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Bible Reading Notes
April 2009
Monday, April 27th - James 5: 9
Believers are directed to be patient in their working, waiting, and even in their enduring the abuses (v.4) and criminal persecutions of their oppressors (v.6). Those who trust in Christ are also to strengthen their hearts by having their hope fixed on their risen Redeemer who will come for them on the final day, bringing their reward with Him. In addition to these positive directives, James gives a prohibition against believers’ complaining against each other, even as they groan under the weight of their oppressions. This forbidding of the suffering saint’s complaining is not calculated to repress the cries of his anguished heart so much as to redirect those cries to the only legitimate and productive place where they should be registered. Under pressure of our sufferings, we naturally become testy with others, complaining of their lack of sympathetic help in our desired relief from our distresses. Such complaints, however, do not help us but rather hurt us and others. Therefore, James directs the cries of the suffering believer to the Lord, our great High Priest and sympathetic Helper (Heb. 4:15,16), who is also our Advocate and the One who will deliver us from our sufferings and reward us in the day of judgment.
Tuesday, April 28th - James 5: 9
James is not cutting off a source of redress and relief for suffering believers when he directs them not to complain against each other due to the weight of their oppressions. It is neither right nor relieving when the suffering saints complain against each other. Other believers have not caused our sufferings; they are not our oppressors but rather are our loving brethren, who weep when we weep and who cry to the God of heaven for our relief. Nor are our brethren our saviors who have power and authority to deliver us from our furnaces of affliction. We should not complain against our brethren, but rather cherish them for their loving sympathy and for their deeds of kindness, which, however small they may be, are regarded with approbation by our Lord; if not by ourselves (Mt. 25:34-40).
Wednesday, April 29th - James 5: 9
Our complaints can be misguided by our pains and our fears. James commends to us a faithful enduring of our sufferings, that does not deny or despise the reality of our painful and unjust afflictions, but instead rightly directs our cries to our Savior, who alone can deliver us from our enemies, bringing His holy vengeance upon them, while He delivers, vindicates, and rewards us. Therefore, James teaches us to make our cries truly prevailing and productive of blessing, rather than to have them be misguided multipliers of misery.
Thursday, April 30th - James 5: 9, 10
The directives James gives to suffering believers in vv.7-9 are not a matter of pious but impractical theory, but rather have been tried and found triumphantly true in the furnaces of affliction endured by saints through the ages. Accordingly, James produces as encouraging examples to his readers, men such as the prophets and Job who found cause to bless the Lord and not to curse their brethren in the course of their sufferings. When we cast away the counsel of patience and uncomplaining endurance amid our sufferings, we are forsaking a way that has been repeatedly tried and found more precious than gold. Has impatient complaining ever produced anything but increased misery?
Friday, May 1st – James 5: 10, 11
James reminds us of the prophets of the Lord, many of whom suffered persecutions. They reacted to their enemies not by cursing them, still less by complaining against their brethren. Instead, they cried out in prayer to the Lord, and spoke faithfully the Word of the Lord to their brethren and to their enemies, in the name and by the authority of the Lord. Thus, they were not victims of their oppressors, but victors over them, as they prophetically warned their oppressors of divine judgment, while graciously calling upon such persecutors to repent of their sins and turn to the Lord for salvation. Such servants of the Lord we rightly regard as having been blessed in their calling to know and declare the God of justice and mercy, and in the reward they have received from the Lord as they entered into the joys of their Master. Those who receive the examples of such prophets and follow in their way will receive a prophet’s reward (Mt. 5:10-12).
