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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
J A M E S.
CHAP. V.
In this chapter the apostle denounces the judgments of God upon those
rich men who oppress the poor, showing them how great their sin and
folly are in the sight of God, and how grievous the punishments would
be which should fall upon themselves,
Hereupon, all the faithful are exhorted to patience under their trials
and sufferings,
The sin of swearing is cautioned against,
We are directed how to act, both under affliction and in prosperity,
Prayer for the sick, and anointing with oil, are prescribed,
Christians are directed to acknowledge their faults one to another, and
to pray one for another, and the efficacy of prayer is proved,
And, lastly, it is recommended to us to do what we can for bringing
back those that stray from the ways of truth.
| Warnings to the Rich; Motives to Patience under Affliction. | A. D. 61. |
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1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries
that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall
be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were
fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries
of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord
of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye
have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not
resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early
and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of
the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be
condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name
of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of
patience.
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.
The apostle is here addressing first sinners and then saints.
I. Let us consider the address to sinners; and here we find James
seconding what his great Master had said: Woe unto you that are
rich; for you have received your consolation,
Luke vi. 24.
The rich people to whom this word of warning was sent were not such as
professed the Christian religion, but the worldly and unbelieving Jews,
such as are here said to condemn and kill the just, which the
Christians had no power to do; and though this epistle was written for
the sake of the faithful, and was sent principally to them, yet, by an
apostrophe, the infidel Jews may be well supposed here spoken to. They
would not hear the word, and therefore it is written, that they
might read it. It is observable, in the very first inscription of this
epistle, that it is not directed, as Paul’s epistles were, to the
brethren in Christ, but, in general, to the twelve tribes;
and the salutation is not, grace and peace from Christ, but, in
general, greeting,
ch. i. 1.
The poor among the Jews received the gospel, and many of them believed;
but the generality of the rich rejected Christianity, and were hardened
in their unbelief, and hated and persecuted those who believed on
Christ. To these oppressing, unbelieving, persecuting, rich people, the
apostle addresses himself in the
1. He foretels the judgments of God that should come upon them,
they should have miseries come upon them, and such dreadful miseries
that the very apprehension of them was enough to make them weep and
howl–misery that should arise from the very things in which they placed
their happiness, and misery that should be completed by these things
witnessing against them at the last, to their utter destruction; and
they are now called to reason upon and thoroughly to weigh the matter,
and to think how they will stand before God in judgment: Go to now,
you rich men.
(1.) “You may be assured of this that very dreadful calamities are
coming upon you, calamities that shall carry nothing of support nor
comfort in them, but all misery, misery in time, misery to eternity,
misery in your outward afflictions, misery in your inward frame and
temper of mind, misery in this world, misery in hell. You have not a
single instance of misery only coming upon you, but miseries. The ruin
of your church and nation is at hand; and there will come a day of
wrath, when riches shall not profit men, but all the wicked shall be
destroyed.”
(2.) The very apprehension of such miseries as were coming upon them is
enough to make them weep and howl. Rich men are apt to say to
themselves (and others are ready to say to them), Eat, drink, and be
merry; but God says, Weep and howl. It is not said, Weep and
repent, for this the apostle does not expect from them (he speaks in a
way of denouncing rather than admonishing); but, “Weep and howl,
for when your doom comes there will be nothing but weeping, and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” Those who live like beasts are
called howl like such. Public calamities are most grievous to rich
people, who live in pleasure, and are secure and sensual; and therefore
they shall weep and howl more than other people for the miseries that
shall come upon them.
(3.) Their misery shall arise from the very things in which they placed
their happiness. “Corruption, decay, rust, and ruin, will come upon
all your goodly things: Your riches are corrupted and your garments
are moth-eaten,
v. 2.
Those things which you now inordinately affect will hereafter
insupportably wound you: they will be of no worth, of no use to you,
but, on the contrary, will pierce you through with many sorrows;
for,”
(4.) “They will witness against you, and they will eat your flesh as
it were fire,”
v. 3.
