5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 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. 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. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

James is a straight shooter. Nothing in his letter smells of hidden agendas or unclear expectations. From the front to the back of his epistle, his frank and direct manner litters the page. He has not held back from his readers, people he calls brothers because they are like family to him. Not "like family," actual family, as the blood of Christ had transferred them and him into the family of God. They now shared a Father in heaven while God's Spirit dwelt within them. His letter is a family appeal, and his straightforward nature with his family has made his letter one of the most beloved in the New Testament canon.

In our passage today, James continued his direct communication by addressing a group he felt had earned some of his strongest ire. To call it strong language is putting it too weakly—his words radiate, dare I say, God's wrath. He invites this group, whoever they were, to weep and howl for the miseries that would certainly come upon them (5:1). He said the corrosion of their gold and silver would eat their flesh like fire (5:3). He explained that their injustices towards their laborers had reached the ears of the Lord of angelic armies (5:4, hosts). Their lifestyles, to James, were akin to fattening livestock for the day of slaughter (5:5). At this point, nearing the end of his letter, we begin to feel James is like a well-conditioned fighter who has saved his strongest flurry of punches for the latter rounds. This verbal barrage has got our attention.

Instead of pivoting away, turning our face from this combative word, we ought to turn towards it. I have titled this message "The Mature Navigate Finances with God," which might be too light. This particular teaching from James feels much heavier than a title like that one, but if we can muster the courage to look this text in the eye, we will indeed become wise for handling the mammon God entrusts into our care. We will become mature in an area of life many lack it, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (1 Tim. 6:10).

Who Did James Address Here?

But who did James address with these brutal and honest words? The majority view is that James had in mind those bringing economic hostility against the church in that region. The crimes committed by the wealthy he addressed are so egregious and ungodly that it is hard for many to imagine God's people treating others, let alone others in the church, with such heightened severity. Not only that, but the judgment James promised this group is so severe it must certainly not be directed towards people covered by Christ's blood. So, according to this view, James took up a diatribe against an unbelieving portion of society he saw hindering the Lord's church and swimming in economic injustice. Like one of Israel's ancient prophets, James cried out against the world system pressing against God's people.

Some, myself included, are not so sure. While I admit it is hard to imagine a believer behaving as James described, it isn't that hard. It takes no big degree of difficulty to imagine a pocket of this ancient church so segmenting part of their lives off from their Father in heaven, the Lordship of Christ, or the conviction of the Spirit. We can't honestly look terrors like the trans-Atlantic slave trade square in the eye and conclude believers are incapable of the sins James rebukes here. Yes, the prophets did occasionally launch their rebukes toward the surrounding nations, but they usually aimed them at the hearts of Yahweh's people. Judgment begins at the house of God, and it seems odd, at least to this preacher, that James would drop a word of rebuke to the world in his letter to the church. I wonder if he has taken up a Micah-like perspective by seeing the crimes of God's people and telling them to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Everything about this letter has been for an in-house audience—family business!—and I wonder if this passage is no different.

What is the Big Sin James Saw?

Whether James rebuked the world (misbehaving nonbelievers), a worldly church (misbehaving real believers), or a churchy world (misbehaving false believers), or all of them at the same time, there is something to learn from this passage. But to learn from it, we must mine it for the crime. What was the big sin James saw?

A superficial reading of the text might conclude that the evil was the presence of riches or wealth in the first place. But the Scriptures do not condemn money, instead seeing it as, quite often, a powerful instrument useful to loving God or neighbor. Just as Joseph, in Genesis, used the accumulated wealth of Egypt to aid thousands and further God's mission on earth, so wealth can be used to help and further the Lord's work. Far from evil or even neutral, it is something, whether we have a lot or a little, we can leverage for good. When Paul told Timothy how to instruct the wealthy people in the church at Ephesus, he said, "Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others" (1 Tim. 6:17-18, NLT). Notice what is lacking in Paul's exhortation. He doesn't rebuke the presence of wealth. He doesn't tell Timothy to tell the wealthy to correct this issue.

The Scriptures present us with pro-saving, pro-spending, pro-planning, and pro-generosity concepts (Prov. 6:6-8, Ecc. 3:13, Prov. 21:25, 2 Cor. 9:6-7). As believers living on this side of the cross, we certainly live on the side of extreme generosity as a pattern for life. Just as Jesus, who was rich, became poor for us, we are blessed when we financially extend ourselves to others or Christ's mission (2 Cor. 8:9). But even Jesus had wealthy followers, such as Joanna, the wife of Herod's household manager and Joseph of Arimathea. And many in the early church were also people of great means, such as Barnabas or Lydia.