Saturday, May 2nd – James 5: 11
James adds the comforting and encouraging example of Job to the consoling examples of the prophets. Job is, with the exception of our Lord Jesus, the supreme example of suffering in Scripture. Yet his endurance of his painful, perplexing, and costly trials gives us also the supreme example of patience. Job’s endurance was not stoical indifference. We are made acutely aware of his physical pain and emotional anguish through his cries and pleading questions. Yet, while he questioned the Lord’s dealings with him, he never lost his trust in his divine Redeemer. While he raged against his friends, he did not so much complain against them as he did correct their brittle and compassionless false theology. Through Job’s endurance we see how God brings a soul that trusts Him through the most exquisite sufferings into a more vital communion with the Lord and an apprehension of His compassion and mercy that overwhelms all sense of loss and suffering.
Sunday, May 3rd – James 5: 12
In this verse, James adds to the prohibition against believers complaining against one another a prohibition that forbids them swearing. It may seem to us at first reading of this verse that James is here taking an abrupt departure from the topic of complaining. However, when we recall how the pressure of persecution and suffering can tempt believers to complain against each other, we should understand that in v.12 James is addressing the temptation Christians may face as they try to respond to complaints leveled against them by their harried brethren. When we seek to answer such complaints, it is a common temptation for us to make as strong a defense of ourselves as possible. As Peter sought to strengthen his sinful denials of his Lord with curses and oaths, so we may feel compelled to strengthen our righteous behavior with swearing. But righteous integrity can and should stand without desperate adornments. We who in Christ ought to judge one another in charity need not and should not demand of others or give from ourselves exaggerated defenses for our loving ministry to each other.
Monday, May 4th – James 5: 12
James is not denying the legitimate use of an oath, sworn in a court of law in confirmation of the veracity of testimony to be given. He is forbidding individuals from using oaths as compelling and manipulative devices, whereby they pledge their sincerity or intention by things like heaven or earth, which they neither possess nor are able to lose should their oath be found false. The Christian who possesses the love of God in Christ, the means of the Lord’s grace, and the sure hope of glory, need not pledge trinkets to impress others, but can and should let his word, that he has prayerfully, wisely, and lovingly considered, stand and be accepted or rejected on its own.
Tuesday, May 5th – James 5: 12
The right alternative to our seeking to fortify with oaths our words of affirmation and denial is for us to have, nurture, and express words and deeds of truth, integrity, and love. Holy sincerity and loving simplicity speak most persuasively to the righteous, while no amount of swearing will convince the unrighteous. Such holy and loving sincerity can pass the bar of divine justice, whatever men—even our brethren—may make of them. The addition of swearing to our sincerity adds nothing of value to our sincerity but detracts from it and brings guilt upon us before our heavenly Judge.
Wednesday, May 6th - James 5: 13
In this verse, James gives us two other godly uses of our tongues in addition to the sincere and simple speech he wrote of in v.12. The praying and praising he commends are clearly directed to God, whereas the candid and clear speaking he commended in v.12 is addressed to men. The occasion James mentions for praying and praising in v.13 is not to be understood as exhaustive of the motives and emotions that should lead us to call upon our God. Instead, they are the poles of good feeling and bad feeling that include every emotion between them. Whether we soar in delight or sink into anguish we can and should direct our hearts as well as our minds and mouths toward the Lord.
Thursday, May 7th - James 5: 13
The word translated suffering in this verse literally means bad feeling. When we are feeling sad, gloomy, or depressed, we need not become trapped victims to such emotions. Scripture prescribes a most effectual cure when it tells us to pray to our God. Through such prayer we ask our compassionate heavenly Father for His gracious blessing that will deliver us from the causes of our distress as well as from our feelings of distress. Accordingly, when God answers above what we ask or think in our prayers, our supplicating cries become songs of grateful praise.
Friday, May 8th – James 5: 13
The praises of the Christian indicate his awareness that his cheerful feelings are not mere glad emotions but rather the joy of the Lord that is inspired within him by the God in whose presence is fullness of joy and in whose right hand are pleasures forever (Ps. 16:11). Our praises are therefore the expression of our gratitude to the personal source of our joy, namely, our gracious and generous heavenly Father.
