James 5:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He says to them: Do not be scandalized, my Christian brothers, and do not grieve because the rich have power over you and bring you to judgment. For a little while yet, and they themselves will receive fitting judgment from the Master Christ when He comes in His Second Coming.

He also presents here the example of the farmer. When the farmer sows seed in the earth, he does not immediately seek the fruit, but waits and is patient until God sends rain upon his field.

He waits for the early rain and the late rain. Then, when the harvest comes, he reaps with joy and receives the sheaves and fruits.

In the same way, he says, it is fitting for you Christians to remain in patience and to be long-suffering until the Lord's Second Coming arrives. Then you will receive the rich reward of your patience.

The rich, who committed violence against you, will also receive fitting judgment and punishment.

This saying may also be understood allegorically. By the farmer, the brother of God means the Lord. He sows in the earth, that is, in the hearts of Christians, who have received the noetic seed of the gospel preaching.

He sends rain, which is rain from above, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is born from the noetic clouds of the Holy Scriptures, or of the holy Apostles.

The early rain is the grace of tears of repentance given in youth. The late rain is that given in old age.

This Farmer also has in His hand the winnowing shovel, as John the Baptist said, that is, judgment. With it He will cleanse His threshing floor, that is, the whole world.

The wheat, that is, the righteous, He will gather into the granary of the kingdom on high. The chaff, that is, sinners, He will consign to the unquenchable fire of torments.

As was said, the Lord, the Farmer of your hearts, does not require you to reap the fruits of the virtues immediately. He waits for the time of harvest.

He waits so that you may be whitened and baked by various temptations, and become ready for the harvest, having been watered by the rains of grace from above.

Thus you also, my brothers, establish your hearts by hope in the good things you are to enjoy. In this way endure with long-suffering and courage the temptations that come upon you.

Keep before your eyes and await without wavering the Lord, who will render to each according to his works.

Having such hope, take care not to hate those who act unjustly toward you and not to condemn them. Rather, love them and bless them, as the Lord commands.

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Mt 5:44-45). Keep, he says, these commandments of the Lord.

Do not merely refrain from taking revenge on those who have caused you harm, loss, or any grief whatever. Do not even groan against them when you remember them, see them, or hear about them, lest you be judged as avengers.

For even a small groan that comes out of your hearts against them is a sign of hatred. I say that it is counted as revenge before God, who tests the disposition of your heart.

Therefore take care not to be condemned as avengers and as those who remember wrongs. If you have no enmity and hatred in your heart, then certainly you will have no groans against those who bring you grief and wrongs.

Therefore, my brothers, cleanse your heart of every enmity and hatred. Instead of groaning against those who act unjustly toward you, rejoice and be glad when you see or remember those who have offended you.

Consider that through the injustice or grief brought upon you, you are to receive forgiveness of sins and reward in the heavens.

Always remember the commandment God gives you, not to have hatred for your brother even in the thought of your heart: "You shall not hate your brother in your mind" (Lev 19:17).

"Behold, the Judge stands before the doors."

By this saying divine James comforts the fainthearted and teaches them to be patient and to have courageous hearts in temptations. For the Judge, that is, the Lord, is about to come soon to crown them and give them rest.

Here he also indicates death in a hidden manner, for it often comes suddenly and beyond expectation. The parable of the ten virgins shows this, when it was said to them: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him" (Mt 25:6).

By this word he inclines Christians to be ready through patience, and to stand watchful, not fallen and despondent because of the bitterness of the sorrows surrounding them.

We note that, according to Theophylact and Oecumenius, patience differs from long-suffering. As some Fathers say, a man shows long-suffering toward his fellow Christians of the same faith. A man shows patience toward outsiders and unbelievers.

It is called long-suffering when the one who suffers long is able to repay, but does not repay, and instead endures long. A man shows patience when he cannot repay, but only endures.

Therefore it is never said of patience that it is exercised according to God, but this is always said of long-suffering. It is also said of God that He is long-suffering, while patience is applied more to men.

What is said about the coming of the Lord refers to the invasion of the Romans against Jerusalem and to its captivity. Saint Chrysostom likewise interprets what the Lord said to Peter about John: "If I will that he remain until I come." This "I come" means the destruction of Jerusalem.

According to the same golden-tongued Father, the coming is also called God's invasion, His anger, and His wrath.

The wise Photius interprets in the Amphilochia this saying of the brother of the Lord: "Do not groan against one another, brethren, lest you be judged."

He says that it is much easier for a man not to groan against one who has offended him or caused him harm than to restrain himself from revenge. Not taking revenge is more difficult than not groaning.

If you, Christian, for the sake of God's commandment do not wish to take revenge on your enemy, repaying harm for harm and injustice for injustice which he caused you, why then do you groan against him?

If, for the sake of brotherly love, you cut off the more difficult thing, that is, revenge against your enemy, why do you not cut off the easier thing for the sake of the same love? Why do you continue to groan against your brother?

The latter is far easier than the former. If you cut off being filled with anger or repaying the one who harmed you, and many other great things like these, and you pray courageously until the temptation passes, then you have strength to tame such passions.

