Lookahead: Today we might see inter-denominational divisions resulting from grumbling. Even though the grumbling may not be highly overt…(e.g., as in the case of rival-denomination monks physically fighting at a religious site, or the case of one Christian doing a scathing Podcast on a “fundamentalist” book about baptism, or the case of a YouTube video in which the producer of a TV Series about Jesus describes a tsunami of criticisms from all Christian quarters, etc.); Nevertheless, that silent component of grumbling can be nasty.
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. James 5:7-11 (Underlines are mine.)
In the last post, I shared my theory that this passage is an entirely new thought separate from the previous verses about some really evil people who were creating havoc. Plus, it’s not an injunction to patiently suffer bodily affliction and disease that are purportedly from God to teach us a cosmic lesson.:-(
On the basis that this is a stand-alone passage, James is telling us to be patient (as we help others come into the Kingdom?) until the Lord’s coming. He then goes on to say that the Lord’s coming is near. And this could be interpreted as, the Lord’s coming is imminent. That was 2000+ years ago. One of the common complaints of people about End Times preachers is that “those religious people” are always trying to keep us in line by saying, “You’d better be good because He’s coming right back!” And yet 2000 years later in 2024 where is He?? Nowhere in sight.
I prayed for a Word in Season about this, and suddenly I started getting messages from about five different sources about the Lord’s coming–including my Associate Pastor, a Professor from Bible College, the class’ assigned text book, not to mention a TV preacher and an online Bible Study! What follows are the digested results and is all theory on my part. But I do believe that the LORD provided all these different sources as a timely answer to my prayer.
One teacher talked about Jesus’ return and the Day of the LORD–and zero’d in on how Paul embraced the message that God’s Kingdom had come to earth:
“Paul inherited the message of Jesus’ announcement, that the day of God’s Kingdom had truly arrived in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Paul consistently views God’s Kingdom as decisively ‘inaugurated’ in the present, with a yet future ‘consummation.’ He makes this conviction clear by ascribing future realities to the present (Eph 2:1-10).”1
Fee and Stuart first defined eschatological thinking as “looking for the end” in my college text book.2 Then they went on to say “…the early Christians came to realize that Jesus had not come to usher in the “final” end, but the “beginning” of the end, as it were…The early believers learned to be truly eschatological people. They lived between the times–that is, between the beginning of the end and the consummation of the end.”3
Both references refer to the fact that, in a sense, the Kingdom of God is here already. I agree that 2000 years later in 2024 Jesus may be nowhere in physical sight, but He is ever present in a powerful way and available to our spiritual sight. So I believe that the King and the Kingdom have already come–however, there are two meanings and two phases of their appearance: spiritual/now…and physical/TBD.
I especially liked one teaching ministry’s video-scribe-type animation on YouTube that seeks to explain what Jesus meant when He said “the Kingdom is at hand.” In the animation, a Venn Diagram is drawn with heaven in one circle on the left side and earth in the other circle, on the right. The circles overlap in the middle showing the place where these two respective dimensions intersected, in ancient times. This was the clean, sin-free space where man could be in the presence of God. The teachers theorized that this place of intersection was the tabernacle or temple where the Shekinah lived. Later Jesus “tabernacled” with us during His earthwalk (John 1:14). Hence, when He said, “the Kingdom is at hand,” He meant that He would allow his followers to be in God’s presence in a “clean sin-free space” that Jesus created. These were shown as smaller circles that were drawn in the earth circle, and they were called “pockets of heaven.”
This animation symbolized how the Kingdom of Heaven was brought down to earth. And now Jesus resides within us and continues to create those pockets. “The focus of the Bible Story is (now) that heaven and earth are being reunited through Jesus and will be completely brought together when He returns.”4 Therefore, for someone who is on the verge of surrendering to Jesus, it could be said that the Lord’s coming is very near–in the spiritual or “Kingdom” sense. And perhaps James was targeting would-be backsliders in the earlier verses. “The judge is at the door” is reminiscent of “I stand at the door and knock (Rev 3:20).” In addition to being a beautiful invitation today, this may have been directed at the backslidden churches in Revelation.
Further, we know that since Jesus was seated at the right hand of His Father, He has been cast in the role of One Who will judge the nations, hence, “Judge” is the appropriate designation here in James. We can also say that we’ve been given a perpetual free pass because of Jesus’ Love and incomparable sacrifice; nevertheless one day we will still have to give an account of our actions and specifically our words. (Matthew 12:36) I like to think of this as an objective after-action review to show forth the Glory of God. Perhaps it equates to a re-flash of our ROM memories–in symbolic terms, that is, separating wood, stubble and hay from the precious stones and metals. 🙂 Nevertheless, at this current juncture, James is saying, “Watch those words!”
