James Part 14
Notes
Transcript
James 5:1-11 – Whole-hearted Devotion
(James 5:1) “Come now you rich people…”
1 Come now, you rich people…
First Question: Who are these people?
Hint: Has he used the term, “The rich” elsewhere in the letter?
Yes! James 2:5-7
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
These are the same unbelieving rich he referred to before.
So, like in that text, James isn’t making blanket statements about riches, but about lordship – about who rules your life and what that looks like.
We’ve talked about being “dual-souled” from James 4:4, :
4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
We can’t serve two masters – it will either be the god of Self or the God of Heaven.
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
So, if we’re going to serve the Lord of lords, we’re told to draw near to God, cleanse our hands, purify our hearts, be miserable, mourn and weep. Let laughter be turned to mourning and joy to gloom. Humble ourselves before the Lord and He will exalt us.
In 5:1, he uses similar words (weep, wailing, etc) but this is very different: there’s no exhortation! No call to change and no hope.
Why? Can’t God change their hearts, too?
Yes, of course, but that’s not James’ purpose. He’s not writing to the rich people. He’s writing to Christians w ho he wants to see become or remain whole-heartedly devoted to Christ.
In James 2:6-7, he’s talking about the rich (they oppress, sue, and blaspheme).
6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
James 2:6–7
ou?
In 5:1-7, he’s rhetorically talking to them.
Why?
We get an idea in (James 5:7-11): “Therefore”
That’s to say something like, “In light of the what I just said, …”
Let’s see if we can figure it out based on what he tells them to do: James 5:7-11
7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. 11 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
1. Be patient until the Lord’s return (7b-8a)
2. Strengthen your heart (because He’s coming back) (8b)
3. Do not complain about one another. (9)
4. Remember the prophets. (10-11)
OK, so that’s what he wants us to do, but we don’t know the context yet. But we do know that he doesn’t say anything about money, clothes, possessions, etc.
So look back at 1-6 and lets take note of the tenses: James 5:1-6
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
(1) Miseries are coming - FUTURE
(2) Wealth has rotted, clothes are moth-eaten – PAST
(3a) Gold and silver has corroded – PAST
(3b) Corrosion will be a witness against you – FUTURE
(3c) You have stored up treasure in the last day – PAST
(5) You have lived luxuriously and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter – PAST
(6) You have condemned and murdered the righteousness who did not resist you.
What should our conclusion be about these people? THEY STAND GUILTY
They are not good people and so our attitude towards them should be that you shouldn’t be like them. You shouldn’t honor them. You shouldn’t envy them.
THAT’S WHAT JAMES IS GETTING AT!
KEY: Verses (James 5:4 and 6) –
4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
Who are these people?
Those who have been cheated, oppressed, condemned, and murdered are most likely the Christians he’s writing to.
How do I know?
It was one of the main points of 2:1-7 – The rich are oppressing you, yet you’re showing them honor/favoritism
That indicates half-hearted devotion or being “double-souled”.
So, there are two main reasons for this section of Scripture as I see it:
1. A warning not to be like the unbelieving rich
2. An encouragement not to be discouraged by them.
Let’s look at the warning:
a. judgement is coming on them.
Past tenses demonstrate a hardened, guilty state of their soul that WILL lead to condemnation/punishment, with the corrosion of their silver and gold serving as a witness against them.
What does that mean?
Corrosion implies that their money has been hoarded and kept unused to corrode instead of leveraging it for good use.
“Moth-eaten clothes” – Sounds similar to the way Jesus talked to the pharisees – Matthew 23:27-28
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 28 In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Notice the last sentence of (3): “You have stored up treasure in the last days”
Sound familiar? Matthew 6:19-21
19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Almost the same wording but in Matthew, it’s an exhortation, while in James it is a condemnation.
Jesus is saying don’t do this so that you will have treasure in heaven.
James is saying you have done this and the result is your flesh eaten like fire (3).
BOTH are saying, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
We need to heed James’ implicit warning about Jesus’ explicit instruction: store up for yourself treasures in heaven!
Again, the Bible doesn’t condemn riches, it guides us on how to handle them:
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1. Don’t rely on them: Humility
17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
2. Don’t hoard them: Generosity
18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share,
Since we need not have money to serve money, we should heed some wisdom from J.C. Ryle:
“It is possible to love money without having it, and it is possible to have it without loving it.”
Let’s turn to the Encouragement: very simple -
a. God hears (4)
b. God avenges (1)
(7)Therefore… Let’s go back to what he wants us to do as a result of the encouragement:
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
• Be patient until the Lord returns.
Two truths about this:
1. God will act
2. It may not be in your lifetime. Trust Him anyway!
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.
• Strengthen your hearts
o Perseverance through trials (James 1:2-4)
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
o Good works (James 1:22-25) “Blessed in what he does”
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
o Remind ourselves He’s coming back!
• Remain unified (5:9)
• Remind ourselves how God has worked in the past (5:11-12)
Conclusion:
1,618 words (13 minutes)
