The Book of James, Let Your Yea Be Yea; And Your Nay, Nay, James 5:10-12 - Lesson 23

We ended last weeks lesson by focusing our attention on the act of grudging for the Apostle James instructs us in verse 9:

to grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned (judged): behold, the judge standeth before the door.

The inference here is that all grudging, even though meant to be against another, is in reality grudging against the judge who standeth at the door.

We of course know that judge to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the one who stands at the door and takes our grudging personally for all things come from Him and any discontent we have is a personal affront to Him.

Grudging is murmuring, it is grumbling, it is being discontented with one’s lot in life.

It is a refusal to recognize that one’s lot in life comes from God and that God does all things well.

It is an act outside of faith and trust in your God who loves you and wants the best for you.

It is a refusal to believe God’s word which says that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose.

It is a desire to thwart that purpose in favor of one’s own purpose.

Grumbling is an act of arrogance, it is the taking upon one’s self the prerogative of God who is the judge.

We come on the scene and assume a judgeship about our brother or sister or even ourselves as to our lot in life.

God clearly, in His word, says this is not your job and any intrusion into his realm will be met by His judgement.

James provides the remedy to this kind of spirit and that remedy is to focus upon the Lord’s return with patience which leads to endurance, which leads to hope.

It is a remedy of hope in the coming of the Lord.

It is to use this period of waiting on the Lord to establish your hearts, to be grounded in God’s word and His work.

Jesus said, I must be about my Father’s business.

He was about establishing His heart in the business of God and that is what James advocates for God’s children.

Not to be a busybody about others but to have your body busy in God’s service.

Those who have much time on their hands tend to grudge and grumble, but those involved in the work of God find little time to do such things.

The spectators are usually the grumblers!

Remember these old sayings: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop or idle hands are the devil’s tools.

The gist of this saying is that the person who doesn't have something particular to occupy himself with, will be tempted to occupy himself with sin.

Idleness means that you do not have a particular goal in mind and therefore are easily distracted.

Remember the admonition to the young widows in I Timothy 5:13 against supporting them lest such support leave the woman with little to do.

For this same cause, Paul commanded all Christians to work lest they become busybodies.

We can read of this in II Thessalonians 3:10-12, For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. ¹¹For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. ¹²Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

So hope in the coming of the Lord is not a hope of sitting around waiting but it is a hope built on patience and endurance, a hope that is encouraged by doing God’s business.

It is an active hope that finds one engaged in the service of the Lord.

It is an "I must be about my Father’s business" kind of hope.

And it is that kind of hope in spite of suffering and affliction that may come our way.

And James brings to our mind examples of those of God’s servants who continued to serve with patience during great suffering and affliction.

James 5:10-11,  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. ¹¹Behold, 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.

James brings to our mind two examples of the kind of patience he is encouraging, the patience of the prophets and the patience of Job.

First he asks us to think about the prophets.

These were the faithful servants of God who spoke His truth to a sinful generation and by doing so paid a high price.

They were ignored, rejected, abused, and even killed because of their words.

But we now are equipped to look upon the whole duration of their lives and we count them happy which endured in the midst of adversity.

James instructs us to take them for an example and persevere as they did under great trial.

Have the same admiration for endurance and for what it brings you.

Our Lord brought this same message when in Mark 13:13 He said this:

Now this is not a verse that tells us how to be saved, for endurance alone will not save, but it is a verse that tells us what is at the end of endurance.

Jesus Christ is telling us to focus on the end, to focus on where endurance is leading you, not on the adversity or suffering that comes with endurance.

Again it is the message to focus on the hope of the coming of the Lord.

For endurance will brings us to the climax of our salvation, that of going home to be with the Lord.

The second example that James brings to our attention is God’s man, Job.

God allowed Job to suffer greatly by the hand of Satan, by the hand of his wife, and by the hand of his friends.

Job was unjustly accused of sins which he did not commit.

When Job tried to defend himself he was criticized more severely.

Job suffered much and his responses to his affliction were not always what they should have been.

Even so Job endured to the end and did not abandon his faith in God.

He may have known what God was doing in his life, but Job continued to trust in God.

So God tells us the whole story that we may be strengthened in our resolve to serve Him in spite of adversity.

For can you imagine any of us suffering even one tenth of that which Job suffered?

