James 4:11 - 5:9
Recap
Pride and the lack of humility are the chief causes of slanderous, insulting language. Slander is critical speech intended to inflame others against the person being criticized. It involves talking against people, perhaps attacking them behind their backs. In this instance Christians were slandering Christians. Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ. For Christians to malign other believers is a living contradiction of the close family ties which should bind them together.
A slanderous Christian must face two charges. First, one who practices slander speaks against the law. The law that a critical Christian misrepresents is the law of love (see Lev. 19:18). Christians are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. The slanderous Christian fails to do this.
Second, one who practices slander judges the law. With a fault-finding attitude I set myself up as a judge. I neglect God’s law, thus declaring that it is a bad law and worthy of being removed. God calls Christians to keep the law, not to sit in judgment on it. When we slander our neighbors, we show our opposition to the law of love and imply that we are exempt from observing it.
God is the only Lawgiver and Judge, the one able both to save and destroy. Only God has the ability to enforce his laws and carry out his purposes. He allows no human being to share his role. A slanderous Christian attempts to play the role of God. God has no pleasure in those who practice slander.
Self-Centered Living Produces People Who Ignore God’s Will
This paragraph warns against such self-centered planning. Worldly living does not always show itself in hatred for God. Sometimes it appears in the form of disregarding God as we plan life’s daily activities
Finally, we hear the proper attitude. We are to seek the will of God in all our plans. Doing the will of God demands an active listening for God’s goals and plans. We must plan for the future, but we must plan with a deliberate seeking of the will of God.
These verses reveal our disobedient attitude and rebuke our proud, boastful spirit. They call us to an humble dependence on God rather than priding ourselves on our independence.
James accused his readers of boasting and bragging. Brag describes the arrogant assumption they could handle the future as they wanted to do independently of God.
Divine judgment will come on wealthy people for their greed and misuse of wealth.
The rich people, so often the object of envy, were the object of James’ scorn and condemnation. He put down those who placed their arrogant trust in things which were doomed to decay.
The corrosion of gold and silver affects the wealthy in two different ways. First, it testifies against them, producing evidence of their greed and lack of concern. Second, it will consume their flesh as fire, a terrible image of divine judgment on those who had made money their chief aim in life.
The sin of injustice occupies center stage here. The wealthy had failed to pay wages to their workers. In New Testament Palestine rich farmers hired day laborers to work their fields. Deuteronomy 24:14–15 demanded that an employer pay an employee his wages on a daily basis. The laborers lived a hand-to-mouth existence. They needed wages each day to purchase life’s necessities. A wealthy employer might retain wages until the end of the harvest to prevent the workman from leaving him. If the worker protested, the rich man could blacklist him. If the poor went before judges, the rich had better legal representation. James’s readers had mowed or reaped the fields, but the wealthy landowners withheld their pay. This injustice displeased God.
Fattening themselves in the day of slaughter describes oxen being fed ample food in preparation for the kill. The oxen ate greedily, unaware of what awaited them. The wealthy should have known better, but they acted like senseless animals unaware.
In the scramble for more wealth, the rich used their influence in courts of justice, and in the process were guilty of bringing condemnation and even death to innocent men who offered no resistance (“innocent men” is lit., “the righteous one” though it probably refers to a class of people rather than to one individual). What began as an interest in money ended as an insensitivity to murder.
James called for the believers to stop groaning lest they be judged, because Jesus the Judge is standing at the door! In view of the hope of Christ’s soon return, believers should cease the petty conflicts to which James alluded in chapter 4.
As children in a school classroom look out for their teacher’s soon return, God’s children should be on guard for Christ’s return. In so doing, good behavior and mutual harmony are essential.