Things inanimate are frequently represented in scripture as witnessing
against wicked men. Heaven, earth, the stones of the field, the
production of the ground, and here the very rust and canker of
ill-gotten and ill-kept treasures, are said to witness against impious
rich men. They think to heap up treasure for their latter days, to live
plentifully upon when they come to be old; but, alas! they are only
heaping up treasures to become a prey to others (as the Jews had all
taken from them by the Romans), and treasures that will prove at last
to be only treasures of wrath, in the day of the revelation of the
righteous judgment of God. Then shall their iniquities, in the
punishment of them, eat their flesh as it were with fire.
In the ruin of Jerusalem, many thousands perished by fire; in the last
judgment the wicked shall be condemned to everlasting burnings,
prepared for the devil and his angels. The Lord deliver us from the
portion of wicked rich men! and, in order to this, let us take care
that we do not fall into their sins, which we are next to consider.
2. The apostle shows what those sins are which should bring such
miseries. To be in so deplorable a condition must doubtless be owing to
some very heinous crimes.
(1.) Covetousness is laid to the charge of this people; they laid by
their garments till they bred moths and were eaten; they hoarded up
their gold and silver till they were rusty and cankered. It is a very
great disgrace to these things that they carry in them the principles
of their own corruption and consumption–the garment breeds the moth
that frets it, the gold and silver breeds the canker that eats it; but
the disgrace falls most heavily upon those who hoard and lay up these
things till they come to be thus corrupted, and cankered, and eaten.
God gives us our worldly possessions that we may honour him and do good
with them; but if, instead of this, we sinfully hoard them up, thorough
and undue affection towards them, or a distrust of the providence of
God for the future, this is a very heinous crime, and will be witnessed
against by the very rust and corruption of the treasure thus heaped
together.
(2.) Another sin charged upon those against whom James writes is
oppression: Behold, the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, &c.,
v. 4.
Those who have wealth in their hands get power into their hands, and
then they are tempted to abuse that power to oppress such as are under
them. The rich we here find employing the poor in their labours, and
the rich have as much need of the labours of the poor as the poor have
of wages from the rich, and could as ill be without them; but yet, not
considering this, they kept back the hire of the labourers; having
power in their hands, it is probable that they made as hard bargains
with the poor as they could, and even after that would not make good
their bargains as they should have done. This is a crying sin, an
iniquity that cries so as to reach the ears of God; and, in this case,
God is to be considered as the Lord of sabaoth, or the Lord
of hosts, Kyriou sabaoth, a phrase often used in the
Old-Testament, when the people of God were defenseless and wanted
protection, and when their enemies were numerous and powerful. The Lord
of hosts, who has all ranks of beings and creatures at his disposal,
and who sets all in their several places, hears the oppressed when they
cry by reason of the cruelty or injustice of the oppressor, and he will
give orders to some of those hosts that are under him (angels, devils,
storms, distempers, or the like) to avenge the wrongs done to those who
are dealt with unrighteously and unmercifully. Take heed of this sin of
defrauding and oppressing, and avoid the very appearances of it.
(3.) Another sin here mentioned is sensuality and voluptuousness.
You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton,
v. 5.
God does not forbid us to use pleasure; but to live in them as if we
lived for nothing else is a very provoking sin; and to do this on the
earth, where we are but strangers and pilgrims, where we are but to
continue for a while, and where we ought to be preparing for
eternity–this, this is a grievous aggravation of the sin of
voluptuousness. Luxury makes people wanton, as in
According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled,
and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
Wantonness and luxury are commonly the effects of great plenty and
abundance; it is hard for people to have great plenty and abundance; it
is hard for people to have great estates, and not too much indulge
themselves in carnal, sensual pleasures: “You have nourished your
hearts as in a day of slaughter: you live as if it were every day a
day of sacrifices, a festival; and hereby your hearts are fattened and
nourished to stupidity, dulness, pride, and an insensibility to the
wants and afflictions of others.” Some may say, “What harm is there in
good cheer, provided people do not spend above what they have?” What!
Is it no harm for people to make gods of their bellies, and to give all
to these, instead of abounding in acts of charity and piety? Is it no
harm for people to unfit themselves for minding the concerns of their
souls, by indulging the appetites of their bodies? Surely that which
brought flames upon Sodom, and would bring these miseries for which
rich men are here called to weep and howl, must be a heinous evil!