So, if the mere presence of wealth isn't the crime that grieved James' apostolic heart, what was it? It was what some were doing with their wealth. First, this group went well beyond practical saving and planning for the future and into hoarding resources. They'd held onto their riches for so long that they had rotted, perhaps in God's sight, and their trove of garments wasn't clothing anyone but only feeding moths (5:2). Second, this group had gone well beyond a comfortable life and into realms of luxury not fitting for God's people. James had no use for metaphor when he said, "You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence" (5:5). They had utterly failed the test their prosperity had given them. Rather than learn to be content as they abounded, they lavished themselves with all the luxuries their hearts desired. Finally, this group was guilty of murder through the way they had fraudulently treated laborers. Those righteous workers didn't experience life as a result of these wealthy rebels but instead endured hardship and agony—death.

I don't think we can escape James' rebuke today. Hoarding, luxury, and the unfair treatment of others, which, to God, is akin to murder, is still on display today. There are still Ahabs who steal Naboth's vineyard. There are still rich men who ignore poor Lazarus. There are still Sadducees who cling to their economic power by saying what the wealthy want them to say. There are still those who hate the idea of gathering little by little, as the Proverbs put it, but instead crave quick accumulation—"wealth gained hastily" (Prov. 13:11). Each of us should allow the searching light of God's Spirit to expose attitudes and practices out of line with the gospel, and this includes our attitudes regarding money. The temptation, if not the tendency, towards hoarding, luxury, and the unfair treatment of others pulsates within us, and we must habitually turn to Christ to cut off the flesh and put it, once again, to death.

For the Rich

To that end, it seems prudent to spend the remainder of our time on this passage considering three exhortations for the rich and three more exhortations for the "laborers" of this passage. What did James want the rich to do? How did they need to respond?

First, they needed to mourn their condition. Wealth and luxury can create a fog that blurs reality for those within its haze. The wealthy believer, especially, must grasp for a firm grip on reality, acknowledging the spiritual dangers wealth presents. The president of Bread for the World, an organization dedicated to ending world hunger, once said, "An affluent culture turns our hearts towards fleeting satisfactions and away from God. Unprecedented prosperity has left our lives full but not necessarily fulfilled. The problem is not that we’ve tried faith and found it wanting, but that we’ve tried mammon and found it addictive, and as a result find following Christ inconvenient."[^1]

The danger of having everything so luxuriously convenient and supplied is that the inconvenient life of taking up our cross, following Christ, and dying daily becomes even more foreign. Jesus said it was impossible for the wealthy to enter the kingdom—possible with God, because all things are, but his words acknowledge the challenge of feeling spiritually needy when material needs are abundant (Matt. 19:16-30). I recently came across a church website inviting people to "create a life full of meaning and connection" while, in the very next line, promoting their online ministry by saying, "You don't have to rearrange your life to hear a message that gives you hope and encouragement." But what if a life of meaning and connection, and the messages that support it, only happens when we rearrange our lives?

If we are living in material abundance—and most of the world would tell my world that we are—we must embrace sobriety about that wealth and spiritually grieve the moments we have overspent, oversaved, or looked over those with less.

Second, they needed to live backward. James' words should have immediately alerted them to the importance of living in light of eternity, reengineering their lives today by what they would become tomorrow. James warned them of the miseries coming upon them one day (5:1). He rebuked them for accumulating treasure that only corrodes—rotted riches and moth-eaten clothing— because of its temporary nature. Instead, they ought to have stored up for themselves, as Jesus said, treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21). Those temporary treasures would one day be evidence against them—they should have stored up better evidence for the law court of life (5:3). James, writing two thousand years ago, told them they had stored up treasure in the last days—the implication is that they should have used that treasure for something good (5:3). James returned to metaphor when he said they were fattening themselves up like a cow being fattened up for slaughter time (5:5). God had heard the agonies and cries of those they'd oppressed; God was bound to execute his vengeance and deal with the evil these people had committed (5:4, 6).

These folks should have put a picture of Moses up on their refrigerator or bathroom mirror—#goals. Moses had all the hoarded wealth and opulent luxury of Egypt at his fingertips, not to mention a nation of slaves at his disposal. But something stirred in the man and, as Hebrews says, he refused to be known as Pharaoh's grandson, and chose to be mistreated with God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:24-25). Unless he put Yahweh into the equation, nothing about Moses' reality would have preached the wisdom of abandoning it all in favor of suffering with his Hebrew family. But since Yahweh was involved—and he is involved—Moses saw the wisdom of living for the better reward.

This is all-important for us as we make our decisions about life. The very first psalm is like a gate to the rest of the songbook. In it, we learn that the blessed man is the one who delights in meditating on keeping God's law. He, the psalm says, will prosper like a tree living by a constant stream, while the unrighteous will perish. This Psalm 1 mentality follows you through the Psalms, and it especially reappears in places like Psalm 73, where the worshipper wonders aloud at the prosperity of the wicked. If Psalm 1 is true, the righteous life is blessed by God, and the unrighteous life isn't, then why do wicked people so often flourish? Not every wicked person ends up imprisoned or impoverished as a result of their evil. Some of them end up running the largest companies and countries in the world. The psalmists acknowledged this tension while pointing us to the end—God sees the evil and will one day settle all accounts, so we ought to live with that end in mind.

