James (27)
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Chapter 5 Part 1
Chapter 5 Part 1
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James has nothing against making plans, but he does condemn the arrogance of those who think they can make their plans without reference to God.
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
At heart, the sin these businesspeople are committing is the sin of arrogance; of thinking that they, rather than God, are in the driver’s seat
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The “rich people” whom James addresses in this paragraph are clearly the wicked rich
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Thus, while the people addressed in this passage are clearly materially wealthy, they are not condemned for their wealth per se, but for their selfish accumulation and abuse of their wealth.
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
We must understand the dangers of wealth is place ones trust in it!
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
These rich people will suffer condemnation on that day for four specific sins.
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
First, they have hoarded their wealth and failed to use it to help the poor. James pictures their wealth rotting and corroding—evidence that it has neither done them any good nor has it benefited the needy.
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
The second reason for the condemnation of these rich people is their failure to pay their laborers what is owed them
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1160–61. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
James assures the rich that God, “the Lord Almighty,” the Judge, is well aware of their sin against those who depend on them for daily bread. A luxurious, self-indulgent life-style is the third basis for God’s judgment
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1161. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.
A luxurious, self-indulgent life-style is the third basis for God’s judgment
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1161. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The forth reason James condemns the rich is for using their influential social and political positions to condemn and murder innocent men
Moo, Douglas. 1995. “James.” In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 3:1161. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Read Psalms 37 as reading assignment.