Pride, and idleness, and fullness of bread, mean the same thing with
living in pleasure, and being wanton, and nourishing the heart as in a
day of slaughter.
(4.) Another sin here charged on the rich is persecution: You have
condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you,
v. 6.
This fills up the measure of their iniquity. They oppressed and acted
very unjustly, to get estates; when they had them, they gave way to
luxury and sensuality, till they had lost all sense and feeling of the
wants or afflictions of others; and then they persecute and kill
without remorse. They pretend to act legally indeed, they condemn
before they kill; but unjust prosecutions, whatever colour of law they
may carry in them, will come into the reckoning when God shall make
inquisition for blood, as well as massacres and downright murders.
Observe here, The just may be condemned and killed: but then again
observe, When such do suffer, and yield without resistance to the
unjust sentence of oppressors, this is marked by God, to the honour of
the sufferers and the infamy of their persecutors; this commonly shows
that judgments are at the door, and we may certainly conclude that a
reckoning-day will come, to reward the patience of the oppressed and to
break to pieces the oppressor. Thus far the address to sinners
goes.
II. We have next subjoined an address to saints. Some have been ready
to despise or to condemn this way of preaching, when ministers, in
their application, have brought a word to sinners, and a word to
saints; but, from the apostle’s here taking this method, we may
conclude that this is the best way rightly to divide the word of truth.
From what has been said concerning wicked and oppressing rich men,
occasion is given to administer comfort to God’s afflicted people: “Be
patient therefore; since God will send such miseries on the wicked, you
may see what is your duty, and where your greatest encouragement
lies.”
1. Attend to your duty: Be patient
(v. 7),
establish your hearts
(v. 8),
grudge not one against another, brethren,
v. 9.
Consider well the meaning of these three expressions:–
(1.) “Be patient–bear your afflictions without murmuring, your
injuries without revenge; and, though God should not in any signal
manner appear for you immediately, wait for him. The vision is for
an appointed time; at the end it will speak, and will not lie;
therefore wait for it. It is but a little while, and he that shall come
will come, and will not tarry. Let your patience be lengthened out
to long suffering;” so the word here used,
makrothymesate, signifies. When we have done our work, we
have need of patience to stay for our reward. This Christian patience
is not a mere yielding to necessity, as the moral patience taught by
some philosophers was, but it is a humble acquiescence in the wisdom
and will of God, with an eye to a future glorious recompense: Be
patient to the coming of the Lord. And because this is a lesson
Christians must learn, though ever so hard or difficult to the, it is
repeated in
v. 8,
Be you also patient.
(2.) “Establish your hearts–let your faith be firm, without
wavering, your practice of what is good constant and continued, without
tiring, and your resolutions for God and heaven fixed, in spite of all
sufferings or temptations.” The prosperity of the wicked and the
affliction of the righteous have in all ages been a very great trial to
the faith of the people of God. David tells us that his feet were
almost gone, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked,
Ps. lxxiii. 2, 3.
Some of those Christians to whom St. James wrote might probably be in
the same tottering condition; and therefore they are called upon to
establish their hearts; faith and patience will establish the heart.
(3.) Grudge not one against another; the words me
stenazete signify, Groan not one against another, that
is, “Do not make one another uneasy by your murmuring groans at what
befalls you, nor by your distrustful groans as to what may further come
upon you, nor by your revengeful groans against the instruments of your
sufferings, nor by your envious groans at those who may be free from
your calamities: do not make yourselves uneasy and make one another
uneasy by thus groaning to and grieving one another.” “The apostle
seemeth to me” (says Dr. Manton) “to be here taxing those mutual
injuries and animosities wherewith the Christians of those times,
having banded under the names of circumcision and
uncircumcision, did grieve one another, and give each other
cause to groan; so that they did not only sigh under the oppressions of
the rich persecutors, but under the injuries which they sustained from
many of the brethren who, together with them, did profess the holy
faith.” Those who are in the midst of common enemies, and in any
suffering circumstances, should be more especially careful not to
grieve nor to groan against one another, otherwise judgments will come
upon them as well as others; and the more such grudgings prevail the
nearer do they show judgment to be.
