James 5:9

Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. GRUDGE NOT, [ stenazete (G4727)] - 'Murmur not;' literally, 'groan:' a half-suppressed complaint of impatience and harsh judgment. Having enjoined long-suffering in bearing wrongs from the wicked, he now enjoins a forbearing spirit as to offences from brethren. Christians who bear the former patiently, sometimes are impatient at the latter, though less grievous. LEST YE BE CONDEMNED. 'Aleph (') A B, Vulgate [ kritheete (G2919)], 'judged,' referring to Matthew 7:1. To 'murmur against one another' is virtually to judge, and so become liable to be judged....

9_Grudge not, _or, _groan not. _As the complaints of many were heard, that they were more severely treated than others, this passage is so explained by some, as though James bade each to be contented with his own lot, not to envy others, nor grudge if the condition of others was more tolerable. But I take another view; for after having spoken of the unhappiness of those who distress good and quiet men by their tyranny, he now exhorts the faithful to be just towards one another and ready to pass by offenses. That this is the real meaning may be gathered from the reason that is added: Be not querulous one against another; _lest ye be condemned_. We may, indeed, groan, when any evil torments us; but he means an accusing groan, when one expostulates with the Lord against another. And he declares that thus they would all be condemned, because there is no one who does not offend his brethren,...

7-11 Consider him that waits for a crop of corn; and will not you wait for a crown of glory? If you should be called to wait longer than the husbandman, is not there something more worth waiting for? In every sense the coming of the Lord drew nigh, and all his people's losses, hardships, and sufferings, would be repaid. Men count time long, because they measure it by their own lives; but all time is as nothing to God; it is as a moment. To short-lived creatures a few years seem an age; but Scripture, measuring all things by the existence of God, reckons thousands of years but so many days. God brought about things in Job's case, so as plainly to prove that he is very pitiful and of tender mercy. This did not appear during his troubles, but was seen in the event, and believers now will find a happy end to their trials. Let us serve our God, and bear our trials, as those who believe that...

Verse 9. _GRUDGE NOT_] μη στεναζετε. _Groan not_; grumble not; do not murmur through impatience; and let not any ill treatment which you receive, induce you to vent your feelings in imprecations against your oppressors. Leave all this in the hands of God. _LEST YE BE CONDEMNED_] By giving way to a spirit of this kind, you will get under the condemnation of the wicked. _THE JUDGE STANDETH BEFORE THE DOOR._] His eye is upon every thing that is _wrong in you_, and every _wrong that is done to you_; and he is now entering into judgment with your oppressors....

GRUDGE NOT ONE AGAINST ANOTHER - Margin, “groan, grieve.” The Greek word (στενάζω stenazō) means, “to sigh, to groan,” as of persons in distress, Romans 8:23; and then to sigh or groan through impatience, fretfulness, ill-humor; and hence “to murmur, to find fault, to complain.” The exact idea here is, not that of grudging in the sense of dissatisfaction with what others possess, or of being envious; it is that of being fretful and impatient - or, to use a common word which more exactly expresses the sense that of grumbling. This may arise from many causes; either because others have advantages which we have not, and we are discontented and unhappy, as if it were wrong in them to have such enjoyments; or because we, without reason, suppose they intend to slight and neglect us; or because we are ready to take

EXPOSITION JAMES 5:1 DENUNCIATION OF THE RICH FOR (1) GRINDING DOWN THE POOR AND KEEPING BACK THEIR WAGES; (2) LUXURY; (3) MURDER. The whole section resembles nothing so much as an utterance of one of the old Jewish prophets. It might almost be a leaf torn out of the Old Testament. JAMES 5:1 GO TO NOW (see on James 4

GRUDGE NOT ONE AGAINST ANOTHER, BRETHREN,.... On account of any happiness, temporal or spiritual, which another enjoys; do not inwardly repine at it; or secretly sigh and groan in an envious manner at it, though nothing may be said, as the word used signifies; much less complain of, accuse, and condemn one another, or meditate and seek revenge: LEST YE BE CONDEMNED; hereafter, at the bar of Christ, by the Judge of the whole earth, who is privy to the secret murmurings and grumblings, and the envious sighs and groans of men; see Matthew 7:1 BEHOLD THE JUDGE STANDETH BEFORE THE DOOR; there is another that judgeth, who is the Lord, and he is at hand; he is just at the door; a little while and he will come, and not tarry; which may refer not to Christ's coming to destroy Jerusalem, but to his second coming to judgment, which will be quickly; for the Gospel tim

V. THE COMING OF THE LORD AND THE LIFE OF FAITH CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The oppression by the rich and their coming doom (James 5:1)_ 2. Be patient unto the coming of the Lord (James 5:7) 3. The prayers of faith and the life of faith (James 5:13) James 5:1 The two classes whom James addresses stand out very prominently in this final chapter of his Epistle. The rich oppressors certainly are not believers but the unbelieving rich; they are not addressed as “brethren”; but others are in verse 7 and exhorted to patience. Both classes, the unbelieving rich and the believing remnant are confronted by the coming of the Lord. “Go to

Patience in James 5:7; James 5:10 is different from endurance in n, Hebrews 12:1 f.; it is the opposite of short-temperedness or impatience. The farmer does his work and then can only wait for a harvest which he can do nothing to hurry. The Coming of the Lord is a phrase appropriating to Yahweh and in Christian language to Christ a term almost technical for _royal visits._ (With our new knowledge of the profane use of the word, _mg._ becomes misleading.) The former rain follows the sowing, the latter comes just before the corn ripens. This epistle belongs to the period when all Christians still believed in the imminence of the Advent (contrast 2 Peter 3:4

THE WORTHLESSNESS OF RICHES (James 5:1-3)...