James 5:8

8 Be you therefore also patient and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

James 5:8 Meaning and Commentary

James 5:8

Be ye also patient
As well as the husbandman, and like him; and wait for the rains and dews of divine grace to fall, and make fruitful, and for the ripe fruit of eternal life; and in the mean while cheerfully and patiently bear all injuries, and oppressions:

stablish your hearts;
though the state of the saints is stable, they being fixed in the everlasting love of God, in the covenant of grace, in the hands of Christ, and on the rock of ages; yet their hearts are very unstable, and so are their frames, and the exercise of grace in them, and need establishing, which God's work; which is often done by the means of the word and ordinances; and these the saints should make use of, for the establishing of their hearts: the sense may be, take heart, be of good cheer, do not be dismayed, or faint, or sink under your pressures, but be of good courage, pluck up your spirits, lift up your heads: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; when he will render tribulation to them that trouble them, free them from all their sorrows and afflictions, and enter them into the joy of their Lord; which will be either at death, which was not very far off, or at the last day, which was drawing nearer and nearer, and which with God was near; with whom a thousand years are as one day.

James 5:8 In-Context

6 You have condemned and put to death the Just One: and he resisted you not.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be you therefore also patient and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Grudge not, brethren, one against another, that you may not be judged. Behold the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, for example of suffering evil, of labour and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
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