God is not against wealth; there were many “rich” men in the Bible who were godly. So if God is not against wealth, what is He against? He’s against the unrighteous use of it, the wicked ways in which it is acquired, and those who love it. Wealth can lead to sin when we begin to seek it and love it more than we seek and love God. God does not forbid us pleasure. The problem is when we begin to live in pleasure and wealth as if we lived for nothing else. We are not to get so comfortable and settled in this world and on this temporary earth that we forget to prepare ourselves for eternity. We are strangers and pilgrims on this earth; this is not our home.
James 5:4, “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.”
James 5 addresses the very issue of the unrighteous use of money and the wicked ways in which it is obtained. Verse 4 of that chapter specifically mentions those who withhold the pay from their laborers. Those who you have hired to do work for you – yet you do not give them their wages. Chronically and continuously deferring payment is defrauding. The intention and motive do not even include a plan of repayment. Who does that? Who makes an agreement with a worker and yet does not keep his word?
Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Is James talking to believers or unbelievers? The first 4 chapters of this book are all addressed to “believers”, so why does James address chapter 5 to “rich people”? The rich people addressed in chapter 5 were not those who professed the Christian religion, but rather the worldly and unbelieving Jews. James didn’t tell them, “weep and repent.” He tells them in verse 1, “weep and groan.” Yikes! And though this chapter calls out those who commit gross injustice, James also addresses believers with words of encouragement and a reminder that God doesn’t turn a blind eye to the mistreatment of and evil toward His children! He sees what is done to us and He knows the hard heart of our offender. He will not be mocked, and He will not allow wickedness and evil toward us to prevail forever.
How are these “rich people” described? Were they dressed in suits? Did they work in fancy offices with their name on their desk? I think we often invent a picture in our minds of what “rich people” should look like; but in reality, they may look just like “average” folks. James gives a short and simple description in v. 5 as he calls them out and says they “have lived luxuriously on the earth and fattened their hearts.” It really doesn’t sound very far removed from some of us today. Did these “rich people” take vacations with resources that weren’t theirs? Did they purchase and furnish their homes with money that was owed to other debts? Did they grow their possessions with borrowed funds, having no intentions to repay?
Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The “rich” in these verses had used the money with which they should have paid their laborers; and instead, they lived “high on the hog” with it. They were living on what was not theirs. They were using what didn’t belong to them. They didn’t pay their debts. Their luxury was at the expense of those they defrauded.
Proverbs 3:27, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”
These “rich people” were those who trusted in wealth instead of God. They justified their actions to themselves, not realizing that it is God who judges them. They made dishonest cases, already deciding they “deserved” what another man had. They were willing to be sold out to the almighty dollar and the next “dream” that is destined to be their destruction. They existed to build their own kingdoms, not God’s. Don’t we sometimes live more like that? We keep building, buying, accumulating, spending – forgetting all along that He is the One who owns everything? Don’t we sometimes trust our resources, our wealth, our power instead of God – and even if we don’t have more money, don’t we sometimes wish we did because we believe it will solve our problems or make us happy?
Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”
When we put our trust in what we have (or what we want to have) instead of in the God who is over it all, — whose kingdom are we building? His or ours? With each action, spoken word, purchase, visit, and move – do our lives reflect the building of God’s kingdom or our own?
1 Timothy 6:9-10, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Many times in Scripture, we are reminded that the material things of this world don’t really matter as much as we think they do – in the moment of irrational thinking. The things that bring temporary happiness will never fill up our souls.
1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Matthew 6:20, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”
Store up your treasures in heaven because the “treasures” that are found in this world will eventually rot, get plundered, or destroyed in the end. But we will find true, lasting joy if we invest our time and efforts in eternal things, like winning the souls of the lost. Even having a small part of bringing the Gospel to lost people is a heavenly investment that will reap the joy of spending eternity praising the Lord with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!
It is so important to remember that Jesus is our reason for living! We won’t find purpose in the things this world has to offer, but we will find it in Christ! He gives us purpose!
Luke 12:15, “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.”
We often seek the material things of this world and the opinions of man because that is where we find our identity. But we should not find our identity in other people or things. We must find our identity in Christ.
These “rich people” in James chapter 5 appeared to have great gain, yet we discover in vv. 2-3 of that chapter that their rotting and rusting earthly possessions will be the witness against them. Their riches will perish without being of any use either to them or to others. Sadly, repentance never enters their mind; repentance was not on their radar. The Bible says they are consumed like fire; as fire is not quenched without devouring. What a sad ending for them.
How are these acts of gross injustice described? These “rich people” oppressed others and acted very unjustly to satisfy their wishes and desires; and when they got what they wanted, their flesh could not be satisfied and they desired more. This cycle continued to the point they had lost all sense and feeling of the wants or afflictions of others (v. 6), and they persecuted and killed without remorse. They pretended to act “legally” and even spiritually “right”, yet they condemn before they kill. Who did they condemn? They condemned the just – those who were believers, who earned honest wages, were hard-workers, and who stewarded their resources for the Lord.
Verse 6 ends with the words, “who do not resist you.” In his commentary on James 5, Matthew Henry states: “The very patience of the “just” is abused (taken advantage of) by the wicked as an incentive to boldness in violent persecution, as if they may do as they please with impunity (which means exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action).”
What’s interesting is that in James 4:6, James reminds the believers that, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Jesus set the example and was silent before His accusers and did not open His mouth, and so His people strive to imitate Him and remain meek under persecution. But the day will come when God will set Himself in display against the enemies of He and His children.
If you find yourself on the receiving end of injustice and fraudulent acts, guard yourself against bitterness. Aristotle defined bitterness as “the resentful spirit that refuses reconciliation.” When we have been wronged, we need to fight the urge to feed bitterness that seeks to rise up inside us. We need to counter those ill feelings with God’s truth. He loves people because He created us and He wants nothing more than for those people who are living in sin to be reconciled to Him and to “repent and sin no more.” We should quit treating others as they treat us and start treating them as God treats us. That would be a game-changer for sure!
Ephesians 4:32, “…forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” Did you read that? Just as God in Christ forgave you – our forgiveness to others is patterned after the forgiveness of Jesus towards us.
Putting all these verses into practice can sometimes be a challenge to our flesh. We naturally drift toward selfishness. We’re naturally inclined to do whatever will benefit us, even at the cost of our neighbor.
But we should live as people who know the mercy, grace, generosity, and justice of God. We are supposed to be demonstrating the kingdom and the character of God to the rest of the world, and this call on our life requires that we do as Micah 6:8 tells us, “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.”