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James Series | Warning against the rich | James 5:1-6


What did we see last week?

Faith includes brotherhood. James wants to explore and expand on that idea even more. James is saying about faith in this book (letter) and James wants us to see the bigger picture of faith. By faith we are made into a family. Romans 12:5, 1 Timothy 3:15 (household), Ephesians 2:19 (citizen and family)


All Verses are from ESV

  1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 
    • Come now -- come where … James shows what the Church is, A place to come together for repentance [i could be wrong on this]. James warns the rich (in speaking, money, influence, idea, prideful) that there are miseries that come upon them. He urges those who rely on themselves, on their strength, especially on their richness to empty themselves of such pride. Brothers, we have to realise that our reliance must be on God. We are fallible. We will make mistakes. James invites them to repent and be serious about repentance. James warns them that there is a danger coming. [we will come to that in a bit]. James wants us even to realise the danger and urgency of this warning.
  2. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 
    • James says that their riches have rotten and their pretty garments are full of holes. This has a spiritual implication. Brothers does this not sound like whitewashed tombs. There is always in the eves of rich or influential people the pride "rock" that build to boost their pride. They are like in the fable of Emperors clothing, naked. They believe that what they have is shiny and nice, but that is far from the truth. 
  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. 
    • Does Gold corrode? Does Silver corrode? No, did James not know that? Yes, James knew that. James proves that in the next verse. The corrosion will be the evidence and it will eat your flesh. James is not teaching material science here. He is talking about the heart of a sinful man who puts his trust in gold and silver. See what Peter said in Acts 3:6 -- Gold and silver I have not. James is telling from the last verse, that there is this idol that they have raised in their heart that is impure and this richness and their corruption will be the evidence. If we were to one day find an old plastic box and find in it rust, we have to assume that we had placed some iron material in them and due to the elements the material has rusted. In the same manner James says that there clear evidence of such hording. James says, you have laid up treasure when you should be distributing them. Remember the story of the foolish rich man, Luke - 18-21 --- James tells us what we are to do with our resources.
  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. 
    • I'm not sure if this applies to a particular context. (Deuteronomy 24:15) - but if says that a worker must be paid. I'm going a bit away from the topic to tell you here that these rules were and now in many countries still puzzling. The law God gave was even then counter cultural. It was not common to pay daily wages, people were given just a sum - these were reforms of the old testament times. Remember what God says about Abel (Genesis 4:10) ... justice cries out in times of injustice. Why? because there is a just God. See Psalm 9:12 - how God hears the cry of the oppressed. Brothers, if you are in such a place, be encouraged that God is hearing your cry. He is a God who brings justice. We saw that in James too -- when we saw in Chapter 2 to not show partiality, also see Colossians 3:25
  5. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence (schwelgen). You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 
    • The accusations continue
      • They have reliance on Gold and not God
      • They have kept their blessings to feed them selves
      • They have not been just
      • and here is the forth one -- in the day of trouble they have gathered luxury and self indulgence. James says that their hearts are so fat with their indulgent lives that they forget the time they live in.
        • It brings comparison to Ezekiel 16:49 - brothers, James is serious here. He uses all these examples to even break us about our indulgent life. We face Covid and we are indulging on news and media. have we sat down and prayed. Have we prayed more? Have we prayed even more?
  6. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
    • James finishes this section -- in my opinion by comparing such mistreatment even to Christ. Brothers, if we mistreat our brothers, it is mistreating the body, whose head is Christ. Brothers, we want us to examine ourselves here. 


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