2. Consider what encouragement here is for Christians to be patient, to
establish their hearts, and not to grudge one against another. And,
(1.) “Look to the example of the husbandman: He waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he
receive the early and latter rain. When you sow your corn in the
ground, you wait many months for the former and latter rain, and are
willing to stay till harvest for the fruit of your labour; and shall
not this teach you to bear a few storms, and to be patient for a
season, when you are looking for a kingdom and everlasting felicity?
Consider him that waits for a crop of corn; and will not you wait for a
crown of glory? If you should be called to wait a little longer than
the husbandman does, is it not something proportionably greater and
infinitely more worth your waiting for? But,”
(2.) “Think how short your waiting time may possibly be: The coming
of the Lord draweth nigh,
v. 8;
behold, the Judge standeth before the door,
v. 9.
Do not be impatient, do not quarrel with one another; the great Judge,
who will set all to rights, who will punish the wicked and reward the
good, is at hand: he should be conceived by you to stand as near as one
who is just knocking at the door.” The coming of the Lord to
punish the wicked Jews was then very nigh, when James wrote this
epistle; and, whenever the patience and other graces of his people are
tried in an extraordinary manner, the certainty of Christ’s coming as
Judge, and the nearness of it, should establish their hearts. The Judge
is now a great deal nearer, in his coming to judge the world, than when
this epistle was written, nearer by above seventeen hundred years; and
therefore this should have the greater effect upon us.
(3.) The danger of our being condemned when the Judge appears should
excite us to mind our duty as before laid down: Grudge not, lest you
be condemned. Fretfulness and discontent expose us to the just
judgment of God, and we bring more calamities upon ourselves by our
murmuring, distrustful, envious groans and grudgings against one
another, than we are aware of. If we avoid these evils, and be patient
under our trials, God will not condemn us. Let us encourage ourselves
with this.
(4.) We are encouraged to be patient by the example of the prophets
(v. 10):
Take the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an
example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Observe here, The
prophets, on whom God put the greatest honour, and for whom he had the
greatest favour, were most afflicted: and, when we think that the best
men have had the hardest usage in this world, we should hereby be
reconciled to affliction. Observe further, Those who were the greatest
examples of suffering affliction were also the best and greatest
examples of patience: tribulation worketh patience. Hereupon
James gives it to us as the common sense of the faithful
(v. 11):
We count those happy who endure: we look upon righteous and
patient sufferers as the happiest people. See
(5.) Job also is proposed as an example for the encouragement of the
afflicted. You have hard of the patience of Job, and have seen the
end of the Lord, &c.,
In the case of Job you have an instance of a variety of miseries, and
of such as were very grievous, but under all he could bless God, and,
as to the general bent of his spirit, he was patient and humble: and
what came to him in the end? Why, truly, God accomplished and brought
about those things for him which plainly prove that the Lord is very
pitiful, and of tender mercy. The best way to bear afflictions is
to look to the end of them; and the pity of God is such that he will
not delay the bringing of them to an end when his purposes are once
answered; and the tender mercy of God is such that he will make his
people an abundant amends for all their sufferings and afflictions. His
bowels are moved for them while suffering, his bounty is manifested
afterwards. Let us serve our God, and endure our trials, as those who
believe the end will crown all.
| Caution against Swearing; Profaneness Condemned; Confession and Prayer; Efficacy of Prayer. | A. D. 61. |
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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.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let
him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be
forgiven him.
16 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.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he
prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the
earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one
convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a
multitude of sins.
This epistle now drawing to a close, the penman goes off very quickly
from one thing to another: hence it is that matters so very different
are insisted on in these few verses.
