Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: James 5:1-11 | Date: February 13, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Text Reading: James 5:1–11

I’ll begin reading with verse one. “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 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. 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 harvest have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, few of us feel that we are of this world’s wealthy and rich people, and yet we are sure that this passage has much to say to us as well. As James gives exhortation here both to those who commit injustice and those who are wronged by it, we pray that you would give us hearts to hear, that you would shape us by it according to your will. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Affliction of Injustice

I think surely one of the most difficult kinds of suffering, one of the most, is the affliction of injustice. And that’s what James talks about here. Injustice comes in many different forms, different packages, different ways. Someone slanders you, harms your reputation—it’s wrong. Try as you may, it can never be fixed. And in some people’s minds, that slander always sticks. It might be unfair, might be completely untrue, but there it is. Or you’re blamed for something, for doing something that you did not do, or blamed for saying something that you did not say. And try as you may, you try to right that wrong; in some people’s minds, you’re still guilty. And in some people’s minds, there’s still that question. And for the rest of time, there’s always that wonder: were you guilty or not?

Or you take a position on an issue in the church, in the community, a political position, theological position, or a practical matter. You take a position on it. People disagree with you. They may hate you for it, maybe in the church, maybe in the community. They treat you wrongly because of it, or, as I’ve seen it before, treat your kids wrong because of it. Injustice.

You work hard for your employer. You are sure that you are the one most qualified for this next promotion. But because of some position you’ve taken, perhaps because of your faith, you’re overlooked for someone less qualified, and they get bumped up and you don’t. It’s not fair. It’s not right. Your house or your business burns to the ground. The insurance company drags it out in court, makes you spend whatever money you have trying to force them to pay what’s owed you. And by the time you get it, it’s too late. Your business is ruined. I’ve seen that happen. Or worse yet, they refuse to pay altogether because of some technicality that they can pull out and win in court. Or by some abuse of power, someone very wealthy and influential defrauds you of something that’s owed you, money that’s owed you. And because of their influence and their position, you lose. And there it is. You’re stuck with it.

It’s a rotten world, and it is the world that we live in. And much of the Bible is given to address that situation of injustice. As you know, I’ve been looking at the Psalms a lot in recent months, planning ahead for preaching, I think, later this year. Many of the Psalms address that problem as well. That is the context here of James chapter five, verses one to 11. People are suffering, but specifically, it’s the suffering of injustice. And there are two sides to it. There are the ones who abuse and then the ones that are abused.

Just What Is James Condemning Here?

Verses one to six, we have those who abuse. Verses seven and following, we have those who are abused by them. Now we have a couple of questions for interpretation here as we work through the passage. Number one, just what is James condemning here in verses one to six? Is he condemning wealth? Is he saying that it’s wrong to be rich? Look at verse one: “Come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming on you.” Is it sinful to be rich? You have to answer that question. And then if it’s the rich that he’s accusing here and condemning, just what is it about them that makes this condemnatory? Who is specifically in view? Are these believers? These wealthy people? Are they unbelievers? Are they in the church? Out of the church? What kind of people exactly is James addressing here?

It’s not uncommon in the Bible at all to find God in opposition to the wealthy. Passages like some that we have in the prophets are favorites of liberation theologians. See there, it’s wrong to be rich and therefore we should subvert the structure of society as we have it and we should work for liberation. But it’s not that simple because of several reasons. One, we have in the scriptures themselves many godly people who were wealthy. Abraham is one, Job is another. Philemon is another. We have people who are obviously godly in the church and wealthy. And so it’s, I think, impossible to say that being wealthy itself is what James is condemning here.

In fact, wealth in the scriptures is viewed as a gift from God. Proverbs 10, verse 22: “The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it.” Wealth, riches, is to be viewed as a gift of God. You’ve worked hard for it, but as we saw in the last passage, chapter four, it is because it was that God willed it that you have become rich, and the God who is sovereign over all of it has so directed it, and that wealth is a gift of God, and he is to be thanked for it. We also find in scripture that wealth is the fruit of wisdom. It’s the fruit of industry and diligence, and that’s commended. For example, in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse four: “The hand of the diligent makes rich.” You work hard and you maintain a good work ethic, Proverbs teaches us in several places, you will get ahead. That’s generally the way things happen.

And so wealth in the scripture is a mark of God’s blessing, it’s a mark of wisdom, it’s a mark of diligence and industry and all of that. And yet, and yet, you have passages like this, where when the biblical writers address the rich, it is so often with a negative tone. That’s what we have here. And it’s not, as we’ve already seen then—I think we should clear that away—it is not that wealth itself is sinful, but evidently there are some dangers associated with wealth that come up for criticism and condemnation often in the scriptures.

