James 5 · The Lantern

A Warning to the Rich

Come now, you who are rich: weep, wailing over the miseries coming upon you.

The rich must repent while there is still time for them to do so. James is speaking here of those rich people who have shown themselves to be too stingy to offer any help to the poor.

Act now you rich men, weep, howling in your miseries which shall come to you. "Act now." The greed and frugality of the rich are made evident by their lamentation, commanding them to weep, that is, to mourn, as those who hide their wealth for destruction and ruin, nor do they spend it on the needy: for indeed, the expenditure of wealth on these does not perish, but the one who…

The thrift and stinginess of the rich often makes them weep. But the apostle makes them howl, that is, weep bitterly, because they heap up their wealth for corruption and do not distribute it to the poor, for wealth is preserved only when it is spent on the poor.

Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten.

Riches cannot harm a good person, because he spends them kindly. Likewise they cannot help an evil person as long as he keeps them avariciously or wastes them in dissipation.

Your riches are corrupt: and your garments are eaten by moths. Your gold and silver is rusted: and their rust shall be for a testimony to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have stored to yourselves wrath in the last days. "Your riches." Or your wealth.

The rotting of wealth, he says, the eating of garments by moths, and the rust of silver and gold will testify against you, exposing you for having given nothing. Therefore in the last days, that is, at the coming of the Lord, your wealth will prove to be, as it were, fire gathered for your destruction, which the rich man mentioned in the Gospel also experienced.

Your gold and silver have corroded, and their rust will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have treasured up in the last days.

Let us go in by the narrow way. How long will luxury last? How long will there be licentiousness? Have not the heedless among us been warned? What about the mockers and the procrastinators? Will not their banquets and gluttony and self-satisfaction, not to mention their wealth, their possessions and their property all disappear? What reward have they got? Death.

It is true of course that gold does not rust, but James is comparing it to material things which do rust in the course of time.

You have stored up wrath for yourselves in the last days. Because, having neglected the nakedness or hunger of the poor, you rejoiced in storing up treasures of money for yourselves, now, not having foreseen it, you have accumulated the wrath of the eternal Judge against yourselves.

Behold, the wage of the workmen who harvested your fields, which has been kept back by you, cries out; and the cries of those who harvested have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

What James means here is not that God has ears but that he can use his power to put right the wrongs which exist on earth.

Behold, the wages of the workers who have reaped your fields, which were withheld by you, cry out. How great is the iniquity of the proud, who, although they have sufficient wealth, not only disdain to welcome and refresh the poor coming everywhere, but also refuse to give the due wages of their work to the laborers or their servants.

This is an exposure and shaming of the Jewish leaders, who tended the poor and glutted themselves with honors from all, but were themselves being prepared for slaughter at the hands of the Roman authorities, especially for having condemned the only Righteous One — the Lord — and killed Him when He did not resist, did not cry out.

You lived in luxury upon the earth and lived in self-indulgence; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

What then? Has luxury been condemned? It certainly has—so why do you continue to strive for it? A man has made bread, but the excess has been trimmed away. A man has made wine, but the excess has been cut off there also. God desires that we should pray not for impure food but for souls set free from excess.

You have made merry upon the earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have presented, and slain the Just One: and he did not resist you.

And in luxury you have nourished your hearts. They nourish their hearts in luxury, who, according to that saying of Ecclesiastes, do not forbid their heart to enjoy every pleasure and to amuse itself with those things they have prepared. And this they take as their part, if they use their own works, having no care for the sustenance or amusement of the poor (Eccl. II).

You condemned, you murdered the righteous one; he does not resist you.

Patience in Suffering

Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and latter rains.

If God delays the punishment of sinners, waiting for them to repent, it is not because his character has changed, so that now he loves sin. Rather he is giving them time to repent.

Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until he receives the early and latter rain. Be patient therefore, you also, and establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Having condemned the luxury of the Jewish leaders and their cruelty toward the poor, the apostle turns his discourse to the faithful and says: brethren! do not be scandalized at the sight of this and do not be discouraged, as though there will be no retribution.

Be patient, you also; strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord has drawn near.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the Judge stands before the doors.

As an example of suffering evil and of patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we call happy those who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome of the Lord, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.