I. The sin of swearing is cautioned against: But above all things,
my brethren, swear not, &c.,
Some understand this too restrictedly, as if the meaning were, “Swear
not at your persecutors, at those that reproach you and say all
manner of evil of you; be not put into a passion by the injuries
they do you, so as in your passion to be provoked to swear.” This
swearing is no doubt forbidden here: and it will not excuse those that
are guilty of this sin to say they sear only when they are provoked to
it, and before they are aware. But the apostle’s warning extends to
other occasions of swearing as well as this. Some have translated the
words, pro panton—before all things; and so have
made sense of this place to be that they should not, in common
conversation, before every thing they say, put an oath. All
customary needless swearing is undoubtedly forbidden, and all along in
scripture condemned, as a very grievous sin. Profane swearing was very
customary among the Jews, and, since this epistle is directed in
general to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (as before has
been observed), we may conceive this exhortation sent to those who
believed not. It is hard to suppose that swearing should be one of the
spots of God’s children, since Peter, when he was charged with being a
disciple of Christ and would disprove the charge, cursed and swore,
thereby thinking most effectually to convince them that he was no
disciple of Jesus, it being well known of such that they durst not
allow themselves in swearing; but possibly some of the looser sort of
those who were called Christians might, among other sins here charged
upon them, be guilty also of this. It is a sin that in later years has
most scandalously prevailed, even among those who would be thought
above all others entitled to the Christian name and privileges. It is
very rare indeed to hear of a dissenter from the church of England who
is guilty of swearing, but among those who glory in their being of the
established church nothing is more common; and indeed the most
execrable oaths and curses now daily wound the ears and hearts of all
serious Christians. James here says,
1. Above all things, swear not; but how many are there who mind
this the least of all things, and who make light of nothing so much as
common profane swearing! But why above all things is swearing
here forbidden?
(1.) Because it strikes most directly at the honour of God and most
expressly throws contempt upon his name and authority.
(2.) Because this sin has, of all sins, the least temptation to it: it
is not gain, nor pleasure, nor reputation, that can move men to it, but
a wantonness in sinning, and a needless showing an enmity to God.
Thy enemies take thy name in vain,
Ps. cxxxix. 20.
This is a proof of men’s being enemies to God, however they may pretend
to call themselves by his name, or sometimes to compliment him in acts
of worship.
(3.) Because it is with most difficulty left off when once men are
accustomed to it, therefore it should above all things be watched
against. And,
(4.) “Above all things swear not, for how can you expect the
name of God should be a strong tower to you in your distress if you
profane it and play with it at other times?” But (as Mr. Baxter
observes) “all this is so far from forbidding necessary oaths that it
is but to confirm them, by preserving the due reverence of them.” And
then he further notes that “The true nature of an oath is, by our
speech, to pawn the reputation of some certain or great thing,
for the averring of a doubted less thing; and not (as is
commonly held) an appeal to God or other judge.” Hence it was that
swearing by the heavens, and by the earth, and by the other oaths the
apostle refers to, came to be in use. The Jews thought if they did but
omit the great oath of Chi-Eloah, they were safe. But they grew
so profane as to swear by the creature, as if it were God; and so
advanced it into the place of God; while, on the other hand, those who
swear commonly and profanely by the name of God do hereby put him upon
the level with every common thing.
2. But let your yea be yea, and your nay nay; lest you fall into
condemnation; that is, “let it suffice you to affirm or deny a
thing as there is occasion, and be sure to stand to your word, an be
true to it, so as to give no occasion for your being suspected of
falsehood; and then you will be kept from the condemnation of backing
what you say or promise by rash oaths, and from profaning the name of
God to justify yourselves. It is being suspected of falsehood that
leads men to swearing. Let it be known that your keep to truth, and are
firm to your word, and by this means you will find there is no need to
swear to what you say. Thus shall you escape the condemnation which is
expressly annexed to the third commandment: The Lord will not hold
him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.“
II. As Christians we are taught to suit ourselves to the dispensations
of Providence
(v. 13):
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing
psalms. Our condition in this world is various; and our wisdom is
to submit to its being so, and to behave as becomes us both in
prosperity and under affliction. Sometimes we are in sadness, sometimes
in mirth; God has set these one over against the other that we may the
better observe the several duties he enjoins, and that the impressions
made on our passions and affections may be rendered serviceable to our
devotions. Afflictions should put us upon prayer, and prosperity should
make us abound in praise. Not that prayer is to be confined to a time
of trouble, nor singing to a time of mirth; but these several duties
may be performed with special advantage, and to the happiest purposes,
at such seasons.
