Read with Me
James 5:1-6 (HCSB)
Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. Your wealth is ruined and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your silver and gold are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days! Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned—you have murdered—the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Listen with Me
James’ condemnation of the wealthy, especially the wealthy in the Church, since this letter was written specifically to Christians, seems very harsh and judgmental to modern ears. But he is addressing a serious and fairly widespread issue that existed in the Church a mere thirty years after Pentecost.
In the first days of the Church, Luke describes not a communistic community, but a loving and sharing community in which those who had means regularly shared to help meet the needs of those who had less (Acts 4:32-37). This sharing was not compelled by the rules of the community; it was compelled by the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But in the following years, that love had faded. Now those who had extra resources were far less interested in sharing what the Lord had given them and were focused on using those resources to get more for themselves. And James saw that as a major tragedy and a major spiritual problem.
Jesus had specifically told his followers that they were not to be like the people of the world, piling up perishable riches for themselves that would rust and that would be liable to theft. Instead, they were to store up treasure for themselves in heaven, treasure that would not decay over time and that no one could steal (Matthew 6:19-21). He also told them that it was nearly impossible for a rich person to even enter God’s kingdom, because their focus tended to be on amassing and keeping wealth instead of on doing God’s will (Luke 18:24-25).
James points out that these rich people with their skewed priorities had focused on amassing wealth that was already rotting away. In the last days, which encompasses the entire time between Jesus’ departure and His return, they were not focused on doing things that would advance the cause of Christ, but on amassing things that will all be burned up in the end when Jesus does return.
And even worse, they had been cheating people out of their honestly earned wages to fatten themselves. They had lived in luxury while others were in need, and had even perverted justice, causing the suffering and death of innocent people by caring more about their own agendas than about God’s kingdom.
James rightfully saw this as a terrible tragedy, not only for those wealthy men and women who will be held accountable by God on the day of judgment, but for the kingdom of God is as well. Those poor, who had potential to be powerful and productive members of the kingdom, were prevented from doing so because of the needs that kept them focused on merely surviving, needs that could have been met by those whom God had blessed with so many good things had they only been willing to give them.
Pray with Me
Father, this is a sobering reminder that we, too, are living in the last days even now, and that Jesus’ return is way closer now than it was in James’ day. Lord, help me to keep my focus on Your agenda, not on amassing wealth which might give me what is really a false sense of security, because it could all be gone in a moment. Instead, help me to focus on how I can use what You have blessed me with to bring more people into Your kingdom, and to help those who are already in to grow and be able to be productive. Amen.