For example, in Psalm 49, it speaks of those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches. You have that several places in the Psalms where the wealthy somehow take self-credit for it and boast themselves over others as though they were cut from a better cloth than others, and they pride themselves over others; that’s one temptation of the wealthy—that they have something, they’ve got an edge over others. That’s condemned in the scriptures.

Matthew chapter 13, Jesus remarks of the deceitfulness of riches. I’ve always thought that is such an insightful remark. The deceitfulness of riches. You remember in the parable of the sower, because of the deceitfulness of riches, the seed that is sown is snatched away by the evil one. You are so secure because you have wealth. You have security because of that bank account. And Jesus says that’s a deceitful thing. You think you’re secure because you have money, and when it comes to things that really matter, both in this life and the next, that money won’t count for anything. The deceitfulness of riches.

Matthew chapter 10, Jesus remarks in a famous passage, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.” There is something about wealth that makes us feel as though we are independent, as though we are self-secure, and that’s one of the dangers associated with wealth. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, the Apostle Paul gives this exhortation: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on the”—here it is—”on the uncertainty of riches.” Echoing what Jesus had to say about the deceitfulness of riches, Paul exhorts, “Don’t set your hope on the uncertainty of riches.” You think you’re secure because you have riches, and that can be taken in a moment.

Well, that’s the broader background. More to the point here, in verses one to six, what James has in his sights is those who abuse their privileged position of wealth to their advantage and to the disadvantage of others. This is a familiar theme in the Old Testament prophets, where we have very often the wealthy condemned because they’re using their influence to exploit the poor. And they become the more wealthy, and the poor become more poor. Amos chapter two is a helpful example of this. In chapter two of Amos’ prophecy, verses six and seven: “Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.” That expression, “they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,” pictures a scene of some complaint brought against another, and it’s brought to the city gates where judgment is administered. And you’ve got this poor man who’s got a case against the wealthy man. And the wealthy man—and here we are at the place where justice is supposed to be blind, and you call it by the numbers—but the wealthy man, because he’s got it, can do it. He gives a little money to the judge and those deciding the case. And for a pair of sandals, he sells out the needy. Exploiting the poor because of the advantage that you have being wealthy is condemned. That kind of thing is condemned often in the prophets. I’ve often wondered how that applies to the United States Congress. Policies are made by the buying of the most influential lobbyist without consideration of what is best for the people.

In verse four here, James says, “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.” So here he’s speaking just of what the prophets do, of these rich people defrauding their employees. They’re withholding wages from them. People depend on that; they live hand to mouth, they live paycheck to paycheck, they need this. And because they can, wealthy landowners are holding it back, gaining wealth while those disadvantaged continue to suffer more. Verse six: “You have condemned and murdered the righteous person who does not resist.” Maybe that’s hyperbole, maybe that’s metaphorical, but at any rate, it is speaking of the defenseless person who, because he’s not as wealthy, doesn’t have the advantage and can’t fight back effectively. He’s abused by the rich.

We have it in verse five: the rich abuse their power, they injure the innocent, while they themselves just thrive in their luxury and their self-indulgence, and they’re hoarding everything while they’re just indifferent to the suffering and the plight of those who are so poor, even those in their employ. That’s the wealthy that James has in his sights here.

Now the next question then is: who are these wealthy? Are they believers or not? Are they in the church or are they out there in the world? Who is James addressing here? And commentators wrestle with this back and forth, and you have varying opinions. Usually, the opinion is the interpretation that he’s speaking of people who are lost. And I think that’s right. Look at verse 3: “Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.” That sounds like judgment, sounds like condemnation. Verse 4: “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.” There’s that expression that’s familiar in the Old Testament: the Lord Sabaoth, Lord of Hosts, the Lord of the Armies, the Captain of the Armies. It’s a military atmosphere with that terminology. You’ve come against God and He’s going to come against you and you’re going to feel it. Verse 5: “You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” That is, you have taken your money and you’ve used it, and all you’ve done is make yourself more fat for the slaughter. You feed the animal and you feed him and you get him good and big and fat so you can slaughter him and have more food to eat, and that’s what you’ve done with your money.