Saturday, May 9th - James 5: 13-15
In vv.14,5, James specifies a common form of the general suffering that he mentioned in v.13. The malady that is translated sick in both of these verses, is really a composition of weakness (see the Greek word used in v.14 that is translated sick) and sickness (see the Greek word used in v.15). The former is the debilitating effect, physically and emotionally, of the latter, which is the objective cause of the suffering. James prescribes that such a sick and weakened believer not only call on the Lord in prayer (v.13), but also that he call upon the family of faith, as represented by the Church elders, asking them to pray for him. This call to concerted prayer indicates to us that whenever we are sick and weak we have abundant helpers in our brethren and the source of all help in our heavenly Father.
Sunday, May 10th - James 5: 14, 15
The call for the elders places the sick and debilitated saint in the same position in which the paralytic in the gospels found himself (Mt. 9:2-8; Mk. 2:3-12; Lk. 5:18-26). Such a call to the elders results in one’s being carried by the faithful hands of caring brethren to the feet of Jesus who can and will do the greater work of forgiving sins and the lesser work of healing sick bodies.
Monday, May 11th - James 5: 14,15
Why does James focus particularly upon believers experiencing sickness? Very likely he does so from practical considerations. For example, we never question God’s love and power being operative in our lives so much as when we are sick. In sickness we do not sense the sympathy and comfort of Christ’s sufferings because, while our Redeemer underwent trial and persecution, He was never sick. Yet whereas Jesus never was sick, He is the true and ultimate source of our healing. According to the divine decree and arrangement of our redemption, it is by the sufferings of Jesus that we find release from all of our sufferings, including our sickness. Jesus never showed fear, and yet He releases us from our fears. Therefore, James points us to prayer offered to God through the merits of Christ’s person and work as the way to find true healing from our sickness.
Tuesday, May 12th - James 5: 14, 15
The reference to the elders anointing the sick one with oil has been variously understood by believers. Roman Catholics regard it as a sacrament wherein spiritual grace is ministered through a priest’s application of oil to one dying of an illness. Many charismatics regard the application of oil almost as a magic charm. There is a kernel of truth in the Roman Catholic conception, as the Greek word that James uses for sickness in v.15 has the connotation of very serious illness. Clearly, the elders are not to be called upon to attend trivial sicknesses such as colds. The Reformed position is one that understands the reference to oil not in a sense that is sacramental or magic, but rather as a physical and medicinal means applied to the afflicted one with the accompaniment of prayer. This last understanding appears to be most consistent with what James here teaches as well as with the entire tenor of Scripture. Prayer engages the God who can work with, without, or contrary to the means He has created, but who usually works through such means.
Wednesday, May 13th - James 5: 14, 15
A correct view of what is taught in these verses begins with the observation that it is the sick one who takes the initiative in this matter. The sick one is encouraged not only to pray for his own healing, but to call upon his brethren, as represented by their elders, to join him in crying to the Lord of heaven, who is the ultimate source of help and healing. At the same time, these prayers ask the Lord to make effectual the medicinal means being applied to the sickness, for the God who made such means expects us to use them, but not apart from prayer to Him for His blessing upon those means. Here is comforting help for us when we are laid aside by sickness.
Thursday, May 14th - James 5: 14, 17
The elders are to be summoned, not because they have any inherent power or gifts to heal, but because they are specially called and equipped to lead the congregation in the ministry of the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4). The elders also represent the members of a local assembly of believers, who are all taught by God’s Word and inclined by their new natures and by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and by the fruit of the Spirit growing within them to pray for one another (v.16). The elders are leading askers of the God who delights to hear and answer the prayers of His people.
