“BUT LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK”

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“BUT LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK”
by Philip Owen

How we read and study our Bibles says much about our spiritual state. When we go to the Word for devotional purposes, do we not almost invariably find ourselves looking for a promise to latch on to? How many times have we gone to the Word of God with the prayer, “Lord, give me the exhortation that I need today. Correct me, reprove me, rebuke me from your Word according to my need”? Yet God’s inspired exhortations are both essential and blessed. We need the strength-giving promises, but we also need God’s exhortations. The blessed one before us today is particularly challenging to our flesh: “Let patience have her perfect work.”

First, note the gentleness of the command. There is a difference between a demand and a command. Anyone may make a demand, insist on this, that, or the other—whether rightly or wrongly. But what tends to distinguish a demand from a command is that the latter implies some measure of authority. God has the authority to command, and to do so in a most insistent manner. He might well have said, “Be patient!” And, in fact, He does issue such insistent commands. But in this instance, though He speaks no less authoritatively, and though there is no less obligation to obey, we must note the tone of gentleness in this command: “Let patience have her perfect work.” God requires us to be patient. Insofar as what He wants, having patience is not optional. Even so, the exhortation contains the encouraging tone of a loving Father who wants what is best for us and not the adamant tone of a drill sergeant. Should we not be moved to respond all the more quickly and completely by this gracious, loving exhortation when we realize that God has every right to be stringent and demanding?

Second, observe the meaning of the command. The word patience means endurance. To exercise patience is to remain under a load; to rise and walk around with it. Given a choice, no normal person would choose to shoulder a heavy burden if he had the option of walking about without one. But James tells us that it is a good and right thing to endure what God intends for us. When God so wills, we are to bear the burden He places upon us. At the same time, we are not to be so consumed with the load that we can neither think of anything else nor do anything else. We are to rise with the burden and continue to serve the Lord and those around us. In other words, godly patience involves more than putting up with something we may not be able to change: it entails having a Christ-like submission, peace, and joy in doing God’s will. Such is part of the idea that James is conveying when he exhorts us to let patience have her “perfect work.” Other translations read “perfect result,” or “full effect.”

Third, see the implication of the command. One implication is that we need not be patient. For although we are not capable of foreshortening God’s work in our life, we can pout, or worry, or cry, or complain. We can become angry, bitter, or depressed. God commands patience; He does not demand it. We can resist His will and strive to escape. Or we can remain under the load, rise and walk around with it. Another implication is that since God commands it, learning to be patient is a good thing—something to be embraced rather than avoided. A third implication is that since God commands patience and blesses those who heed His commands, allowing patience to have its full effect will result in our being blessed. Actually, this third point is more than an implication. The Lord attaches a specific promise to this exhortation; a concrete blessing falls upon those who heed these words. Those readers who know the specific blessing that follows in this passage are encouraged to meditate upon it. Those who do not remember it are encouraged to look it up that they might be encouraged to submit. (James 1:4)

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“BUT LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK” by Philip Owen

“BUT LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK”
by Philip Owen