June 29 – James 5:7-12

Main Focus: Patience in Suffering

James 5:7-12 turns our attention from rich to poor, from the evil oppressors to the righteous oppressed, from presumption to patience. Rather than fighting back, followers of Jesus are called to patient endurance and to trust in God to vindicate them. Followers of Jesus are to wait until the coming of the Lord, when he will right all wrongs. Everything wrong will be made in Christ. The early and the late rains describe the Palestinian climate, in which the autumn rains occur just after sowing and the spring rains just before harvest. The call to patience in times of suffering can lead us to complain. It can be particularly painful in times of suffering when people explode in frustration and turn upon each other.

It is not entirely clear how “do not swear” is connected. “Above all” may indicate that this begins a three-part conclusion to the letter. Yet it could also refer back to the sins of the tongue and grumbling from verse 9. Oaths were allowed in Israel, but the person was required to fulfill them, especially because they so often involved invoking the name of God. James’s prohibition of oaths builds on Jesus’ prohibition in Matthew 5:33-37, and the point in both cases is that one’s word should be enough.