James 5:1-6

James 5:1–6 ESV

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.

Introduction

Tension in our culture: we have politicized wealth and justice

The left says the rich are evil by virtue of being rich

In strong reaction, some conservatives tend to view the wealthy as virtuous by virtue of their riches

So to critique either side often leads to a quick label and refusal to listen

Hypocrisy of our view of justice

The left will call things out on the offenses of the right that they will never call out on the left

The right will do the same thing

So our concept of justice can become very convenient for us, very shallow, short sighted, partial and hypocritical

Add to that the very vague and murky definition of “justice”

I’m not sure that everyone is using this word to mean the same thing

In fact, I’’m sure that we are NOT all using this word the same way

But we cannot just abandon the concept of or concern for justice, because God cares deeply about justice

The Bible consistently speaks to God’s concern for justice and the need for humans to do justice

And this has to do with economics as well as every other sphere of life - the prophet Micah, for example, is called by many scholars the “prophet of the middle class”

We must allow the scriptures to speak into our lives and our culture without favoritism or partiality

So today as James issues a harsh challenge to the wealthy of his day, we need to let him speak and then submit to biblical truth

James is going to go after the wealthy of his day by driving straight to the heart reality guiding them

So this should be a multi-layered challenge for us today

To examine our own hearts with regard to materialistic, consumeristic greed

To learn to humbly and consistently critique the real injustices of our world without favoritism

To long for and care about justice

I. Material wealth is in itself worthless in eternity

James 5:1–3 ESV

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.

The rich are called to weep and howl for coming miseries

Who are the rich spoken of here?

They are likely non-Christians

James 2:1-7

James 2:1–7 ESV

1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

The Christians in the “diaspora” were very poor

They were poor partly because the rich

The picture painted of the ultimate value of material goods is grim

As James moves into the concluding portion of his letter, he begins to speak from a more eschatological framework

Past tense of the verbs “rotted,” “moth-eaten” and “corroded” do not necessarily refer to a past tense reality

Prophets used this literary device all the time - speak from a future perspective using past tense language

It was meant to underscore the belief that the judgment of God was so sure and so certain that even future events could be spoken of in past tense language

The future failing of material wealth will serve as a witness

Laying up treasure on earth is ultimately futile

Luke 12:15-21

Luke 12:15–21 ESV

15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Matthew 6:19-21

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

James is pronouncing judgment on the rich for doing exactly what Jesus said not to do!

These people have nothing else but their wealth, and the ultimate failure of their wealth will serve as a witness that they do not possess the things that truly matter

Simply put, God is not going to judge you on how much wealth you have accumulated, and if all you have to offer in the day of judgment is material wealth, they will be only ragged moth-eaten rags whose only purpose is to show how truly lacking you are in what really matters.

Don’t waste your life chasing riches only to find that you have nothing in the end when you stand before God for judgment

II. Material wealth is often gained through oppressive exploitation

James 5:4–6 ESV

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.

Broad biblical theme: Material wealth is often gained through oppressive exploitation of others

Meaning: material wealth is often built by ways of doing what is good for me but bad for you, at your expense

This doesn’t surprise us: We don’t need to look long into human history to find numerous examples of wealth built by unjust means

We should not presume our society immune from this challenge

The “rich” in James’ letter have gained their wealth through exploitation of and disregard for others

They kept back wages by fraud

OT Law of paying wages same day Leviticus 19:13 and Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Deuteronomy 24:14–15 ESV

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.

OT disregard for that law - Jeremiah 22:13, Malachi 3:5

Malachi 3:5 ESV

5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Jeremiah 22:13 ESV

13 “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,

They condemned and murdered the righteous person who does not resist

Condemned translated a Greek term that involved the use of courts

Two possibilities

The kind of oppressive exploitation fell along technically legal lines in the society

The exploitation was illegal, but the rich people were able to use their wealth, influence, and power to get their way in the courts; i.e. bribes, threats, etc.

