James closes his letter by looking toward the end. He warns the rich who have hoarded wealth and cheated their workers “for the last days.” He calls believers to be patient “unto the coming of the Lord,” like a farmer waiting for “the early and latter rain.” And he ends with practical counsel for a praying church: sing when happy, pray when troubled, call the elders when sick, confess to one another, and remember Elijah, “a man subject to like passions as we are,” whose prayer shut and opened the heavens.
A study in James 5 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 19 min read
Ye Have Heaped Treasure Together For The Last Days
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”
James 5:1-6
This is some of the fiercest language in the New Testament, sounding like the Old Testament prophets. James addresses wealthy landowners who oppress the poor. Their stored-up wealth is already rotting: food spoiled, clothes eaten by moths, gold and silver corroded. And that corrosion “shall be a witness against you.” Hoarded wealth testifies in the judgment to hearts that loved money more than people.
“Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” That is the tragedy. They lived as though this world would last forever, piling up riches in the very period when they should have been preparing for the end. Their workers’ wages, “kept back by fraud,” cry out, and those cries have reached “the Lord of sabaoth” — the Lord of hosts, the commander of heaven’s armies. God hears the cry of the cheated worker.
“But Christ sanctions no lavish or careless use of means. … The more means we expend in display and self-indulgence, the less we can have to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 352
“Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” The powerful had used the courts against the innocent, and the innocent did not fight back. James may have in mind every righteous victim of oppression, and above all “the Just One” Himself (Acts 7:52), who was brought “as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7).
The Early And Latter Rain
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.”
James 5:7-9
To the oppressed believers James says: be patient, because the Lord is coming. The coming of Christ will set every wrong right. The same event that brings judgment on oppressors brings deliverance to the oppressed.
And he gives a picture every farmer in Palestine understood. The land had two rainy seasons. The “early” or former rain fell in the autumn, at sowing time, softening the ground and making the seed sprout. The “latter” rain came in the spring, just before harvest, swelling the grain to maturity. A farmer could not hurry either one. He planted, and waited, and trusted.
“‘The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.’ James 5:7. So the Christian is to wait with patience for the fruition in his life of the word of God.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 61
The prophets used those two rains as a picture of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:23, 28; Hosea 6:3; Zechariah 10:1). The early rain fell at Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out and the gospel seed sprang up across the world (Acts 2). The latter rain is promised for the end, to ripen the harvest of the earth before Christ returns (Revelation 14:15).
“As the ‘former rain’ was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the gospel, to cause the upspringing of the precious seed, so the ‘latter rain’ will be given at its close for the ripening of the harvest.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 611
“Under the figure of the early and the latter rain, that falls in Eastern lands at seedtime and harvest, the Hebrew prophets foretold the bestowal of spiritual grace in extraordinary measure upon God’s church.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 54
“Stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” And while we wait, “grudge not one against another” — don’t grumble and blame each other. Waiting under pressure can make people irritable. But “the judge standeth before the door.” He is close enough to hear every complaint.
The Patience Of Job
“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, 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. 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.”
James 5:10-12
James points to two examples of endurance. The prophets suffered for speaking God’s word, and we now count them blessed. And Job, who lost everything, “have seen the end of the Lord” — how God brought Job’s story to its end, restoring him double (Job 42:10). Job’s endurance was not always quiet; he complained bitterly and asked hard questions. But he never let go of God. And the end revealed God’s heart: “the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
“He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. ‘The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.’ James 5:11. His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them.”
Ellen G. White · Steps to Christ, p. 100
Verse 12 echoes Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “Swear not at all… But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay” (Matthew 5:34, 37). Under pressure, people add oaths to make themselves believed. A Christian’s plain word should be enough, because it is always true.
Is Any Sick Among You?
“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:13-16
Every circumstance of life has its right response. Troubled? Pray. Happy? Sing. Sick? “Call for the elders of the church.” The sick person takes the initiative, and the church leaders come to pray over him, “anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” The oil does not heal by itself. It is a sign of the Holy Spirit and of dedication to God. It is “the prayer of faith” that saves the sick, and it is “the Lord” who raises him up. This is not a last rite for the dying; it is a service of prayer for healing, still practised in many churches today.
James connects physical healing with spiritual healing: “if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” Not all sickness is caused by sin, but sometimes sin and sickness are tangled together, and God wants to heal the whole person.
“To those who desire prayer for their restoration to health, it should be made plain that the violation of God’s law, either natural or spiritual, is sin, and that in order for them to receive His blessing, sin must be confessed and forsaken. The Scripture bids us, ‘Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.’ James 5:16.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 228
“Confess your faults one to another.” This is not confession to a priest who grants absolution. It is believers honestly admitting their wrongs to one another, especially to those they have wronged, and praying for each other. Only God can forgive sin (Mark 2:7), and our High Priest is Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16). But mutual confession breaks down pride and heals relationships.
Elias Was A Man Subject To Like Passions
“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
James 5:17-18
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” To prove it, James points to Elijah. We might think Elijah was a spiritual giant unlike us. James says no: he “was a man subject to like passions as we are.” He knew fear and discouragement; he once ran for his life and asked to die (1 Kings 19:4). Yet he prayed, and the rain stopped. He prayed again, on Mount Carmel, sending his servant seven times to look for a cloud, and the rain returned (1 Kings 18:42-45).
“As he prayed, his faith reached out and grasped the promises of Heaven, and he persevered in prayer until his petitions were answered. He did not wait for the full evidence that God had heard him, but was willing to venture all on the slightest token of divine favor.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 156
Notice how the chapter’s themes come together. The farmer waits for the rain. Elijah prayed for the rain. And the church today is waiting and praying for the latter rain of the Holy Spirit, to ripen the harvest before the Lord comes.
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
James 5:19-20
James ends not with a greeting but with a mission. If a fellow believer wanders from the truth, go after him. Bringing him back “shall save a soul from death” — eternal death, the wages of sin — “and shall hide a multitude of sins,” covering them with God’s forgiveness.
“Then let it be your effort to lift up Jesus. Let the mind’s eye be directed to ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ John 1:29. And as you engage in this work, remember that ‘he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.’ James 5:20.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 250
So the most practical book in the New Testament ends where it began: with faith that acts. Be doers of the word. Care for the poor. Guard your tongue. Draw nigh to God. Wait patiently for the Lord’s coming and the latter rain. Pray for one another. And go after the one who has wandered. That is the “pure religion and undefiled” James has described from the first chapter to the last.