Sometimes when we are told of a trial that others go though we try to top that tale of a trial with a bigger trial that we have faced.

But none of us could boast of an adversity or trial that could not be topped by the adversity or trials of Job.

So Job is to be our example of endurance whereby in the end God vindicated him as a righteous man.

And as Jesus told us that whosoever endures to the end shall be saved, so to was Job saved for God restored Job and granted him even greater prosperity than he had before his testing began.

Job endured in the midst of adversity, and God both vindicated and blessed him, at the proper time.

James tells us to ponder the patience of Job but we are to include in our pondering the end of the trials of Job and that pondering will bring us to what James tells us of our Lord in verse 11.

that the Lord is very pitiful (extremely compassionate), and of tender mercy.

I imagine Job did not appreciate at all the passage of what he went though.

But his experience was given to us and to all of God’s people throughout the centuries that we may be strengthened in our resolve by his example to be faithful whatever may befall us.

I think patient Job would rejoice today over all those things God counted him worthy to endure.

Knowing that his trust in God during his suffering and adversity has resulted in encouragement to all of God’s children to keep on keeping on whatever trial comes.

Job’s example, readily available from God’s word for all to see, should be that which reminds us that we too can be an example to others.

An example to others in how we live our lives looking for the coming of the Lord, regardless of the adversity or trials that come into our life.

It ought to be our hope that others would testify of our example, saying he or she was a person who always looked up knowing that their redemption draweth nigh.

Now James is about to end his epistle and again includes some important instruction about the use of the tongue.

We have seen in this book a continuing theme of James regarding the tongue and here in verse 12 he continues this theme.

James 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.

Now this seems to be the age of the use of swear words, cuss words if you please.

Some folks seem to have half of their vocabulary reserved for such words.

Some folks use swear words during times of adversity and trial.

Job’s wife told Job to use them to curse God.

Christians even have substitute swear words, thinking that it makes a difference if you don’t use the real word but only a word that sounds like the real thing.

In this we certainly forget that God hears the real word from the heart.

But James is not addressing the problem of swear words in this verse.

The word swear used here means the giving of an oath.

It means declaring truth to have degrees to it so that your word accompanied by swearing upon something is more valid than simply giving your word.

You may say "I swear on a stack of Bibles" to indicate that you are indeed telling the truth but if you don’t swear on a stack of Bibles maybe you are not telling as much truth as you do when you swear.

James certainly attaches great importance to this subject for he says in introducing it, "Above all else, swear not!"

Our Lord Jesus Christ also spoke of this subject in Matthew 5: 33-37:

So our Lord Jesus tells us not to swear and the Apostle James adds to the chorus and also tells us not to swear.

The issue here seems to be that of telling the truth.

God’s children are not to think of truth in degrees of truth.

We are not to think that the giving of our word accompanied by oaths is to be of higher value than just giving our word.

We are not to succumb to others who demand some oath to prove we are telling the truth.

Children sometimes demand such things.

Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, if I am not telling the truth, they sometimes say.

This promise is accompanied by drawing an imaginary x across the heart or else it doesn’t count, so they can couch their promise by deception.

Or they may demand that you promise even though you’ve said yes.

In reality, Christians should never need to add to their Yeas and their Nays.

Our word should be our bond.

When we say, "Yes" we should mean yes.

Others should not need some further affirmation of truthfulness than our words themselves.

James uses the words, "above all" to reveal to us that this is the most important thing he has to say about the use of the tongue and that is that the tongue speak truth.

There are to be no degrees of truth, no higher truth validated by an oath that what is now being said must be the truth, for it is accompanied by swearing and if not accompanied by swearing what is said may be doubted.

There are many cruel and wicked things that can be said with the tongue, but the most dangerous is falsehood.

Our Lord is "the way, the truth, and the life".

If we cannot be believed, then we have cast a shadow on the truth of the gospel.

Jesus said, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free".

He also said, "Sanctify or set them apart in the truth; your word is truth".

Paul said, in Ephesians 4:14-15,  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

A little later in Ephesians 4:25 Paul writes,  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

James says, Above all else, God expects us as people of Christ, who is the Truth, to also be people of truth.

There is no place for falsehood in the faith.

Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts are our examples of what God thinks of lying lips for their lying lips led to their

deaths.

Your "yes" should be sufficient, your "no" as well!