Therefore, no human judge was likely to hear a complaint against these rich oppressors

Murder doesn’t likely refer to literal murder, but rather the practical effect on the lives of those exploited by these rich people

Workers expected to be paid daily (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)

Workers did not have access to credit in the modern sense

Workers lived not only paycheck to paycheck but day to day

To be denied their daily wage was to be denied food for that day

They lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence

What is self-indulgence:

It means getting what I want exactly when I want it

We live in a culture of instant gratification

Illustration: My main battle with Gwennie right now is that she wants what she wants, and she wants to have it at the exact moment she wants it, and I’m not about that life

That luxury and self indulgence has “fattened their hearts in a day of slaughter

There is a dark and subtle irony here

Day of slaughter could be referring to the idea that they constantly live as though they are in a day of slaughter

In the ancient world without refrigeration, they would eat their fill on the day of slaughter because the meat would then have to be salted or dried to be preserved

But they live every day like it is a day of slaughter, self indulgent

Their hearts are fattened by this - it is a vicious cycle where their self indulgence creates a further greed that continues on in greater self indulgence

The day of slaughter is often viewed in the OT as the day of God’s judgment, when he slaughters his enemies

James is saying that in their oppression of the poor for their own self indulgent wealth and pleasure, the wealthy were making themselves fat for the day of slaughter - the judgment of God

God sees and cares about exploitation and injustice

He sees the plight of those who are oppressed and exploited

He hears their cries for justice

And he stands as the one who will render judgment in the end

III. Application: The massive pitfalls of material wealth

We live in a culture that is largely ignorant of the terrible pitfalls of material wealth.

Idolatry of money and the power of the almighty dollar is found in all corners of our society regardless of political ideology or socioeconomic status.

The danger of self indulgence

Self indulgence and luxury dull our senses

We don’t see our own sin as clearly as we need

We don’t see the suffering of others with the kind of empathy and heartbreak we should

It allows us to justify terrible acts of injustice in the name of our own greed for more

Self indulgence and luxury waste our time and energy

It causes us to spend our days and our time on worthless pursuits that do not build healthier lives or serve the kingdom purposes of Jesus

The inability of wealth to deliver on what it promises

It cannot provide us with what we truly need

No amount of money will keep you from dying, and it won’t help you afterward either

No amount of money can make you have healthy and thriving relationships with your family, friends, church, world

Money can give you some of the things that you want, but it will never give you what you need

It cannot transform us

Wealth will not change who you are - it will only give you a greater ability to live out who you are

If you are a greedy, stingy hoarder with a little bit of money, you will be a greedy hoarder with a lot of money

Money will not transform your heart and make you less greedy

If you are generous and kind with a little bit of money you will be generous and kind with a lot - it will simply allow you to generously give a greater quantity

This flies in the face of the idolatrous view of many socialists, that if only we redistributed money, people would be better

Because people are not actually at their core sinful, they are just a victim of circumstance

But people ARE in fact sinful and broken, and more money will never change that

This doesn’t mean we should not care about economic justice or fairness, but rather that we cannot hope to ultimately solve the problems of human injustices apart from the radical transformation of the human heart

The root of oppressive and exploitive pursuit of wealth is the sinful, idolatrous greed present in the human heart - every human heart

We all want what we want, we all have a tendency to covet what others have, and we are all capable of justifying terrible things to get it

This problem of human greed is what is underneath James’ teaching through this entire passage

We need an inward heart transformation

We don’t need to work very hard to gain material wealth so that we can have everything we want

We need a gracious gift that we don’t work for - the transformation of our heart from the inside

This only comes through the grace of God in Jesus Christ

Apart from God’s grace, you sin cannot be forgiven, your heart cannot be transformed, and you will never be free from the greedy urge to have just a little bit more, because if God is not where you find all of your true joy, satisfaction and security, then money is all you can rely upon and you can never have enough

But in the death of Jesus on the cross, he absorbed all of the righteous wrath of God on sin, and so:

Your sin is forgiven

Your heart is renewed and given new life

You are reconciled to God and adopted into his family as a son or daughter

You are set free from the need to rely upon material wealth as the source of your security, joy and hope

This is ultimately the hope for all of us and for our world

You must respond to this grace with faith and trust in Jesus, learning to walk in obedience to him in all spheres of life

On a super practical level, his life, death, and resurrection provide a pattern for us to respond to in obedience

He did not hoard for himself but gave freely and sacrificially at deep cost to himself

Conclusion

Transition to communion

As we reflect upon the grace of God at work in the gospel of Jesus Christ, let us consider how we need to respond to his grace

Questions to ask ourselves:

Is my heart consumed by a greedy desire for more?

Am I fixated upon materialistic concerns of wealth?

Is there a specific material concern or desire that I am overly fixated on?

Let us turn in faith and trust to Jesus for the healing and transformation of our hearts

Let us learn from Jesus to be a people who are selfless, generous, and just