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5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your
miseries that shall
come upon you.
5:2 Your riches are
corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
5:3 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.
5:4 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.
5:5 Ye have lived in
pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have
nourished your hearts, as in a day of
slaughter.
5:6 Ye have
condemned and
killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
5:7 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.
5:8 Be ye also patient;
stablish your hearts: for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh.
5:9
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be
condemned:
behold, the judge standeth before the door.
5:10 Take, my
brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of
the Lord, for an example of suffering
affliction, and of patience.
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.
5:12 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.
5:13 Is any among you
afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him
sing
psalms.
5:14 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: 5:15 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.
5:16 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.
5:17
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.
5:18 And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her
fruit.
5:19
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert
him; 5:20 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.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
back to:
James
Book: James
Chapter: 5
Overview:
The
Judgments of God denounced against rich unbelievers.
(1-6)
Exhortation to patience and
Meekness under tribulations.
(7-11)
Cautions against rash swearing,
Prayer recommended in afflictive
and prosperous circumstances, Christians to confess their faults
to each other.
(12-18) The happiness of being the means of the
Conversion of a sinner.
(19,20)
1-6 Public troubles are most grievous to those who live in
pleasure, and are secure and sensual, though all ranks suffer
deeply at such times. All idolized treasures will soon perish,
except as they will rise up in
Judgment against their
possessors. Take heed of defrauding and oppressing; and avoid
the very appearance of it.
God does not forbid us to use lawful
pleasures; but to live in pleasure, especially sinful pleasure,
is a provoking
Sin. Is it
No harm for people to unfit themselves
for minding the concerns of their souls,
By indulging bodily
appetites? The just may be condemned and killed; but when such
suffer
By oppressors, this is marked
By God. Above all their
other crimes, the Jews had condemned and crucified that Just One
who had come among them, even
Jesus Christ the righteous.
7-11 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
longer than the
Husbandman, is not there something more worth
waiting for? In every sense the coming of the
Lord drew nigh,
and all his people's losses, hardships, and sufferings, would be
repaid. Men count time long, because they
Measure it
By their
own lives; but all time is as nothing to
God; it is as a moment.
To short-lived creatures a few years seem an
Age; but
Scripture,
measuring all things
By the existence of
God, reckons
Thousands
of years but
So many days.
God brought about things in
Job's
case,
So as plainly to prove that he is very pitiful and of
tender
Mercy. This did not appear during his troubles, but was
seen in the event, and believers now will find a happy
End to
their trials. Let us serve our
God, and
Bear our trials, as
those who believe that the
End will
Crown all. Our eternal
happiness is safe if we trust to him: all else is mere vanity,
which soon will be done with for ever.
12-18 The
Sin of swearing is condemned; but how many make
Light
of common profane swearing! Such swearing expressly throws
contempt upon
God's name and authority. This
Sin brings neither
gain, nor pleasure, nor reputation, but is showing
Enmity to
God
without occasion and without advantage. It shows a
Man to be an
enemy to
God, however he pretends to
Call himself
By his name,
or sometimes joins in
Acts of
Worship. But the
Lord will not
Hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. In a
Day of
affliction nothing is more seasonable than
Prayer. The
Spirit is
then most humble, and the
Heart is broken and tender. It is
necessary to
Exercise Faith and
Hope under
Afflictions; and
Prayer is the appointed means for obtaining and increasing these
graces. Observe, that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to
the anointing with
Oil, but to
Prayer. In a time of sickness it
is not cold and formal
Prayer that is effectual, but the
Prayer
of
Faith. The great thing we should
Beg of
God for ourselves and
others in the time of sickness is, the
Pardon of
Sin. Let
nothing be done to encourage any to delay, under the mistaken
fancy that a
Confession, a
Prayer, a
Minister's absolution and
exhortation, or the sacrament, will set all right at last, where
the duties of a godly
Life have been disregarded. To acknowledge
our faults to each other, will tend greatly to peace and
brotherly
Love. And when a righteous person, a true believer,
justified in
Christ, and
By his
Grace walking before
God in holy
obedience, presents an effectual fervent
Prayer, wrought in his
Heart By the power of the Holy
Spirit, raising holy affections
and believing expectations and
So leading earnestly to plead the
promises of
God at his
Mercy-seat, it avails much. The power of
Prayer is proved from the history of
Elijah. In
Prayer we must
not look to the merit of
Man, but to the
Grace of
God. It is not
enough to say a
Prayer, but we must pray in
Prayer. Thoughts
must be fixed, desires must be firm and ardent, and graces
exercised. This instance of the power of
Prayer, encourages
every
Christian to be
Earnest in
Prayer.
God never says to any
of the seed of
Jacob, Seek my
Face in vain. Where there may not
be
So much of
Miracle in
God's answering our prayers, yet there
may be as much of
Grace.
19,20 It is
No Mark of a
Wise or holy
Man, to boast of being
free from error, or to refuse to acknowledge an error. And there
is some doctrinal mistake at the bottom of every practical
mistake. There is
No one habitually bad, but upon some bad
principle. This is
Conversion; to turn a sinner from the error
of his ways, not merely from one party to another, or from one
notion and way of thinking to another. There is
No way
effectually and finally to hide
Sin, but forsaking it. Many sins
are hindered in the party converted; many also may be
So in
others whom he may influence. The
Salvation of one soul is of
infinitely greater importance than preserving the lives of
multitudes, or promoting the welfare of a whole people. Let us
in our several stations keep these things in mind, sparing
No
pains in
God's service, and the event will prove that our labour
is not in vain in the
Lord. For six thousand years He has been
multiplying pardons, and yet his free
Grace is not tired nor
grown weary. Certainly Divine
Mercy is an ocean that is ever
full and ever flowing. May the
Lord give us a part in this
abundant
Mercy, through the
Blood of
Christ, and the
Sanctification of the
Spirit.