James 5:1-6

Being Rich isn’t all that Great

James 5:1–6 “Come now, you rich people, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming upon you! Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.”

Context:

James Just got done speaking to the Christians attempting to make money. James reminds them your goal is not money, but to follow God’s Will.

Tone: Concern For those who are obessed with money (look at James 4:13–17 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there, and carry on business and make a profit,” you who do not know ⌊what will happen tomorrow⌋, ⌊what your life will be like⌋. For you are a smoky vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears. Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” )

This shows that James is trying get the people not to foucs on the future, but the ine who controls it.

James wants people to rely on the Lord’s Wisdom, not ours.

James 5:1–2 “Come now, you rich people, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming upon you! Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten.”

Their weialth has rotten them becasue their heart is in the riches of today, and not focused on the future that awaits.

Look at Jesus’s words about this topic: Matthew 6:19 ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and consuming insect destroy and where thieves break in and steal,”

What is “coming upon” them, is tourmement, they didn’t follow and obey God, therefore their welath will perish and the final judgement will come.

James 5:3–6 “Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.”

The men in this time failed to pay their workmen

Greed consumed their soul

James 5:5 “You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.”

Day of slaughter means they used their money to get fresh food every day. Wasting money on themselves.

James implies their day of slaughter eill be God’s day of slaughtering his eneimes.

James 5:6 “You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.”

The term murder isn’t literal, But repersents the rich taking away the wages or land of poor. The rich taking things way from them

So what does this have to do with us?

Money will most likely tempt you to place it in your life above everything else

2. We must understand true wealth

A. Ciztenship of Heaven Phillippianss shed for us. Ciztenship of Heaven Phillippians 3:20-21

Luke 16:19–31 ““Now a certain man was rich, and dressed in purple cloth and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day. And a certain poor man ⌊named⌋ Lazarus, covered with sores, lay at his gate, and was longing to be filled with what fell from the table of the rich man. But even the dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to ⌊Abraham’s side⌋. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes as he was in torment and saw Abraham from a distance, and Lazarus ⌊at his side⌋. And he called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he could dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering pain in this flame!’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. But now he is comforted here, but you are suffering pain. And in addition to all these things, a great chasm has been esta…”

Purpose: Our riches in this earth are temporary and should not be the focus, but the Lord should be.