1. In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The
person afflicted must pray himself, as well as engage the prayers of
others for him. Times of affliction should be praying times. To this
end God sends afflictions, that we may be engaged to seek him early;
and that those who at other times have neglected him may be brought to
enquire after him. The spirit is then most humble, the heart is broken
and tender; and prayer is most acceptable to God when it comes from a
contrite humble spirit. Afflictions naturally draw out complaints; and
to whom should we complain but to God in prayer? It is necessary to
exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed
means both for obtaining and increasing these graces in us. Is any
afflicted? Let him pray.
2. In a day of mirth and prosperity singing psalms is very proper and
seasonable. In the original it is only said sing,
psalleto, without the addition of psalms or any other
word: and we learn from the writings of several in the first ages of
Christianity (particularly from a letter of Pliny’s, and from some
passages in Justin Martyr and Tertullian) that the Christians were
accustomed to sing hymns, either taken out of scripture, or of more
private composure, in their worship of God. Though some have thought
that Paul’s advising both the Colossians and Ephesians to speak to
one another psalmois kai hymnois kai odais
pneumatikais—in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs,
refers only to the compositions of scripture, the psalms of David being
distinguished in Hebrew by Shurim, Tehillim, and
Mizmorim, words that exactly answer these of the apostle. Let
that be as it will, this however we are sure of, that the singing of
psalms is a gospel ordinance, and that our joy should be holy joy,
consecrated to God. Singing is so directed to here as to show that, if
any be in circumstances of mirth and prosperity, he should turn his
mirth, though alone, and by himself, in this channel. Holy mirth
becomes families and retirements, as well as public assemblies. Let
our singing be such as to make melody with our hearts unto the
Lord, and God will assuredly be well pleased with this kind of
devotion.
III. We have particular directions given as to sick persons, and
healing pardoning mercy promised upon the observance of those
directions. If any be sick, they are required,
1. To send for the elders, presbyterous tes
ekklesias—the presbyters, pastors or ministers of
the church,
v. 14, 15.
It lies upon sick people as a duty to send for ministers, and to desire
their assistance and their prayers.
2. It is the duty of ministers to pray over the sick, when thus desired
and called for. Let them pray over him; let their prayers be
suited to his case, and their intercessions be as becomes those who are
affected wit his calamities.
3. In the times of miraculous healing, the sick were to be anointed
with oil in the name of the Lord. Expositors generally confine this
anointing with oil to such as had the power of working miracles; and,
when miracles ceased, this institution ceased also. In Mark’s gospel we
read of the apostle’s anointing with oil many that were sick, and
healing them,
And we have accounts of this being practiced in the church two hundred
years after Christ; but then the gift of healing also accompanied it,
and, when the miraculous gift ceased, this rite was laid aside. The
papists indeed have made a sacrament of this, which they call the
extreme unction. They use it, not to heal the sick, as it was used
by the apostles; but as they generally run counter to scripture, in the
appointments of their church, so here they ordain that this should be
administered only to such as are at the very point of death. The
apostle’s anointing was in order to heal the disease; the popish
anointing is for the expulsion of the relics of sin, and to enable the
soul (as they pretend) the better to combat with the powers of the air.
When they cannot prove, by any visible effects, that Christ owns them
in the continuance of this rite, they would however have people to
believe that the invisible effects are very wonderful. But it is surely
much better to omit this anointing with oil than to turn it quite
contrary to the purposes spoken of in scripture. Some protestants have
thought that this anointing was only permitted or approved by Christ,
not instituted. But it should seem, by the words of James here, that it
was a thing enjoined in cases where there was faith for healing. And
some protestants have argued for it with this view. It was not to be
commonly used, not even in the apostolical age; and some have thought
that it should not be wholly laid aside in any age, but that where
there are extraordinary measures of faith in the person anointing, and
in those who are anointed, an extraordinary blessing may attend the
observance of this direction for the sick. However that be, there is
one thing carefully to be observed here, that the saving of the sick is
not ascribed to the anointing with oil, but to prayer: The
prayer of faith shall save the sick, &c.,
So that,
4. Prayer over the sick must proceed from, and be accompanied with, a
lively faith. There must be faith both in the person praying and in the
person prayed for. In a time of sickness, it is not the cold and formal
prayer that is effectual, but the prayer of faith.
