James 5:1-6

I believe this section actually forms a piece with the previous section. And all of this scripture follows the section in chapter 4, vs. 4-10. In that section, James reminds his readers that "friendship with the world is enmity with God." When we seek to gain our joy, life, identity, success, etc. from the world we are at odds with God and what He desires to give us. In v. 7 of chapter 4 James says "Submit yourselves therefore to God..." and in v. 8 he assures his readers that when you "draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

As I have said before, the struggles that life brings us and that we bring on ourselves all become trials of faith. When we are struggling with something in our lives or something in the lives of those we love, the deepest issue is always about God: "Is God here? Does He care? Is He able to work even at this painful time in my life?" I think that the main reason it becomes difficult to trust God is that we have deep expectations about how God should handle our broken lives and we want to tell Him that we will trust Him in exchange for Him taking care of things the way we want Him to. These expectations make it very hard to trust God--they get in the way of our turning our lives over to Him for Him to work as He sees fit. I think I am often willing to endure unpleasant situations with the hope that they will be over very soon, in a week or a month. I almost hold my breath, waiting for life to return to "normal." I am not then living through the trial by faith, by counting on God to give me His life, love, and comfort in the midst of the time. I am simply trying to will my way through it.

So James tells his readers to humble themselves before God and to draw near to Him. This means learning to turn the whole thing over to God, including how we want it resolved. It doesn't mean that we don't still have hopes about the eventual outcome, but that our highest hope and confidence is in our heavenly Father working His good purposes here and that He is not thrawted in His ability to work His wonderful will in these adverse circumstances. We draw near to God in order to know the peace and joy of His drawing near to us--here and now.

James then turns to three things that were getting in his readers' way of trusting fully in God's character and work. The first is the temptation to put down or judge our brothers and sisters. This comes mainly out of jealousy and fear that they are getting a better deal from God than we are, they seem to be having the kind of life we think should be ours.

The second temptation is to make our own plans, without having God lead. I think we do this either because we think God may not be paying close enough attention, so we need to take care of things ourselves, or because we fear what would happen if we really went with God's will--maybe it wouldn't be what we want to happen right now.

The third temptation, which we take up today, is to put our trust in our wealth. Money seems like a security, a firm foundation, in this very uncertain world we live in. Wealth, we think, can provide us with options, with protection, with a secure future. We become tempted to hoard it and to be unwilling to share generously, especially with those who helped us acquire this wealth. Now there are two ways to go through this passage, two perspectives that are important to notice. James is speaking directly to the wealthy, but obviously not assuming everyone in his readership is in this place. There are those who are cheated by the wealthy as well--the laborers whose wages are held back.

James begins this section with the same words that he used to introduce the previous section: "Come now." First it was "you who say..." and now it is "you rich", thus connecting the two sections together. In the previous section, James exposes the folly of thinking that we can make plans for the next year of our lives when we don't know about tomorrow and are nothing more than "a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." Here James exposes the folly of building your fortress of security out of your wealth. Notice the graphic word pictures James draws for us! He begins by encouraging these wealthy ones in the congregation who are trusting in their wealth to repent, to turn from counting on their money to give them life, to get them out of their struggles, to give them security. He wants them to "weep and howl" because there are miseries coming on them. These miseries are the consequences of foolishly placing their confidence in their wealth--of hoarding it out of fear. Are these things eternal? Will they last? Are they worthy of this confidence? Can they truly make one secure and well? James is very adamant with his "no" to all these questions. All these things that you stack up and keep as your security will rot and rust away and the rust will be evidence against you. Evidence of what? Evidence of where you were placing your trust and life. Evidence of what you have come to worship.

We can know a lot about God and believe or assent to truths about Him, but it becomes more obvious where our true faith lies when we look at how we are living, especially what we are anxious about. What treasure are we really laying up for the last days?(v.3)

James goes on to talk about these rich people's dealing with those who work for them. They are reluctant to share the wealth with those that directly helped them acquire it; they desire to keep as much of it for themselves as they possibly can. Again, James says there is a consequence. What has been done will not remain hidden forever. The injustice done to fellow human beings will be exposed. For those who are the guilty wealthy this is meant to bring about repentance and renewed trust in God. For those who are cheated by others, who are exploited by those attempting to acquire and hoard wealth, this is a note of hope. He is their advocate. God is not absent. He sees and knows the injustices of this world and is committed to setting things right. They (and we) may have to wait a long time to see the justice of God worked out, but we can know that it will happen. Out of faith we can participate in this process here and now, but the final and complete work belongs to our heavenly Father. Only He sees and knows everything and only He can bring about deep and true healing, restoration, and reconciliation.