Third, they needed to become ethical and compassionate. They had robbed their laborers of their fair and deserved wages (5:4). They needed to imitate the tax collector Zacchaeus, who, when accepted by Christ, decided to not only repay all he had disadvantaged but relay all the extravagance he had received from Jesus to those he'd hurt (Luke 19:1-10). They needed to meditate on the prophecies of Micah of Moresheth and correct the ways they had decimated the lives of others through their ruthlessness.

We would be unfaithful to James if we did not pause to consider how believers ought to be the best employers on earth. We are far from perfect, but as the Spirit of Christ shapes us daily to become more like Christ, his nature will influence the way we treat others, including those we employ. You might fear this will make you a target for those willing to take advantage of your generosity and grace, but Jesus unearthed a loyalty in people that took them to the ends of the earth for his name. Jesus did have a Judas, but who doesn't? Perhaps employers who behave more like Christ will produce an atmosphere of zeal while attracting the best people for the tasks at hand.

For the "Laborers"

It seems wise to conclude our meditation of this passage with some encouragements aimed at the laborers James saw (5:4). That might not be the handle you put on yourself. James lived and wrote in a much more agrarian context—farmers gon' farm—but if he had written in our time to our situation, he would have considered laborers, staff, and employees.

One encouragement James would give us is that God sees you. Throughout his rebuke, it is clear to James that God was a witness, lawyer, and judge to the atrocities these wealthy were committing. Their crimes would eventually reach his docket—a day of slaughter, or judgment, was coming. As the psalmist says, "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry" (Ps. 34:15).

That God sees you, especially if you are taken advantage of or oppressed in some way, is not only a truth about God but is at the very essence of his nature. In Genesis, he is given the name the Lord Sees. He was given this name after Abraham sinned by taking advantage of a young woman named Hagar and sending her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. She had been mistreated, but there, weeping in the desert, God provided for her, and she declared, "You are the God who sees me" (Gen. 16:7-13). Her story should serve as inspiration for any among us who feel they have been pushed aside or pushed down in life. God sees you.

Another encouragement James would offer is to hang on. Even though the laborers in his mind's eye were powerless to resist their tormenters, James would want them to endure. We will see as much in our next portion of James, but we also find this concept throughout the rest of the Bible. Stay faithful, and hang on. Paul once said that he considered the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glories that are coming in Christ (Rom. 8:18). He also felt that his momentary light affliction was working for him an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). For this reason, he exhorted beleaguered believers that they "not grow weary in doing good" (Gal. 6:9). Hang on.

And a final encouragement James would deliver is the promise that judgment is coming. Every religion and non-religion in the world has tried to solve the problem of evil. What is evil? Why does it exist? Where does it come from? These are notably difficult questions, but believers know where it is going! One day, every tear will be wiped away, and the justice billions have cried out for will unfold. On that day, the question of those who have been slain for the word of God and their witness for him will be answered. They ask, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:10). How long must we wait? On that final day of judgment, the oppressed will ask no longer.

Conclusion

How does this passage, with all its exhortations and encouragements, strike you? What does it adjust? What mental grid does it challenge? If it had the full course to fulfill its purpose for you, what changes might it initiate? Don't run from its gaze. Let it, through the power of the Spirit, search your heart, mind, and practices. It can be an intimidating text, but we must stand firm and let it perform its surgery. It can be a confusing text; sometimes, we feel we are in both or neither of the camps it addresses, but we must let it orient us onto a more grounded perspective about money. It can be a dismissed text—surely it has nothing to do with us!—but we must let its good medicine dissolve into our system and deliver the health we need.

Here are some potential closing applications:

Reassess your spending and giving.
Look out for hurting people.
Be on guard against hoarding and luxury.
Pray for your daily bread.
Remember Jesus.

Study Questions:

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding):

According to James 5:1-6, what specific sins did James accuse the wealthy of committing?
What biblical perspective does James provide on the use of wealth and luxury, as contrasted with a godly lifestyle?
How does James' rebuke against economic injustice compare to the teachings of Jesus and other biblical writers on the subject of wealth?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires):

How do you feel when considering James' description of wealth being corroded and misused? Does this create any tension in your own view of wealth?
When you reflect on the lives of laborers mistreated by the wealthy, how does this affect your empathy towards others in economic hardship?
What desires for change or deeper faithfulness emerge in your heart as you consider how James calls us to navigate finances with God?

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs):

In light of this passage, what practical steps can you take to reassess your own spending, saving, and giving habits?
How can you actively pursue greater compassion and fairness in your interactions with others, particularly in areas of economic inequality?
What specific actions will you commit to in order to live with eternity in mind, using your resources for God's purposes rather than self-indulgence?

[^1]: Church, “James,” 390–91