Problems For The Rich - James 5:1-5

 A friend who has been teaching through the book of James, asked me to teach on this passage since he was out of town. Here is my lesson.

Condemnation Of The Prideful Rich Landowners

James 5:1-6

James condemns those who have taken security in their material wealth and have mistreated those who work for them. In this case, they are wealthy land owners. They owned the fields. That made them wealthy and powerful. 

James did not condemn them simply because they were rich, but because they used their wealth sinfully. 

James addresses them on 4 issues: 

1. Their misplaced confidence in their riches. (1-3)
2. Their defrauding of their laborers - withholding wages (4)
3. Their self-indulgence (5)
4. Their persecution of the righteous (6) 

Their misplaced confidence in their riches. (1-3)

James said they should be mourning because misery is coming upon them. They are confident in themselves because they have it so good. But, although they are wealthy and live in luxury now, that will change. When the judgment comes, wealth will not save them. 

The words “weep” and “howl” (ESV) or “wail” (NIV) is the language of the fear and mourning that the lost express on the “Day of the Lord”, the day of judgment. For example, Isaiah 13:6 says: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!”

James also reflects the words of Jesus on this matter when he speaks of the corrosion of their wealth. Jesus, in Matthew 6:19-24, tells us not to lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. 

For us today, we can lose our treasure when the stock market declines or real estate markets crash. We still have thieves who steal. One of the early men who made a fortune in bitcoin had it stolen by hackers. 

The decay of their hoarded riches are evidence against them. (3) The NIV says testify against them. The New Living Translation puts it bluntly, saying “This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment”. James sees the judgment as a trial with God as the judge and the hoarded and ill gotten riches as evidence that convicts them of sinful behavior.

Notice that he says they accumulated riches in the last days. His thought was that Christ would return and judgment would come, making their wealth irrelevant at best and convicting at the worst. 

A judgment did occur about 20 years after James wrote this. The Roman army defeated Israel and took over the land. The wealth of the Jews disappeared completely and was replaced with sorrow, poverty, and death.

Certainly those Jews who were left in Jerusalem when the Romans destroyed the city lost all their possessions. I wonder if that rich young man who walked away from Jesus was there, losing all his possessions and losing his soul because he chose possessions over Jesus. 

But that is just a foretaste of the final judgment of God.

Defrauding Their Laborers (4)

James also condemned them for holding back wages from their workers. (4) The Old Testament law required prompt payment. Many workers needed that day’s wages to buy food for their family. If they were not paid, their family did not eat. 

Leviticus 19:13 required owners to pay laborers at the end of the day, not waiting until the next morning. Deuteronomy 24:14 required payment before sunset. 

We see this reflected in Jesus’ parables of the laborers in the vineyard. The owner of the vineyard hired workers all through the day. At the end of the day he told his foreman to call them laborers in and pay them the day’s wages. The point of the parable is something else, but it shows us this was the common practice as well as the law.

James says that these sins cry out against them and the Lord of hosts has heard them. (4)  That implies that the Lord is displeased with their actions and will judge them harshly for them. 

God is very concerned with social justice and the treatment of the poor. Justice in the Old Testament is more about how we treat the poor and oppressed than about criminal trials.

The Sabbath specifically applied to servants. (Exodus 20:10) You could not take the Sabbath off but make your servants work. You had to free a slave in the seventh year. (Exodus 21:2) So, getting rich off of a poor man’s wages was offensive to God. (I wish I had known to send this verse to my clients when I had my own business.) 

I want to pay a fair price for what I buy. I want to tip young waiters generously for serving me. I do not want to save money off of the back of poor people.  

The younger generations today are very concerned with social justice. They do not want to belong to churches or other organizations that condone injustice. My youngest daughter will not shop at a well known discount chain because they work to keep their employees from getting benefits and they pay very low wages.  

Condemnation For Self-indulgence (5)

James said the rich lived in luxury and self indulgence. In our time, it is amazing how much money is made by entertainers, actors, musicians, and athletes. Sylvester Stallone recently paid over 438 million dollars for his Florida home. It has 10 bathrooms. Taylor Swift, the singer, has several homes worth a total of over $60 million. It has 8 fireplaces. Tom Brady owns a private jet, a Gulfstream G550, which he uses for travel. He purchased the jet for around $20 million. That is a lot of self indulgence. It is very tempting when you are rich to be self indulgent. 

The problem with self indulgence is that it focuses on one’s self and turns the focus away from God and the needs of others. Living this way, they were fattening their hearts for slaughter. The image here is of fattening livestock before you kill them for food. It symbolizes adding to the sins for which they will be judged and punished. 

Condemnation For Persecuting The Righteous

James also condemned them because they mistreated innocent people and even murdered them.(6) He said they had condemned and murdered righteous people who did not resist them. In this context, he may be talking about a rich persons laborers. 

This sentence raises the question: is this literal or figurative language? Did they actually kill people? Or is this hyperbole for mistreatment? Either way, they are condemned for their behavior. 

Most of us do not consider ourselves rich (although many people in world would consider us to be). So, how does this apply to us? 

First, Christians must treat those who serve us justly and kindly. We do not take advantage of them because they are powerless or poor. 

Second, we should be generous whenever we can, especially with those who have less than we do.

Third, wealth is a gift from God. We should not hoard or get self indulgent. We should invest in the kingdom. We should constantly ask how ourselves “do we have too much”. 

Fourth, all that we do, including how we spend our money, should be done in light of Christ’s return so that he finds us living in a manner that brings honor and glory to him. 

If we have sinned in this regard, repentance is in order. Otherwise judgment is coming for the non-believer. James tells them to weep and howl at the miseries that are coming upon them. These are words of judgment like the Old Testament prophets said to Israel.  But believers might also be subject to the correction and discipline of the Lord as he seeks our sanctification.