Additionally, I believe that James may be referring to the LORD’s physical coming at the beginning of the passage. In this case, James is saying, even if we are not seeing spiritual fruit, be patient for the duration. Then James 5:11 continues to encourage us to hang in there. Just like the rains come, salvation will come…and the mercy and compassion of the LORD will be revealed. Moreover, James makes us aware that there is Someone Who will be watching if we become impatient and start to criticize and grumble and quit. James doesn’t say how we will be judged–only that it will not go unnoticed. He does say that if we don’t give up, we will be blessed. I take that to mean that we will be blessed both now and in the future.
If James cautioned the people against grumbling, the chances are that they were doing so. But in what sense were they doing so? James was fairly specific about not grumbling against our “brethren and sistern” in the Lord. In Bible Hub, the unformatted (i.e., original Greek word order) translation reads: Not grumble brothers against one another so that not you may be condemned
Grumble is stenázō στενάζω in the Greek and is pretty rich in meaning: properly, to groan because of pressure of being exerted forward (like the forward pressure of childbirth); (figuratively) to feel pressure from what is coming on…[This term “denotes feeling which is internal and unexpressed” (J. Mayor, Js., 162), i.e. to sigh, moan (groan) with frustration; to sigh, to gross: within ourselves, i. e. in our souls, inwardly, to pray sighing, to murmur).
When it says “to gross” I think it means “to grouse or complain,” although I think grumbling is pretty gross myself. 🙂 The common thread in these definitions implies that it’s done in stealth mode–silently or murmured–perhaps deliberately outside the earshot of the victim. It also means that God is the unfortunate listener Who hears this second-hand accusatory grumbling–plus, incredible though it may seem, He might actually be considered to be at blame at times! 😦 Either way, the introverted aspect of grumbling is the problematical part. Today we might see inter-denominational divisions resulting from grumbling.
Even though the grumbling may not be highly overt…
(e.g., as in the case of rival-denomination monks physically fighting at a religious site, or in the case of one Christian doing a scathing Podcast on a “fundamentalist” book about baptism, or in the case of a YouTube video in which the producer of a TV Series about Jesus describes a tsunami of criticisms from all Christian quarters, etc.),
…that silent component of grumbling can be nasty.
On one occasion, I had a major comm breakdown with a member of a church that I was attending. To this day, I accept the burden of blame. The member had been admitted to the ER, with imminent stroke symptoms, on three separate occasions within that month. I was present with them on the second occasion (a group of us were in a restaurant when the person became dizzy; they actually had a fresh luncheon order brought in while they were in a hospital gown in the exam room waiting to see the doctor). When this person called to inform me about the third incident, I spouted off, “This is serious!” I launched into denominational teachings about how the enemy was out to kill them (John 10:10). Due to my intensity and zeal–and insistence that they drop everything and learn about the healing atonement–I really alienated that poor person. 😦 At church, they were very public about their indignation–and again, I deserved it. However, once I apologized to them (and others), I took it to God. Probably about three months later, the person came to me in tears to tell me that they forgave me. :-*(
A similar incident occurred years later that I think was probably again related to me spouting off to someone with another unsolicited opinion…this time about church norms and how I didn’t think we were “doing it properly” in this church. 😦 The grumbling that resulted was subterranean and nothing that I could prove. But I recognized that same awkwardness in people’s behavior toward me. As I wasn’t even sure if I needed to apologize or to whom, I again chose to let God handle it and continued to love the person (people). It took almost two years, but, once again, the LORD gloriously healed that relationship. Underground grumbling can be “lethal.” The hurt took significantly longer to “love away” in the second case…
As I said earlier, I believe this passage is an entirely new thought plus it’s not an injunction to patiently suffer affliction (that supposedly comes from God to teach us a lesson). But this passage does indicate that people, in the waiting, were grumbling about something and it may have related to delays in the LORD’s Coming. Now fast-forwarding to the subsequent passage in James, 5:12 goes on to say, “Above all we must be those who never need to verify our speech as truthful by swearing by the heavens or the earth or any other oath. But instead we must be so full of integrity that our ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is convincing enough and we do not stumble into hypocrisy.” (TPT)
So were the people grumbling AND swearing? We’ll plumb the depths in the next post.
Continuing to fast forward, James next proceeded to address what we should do if we have a physical affliction–further confirming the first paragraph takeaway that God was not the author of it, so He will heal it. We’ll plumb the depths on that in the next post as well. I will also embark on a special sub-topic for this series —
Yet Another Sticky Question: how do you handle it when your most cherished friend dies, immediately after the two of you walk through James’ step-by-step instructions for your friend’s healing in 5:15 and 16?
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1https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tbp-web/media/Ephesians%20Revamp/CR_EPH_Session%20Notes_2022.pdf
2Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2014), 151
3Ibid., 152
Cross-Denominational Bible Study 