Friday, May 15th - James 5: 14, 15
The elders are directed in these verses to do three distinct things. Primarily, they are to pray, asking the Lord to heal the sick one who has summoned them. From the reference to sins and forgiveness in v.15, we are to understand that such prayers would also include petitions asking the Lord to further sanctify the sick one through both his endurance of and relief from his sufferings. Such requests for sanctification would include prayers that engage the Lord in a process of searching and convicting the sufferer of any sins for which his suffering may be a divine chastisement, and asking the Lord’s forgiveness for such specific sins. This does not imply that all sickness results as God’s judgments upon specific sins, but rather intimates that there are times when sickness comes upon one as the Lord’s corrective rod of affliction, designed to lead the sufferer to seek and ask for a deeper cause of his malady than mere physical infection and a cure deeper than mere physical restoration. In sum, such prayers lead us to ask for total healing, not physical restoration that may only be part of the suffering believer’s need.
Saturday, May 16th - James 5: 14, 15
The second thing that the summoned elders are to do is to anoint the sufferer with oil. This anointing is with something that was the primary medicinal substance of that day (Is. 1:6; Mk. 6:13; Lk. 10:34). Therefore, James most likely means by this that the elders should ask God to make effectual any such medicinal application in any day. Accordingly, we are taught not to resort to medicine or medical procedures alone, nor are we to resort to prayer alone, but rather to resort to both in our quest for a total and thorough healing.
Sunday, May 17th - James 5: 14, 15
The final directive given to the praying elders in these verses is that they should pray and anoint the sick one in the name of Jesus. This indicates that while they prayerfully regard the application of medicine, their reliance is to be ultimately upon the wise and loving Redeemer, the Great Physician by whose wounds we are truly and lastingly healed. This invocation of the Savior’s name is not to be a matter of rote formula or mechanical superstition, but rather a matter of sincere, vital, and faithful trust in and reliance upon the Lord. The disastrous failure of the sons of Sceva to cast out demons shows us how foolish and dangerous it is for anyone to invoke the name of Christ in any attitude other than that of faithful trust in and reliance upon the Lord (Acts 19:11-17).
Monday, May 18th - James 5: 14, 15
James writes of the prayer of faith in v.15. There is no warrant by teaching or example in the New Testament that we should believe that men other than the apostles had gifts of healing. Not even the elders, the perpetual officers in the Church, are spoken of in Scripture as having gifts of healing. But this seeming loss is supplied abundantly with a warrant for all believers, and especially their elders, to ask of and expect from God a restoring answer to their prayers that is above what they ask or think.
Tuesday, May 19th - James 5: 14, 15
Instead of the Church now having a few men who could work miraculous healings for some people occasionally, we now, as loving and faithful brethren in Christ, have clear warrant to carry our sick brethren to Jesus. We are not to rebuke sickness or try to cast out demons, but rather we are to cry out to our Lord. Such sympathetic intercession for our brethren that is directed to our Lord is how genuine faith works. For our faith is neither in faith itself, nor in powers we think we can directly wield, but rather is in our Lord and His almighty power and wise, holy, and loving prerogative. Jesus heals us from sicknesses more than we may be willing to ask or credit. Yet, Jesus also demonstrates his avoidance of those who seek Him only for His miraculous power, so we must not ask Him amiss. Even when He answers our cries with denial, it is because He has grace to supply us in our weakness that we cannot have apart from that weakness. Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Wednesday, May 20th - James 5: 16
James’ use in this verse of the word, therefore, alerts us to the fact that what he has to say in vv.16-18 is based on and issues from what he has taught in vv.13-15. In those preceding verses, James described the prayer of faith; in vv.16-18, he speaks of the prayer of a righteous man. These two aspects are distinguishable but cannot rightly be separated. The prayer of faith can only be offered by a man justified by his faith in Jesus. Yet while such a man is reckoned righteous by God’s gracious imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the man, the impartation and personal possession of such righteousness is a progressive matter that involves the believer’s continual discovery and mortification of sin in his own life. Therefore, v.16 moves beyond prayers that ask primarily for healing from sickness of body to prayers that focus directly upon sanctification of one’s soul.
