CHAPTER 5
Verses 1-6 – The Rich and Their Coming Misery
This is one of the most searching and piercing sections of this letter. James now denounces the sins of the rich. The words fall like hammer-blows: blunt and unsparing. In fact, the denunciation is so strong that these verses are rarely preached on. It seems that these are not Christians, for James warns them to repent and weep because of the coming misery. Verses 1-6 are similar to Old Testament declarations of judgment against pagan nations.
James is in the role of a prophet of social justice. He cries out against the failure of the rich to use their money to help the needy. He condemns those who have become rich by exploiting their workers. He rebukes their use of wealth for self- indulgence and luxurious living. Finally, he describes the rich as arrogant oppressors of the righteous.
He calls the rich to “weep and wail” because of the miseries that they are about to experience. Soon they will meet God. Then they will be filled with shame and remorse. They will wail over missed opportunities. They will mourn over their covetousness and selfishness.
James mentions several cardinal sins of the rich:
- First, he names hoarding (vss. 1-3) and shows that the rich had accumulated their wealth, only to have it fade away.
The Bible never says that it is a sin to be rich. For instance, a person may inherit a fortune and become rich. Someone may work hard, save, and invest wisely and thus become “rich” (or relatively rich). James is talking about the selfish rich, who heap up riches and treasures, but forget the poor and needy.
Jesus forbade the hoarding of wealth. He said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in a steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
James speaks of wealth in four forms: riches, clothes, gold, and silver. In Bible times, wealth was generally in the form of grain, oil, and other produce, clothing, gold and silver. When James says, “Your wealth has rotten,” he means that the grain has become wormy and the oil has become rancid. The point is that these things had been hoarded to the point where they were spoiled. They could have been used at one time to feed the hungry; now they were worthless.
“Your clothes are eaten by moths,” he says. This doesn’t happen to clothing in regular use. But when the closet is full of unused clothing, they are subject to moth damage. To James it is morally wrong to hoard clothes when so many in the world are in desperate need.
“You gold and silver are corroded.” Corrosion, speaks of disuse and decay. Gold and silver do not rust, but they do tarnish and become discoloured, and under bad storage conditions, they could corrode. Instead of putting their money to work, to feed the hungry, clothe the destitute and spread the gospel, the rich were saving their money for a rainy day. It benefited no one, and eventually rotted away.
- The second sin is stealing wages. James attacks those who acquired wealth by not paying proper wages. The rich had held back the honest wages of the poor. They used fraud to steal their wages, but one day their sins would find them out!
- The third sin is extravagant living. Certainly God wants us to enjoy the blessings of life but He does not want us to be wasteful and extravagant while robbing others in need.
- The fourth sin is injustice. The rich took advantage of their power to abuse and kill the poor. But these Christians did not resist; they left their care in the Lord as the Righteous Judge. (Romans 12:17-21)