How then do you cling to groaning, a thing worthless to you and bringing no gain?

"Because the coming of the Lord is near," more precisely, "has drawn near," engiken. For greater encouragement in enduring life’s sorrows and in longsuffering, the Apostle points out that the limit of this patience is near.

The coming of Christ is near, and the Judge stands at the doors, as verse 9 says.

In their moral exhortations, the Apostles often speak of the nearness of Christ’s coming and the end of all things. Thus James speaks in the passage under consideration.

Peter speaks this way in 1 Pet 4:7 and 2 Pet 3:4 and following, 10 and following. John speaks this way in 1 Jn 2:18, 28. Paul does so in 1 Cor 7:29, 1 Cor 10:11, 1 Thess 4:15, and elsewhere.

What does this mean? In what sense do they speak of the second coming of Christ as near to their own time, when almost two thousand years have already passed, and it has not yet come?

The Old Testament prophets, when speaking of the time of the Messiah’s coming, ordinarily used the expression "in the last days" and similar phrases (Isa 2:2; Isa 4:2, and many others).

By this expression they also understood events that did not and could not follow in the first times of the gracious Kingdom of Christ.

They would occur only in the times of the universal restoration of creation, that is, in the times of the manifestation of Christ’s glorious Kingdom, at His second coming (Isa ch. 11 and elsewhere).

Thus, by such expressions, they designated the whole period of Christ’s Kingdom, from its beginning to its end.

In this same sense the Lord and His Apostles spoke of the whole duration of the Messiah’s Kingdom as the last period of the divine economy of human salvation.

Thus the Lord Himself spoke of the coming hour or time of the universal resurrection of the dead (Jn 5:25, 21). The Apostle John spoke of the last time (1 Jn 2:18).

This explains the idea of the nearness of Christ’s second coming as the end of this whole last period in the divine economy of man’s salvation. With its end the eternal time of the Kingdom of glory will begin.

This nearness of Christ’s second coming to His first must not be measured by the temporal distance between the two events.

It must be understood in this sense: with the first coming of Christ, the last age of the present life of the world has truly begun.

On God’s part, everything has already been done for the world. There are no longer obstacles to the manifestation of the new and glorious Kingdom of Christ.

This age may be lengthy in time. Yet according to the moral connection of events, it is the last. Now its duration depends solely on the will of God.

Christ’s coming is near by the inward moral connection of His second coming with His first. These are the last days, the last epoch of the world.

But the exact time when it will occur is not determined by this expression of nearness. The Lord was pleased to hide this from His disciples (Mt 24:36).

He deigned to reveal to them only certain signs of the approach of that time (Mt ch. 24 and parallels). The practical moral instruction the Lord draws from this is: "Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come" (Mt 25:13).

Therefore it was not given to the Apostles to know and speak definitively about the exact time within this last epoch when Christ’s coming would occur. Yet it is near in the sense indicated.

This thought of nearness, not fully definite in itself, could not fail to stir in the Apostles a sense of this nearness. This feeling also was not fully definite, yet it was strong and constant.

According to this feeling, they felt themselves as though continually present to this event, or ready to meet their coming Lord.

This was especially so when they saw, in the circumstances of the Church and the world, those signs which the Lord Himself indicated as signs of the approach of His coming (Mt 24).

The Apostles, as it were, pour this feeling into their believing disciples. They persuade them always to be ready to meet Christ at His coming.

They exhort them to watch, to be cautious in their manner of action, to conduct themselves according to Christian rules, not to lose heart, and so forth.

In the name of this constant watch or vigilance, the Apostles, especially Paul, place themselves together with Christians before the face of Christ at His second coming, as though it were already arriving or soon to arrive.

Speaking of this, he uses the expression: "we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord," and similar phrases (1 Thess 4:15 and following).

This is not the voice of certainty that the Apostle himself would live until the second coming of Christ. It is the expression of constant vigilance and readiness for this great event.

It will come, according to the word of Christ, like a thief in the night. It is an echo of the Lord’s words: watch, for you do not know when this will be.

It may be soon, for now is the last time, the last epoch of the world, in which He will come whenever He wills.

When it was necessary to define this time more precisely, the Apostles did not say that this event would occur at this exact time. They spoke indefinitely, for they themselves did not know, according to Christ’s word (cf. 1 Thess 5:1-3; 2 Thess ch. 2).

In this sense the Apostle James, persuading the oppressed faithful to patient endurance of oppression, points them for comfort to the nearness of the Lord’s coming.

Then both the oppressed and the oppressors, both the righteous and sinners, will receive their due recompense.

They will receive the crown of righteousness, which will be given to all who await the appearing of the Lord.

It is worthy of note that, when denouncing the rich who oppressed the poor, the Apostle does not call them brothers. Yet when exhorting Christians to abide in patience, he calls them brothers.

From this it is clear that the oppressors of Christians were chiefly Jews. The historian Flavius testifies about them that they were so malicious that, if the Romans had not struck them, an abyss would have swallowed them or water would have drowned them.