But before all things, my brothers, do not swear — neither by heaven nor by the earth nor by any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

What if someone swears an oath and claims that he was forced to do so? The fear of God is more powerful than any force. For though you may start out by swearing all kinds of promises, you will not keep any of them. Moreover, you would not dare to swear or give an oath in matters of human law, which you accept whether you want to or not.

Jesus said: "Let your yes be yes and your no, no." Any more than this is evil. So do not swear for good reason, because that is evil. It is said to be evil because the need of an oath comes from an unsure conscience.

Let your affirmation be firm in firmness and your negation be the same. Otherwise: let the testimony of your life be firmer than an oath. If someone shameless, not respecting your life, insistently demands an oath from you, then instead of an oath let your "yes, yes" and "no, no" suffice.

The Prayer of Faith

Is anyone among you suffering hardship? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.

Is anyone among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Prayer go together with affliction, so that for the one who is afflicted, the withdraw from afflictions or temptations may be lighter.

Is anyone among you in trouble? etc. He who previously forbade brothers to groan to each other under trials now demonstrates what should be done in contrast.

Let prayer accompany suffering, so that for the one being tried the way out of trials may be easier. Then, when our agitations have been stilled through prayer and the soul has attained the state proper to it, let it sing psalms, so that its blessedness may be multiplied, for the singing of psalms, according to Basil the Great, produces a peaceful and sorrowless state of the so…

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is ailing, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

The prayer of faith is the consensus of the whole church, as it is said in the Gospel: "Whatever you ask in my name shall be done for you."

And if he is in sins, they will be forgiven him. Many people, due to sins committed in the soul, are punished with sickness or even death of the body. Hence the apostle told the Corinthians, who were accustomed to receive the body of the Lord unworthily: Therefore many among you are weak and ill, and many sleep (1 Corinthians 11).

Extreme unction is the Sacrament of those departing from this life, preparing and disposing them for perfect health; it avails also for the removal of venial sins and for the recovery of present health, if it be expedient for the sick person. This Sacrament has efficacy both for arousing devotion and for remitting venial sins and for more easily removing the dross of sins.

Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man being made effective prevails much.

With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; moreover, to know no food and drink but such as is plain,-not for the stomach's sake, to wit, but the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed…

Sometimes in sacred speech preachers are understood by dogs. For the tongue of a dog, when it licks a wound, heals it, because holy teachers too, when they instruct us in the confession of our sin, touch as it were the wound of the mind through their tongue; and because by speaking they rescue us from sins, by touching wounds as it were they restore us to health.

The prayer of the righteous man has great power when the one for whom he prays also assists his prayer with spiritual sorrow, for if when others pray for us we ourselves spend our time in luxury, indulgence, and intemperance, then by this we weaken the power of the prayer of the one laboring on our behalf, and the word of blessed Peter is fulfilled in us: "When one builds and a…

Elijah was a man of like nature to us, and with prayer he prayed for it not to rain — and it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months.

And again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.

The word of the prophet went forth and suddenly the air was changed, the sky became bronze, not because its nature was altered but because of the electric effect which was produced. Suddenly the elements were transformed, as the prophet's word fell like a fiery bolt on the hollow parts of the earth, and immediately everything dried up, became a desert and disappeared.

It is rash to think that anything which spiritual men say is excessive or badly stated, for what is said is not mindless or superficial. For this man was a prophet, and the greatest of the prophets, on fire with zeal for God. What he said, he said by the inspiration of God's Spirit, which explains its extraordinary character.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, etc. Therefore, he prayed once and before and after, and this one Elijah obtained such great and mighty things; how much more, then, is the frequent prayer of many righteous people worth?

Restoring a Sinner

My brothers, if anyone among you is led astray from the truth and someone brings him back,

Brothers, if anyone among you has strayed from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. "someone turns him back, let him know." For it is necessary to serve the salvation of one's neighbor.

My brothers, if anyone among you strays from the truth, etc. For, as in the earlier sections of this Epistle, our tongue is restrained from wicked or idle speech, it is now shown what we should especially speak at the end. Therefore, we are commanded to pray and sing psalms to the Lord whenever we are struck by adversities.

Jeremiah says the same: "If you bring forth the honorable from the unworthy, you shall be as My mouth" ("and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you shall be as My mouth") (Jer. 15:19), for everyone who proclaims the words of God becomes the mouth of God. For what does He say? "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20).