“The coming of the Lord draws nigh” (James 5:8).
This statement is found in the very practical Epistle of James. The Epistle of James stands in a sort of analogous contrast to the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament. The Book of Jonah is the only book in the Old Testament that tells us of a mission to the Gentiles. Every other book has a Jewish setting save this one, unless perhaps the Book of Job. It shows that though dispensationally God’s dealings were with the Israelites, yet His heart went out to all, and was typical of the present day of Christianity when the gospel goes out world-wide to the Gentiles.
The Epistle of James is the only epistle in the New Testament that is addressed to the Jews. Every other book is addressed to Christians. Here we have one addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.
It has been pointed out that, when the Holy Spirit formed the church on the great day of Pentecost, the disciples spoke with tongues, and “every man heard them speak in their own language” (Acts 2:6). The church was universalized. Judaism was for one nation, though the lessons to be learned were universal. The law was given to Israel, “that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19). The whole history of the Old Testament after the flood circles round Abraham and his descendents—Israelites—save the one exception we have named, and perhaps the Book of Job. The history of the New Testament reached to Athens, Corinth, Rome, in fact the gospel went out freely to the Gentiles. Paul knew this to his cost, for he was persecuted by the Jews with bitterness because he put the Gentiles on the same footing as the Jews for the blessing of God.
“The coming of the Lord draws nigh.” This statement has, then, a bearing both for the Jew and the church. The blessing of the Jew will never come till the Lord comes. Their only hope lies in the coming of their Messiah. “They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son” (Zech. 12:10).
But we would consider the verse from the Christian standpoint. The coming of the Lord is calculated to have a great effect upon the lives of the Christians. It connects them with a heavenly hope, for when the Lord comes He will take His church to heavenly glory. It has a purifying effect. “Every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Held in power in the soul it has a detaching influence as far as this world is concerned. With this hope burning brightly in their hearts believers will not be settling down in this world. Things in this world will be held lightly. First things will be surely first in our estimation.
We shall use the world and not abuse it. In other words, we shall be thankful for the mercies of this life, but we shall not allow ourselves to be absorbed by them, but use them, whilst our chief concern will be the interests of Christ in this world.
Our tendency, alas! is to settle down in this world. We need to be alive to this hope. Its glad realization may occur at any moment. It was never so near as at this moment when the reader’s eye is scanning these lines. We hear Him saying, “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20). We can respond gladly and heartily, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”