So I think it’s pretty clear here that James is aiming at those who are lost. But I don’t think it’s clear that James here is aiming at those out there, outside the church. I don’t think that is clear. He’s speaking of people who will be condemned, but I don’t think we should read this and have a view of the church that’s overly idealistic. James is writing to the church to say this, and the church, as we’ve already seen from James’ letter, is quite capable of all kinds of sins and all kinds of abuse. We’ve already seen that at least some segment of the church are people who are of some means; chapter four, verses 13 and following, we saw that. It’s not at all certain here that James intends for this condemnation that he’s giving in verses one to six to be understood just as reference to people outside the church. It might be that James is intending this condemnation of the rich and the abusive world to be a warning to the wealthy in the church; we could say that. At any rate, we cannot just assume this is not speaking to people in the church. He writes it to people in the church and warns them about their abusive influence.

And so what we have here in verses 1 to 6 is really an echo of the prophets. And he sounds like an Old Testament prophet here with a message of doom and judgment. Verse 1: “Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming on you.” Verses 2 to 4, again, it’s like the prophets; they’re like a prosecuting attorney building their case against the rich and then coming with the condemnation of it. He says here in these verses 2 to 4: you’re living lavishly, you have a life of self-indulgence, you’re abusing less advantaged people to gain your own more advantage. Sounds just like the Old Testament prophets. Verse 3 is just graphic: “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you, will eat your flesh like fire.” This is obviously a metaphor. Gold and silver don’t corrode exactly. But he is speaking of the transitoriness of the wealth. It won’t last. In fact, if you thought your wealth would buy you security, he tells us here, you were very mistaken. It will be shown as evidence against you in judgment. That which you thought would buy you security will, in fact, buy you condemnation. Verse five, different metaphor, but the same point: “You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” One of those passages, I think, that gives us reason to believe there will be degrees of punishment in hell. You fattened yourself up for condemnation like what we see in other passages of sins adding up and being stored in the bank against the day of judgment. That’s the idea here.

Now we’ve already seen here that wealth itself is not sinful. But it is difficult in a passage like this not to see the ease with which wealth can be abused and how wealth can become a sinful thing in the hands of certain people. He tells us here: you’ve been self-indulgent. You’ve been neglecting greater concerns. You might remember the prophet Haggai speaking in these kinds of tones. Here we have the people of Israel back from the exile. They’re back in Jerusalem now. They’re free and building their houses and they’re prospering again. And there sits the house of the Lord still not rebuilt. And Haggai the prophet comes and just condemns them for it. You’ve been self-indulgent. You use your money for yourself and for your own pleasures and your own luxuries. And here the house of God still sits unattended. It’s not far from what Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter six. They’ve laid up treasures on earth instead of in heaven. What he’s aiming at here then is that kind of self-indulgence.

At some point, when we live in just complete self-indulgence, we have to wonder: is that profession of faith real? Jesus tells us plainly in Matthew chapter six: you cannot serve two masters. You can’t serve both money and Christ. And this is what James is after here. At some point, their self-indulgent, luxurious living speaks to who they are and who they are specifically in relation to Christ. Which master are they serving? Now if verses one to six then are condemning the lost, ultimately that’s what he’s getting at. It is also serving as a warning to professing Christians who have this wealth and perhaps in some ways may be abusing it.

I don’t know—it would be difficult, I think, to find a passage of scripture more relevant to our culture than this one. We have more prosperity than any generation in history. We have to have every toy. We have to have every amusement. We have to have every luxury, every convenience. And with every raise, we must have a better toy, a better car, a better amusement, and more of them. And with each raise, we spend more, and we spend more, and we spend more. We’ve got to have the finer things. We have to be able to keep up with so-and-so. And we have to ask at some point: when is enough enough? And when is it too much? In all of this prosperity that we have in our culture, we have to ask: is there a corresponding generosity to the needy, to the work of God? You’ve never heard a preacher from this pulpit, I think, ever try to impose the tithe on a congregation. I don’t think that’s imposed on the New Covenant Church. But I do wonder sometime if that can be used as an excuse, giving less than we should.

It seems to me that the standard of giving in the New Testament is much higher than that, for a culture like ours at least. It’s accepted according to what a man has, not according to what he doesn’t have. I think the standard of giving in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9—the standard of giving is just what you would not want to have in the tax system. That is a graduating scale. You make more money, you give more tax. You make more money, you pay more tax. I hate that in taxes. I think it’s unfair. Government doesn’t have a claim on anybody’s tax money in that way. God does. He says, “I’ve blessed you in a superior way. I expect more from you.” We can buy our next toys, and we can enjoy our next amusements, and we can spend on this, and we can spend on that, and “I don’t have enough money to give to the Lord’s work because it’s just too tight.” And then you feel badgered when the preacher says it. I think the sin that James condemns here is still with us. I think that every one of us has to take a hard look at that and say, “All right, the prosperity that we have in this culture—what does it demand of me with respect to giving to the needy, being generous to those who are disadvantaged, to giving to the Lord’s work, and so on?” So what James is condemning here, in principle at least, is very much with us in the church today.