5. We should observe the success of prayer. The Lord shall raise up;
that is, if he be a person capable and fit for deliverance, and if God
have any thing further for such a person to do in the world. And, if
he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him; that is, where
sickness is sent as a punishment for some particular sin, that sin
shall be pardoned, and in token thereof the sickness shall be removed.
As when Christ said to the impotent man, Go and sin no more, lest a
worse thing come unto thee, it is intimated that some particular
sin was the cause of his sickness. The great thing therefore we should
beg of God for ourselves and others in the time of sickness is the
pardon of sin. Sin is both the root of sickness and the sting of it. If
sin be pardoned, either affliction shall be removed in mercy or we
shall see there is mercy in the continuance of it. When healing is
founded upon pardon, we may say as Hezekiah did: Thou hast, in love to
my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption,
Isa. xxxviii. 17.
When you are sick and in pain, it is most common to pray and cry, O
give me ease! O restore me to health! But your prayer should rather
and chiefly be, O that God would pardon my sins!
IV. Christians are directed to confess their faults one to another,
and so to join in their prayers with an for one another,
v. 16.
Some expositors connect this with
As if when sick people send for ministers to pray over them they should
then confess their faults to them. Indeed, where any are conscious that
their sickness is a vindictive punishment of some particular sin, and
they cannot look for the removal of their sickness without particular
applications to God for the pardon of such a sin, there it may be
proper to acknowledge and tell his case, that those who pray over him
may know how to plead rightly for him. But the confession here required
is that of Christians to one another, and not, as the papists would
have it, to a priest. Where persons have injured one another, acts of
injustice must be confessed to those against whom they have been
committed. Where persons have tempted one another to sin or have
consented in the same evil actions, there they ought mutually to blame
themselves and excite each other to repentance. Where crimes are of a
public nature, and have done any public mischief, there they ought to
be more publicly confessed, so as may best reach to all who are
concerned. And sometimes it may be well to confess our faults to some
prudent minister or praying friend, that he may help us to plead with
God for mercy and pardon. But then we are not to think that James puts
us upon telling every thing that we are conscious is amiss in ourselves
or in one another; but so far as confession is necessary to our
reconciliation with such as are at variance with us, or for gaining
information in any point of conscience and making our own spirits quiet
and easy, so far we should be ready to confess our faults. And
sometimes also it may be of good use to Christians to disclose their
peculiar weaknesses and infirmities to one another, where there are
great intimacies and friendships, and where they may help each other by
their prayers to obtain pardon of their sins and power against them.
Those who make confession of their faults one to another should
thereupon pray with and for one another. The
directs persons to pray for themselves: Is any afflicted let him
pray; the
directs to seek for the prayers of ministers; and the
directs private Christians to pray one for another; so
that here we have all sorts of prayer (ministerial, social, and secret)
recommended.
V. The great advantage and efficacy of prayer are declared and proved:
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,
whether he pray for himself or for others: witness the example of
Elias,
He who prays must be a righteous man; not righteous in an absolute
sense (for this Elias was not, who is here made a pattern to us), but
righteous in a gospel sense; not loving nor approving of any iniquity.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my
prayer,
Ps. lxvi. 18.
Further, the prayer itself must be a fervent, in-wrought, well-wrought
prayer. It must be a pouring out of the heart to God; and it must
proceed from a faith unfeigned. Such prayer avails much. It is of great
advantage to ourselves, it may be very beneficial to our friends, and
we are assured of its being acceptable to God. It is good having those
for friends whose prayers are available in the sight of God. The power
of prayer is here proved from the success of Elijah. This may be
encouraging to us even in common cases, if we consider that Elijah was
a man of like passions with us. He was a zealous good man and a
very great man, but he had his infirmities, and was subject to disorder
in his passions as well as others. In prayer we must not look to the
merit of man, but to the grace of God. Only in this we should copy
after Elijah, that he prayed earnestly, or, as it is in the original,
in prayer he prayed. It is not enough to say a prayer, but we
must pray in prayer. Our thoughts must be fixed, our desires firm and
ardent, and our graces in exercise; and, when we thus pray in prayer,
we shall speed in prayer. Elijah prayed that it might not rain;
and God heard him in his pleading against an idolatrous persecuting
country, so that it rained not on the earth for the space of three
years and six months. Again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain,
&c. Thus you see prayer is the key which opens and shuts heaven. To
this there is an allusion,
where the two witnesses are said to have power to shut heaven, that
it rain not. This instance of the extraordinary efficacy of prayer
is recorded for encouragement even to ordinary Christians to be instant
and earnest in prayer. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob,
Seek my face in vain. If Elijah by prayer could do such great
and wonderful things, surely the prayers of no righteous man shall
return void. Where there may not be so much of a miracle in God’s
answering our prayers, yet there may be as much of grace.
