Sermon Tone Analysis
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I. Introduction
What Would You Do?
What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
James Patterson and Peter Kim, The Day America Told the Truth, 1991
James notes four sins that bring judgement:
Another preacher who left Virginia for Kentucky was John Taylor.
He, too, became sidetracked from spiritual matters after his move.
He wrote in his personal journal of the hard manual labor needed to make a successful living in Kentucky: “We had no time to pause and think, but go right on to work.”
After two years he was able to boast, “I was the richest man in the county where I lived.”
However, he had to admit that “through the course of this two years, I preached but little.”
What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:
Both of these men had endured hardship, persecution, and had been relatively poor in Virginia.
Building up wealth had not been their previous goal.
In fact, one zealous minister in Virginia, Samuel Harris, had refused to take a man to court for money owed to him, money which he desperately needed.
Harris’s explanation was that he “didn’t want to lose time in a lawsuit he could spend preaching saving souls.”
For some church leaders the new opportunity to seek material goals served as an anesthetic on the spiritual life.
Some zealous ministers showed a preference for political power rather than for spiritual power.
James Garrard, a preacher who had moved to Kentucky, left his preaching in 1796 to become governor of the state.
Historian Robert Semple sorrowfully wrote, “For the honours of men he resigned the office of God.
He relinquished the clerical robe for the more splendid mantle of human power.”
Semple also spoke of another talented minister from the Roanoke Association in Virginia who, “misled by ambition,” set himself up as a candidate for Congress.
These words do not suggest that involvement in politics signifies automatic spiritual declension.
Semple’s words suggest that in the above instances a love for political power had replaced a pursuit for spiritual power.
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
A quest for wealth and power can consume all our energies.
Those who have wealth and power face the additional temptations of pride, greed, and an attitude of self-sufficiency.
The wealthy can also take advantage of their condition to practice injustice and dishonesty toward the poor and needy.
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
James saw wealthy people who were facing these temptations and yielding to them.
He warned both the rich and poor—the majority of his Christian readers—of the numbing effects of wealth and the pursuit of power.
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
James Patterson and Peter Kim, The Day America Told the Truth, 1991
James notes four sins that bring judgement:
James notes four sins that precipitate the severe judgment pronounced on the wicked rich.
They are condemned because their wealth was uselessly hoarded, unjustly gained, self-indulgently spent, and ruthlessly acquired.
II.
Their Wealth Was Uselessly Hoarded (5:2-3)
Hoarding is one of the most widespread sins of our day and time.
God entrusts believers with material goods so they can use them for His glory.
God entrusts believers with material goods so they may use them for His glory.
Obviously, Christians are to provide for their families (1 Tim.
5:8).
But beyond that, Christians’ resources are to be used to advance God’s kingdom
Obviously, Christians are to provide for their families ().
But beyond that, Christians’ resources are to be used to advance God’s kingdom.
American Picker’s
There were 3 ways that James describes how wealth was valued in his day (apart from land and houses).
Food items: When hoarded these will rot and decay away.
Garments: When hoarded these will become moth-eaten.
Gold & Silver: When hoarded these will become “rusted” or corroded.
(The idea is that they become useless.)
James has an audience of “brothers” who were hoarding wealth but the worthlessness of it served as a testimony of their lack of devotion to God.
In the judgment, their hoarded, rotted, moth-eaten, corroded treasures will give graphic testimony to the unregenerate state of their hearts.
Their covetous, selfish, compassionless, earthbound approach to life will provoke their condemnation.
John McArthur
III.
Their Wealth Was Unjustly Gained (5:4)
James 5:
The wicked rich were not only guilty of sinfully hoarding their wealth; they had also sinfully acquired it.
This was far from being generous to the poor as Scripture commands (; ; ), they exploited them.
Specifically, they had withheld the pay of the laborers who mowed their fields—a practice so shocking that James introduced the statement with the word behold.
The perfect tense of the verb translated withheld suggests that the wicked rich completely withheld at least part of their laborers’ pay; they did not merely delay payment.
James personified the withheld wages.
These unpaid wages cried out to God against the wealthy.
Although the rich landowners might not hear the pleas of the poor, God would hear their prayers.
Although the rich landowners might not hear the pleas of the poor, God would hear their prayers.
One of the most majestic Old Testament names describes the God who hears prayers.
He is termed the Lord Almighty or the Lord of Hosts.
This pictures God as the head of Israel’s armies (see ) and heaven’s angels (see ).
It presents a powerful picture of God’s mighty resources available for his people.
IV.
Their Wealth Was Self-Indulgently Spent (5:5)
James 5:
Having increased their wealth by robbery/stealing/swindling and hoarding, the wicked rich added to their sin by using their wealth for their own selfish indulgence.
James described their self-indulgence with 3 verbs in greek...by saying “lived luxuriously”.
This terminology only appears here in the New Testament.
The related noun truphē has the basic meaning of “softness.”
James condemned the wicked rich for living in soft, extravagant luxury at the expense of others.
Far from being first-century Robin Hoods, stealing to give to others, they stole to line their own pockets.
Ironically, one of the wealthiest and wisest men who ever lived provides an illustration of the futility of such self-indulgence.
reveals that Solomon left no stone unturned in his frantic pursuit of pleasure:
Ecc 2:4-10
V. Their Wealth Was Ruthlessly Acquired (5:6)
James 5:
This is the final progression in the downward spiral followed by the rich people James rebuked.
Having unjustly hoarded the money they robbed from their poor day laborers and spent it on their self-indulgent desires, they went even further and condemned and put to death the righteous man.
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