.16). The whole letter ends pointing forward to His return — the hope James himself never lived to see fulfilled, but believed unshakably.
James does not condemn wealth as such (see Abraham, Job). He condemns wealth gained by fraud and used for self-indulgence in the face of the world's need.
The tense is striking: miseries that shall come. Judgment is so certain, the prophet speaks of it as present.