VI. This epistle concludes with an exhortation to do all we can in our
places to promote the conversion and salvation of others,
Some interpret these verses as an apology which the apostle is making
for himself that he should so plainly and sharply reprove the Jewish
Christians for their many faults and errors. And certainly James gives
a very good reason why he was so much concerned to reclaim them from
their errors, because in thus doing he should save souls, and hide a
multitude of sins. But we are not to restrain this place to the
apostle’s converting such as erred from the truth; no, nor to other
ministerial endeavours of the like nature, since it is said, “If any
err, and one convert him, let him be who he will that does so good an
office for another, he is therein an instrument of saving a soul from
death.” Those whom the apostle here calls brethren, he yet supposes
liable to err. It is no mark of a wise or a holy man to boast of his
being free from error, or to refuse to acknowledge when he is in an
error. But if any do err, be they ever so great, you must not be afraid
to show them their error; and, be they ever so weak and little, you
must not disdain to make them wiser and better. If they err from the
truth, that is, from the gospel (the great rule and standard of truth),
whether it be in opinion or practice, you must endeavour to bring them
again to the rule. Errors in judgment and in life generally go
together. There is some doctrinal mistake at the bottom of every
practical miscarriage. There is no one habitually bad, but upon some
bad principle. Now to convert such is to reduce them from their error,
and to reclaim them from the evils they have been led into. We are not
presently to accuse and exclaim against an erring brother, and seek to
bring reproaches and calamities upon him, but to convert him: and, if
by all our endeavours we cannot do this, yet we are nowhere empowered
to persecute and destroy him. If we are instrumental in the conversion
of any, we are said to convert them, though this be principally
and efficiently the work of God. And, if we can do no more towards the
conversion of sinners, yet we may do this–pray for the grace and Spirit
of God to convert and change them. And let those that are in any way
serviceable to convert others know what will be the happy consequence
of their doing this: they may take great comfort in it at present, and
they will meet with a crown at last. He that is said to err from the
truth in
is described as erring in his way in
and we cannot be said to convert any merely by altering their opinions,
unless we can bring them to correct and amend their ways. This is
conversion–to turn a sinner from the error of his ways, and not to
turn him from one party to another, or merely from one notion and way
of thinking to another. He who thus converteth a sinner from the error
of his ways shall save a soul from death. There is a soul in the
case; and what is done towards the salvation of the soul shall
certainly turn to good account. The soul being the principal part of
the man, the saving of that only is mentioned, but it includes the
salvation of the whole man: the spirit shall be saved from hell, the
body raised from the grave, and both saved from eternal death. And
then, by such conversion of heart and life, a multitude of sins
shall be hid. A most comfortable passage of scripture is this. We
learn hence that though our sins are many, even a multitude, yet they
may be hid or pardoned; and that when sin is turned from or forsaken it
shall be hid, never to appear in judgment against us. Let people
contrive to cover or excuse their sin as they will, there is no way
effectually and finally to hide it but by forsaking it. Some make the
sense of this text to be, that conversion shall prevent a
multitude of sins; and it is a truth beyond dispute that many sins are
prevented in the party converted, many also may be prevented in others
that he may have an influence upon, or may converse with. Upon the
whole, how should we lay out ourselves with all possible concern for
the conversion of sinners! It will be for the happiness and salvation
of the converted; it will prevent much mischief, and the spreading and
multiplying of sin in the world; it will be for the glory and honour of
God; and it will mightily redound to our comfort and renown in the
great day. Those that turn many to righteousness, and those who
help to do so, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.
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