Mental weariness is a fatigue of the mind. It can be caused by hostility or egregious violations of a man’s own conscience. It is an exhaustion of the mind that affects the soul, thereby making a person emotionally unstable.
After writing of the many saints who have come before us and the hardships, persecutions, and deaths they faced for holding to the truth, Paul encourages the Church not to grow mentally weary in the soul due to hardship and hostility toward them by looking unto the author and finisher of our faith as an example. He suffered as we do, and now God has placed Him at His right hand (Hebrews 12:1–3).
Consequently, we also having such a great crowd of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and easily ensnaring sin, through patience running the course set before us, fixing our eyes unto the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus, who against the joy set before Him, endured the cross, disregarding concerning shame by sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God. For logically consider such a one, who endured hostility by the sinners towards himself, in order that your soul does not grow weary and you become physically fatigued (Hebrews 12:1–3).
To the pastor of the assembly in Ephesus, John is instructed to write. This assembly represents the predominant condition of the Church immediately following the apostolic period, from AD 96 to AD 170. This was a strong assembly that would not bear wrong. They tested those who claimed to be apostles and were not, exposing them for the frauds they were. In Christ’s encouragement to this assembly, he commends them for their patience, tolerance of hardship, and labor without growing mentally weary (Revelation 2:3).
I know your works, and your hard labor, and your patience, and that you do not have the inherent ability to tolerate wrong, and have tested those saying they are apostles and are not, and found them liars, and you have patience, and tolerance for the sake of My name, and have not grown mentally weary (Revelation 2:3).
James wrote concerning the vow of the mentally ill in James 5:15. This refers to a person who is mentally weary due to a violation of their conscience by a wrong they have committed that has affected another person. By entering into a vow, this man’s mind will be relieved of its weariness, setting his emotions, and if he has sinned, it will be forgiven him.
And the vow of the faith will save the mentally sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed a sin, it will be forgiven him (James 5:15).
