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James 5:16

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Personal challenge

One of the hurdles that I had to overcome while I was in the process of converting to Orthodoxy was the sacrament of confession. I had it ground into me in my protestant years that you do not confess your sin to anyone but God. This is erroneous teaching. Here is an excerpt from my Orthodox Study Bible:

5:16-18 Some allege that confessing sins to God before a priest is not biblical. The ancient Christian custom was to confess your trespasses to one another (v. 16). When a Christian was guilty of sin, the matter was confessed before the whole Church as an act of repentance. As the Church grew, and those not part of the community came to observe, the pressure in such public confession became so great that the priest, instead of the entire community, heard the confession, representing the people. What is not taught in Scripture is a private confession only to God, which refuses to acknowledge sin to the community (1Jonn 1:8, 10). Thus, the Church has effected healing through such works of faith as confession of sins and the power of intercessory prayer.

It is important to know that in Orthodoxy, the priest does not forgive our sins. He hears our confession and our Lord forgives us of our sins. Glory be to God!

James 5:13-15

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? 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. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Encouraging Words

Do we really believe that our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow? If so, then why do we not see Him performing the kinds of miracles in the days of the early church. Even the shadow of Peter and Paul falling on people healed them. It is not God that has changed. He is constant and never changing. It is we who have changed. Jesus showed us this when He went back to His home town and could not perform very many miracles. He said it was due to the lack of their faith. James gives us the formula for dealing with sickness in our lives. We know what we are to do, and when do it, the results are seldom there. That is not because God is reneging on His part of the bargain. It is because we do not have the faith needed to enable God’s minacious powers to come to fruition. Our healing, our salvation from this world, our life must be synergistic with our God. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

James 5:7-11

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

Personal challenge
We live in an age of instant gratification. We have drive-throughs so that we don’t have to wait for our food and we are still upset if they are not fast enough. We have electronics and modern machinery to do things for us quickly and without effort and yet none of it works as fast as we want it to. Nearly all of us have never been on a farm or grown a garden or even a houseplant from the seed. We have lost that under­standing that it takes time, lots of time, to nurture and grow something to fruition. I have two orange trees that I have been growing in pots for about 9 years. Last year I got my first 2 oranges. This year the crop looks to be a little more abundant. They got to this point with patience and lots of nurturing. And the work must continue. This is the same with our walk in Christ. It is a journey based on patiently waiting upon our Lord, for His ways are not our ways and His timeline is not our timeline. Glory be to God!

James 4:17

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Personal Challenge

We often think of sin as something that we do that offends God. However, James makes it very clear that it is just as much of a sin to not do that which we know to be good in God’s eyes. This all boils down to living out the second great commandment. That commandment is to love our neighbor and to meet their needs. When we neglect to do this, we sin. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

James 4:10

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Personal Challenge

God’s way of doing things is so contrary to how the world does things. In the world, if I am to get ahead, or be lifted up, I have to be aggressive, self-seeking, and constantly showing that I am better than those around me. This has become so prevalent in the last few years in our American culture. In God’s Kingdom, I will be lifted up when I humble myself before Him and my fellow human being. In our liturgy of the Orthodox church, we are constantly singing. “Lord, have mercy!” We do this because we know that when we come into the presence of our God, we are not worthy and should be falling on our face before Him. Our God cannot lift us up if we have not first fallen down before Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

James 4:8-9

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Personal Challenge

James continues to press us to be doers in our Christian lives and to not just be people that talk about being Christians. Draw near, cleanse, purify, lament, mourn, and weep are all active verbs and things that we are told to do in order to demonstrate that we are Christians. We must practice what we believe. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

James 4:1-7

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Personal challenge

“The Spirit who dwells within us yearns jealously.” What in the world does this mean? When we gave our lives to Christ and began our journey to theosis, to be like Him, we were filled by the Holy Spirit. He dwells within us. It is from within us that the Holy Spirit yearns for us to live a life separated from this temporal world and united with God in the spiritual world. This is a jealous yearning. But what do we do instead? We live proud lives rather than humble, submissive to God lives. We seek after our own desires, passions, and pleasures. We covet the things of this world. It is this lifestyle, these decisions to live no differently than the rest of the world who have not given their lives to the world, that puts us at enmity with God. We wonder why our prayers are not answered. We wonder why we do not sense God’s presence in our lives. We wonder why our life is no different than the lives of everyone else. It is because we are at war with that very Spirit that lives within us and that war spills over to those around us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

James 3:17-18

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Encouraging Words

If we are pursuing Christ and growing in righteousness then we will be people who sow the seeds of peace and make peace wherever we go. This means that we do not engage in divisiveness. We are not at odds with those who think differently, whether politically, religiously, socially, or any other way. How can we get to this place? By receiving God’s wisdom from above, He gives us that wisdom and it is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

James 3:14-16

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

Personal challenge

James moves on from teaching us that in order for our faith to be alive, we must be doing godly works, to this warning of how we must be careful of how we do Gods’ works. It is so easy for us to get wrapped up in all that we are learning about God and become puffed up and self-seeking in our endeavors. When we go down this path we become envious of others and try to project our own wisdom and actions. By doing this then we are moving away from God not towards Him. We must stay humble and centered in God for our works to be able to glorify Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!