Be Patient, Therefore, Brothers

But that’s just the first half of James’ sermon. Verses 7 to 11, he now speaks to the poor—the ones on the other side who haven’t been advantaged but have been disadvantaged by the wealthy and they find themselves abused. Verses 7 through 11: “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and latter rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You’ve heard of the steadfastness of Job. You have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

So here he addresses now the poor and the disadvantaged who have suffered injustice and don’t have recourse. And what is James’ counsel here in these verses, verses 7 to 11? It’s not “rise up and rebel and subvert the structures of society”—liberation theology. It’s not that. It’s just this: persevere, remain faithful, wait patiently for the coming of Christ. When he returns, whatever wrongs have been committed will be made right. That’s the long and short of verses 7 to 11. That is, this is not the last chapter of the story. Another day is coming. Verse 8: “Be patient.” Verse 7: “Be patient.” Verse 8: “Be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” And he gives us a couple of illustrations. Verses 7 and 8, the farmer who waits. He’s dependent on the rainy seasons that come. So he waits for the early and the late rains that come. Application, verse 9: “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.” Just wait. Wait. It’ll come.

Verse 10, we have the example of the prophets. “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” He doesn’t expand on this here, but we could pretty well guess who he has in mind. We have men like Jeremiah, who was hunted down by the men of his own hometown and he was imprisoned by a king. You can think of Isaiah, who according to tradition at least, was put in a log and sawn in two—a veiled reference to that in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith. Daniel was deported to a pagan land.

Verse 11, he speaks of Job, who’s stripped of everything. And he says here—I love the expression—”you’ve heard of the steadfastness of Job.” I think the old King James translated this “patience.” You’ve heard of the patience of Job. I like the ESV rendering much more: “the steadfastness of Job.” That’s the sense of the word here. You’ve heard of the grit of Job. He faltered along the way. He questioned God. He wasn’t without sin. He himself said he talked too much. But he didn’t just abandon God. There’s something gritty about him. He stood with it. He was steadfast through it all. James says he’s a model for all of us.

Verse 11, last half of the verse: “You have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” What’s the point? Well, the point here in verse 11 is you learn from Job that God has a purpose in it all, and you can trust him in it, and in the end, he’ll make wrong things right. He’s compassionate. He rewards his faithful people. He has every intention of righting things that have been wrong. Now, it’s tough for us to live like that. We want now. Throughout the Bible, there’s this call to faith: wait, be patient. In his time, he’ll make things right. God does not always reward faithfulness immediately. That’s frustrating to us. Now, the other side of that coin is he doesn’t always judge unfaithfulness immediately either. Aren’t you glad of that? But he doesn’t always reward faithfulness immediately. There’s often this gap between our faithfulness and God’s reward for it. It’s a good thing because if he rewarded our faithfulness immediately, we would treat him like a genie in a bottle and we wouldn’t learn to trust him at all.

But what he’s telling us here is that be patient, wait. One day, our Lord will return, and all of life’s injustices will finally be set right. So James says here that that hope—that the judge is standing at the door, that the coming of the Lord is at hand—that hope must keep us faithful when there’s injustice that has been committed against us, when people have taken advantage of us, when we’ve been oppressed. And oh, I just wonder how much more of that is coming with the direction our culture is going, how much the people of God will feel that injustice. When all of that comes, when there’s misunderstanding and you’re misjudged and you’re slandered, taken advantage of because you’ve been faithful—verse eight: “Be patient. The coming of the Lord is near.” We just might be that generation that witnesses the events leading to the end times. We just might be that generation that lives to see that inbreaking of glory when Christ returns. That day’s coming. James says you live in light of that. Don’t lose sight of the hope, and live every day with an eye to the return of Christ and the knowledge that whatever’s wrong will be righted then.

And so James gives two directions of exhortation. To the wealthy: don’t abuse that. Use it well. Use it wisely. Don’t abuse it. To those who have been taken advantage of in these things: be patient. Jesus will return as he has said, and things will be set right. Amen. Let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer.