James 5:1-11

James 5:1-11

James 5:1-6 – “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments 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 heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned; you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.”

· V.1-3 - These verses are very stern even harsh, so why is James condemning the rich? Is being rich a sin? No, being rich is not a sin, but the love of money or the desire to become rich is sinful. Money is neutral, it’s neither good nor evil and is no different than any other tool in our hands, it can be used to build up or tear down God’s kingdom. Paul explains it this way:

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows,” 1 Timothy 6:10.

Paul states that greediness has diminished their faith and this is the danger of wealth for believers. Our natural tendency of self-dependency can cause us to rely less on the Lord and more on our wealth, our resources, and cause us to become prideful. However, there are many believers that have wealth and haven’t become corrupted by it, in fact they give much of their wealth away to the needy and poor. In the bible we have Abraham and Job, they were men of great wealth and used their wealth to honor God. If God has our hearts wealth can become a very useful tool, but if not, it can lead to many sorrows as Paul points out. When blessed with wealth we must never be self-reliant, we must always be on guard of our wealth replacing our dependency and need for our Savior.

· V. 4-6 – Apparently there were some business owners or rich believers in the Church that were exploiting those that labored for them. Taking advantage of those who labor for you or the poor is a far too common place today. The Lord is clear that judgement will come to those that mistreat those that are disadvantaged. I believe this greediness can also extend to our resources. Do we freely give of our financial resources and our time? Greed takes many forms and we must remember that all we have is the Lord’s, so why hang onto something that’s not ours to begin with. Even our time and energy are not ours, did not God breathe life into us just as He has given us financial resources? Are we generous with our resources and our time with others? Our countenance must be one of generosity and not of greed and selfishness and our actions towards others should be rooted in integrity, empathy, and fairness no matter what their social status. We are never to live extravagantly at the expense of others, but this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the blessings of God, just be generous with others and live conservatively with gratitude.

Ref. verses:

1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

Jeremiah 22:13

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work.”

Malachi 3:5

"And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien because they do not fear Me, “says the LORD of hosts."

2 Corinthians 8 (A Call to Generous Giving)

Deuteronomy 15:10 (10-20)

10”Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.”

James 5:7-11 - “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

· V.7 – James is encouraging those in affliction to be patient and wait upon the Lord. Just as a farmer who patiently waits and has faith that his crop will yield a harvest. In due time we too will yield a harvest, but only if we have faith and trust in knowing that God is working in our circumstances. While we wait, we’re not to grumble about our situation, but look to God for deliverance in this world or the next. Our sufferings and trials will continue in this world until our death or His coming; this is a reality we must face as believers and never blame God for them. In fact, if we allow God to work in us, He’ll use them to strengthen and sharpen us so that we can mature in our faith. If you recall James puts it this way from James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

· V.8 – From gotquestions.com: “The word for “establish” in the original language means “to strengthen, to confirm, to make more marked by firm determination or resolution.” An established heart is ready for anything in the face of suffering. Success in the Christian life requires keeping the mindset not of a short-distance sprinter but of a marathon runner, especially in challenging times. Strength, stamina, and patient endurance are needed to go the distance as a follower of Jesus Christ.”

Ref. verses:

Psalm 27:14

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Lamentations 3:25, 26

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Psalm 37:7

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”

Isaiah 40:31

“But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

Psalm 40:1–3

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord”

V.9 – Do not grumble or complain about those that take advantage of us, such as the rich, and I also believe this could include a long litany of things that people do to annoys us.

Do you find it strange that James mentions the coming of the Lord or the Lord is at hand in verses 7 and 8 and now again in v.9 when he says, “The Judge is standing at the door?” I believe the Holy Spirit is impressing on him the importance of living each day as if the Lord’s return is immanent. To me this is more evidence of the taking of the Church before the wrath of God that will come upon the world. The true Church is not appointed for such wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9), this is the blessed hope that Paul refers to in Titus 2:13, "Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." and here James is reiterating the importance of waiting in anticipation for this event.

Imagine two scenarios, first, a young adult left home alone for a period of time not knowing when his parents will return, where in the second scenario, he knows that they’ll return in 7 days. In the first, obviously most young people would make sure they left the house tidy whereas in the second (given our sin nature) he’ll make a mess and not worry about it until the morning of the 7thday and then he'd tidy up the house. Scripture is clear that Christ will return for His bride, but we don’t know exactly when this will occur. God wants us to live in this anticipation. In the first scenario we must be like this young person keeping our house in order util our Saviors return.

I believe living in anticipation of this event, with it firmly established in our hearts, will help our perspective to be far more hopeful, we’ll also be more persevering and more enduring in our trials and possibly make life more exciting.

· V.10, 11 – Here James is using the prophets as an example of what endurance and perseverance accomplishes, he specifically mentions Job. The endurance and steadfastness of Job is an example of what God can do through those that abide in Him. Job experienced afflictions that most of us will never face and it reminds me of this scripture in Hebrews 12:3-8,

“For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart. 4you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. 5and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; 6for those whom the lord loves he disciplines, and he flogs every son whom he receives.” 7it is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8but if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

I’m learning that I can overcome adversity through abiding in Christ where I don’t have to resort to my flesh, where that tendency is still exists, but it always leads to destruction,. Paul puts it this way: Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Philippians 4:11-13

We’re in a war whether we realize it or not, we’ll rise or we will fall according to the choices we make. We can choose to abide in Christ and endure trials resting in Him or resort to our own strength and ways of dealing with them and as you very well know there are aftereffects for both. If we choose to go our own way the effects are usually immediate, it grieves the Spirit and if you truly love the Lord grieving Him makes you feel lost and hollow and icky, for lack of a better word. It also leaves you weak and exposed to the wiles of the enemy. Things can quickly spiral out of control if we give into the temptation to trust in ourselves through trials, to give into fear or suffering and distance ourselves from the One that can calm the storm. He may not remove you from the storm, but can sustain you while there. Just like Peter (Matthew 14) when he stepped out of the boat and walked on the water, with his eyes on Jesus he was successful, but as soon as he took his eyes off Him, he began to sink. We cannot take our eyes off Jesus when we experience hardship. Time, through trials, will tell if we’re truly His. Will we say like Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15.

Ref. verses:

Matthew 10:22

“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Acts 14:22

“Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

Hebrews 10:36

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”

Psalm 23:4

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Romans 8:18

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Galatians 6:9

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”