Evening Service, 27 December 2009
I don’t know who first said ‘Keep on keeping one’. It is certainly used again and again to convey the idea of perseverance, and as such it is a suitable title to this passage.
When I watch a marathon race I am particularly struck by the reality that despite there being only one winner and only three ‘medallists’, yet everyone is keen to finish. I can understand this in the lesser races – pride and all that drives you on. But there is everything in this race to encourage ‘sense’ to give up. Would not ‘sense’ tell the runner, especially those who can’t possibly win: ‘Why punish myself? My muscle tissue is breaking down, my system is being poisoned, it could take months to get over this. The race already been won – I will only do myself more harm – it’s best if I stop now.’ But they run on.
Why? It is no longer a competitive event, it is an endurance event.
The difference with the Christian life is that it never was a competitive event, but it most certainly is an endurance event. The Bible repeatedly asserts that all genuine believers will endure to the end because of God’s preserving activity (eg Phil 1:6) – but it doesn’t say they will do it without their keeping on (cf Phil 1:27, 28)!
To that end James calls us all to a patient steadfastness, and to those who are considering the call of Christ in the gospel to understand that this is expected of them.
1. The Call Heard
1. The Call Stated – v.7a, 8a
John Blanchard points out that patience means ‘to face even the most adverse circumstances with courage and calm. It also means to restrain one’s anger and resentment … The Bible does not speak of patience in terms of waiting for something to happen, but rather of steadfast endurance while things are happening, and pressing on regardless of what will happen.’
In line with this James, in v.8, calls us to “Establish your hearts”. This is the same word used of Jesus when in Luke 9:51 He “steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”. Despite all that was going to happen there was a determination to go through it. This, says James, is the type of patience we are to show during our present life in this evil age.
2. But notice the manner in which he calls us to this.
He calls them “Brethren”. As James exhorts them he does so as one standing beside them, not as one superior. It is in the right exercise of fellowship that we find ourselves standing beside each other, encouraging each other. There are times when we both need this and need to do this. It is the godly expression of fellowship love to be alert to doing this as well as receiving such encouragement – but oh how much easier it is to both give as well as receive if it is truly done with undoubtable filial love. God forbid we should ever even be firm without placing it in a setting of genuine and perceivable love.
3. The Duration called for is clear: “until the coming of the Lord.”
By this we are being reminded that the Christian life, that being a Christians is not to be a fashion or a fad – something that is followed for a while but jettisoned when something better comes or because it has just got too hard. Sadly for many people this is all Christianity seems to be to them; something we follow for now, but the time comes when they move on to something or someone else. This is not true Christian experience as described for us in the Bible, and an approach to which James will not have us surrender to.
We are to look to that day with patience, follow Jesus till that day with patience, and that regardless of what comes to us along the way. But how can we possibly do that? Is this not an unreasonable expectation – especially when you think of, and perhaps see in others, some of the pressures and difficulties that come into our lives living in this fallen world? Have we not caught ourselves thinking, ‘Lord I pray, with all sympathy for my brother or sister over there, that I will never have to face that trial – for I know that I would melt away, rather than persevere in faith my faith would peter out.’ But James does not allow us the way out because it may be difficult to us. Our faith is not only for the glad times but even for the sad times. But that being so, how can I persevere seeing I know my weaknesses?
2. The Secret Revealed
1. It is centred on Jesus’ second coming.
Yes we are to be patient unto the coming of Jesus, but it is also this very coming that is the secret of our patience. This is brought out in v.8: “for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
James uses the coming of that day, its certainty, glory, imminence and surprise as motivations to patience. In other words, as we think of the coming of the Lord in this way we will find ourselves emboldened, find ourselves renewing our grip on the faith, on the Lord, with a clearer determination to persevere to the end. The more real this coming is to us, the more earnest in our Christian life we will be and the less interested in the world and its distractions we will become.
James could have used the death of Christ as a motivation – it is a good and biblical motivation. Instead he uses the end in sight – for we are on the way, we are moving forward, the journey is nearly over, lets not stumble now. With Jesus is our reward, and it is about to be realised.
2. We need to be forward looking – seeing events in this context; that all things are moving forward to that Day.
Have we not in Jesus, in His Second Coming, as well as in His death, every incentive to patience and steadfastness? If we really believe that a change for the better is certain and imminent then we can bear the difficulties associated with the Christian life.
Is it not significant, then, that the first message Jesus sent back from the Throne as He motivated His disciples to work – as communicated by the angel, remembering that angels don’t act on their own initiative but on God’s command – focuses on this (Acts 1:11)? In v.12 we read they then returned. With the promise of His return they returned, but more importantly they returned and began their new life as God’s people. They went back to Jerusalem, fellowshipped and worshipped together, and started thinking about the future as is shown by their identifying a 12th Apostle.
