James 5:9

It is easy for us to blame one another for our present discomforts.

"What is forbidden is not the loud and bitter denunciation of others but the unexpressed feeling of bitterness or the smothered resentment that may express itself in a groan or a sigh." [Note: Burdick, p. 202.]

James forbade this because it involves improper judging (cf. James 4:11-12). Judgment will take place soon. This verse is a clear indication that the early Christians expected the Lord Jesus to return imminently. [Note: See Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, ch. 6: "The Imminency of the Coming of Christ for the Church," pp. 108-37.] If Jesus could return at any moment, He will return before the seven-year Tribulation, which Scripture says must precede His Second Coming to establish His kingdom on the earth. Thus the Rapture must be distinct from the Second Coming, separated by at least seven years.

"The early Christians’ conviction that the parousia was ’near’, or ’imminent’, meant that they fully believed that it could transpire within a very short period of time-not that it had to." [Note: Moo, p. 169.]

Imminent means something could happen very soon, not that it must. [Note: See Robert G. Bratcher, A Translator’s Guide to the Letters from James, Peter, and Jude, p. 55; M. F. Sadler, The General Epistles of SS. James, Peter, John and Jude, pp. 68-69; Adamson, pp. 191-92; Frank E. Gaebelein, The Practical Epistle of James, p. 112; Vernon D. Doerksen, James, p. 123; E. C. Blackman, The Epistle of James, p. 146; J. Alec Motyer, The Tests of Faith, p. 107; Mitton, p. 186; Spiros Zodhiates, The Patience of Hope, p. 90; David P. Scaer, James the Apostle of Faith, p. 126; Homer A. Kent Jr., Faith that Works, p. 176; Harold T. Bryson, How Faith Works, pp. 116-17, 119; Davids, p. 185; and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistle of James and the Epistles of John, p. 165.]

"In light of the concept of the imminent coming of Christ and the fact that the New Testament does teach His imminent coming, we can conclude that the Pretribulation Rapture view is the only view of the Rapture of the church that comfortably fits the New Testament teaching of the imminent coming of Christ. It is the only view that can honestly say that Christ could return at any moment, because it alone teaches that Christ will come to rapture the church before the 70th week of Daniel 9 or the Tribulation period begins and that nothing else must happen before His return." [Note: Renald E. Showers, Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church, p. 149.]

James pictured Jesus poised at the door of heaven ready to welcome Christians into His heavenly throne room. The hope of His imminent (any moment) return should strongly motivate us to live patiently and sacrificially now.