Faith In Motion- James 5

The Read

(ESV)

Warning to the Rich

5 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.

James seems to be down on the rich alot through his writing so it needs to be mentioned that being wealthy is not a sin.

In fact there’s a real place for wealth in the church. It takes money to fund ministries. It takes money to pay the bills. It takes money to pay salaries. It takes money to help people who are in need. It takes money to go on mission trips and things like that.

So if wealth in and of itself isn’t the issue, what is the issue and why does Jame seem to talk about it so much?

The particular problem that was happening here has to do with how the wealthy were taking advantage of the poor.

When you are the one that has the money and has the authority and has the power it can be very easy to take advantage of the poor and of the ones who work for you.

James points out a few things that these wealthy folks were doing and he warns them of what is to come.

He says that they have stored up the treasures they have. They have hoarded their wealth while there have been others who have need.

They have not paid the people who worked for them. They unfairly, probably through some loophole, found a way to keep the funds for himself.

They have indulged themselves and lived in luxury, while the ones who worked for them starved.

And they have fattened themselves during a time of slaughter. In other words, they are doing everything they can to make their lives a life of luxury while everyone else around them are starving the death. They are doing everything they can to make their lives better, while others are being thrown out on the streets.

And for these things James warns that all of their riches are going to be evidence of the way they treated people. He warned that someday, everything they got by taking advantage of people, would corrode and waste away. And then they would face the judgement for their lives.

Let me be clear: James is not speaking out against capitalism. Nor is he speaking for socialism. He’s speaking against greed and he’s speaking for fairness.

So I don’t think James is saying that government ought to be involved in redistribution of wealth. In fact he doesn’t offer a solution to the problem at all but rather a warning to those causing the problem. But what we can gather and move forward with, is that business owners and the wealthy ought to, out of their own good nature, is treat everyone with fairness, keep an open eye to what’s going on in the world around them, and embrace generosity.

So how can this effect you right now as a teenager? What you practice now, you will practice when you get older. So even though you may not have much right now, start practicing fairness and generosity now and then the habit will be formed when you are an adult.

(ESV)

Patience in Suffering

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

As far as the continuation of the conversation goes for James, he now addresses those poor who have been abused and taken advantage of.

What he tells them is this: Don’t worry about it. God deal with them later. You worry about you and be patient because the Lord is going to bless you if you are in him.

He says what they need to worry about is establishing their hearts in Christ Jesus. Don’t let the actions of a few determine the joy that they have because of the goodness of God and promise of his salvation.

He tells them to practice patience. The Lord will bless them, in his time, if they are established in him.

And he tells them just to be honest and even though the ones who did them wrong broke promises and lied to get rich, they should continue to be honest.

So if you find yourself being treated unfairly and feel marginalized, for any reason such as economic status, or race, or sex, or anything, be patient and let the Lord bless you and lift you up in his time. Don’t worry about trying to seek revenge or anything like that. God will take care of that. Establish yourself in him and let him take care of the rest.

The Prayer of Faith

Patience in Suffering

(ESV)

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

James tells us here to keep things in perspective. There are people who only call on God when they need something.

“Lord, I know I haven’t prayed in a while, but I’ve got this test coming up next hour. Will you please help me?”

But James says we need to be cheerful and have an attitude of praise and prayer always. Even if we don’t have a need we should pray and just tell the Lord he’s great.

He says we need to include others to pray for us. Sometimes when things aren’t great, it can be hard to have faith. Sometime we need to rely on the faith of others to help lift us up.

Verse 15 can be tough because can’t it. We look at that, just like the verse from last week and wonder why some people don’t get healed.

Here’s my take and I think this is Jame’s intentions. He doesn’t say healed. He says saved and he follows that with the forgiveness of sins.

Ultimate healing for us, is Heaven. Ultimate healing is to be with Jesus in glory. Ultimate salvation has noting to do with good health. It has to do with having our sins forgiven and our slate wiped clean so that we can be lifted up with Jesus.

And James says for that reason, we should confess out sins to one another and pray for one another. When I struggle with sin, I don’t tell the whole world. And you shouldn’t either. But there are a few people who I tell. And guess what, there’s no judgement. Only a righteous person praying for me.

So you need to find someone, or someones, who you can confide it that will help to lift you up and pray for you. And you need to have a prioritize prayer life.

(ESV)

(ESV)

The Prayer of Faith

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James finishes out his letter with a bit of truth that we often ignore.

He says that when we see our brother or sister in Christ straying, we need to talk to them and help them to come back on the right path. When we do this we are going to make their lives a lot better and God is going going to make their eternity a lot better.

We usually don’t do this because we don’t want to come across judgy. But like we talked about last week, there’s a proper way to do this and there’s an improper way to do it. Make sure that you are doing it from a place of love and doing it with an attitude of love.

When

The Ready

Tonight was designed to be a little bit shorter because I want you to be able to have plenty of time in small group to talk about this stuff.

But it was also designed to be shorter because we’re going to have a meeting at 7:50 about the spring retreat so if you plan on going to the retreat, be back in the room at 7:50!