Author: Kristen Kansiewicz, LMHC

“Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door! For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.”

Why is sibling rivalry so common? Even in God’s family, his children like to grumble about each other. Siblings are our first peers and ultimately our first attempt at genuine community. Spiritual siblings are a second chance at community, with a lot more potential for mutual interest and shared goals. But the spiritual life is a life of suffering, and when people suffer together, they sometimes complain together. Or at each other. We are safest with each other to be vulnerable in our mess, and sometimes Satan uses this to turn us against each other.

The Christian life requires the long-view. The reward will come. Mercy is guaranteed. Eternal reward is on the way. Learning how to endure well is critical to your heart condition. We stay connected to the kingdom of God when we patiently suffer and press on. We can’t turn into wishy-washy wimps who complain and become impatient and say “yes” when we mean “no” or “no” when we mean “yes.” Satan has a field day with our lives when he can manipulate us in these ways.

Life is about how today relates to eternity. And right now, the condition of your heart and the words that come out of your mouth set a course towards (or away from) God’s kingdom. Your salvation is not dependent on you — Jesus does all the work on that one. But your spiritual depth and growth does require patience, perseverance, and an eternal perspective. Don’t get caught up in the aggravations or busyness of your day. Ask, “If I were to live as if I were in God’s kingdom, how would I think about and live out my day?” You’ll feel a whole lot more free.

“Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.”

It’s hard to wait. Especially when you know something good is coming. The Bible frequently reminds us that this world is not our home and that we have some pretty great things to look forward to in God’s kingdom. Sometimes we can get so focused on that yearning for things to come that we forget our mission here and mentally check out too soon. We forget that we are a part of bringing God’s kingdom to earth. We are active participants in bringing the fulfillment of all that we hope for.

I’m no farmer (and I’m saving any real gardening I want to do for heaven so that I don’t have weeds to contend with…). But I have planted the occasional tomato seed, and I have a raspberry bush that fortunately is capable of managing itself pretty well. Waiting for that fruit is hard, and sometimes when you pick a tomato or a raspberry a little too soon you regret it. What could have been sweet and juicy is hard and a little tart. Patience helps you pick the right fruit at the right time.

If waiting is hard right now, focus on where God has you on your path. He has a mission for you, with lessons along the way, and he is bringing about some amazing fruit both in your life and for the whole world. So be patient. Stay hopeful. Don’t pick your fruit too soon. God’s Spirit has been poured out, he is near, and he is coming back to rescue us.

“Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.”

This passage might as well begin with the words, “Hey, Americans!” This is a prophetic word for us. You may not think of yourself as all that rich, but if you make $32,400 a year you are in the wealthiest 1% on the planet. Materialism is a constant threat to our spiritual lives. We are surrounded by a standard of living that far exceeds billions of people on earth. What was the last thing you urgently ran out to the store for? How large is your clothes closet? (The Bible’s definition of a lot of clothes is two shirts… Then you have one to give away.)

James is calling our attention to something: the cries of the workers. God has heard them, have you? Our cell phones and shoes and clothing and TV sets were all made by those in great poverty. Factory workers in Cambodia, Vietnam, China are suffering to make our stuff. They do not resist, as James says here, because it is the best job in town. And yet we are still responsible for condemning them to live in poverty and risk death.

Our stuff owns us. The more we say “no” to buying, the more we give away, the more we opt out of materialism the better off we will be. Jesus lived a simple life that we can emulate when we stop chasing “stuff.” It’s okay not to have things. You will be set free when you stop going to the mall. Shop at thrift stores and let your money go to charity instead of big corporations who oppress workers. Or better yet, simply live with fewer items of clothing. Even more than this, develop relationships with people who do not have a lot. This is very hard to do in America, as even our poor people often have a lot of stuff. But they are here, in our cities and in our rural towns. They are our children who are hungry and our homeless in need of a shower. They are our brothers and sisters with mental illness or chronic physical pain. Don’t just volunteer once at a soup kitchen. Move your entire live into a place where these are your actual neighbors. Let’s love and live the way Jesus did.

Want to think more about this? Read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger or follow Shane Claiborne and his community The Simple Way.

“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

What are you doing tomorrow? Next week? Next year? There’s a right answer that James provides us, and paraphrased it is your basic, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…” These verses are not about the exact words you use to describe your future plans. Rather, they are about your heart remaining very in touch with the reality that your every waking moment depends on God willing you to keep existing.

Two words stand out to me in this passage: boasting and pretentious. Sure, a few loud, arrogant people may come to mind. But do we really consider that we are pretentious simply by virtue of falling into self-reliance? Confession time: I am a prideful sinner who boasts about my own plans. There, I said it. And I do not say that flippantly or snidely. I genuinely see my own sin in these verses. (James tacks on one more area of sin that covers anything he missed: knowing the right thing and failing to do it… I’m sure we can all come up with a list on that one.)

How’s that going for you, anyway? Some who are in recovery often acknowledge that it was their own capacity that got them to hit rock bottom… It’s a lot easier from that place to realize that you stink at running the show. God’s got this. He’s got you. He wants to take care of you. So let him. Give up. Do less. Sit in his presence more and simply be. He will carry you to your next place. He will tell you which steps to take. He’s not trying to turn this into a guessing game. He just doesn’t find it necessary to give you as many specific directions as you may demand.

“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”

Twitter has adopted a new etiquette policy! No wait, that’s James 4:11-12… Hmm, let’s just let this one convict us today. The strange part is, most Christians seem to view it as very much their role to judge their neighbors. Yet here it says that we have no right to do such a thing.

Because American Christians are at times known for their judgmentalism, I did a search for “judge others” on BibleGateway.com. We are expressly told over and over again not to judge, but rather to show mercy. These verses say that God alone is the judge. So why do we continually try to usurp his throne?

I don’t mean you will not be judged by God. We all will be. (Quick tip: just plead the fifth — known as “the blood of Jesus” in God’s kingdom — and you will be acquitted on the spot if he knows your name.) When I say you can be set free from judgment, I mean you can be set free from the inner turmoil, anger and bitterness that goes on in your heart when you judge others. It’s not your job. You don’t even have to think about it. You have zero decisions to make about another person’s fate. You simply are free to love. If you vehemently oppose what they are doing, you get to love them even more. It’s a really great way to live.