John Calvin Commentary James 5:10

"Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spake in the name of the Lord." — James 5:10 (ASV)

Take, my brethren, the prophets. The comfort he offers is not that of the common proverb, where the miserable hope for companions in similar hardships. It is not that they merely find associates, making it desirable to be counted among them, so that sharing their condition would not be misery. For just as we must necessarily feel extreme grief when any evil happens to us that the children of God have never experienced, so it is a unique consolation when we know that we suffer nothing different from them; indeed, when we know that we have to sustain the same yoke with them.

When Job heard from his friends,

“Turn to the saints, can you find any like to you?”
(Job 5:1)

It was the voice of Satan, because he wished to drive him to despair. When, on the other hand, the Spirit by the mouth of James intends to raise us up to a good hope, he shows us all the previous saints, who, so to speak, stretch out their hand to us and by their example encourage us to undergo and conquer afflictions.

Human life is indeed indiscriminately subject to troubles and adversities. But James did not present just any kind of people as examples, for it would have profited nothing to perish with the multitude; instead, he chose the prophets, whose fellowship is blessed.

Nothing breaks us down and disheartens us so much as the feeling of misery. It is therefore a real consolation to know that those things commonly considered evils are aids to our salvation. This is, indeed, what is far from being understood by the flesh; yet the faithful should be convinced of this: that they are happy when by various troubles they are tested by the Lord.

To convince us of this, James reminds us to consider the purpose or design of the afflictions endured by the prophets. For when facing our own hardships, we lack judgment, being influenced by grief, sorrow, or other immoderate feelings. Just as we see nothing clearly under a foggy sky and in the midst of storms, and are tossed here and there, so to speak, by a tempest, it is therefore necessary for us to look elsewhere, where the sky is, in a way, serene and bright. When the afflictions of the saints are related to us, no one will admit that they were miserable; on the contrary, all will agree that they were happy.

Therefore, James has done well for us, for he has set a pattern before our eyes, so that we may learn to look at it whenever we are tempted to impatience or despair. And he takes this principle for granted: that the prophets were blessed in their afflictions, because they courageously sustained them. Since this was so, he concludes that the same judgment should be formed about us when we are afflicted.

And he says, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord; by this he intimates that they were accepted and approved by God. If, then, it had been useful for them to have been free from miseries, God would undoubtedly have kept them free. But it was otherwise. It follows from this that afflictions are beneficial to the faithful. Therefore, he tells us to take them as an example of suffering affliction. But patience must also be added, which is true evidence of our obedience. This is why he has joined them both together.