Thursday, May 21st - James 5: 16
James calls for a confession of sins in this verse. What he is not directing us to do is to confess our sins to a priest in mediatory fashion. Neither is he confining us to confession only to the elders in the Church. He is directing us to confess our sins to one another—to our brethren in the body of Christ. Such confession is to be to those whom we know to be ones who love us and who will pray for us. Such confession is also mutual. As an atmosphere of mutual love, trust, and sympathetic helping develops, we become more open and honest with each other. Accordingly, we confess our sins, rather than seek to cover them by silence or denial. We confess our sins with expectation that we will not be condemned because of them but rather will be forgiven them by our Lord and cleansed by Him from all unrighteousness. As we should be desirous to forgive sins committed against us, so also we should be ready and willing to confess our sins to one another, in order that we might be rid of the corrupting power and grievous presence of sin in our lives.
Friday, May 22nd - James 5: 16
The translation that reads: The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, can be literally translated in a way that emphasizes strength and energy. It could read: Much strength [has] a petition of a righteous one who is energized. Such holy boldness, such energized confidence, such moral strength that enables one to wrestle with God in prayer and prevail cannot be ours if we harbor our sins rather than confess them and be cleansed of them and established more firmly in righteousness.
Saturday, May 23rd - James 5: 16-18
By our corporate confession of sins and prayers for each other we serve to heal and be healed. The depth of such healing is apparent from the Greek word James uses in v.16 that is translated may be healed, which can also be translated may be saved. Great things can be accomplished by our prayers. As an example for our encouragement to righteous living and prevailing praying, James reminds us of Elijah. The prayers of that great prophet brought fire from heaven that consumed his offering on Mt. Carmel (1 Ki.18). His prayers brought fire also to consume the armies sent to arrest him (2 Ki. 1:9-12). Elijah also raised a widow’s son from death (1 Ki.17:17-24). This example should encourage us to ask our Lord and expect from Him greater things than we currently ask or think.
Sunday, May 24th - James 5: 16-18
Although Elijah’s prayers were many and mighty in their effects, James especially calls our attention to the prophet’s praying for drought and then after three and a half years praying for rain (1 Ki. 17:1;18:41-46). How is this prayer related to the healing James mentions in v.16? Whereas Elijah’s prayer for the widow’s son saved one life, the prophet’s prayer for drought then rain showed his prayerful dominion over the seemingly uncontrollable elements, but, more importantly, served to humble the sinning covenant nation of Israel, convicting them of their sins and bringing restoration of life in response to their repentance.
Monday, May 25th - James 5: 17, 18
Sin stultifies the flourishing of righteousness in an individual and in whole families, fellowships, and nations. But great and good changes can be wrought through our prayers when they issue from pure hearts and clean hands. It is true that Elijah had special divine warrant to pray as he did, but when we recognize that Jesus tells us seven times to pray for anything in His name, we perceive that we have even greater warrant than did Elijah to pray effectively for many great things (Jn. 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23,24,26,27).
Tuesday, May 26th - James 5: 19, 20
James concludes his letter that is full of instruction for the nurturing and exercising of the practical fruits of godly doctrine, with a final designating of his readers as his brethren. This natural and spiritual brother of Jesus exercises a ministry of inclusive, fraternal love throughout his letter. And as brethren in Christ, James is neither like nor would he have his readers to be like Cain, who disavowed his responsibility to be his brother’s loving keeper. Therefore, this letter concludes with an acknowledgement of a painful reality, namely, that believers can stray from the truth, wisdom, and loving life of faith that is set out in this letter. Yet, the prevailing reality is that those who do not stray lovingly pray and endeavor to turn their straying brethren back to the truth (i.e. sound doctrine) and to the only righteous and loving way (i.e. godly practice). We who have new life in Christ are hereby alerted to our need to guard ourselves and to seek to guide rightly our brethren so long as we live out our new life in Christ in this cursed world plagued by fallen men and malicious devils. We are brethren, sharing this new life, and are bound together in holy and strong love. We are our brothers’ keepers, ever to be turning them from death and to life, even as our redeeming elder Brother has done and continues to do as He ever lives to intercede for us.
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