In verse 5, James describes these wealthy people as ones who "have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure..." These are people who have made it their top aim to avoid all suffering if possible, to have themselves pampered and indulged. They are the center of their own world, and their pleasure is their only aim. They have attempted to belong to this earth, to establish their home, their life, and their identity here, as if this was their true home. They are ignoring all the signs that indicate we were made for a home somewhere else. But again, James warns them strongly of the consequence of living this way. Indulging oneself, blessing only yourself, leads not to life, but to death. The protective, selfish, grasping self cannot survive, cannot receive the greater, richer life it was created for. It will go the way of all sin--it will be destroyed so that nothing is left to get in the way of the full, complete, living life Jesus came to give us.

Lastly, James accuses these people of condemning, killing the "righteous man" and this one "does not resist you." What is he talking about? Well, it seems to parallel his comments earlier in v. 4 about the laborers who were exploited. Here also, there is someone who is taken advantage of, indeed who is disposed of for the advantage or convenience of the wealthy. This person is described as "righteous." It could be that the rich were tempted to view themselves as the blessed of God because of their wealth and so they were the “righteous ones.” If so, then James is setting the record straight. The one or ones they have condemned were not deserving of this condemnation, they were righteous. Further, no resistance was put up to this injustice done against him or them.

You can't look at this description of the righteous man, who does not resist and not think of Christ. He is ultimately The Righteous Man, the only truly righteous One--living in right relationship with His heavenly Father. And He was condemned and killed, by us!, and did not resist in order to give us life. I wonder then, if James is saying, that this kind of living for oneself, this building and hoarding of wealth, the refusal to be a channel of blessing but rather only to bless yourself is what killed the righteous One, Jesus. Certainly this terrible self-centeredness is what He came to destroy and rescue us from.

Living here on this earth is hard and often very painful, there is no doubt about it. Often when we struggle, we long for the difficult circumstances to be over. We are almost "holding our breaths" until we can "enjoy" life again. God does not seem to be present and active because the struggle doesn't resolve the way we want or just goes on with no clear end in sight. And at these times we wrestle with the desire to cling to something other than God--something which seems to guarantee security or the alleviation of our sufferings more quickly or at least to simply feel superior to others.

James understands this struggle and wants to help his readers to continue to hand their whole lives over to the "Father of lights"(1:17) James deals with these three temptations we face when in the midst of trials, which is really to say in the midst of living in this broken world. But even in discussing these temptations, James always brings them back to their heavenly Father, reminding them of who He is. In 4:11 and 12, James reminds them they can turn from judging and speaking evil against one another because God is the One who is our judge, the only One who truly knows us and knows our brothers and sisters. We cannot see all that He can see. How silly of us then to speak a word of judgment on another.

In 4:13-17 the reason we can turn from trusting in our own plans is because God knows the future--He is the One who holds it. Next to His solid reality, we are "mists." Finally in today's section, God is the one who is listening to the cries of those treated unjustly. He is never unaware and He is concerned about setting things right. That isn't just what He sometimes does, that is Who He is!

As I have said before, what we need to remember in the midst of longsuffering is that our true heavenly Father knows us, sees us, and is at work to bring about our best. Whatever He is allowing in our lives, He allows it only to redeem it and to redeem us through this time. He holds us and others, our futures and our wealth, in His hands. They are ultimately not in ours. So we can turn again to Him, ready to experience His peace and joy in whatever circumstances we find ourselves dealing with now.

It is right to long for suffering to end because someday it will end once and for all--it will not be a part of the full, rich life we are being prepared to enjoy in and with Him. So our longings, now are not really just to have our momentary struggles ended. Our longings are really for the deep love and belonging we were created for by God. Those longings will not and cannot be fully met here. That is the lesson we continually have to learn. Yet even in our current struggles we can find joy and even count on joy because we anticipate God's leading us through them to that final fullness of life, where we are "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Hold on to my own small momentary expectations in the face of that greater final joy? Thank God that He is helping us to grow all the time in our ability to count on Him and the future He has promised we will have with Him.