It was not a perfect beginning – the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit was not yet poured out – yet they were moving forward. The view of the Second Coming loomed heavily upon them. Jesus death and ascension is not the end of the story – they knew this and so laboured on with expectation and also with confidence, out of which perseverance was born and nurtured.
3. Here we see, then, the true roots of biblical perseverance
It is not rooted in fatalism which says everything is out of control, nor in an expression of nonchalance which says everything will be OK, somehow.
No, it is rooted in faith that says everything is in God’s control, a control which is ultimately demonstrated in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is an influential truth that has great power over your outlook and behind your activity driving us on to continue in serving the Lord, the Lord whom we will see and meet; a Kingdom which He will bring to fruition in every sense, the church triumphant, in whose Kingdom we will have an eternal place.
3. The Obstacles Faced
We are shown three examples of patience by James. But as we look at them closely we will see that James, more than driving home a point, is actually facing 3 obstacles to our perseverance:
1. Slow Times – v.7-8
He speaks of a farmer who has learnt to trust in the fullness of time. Time between seed time and harvest may seem slow, but because he has learnt to trust in the regularity and dependability of the seasons he waited. He didn’t pack up bags two thirds of the way through the process. The passage of time – though it may seen slow at times – did not drive him off his land.
Even if the passage of time seems slow it will not alter the reality of the Second Coming. In the fullness of time – that wonderful biblical phrase speaking of God’s eternal plan – can be applied here for it too will come. Has He not come yet? Don’t walk off the Lord’s field, don’t turn your back on Him, He will come – in time and on time. We accept it with natural processes (even as a farmer watches seeds sprout and grow week after week, or as a woman labouring in a difficult pregnancy); let us accept it also of supernatural processes.
2. Sore Times – v.9-10
This is brought out in the example of the Prophets. Jesus warned that there will be those who turn back because life gets too difficult. He also warned that persecution would come. And James knew that it can come with such force and seeming endurance that even true Christians may consider giving up. So he points our attention to the prophets. What they had to endure! Jesus said it was a characteristic of the OT people of God to persecute the prophets, even to kill some of them.
But how did they respond? They remained faithful to their task – seeking God’s honour not their own vindication, they did not fight with others. This is the point of v.9 against grumbling – bickering amongst ourselves, sniping at each other – which is a real temptation during persecution.
But James’ point here is that this is to act contrary to the spirit of the prophets. It was a ‘sore’ time for the prophets but they were not distracted to the point of being super sensitive or grumbling, they were faithful. And so must we be. Don’t let persecution cause you to lash out at or even to blame others, but see that it is part of our calling in Christ, what we are to expect in this present evil age. Let us walk with these prophets then, seeing trials as part of the nature of our road, not an excuse to get off the road.
3. Sad Times – v.11-12
Here we are brought to the example of Job who, though not persecuted by unbelievers, found a time of deep sadness in his life through tragic personal circumstance touching his heart, flesh and mind. How did he respond? Did he turn from God saying it was just too much to bear? His wife was certainly frustrated and called on him to curse God and die. But as much as he failed to understand why it was happening, Job did not turn from God. He did not allow frustration to get the better of him so that he would say something foolish like that suggested by his wife.
This is the point of v.12 in this context. It does not deal with the issue of our practise in the courts. It has an application there, but it really deals with the use of the tongue by those who are not patient. Do not adverse circumstances tend to exasperate us? It is in such times that we are tempted to a rashness of speech. Let us watch our tongues in sad times lest we use God’s name in a light, let alone openly blasphemous, way. ‘The merest whiff of exasperation’, points out Motyer, ‘makes us exclaim “for heaven’s sake”‘. Apart from ‘heaven’ being a shortcut for ‘God’, Motyer stresses that such small beginnings ‘prepares the way for greater’. Should we not also be careful lest we question God’s love, or even make superficial and unreal promises to God? These are all, in effect, a defacto turning from the Lord, not a patient and steadfast trust in the Lord. But we must reject it, and have the patient endurance of Job – having questions yes – but not rejecting God.
With these examples from life and the lives of people just like us, let us admit that there are times when it is hard to ‘keep on keeping on’, when we are tempted to doubt, to despair, and to give in. But like them let us be patient, establishing our hearts with this clearer reality – the Lord is coming! We are going to be with Him, and at the end we also will know that the Lord has been compassionate and merciful.
In the crucial days of 1940 Churchill said to England, ‘Death and sorrow will be the companions on our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valour our shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible’.
In the same way we must be united, undaunted and inflexible – the Lord is coming!