James 5:1-7

THE END OF THE UNGODLY RICH

Text 5:1-6

James 5:1.

Come now ye rich and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.

2.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.

3.

Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.

4.

Behold the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

5.

Ye have lived delicately on earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6.

Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you.

Queries

371.

Where was the term come now last used? Why do you think it was repeated here?

372.

What is the difference between weep and howl?

373.

Is this weep any different from the weeping in James 4:9? If so, what?

374.

What are the miseries that have come upon the rich man? (see the close of Chapter 4).

375.

What does it mean for something to be corrupted? (If you do not know, look it up in a dictionary).

376.

What is the difference between the term corrupted of James 5:2 and rusted of James 5:3?

377.

Can gold and silver really rust? Then why is the term used?

378.

How could a rusty coin be a testimony against the rich?

379.

Could this idea of rusty coins be a testimony against Christians today? How?

380.

Evidently the rust from the coins will not really eat the flesh. but what does the expression mean? (Be careful, for remember the faithful Christian's body also rots in the grave!)

381.

What does the expression -as fire-' tell us about the flesh being eaten?

382.

How do the great material blessings of America make this a particular warning to the churches in America to-day?

383.

What are the treasures of James 5:3?

384.

The last days in verse three can have several possible meanings. See if you can think of about three applications.

385.

Why would James say behold when he already had the reader's attention?

386.

In what way did the rich man practice fraud with his laborers?

387.

What is the subject of crieth out in James 5:4?

388.

How could this possibly cry out? What does it mean?

389.

Sabaoth does not refer to the Sabbath. Look it up in a Bible Dictionary to determine the true meaning.

390.

How will this army react to the cries it hears in James 5:4 b?

391.

How can a rich man live delicately?

392.

Although you may not count yourself as being rich, would it be possible for you to live delicately today? (Don-'t look for the answer just by comparing yourself with some rich who you think have more delicate lives than you. but measure your own possibility of delicate living in terms of what the expression must mean.)

393.

Is he condemning delicate living even though the money for it was not obtained by fraud?

394.

You have taken your pleasure is evidently used in a bad sense. What kind of pleasure is here condemned?

395.

Is it right to have any kind of pleasure? What?

396.

In the days of slaughter, what is to be (or being) slaughtered, and who does the slaughtering?

397. Do you think a day of slaughter refers to the rich man's death, or the final judgment? Why?
398.

What class of people have the rich really condemned and killed?

399.

In what way could it also be said they have condemned and killed Jesus?

400.

He doth not resist you could mean he doesn-'t fight back. Doth not is present tense, suggesting it is still going on. How does this (or should this) fit the Christian's attitude toward his persecutors today?

Paraphrases

A. James 5:1.

Come, come, now, you class of rich people, weep because of the future wrath of God, and shriek in the misery of what's coming to you.

2.

Your wealth is rotten, and your expensive clothing is already moth-eaten.

3.

Your gold and silver coins are tarnished, and the rust of your money will be used as a testimony against you; and your well-fed bodies shall be eaten by this rust because you have treasured for yourselves the fire which shall be in the last days.

4.

Consider this now, how you have held back on the wages of your tenant farmers who worked so hard in your fields. The Lord of hosts has heard the cries for justice of them that harvested your fields.

5.

With these wages kept back you have lived luxurious and self-indulgent lives; you have fattened yourselves right down to the day of the slaughter of the Lord.

6.

You have continually condemned and killed the righteous class, and to this day your victims cannot stop you.

B.*James 5:1.

Look here, you rich men, now is the time to cry and groan with violent grief in view of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.

2.

For your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are becoming moth-eaten rags.

3.

The value of your gold and silver is dropping fast, yet it will stand as evidence against you, and eat your flesh like fire. That is what you have stored up for yourselves in that coming day of judgment.

4.

For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. Their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

5.

You have spent your years here on earth having fun, satisfying every whim, and now your fat hearts are ready for the slaughter.

6.

You have condemned and killed good men who had no power to defend themselves against you.

Summary

You rich people who have slaughtered the weak and innocent only fattened yourselves for the day of your own slaughter in God's judgment.

Comment

In these six verses James continues his discussion with the non-present and non-Christian rich. His opening remark, come now, is the same remark with which he started the discussion in James 4:13. He is still discussing the same type of rich he mentioned in chapter two, who oppress the Christians and drag them before the courts. Here James is not concerned with their ungodly actions, but with their ungodly destiny.

Since the rich are not present, James must be speaking for the benefit of the Christian who will read his letter. Filled with frustration over an unceasing fraud at the hands of rich people, the saint might begin to wonder wherein is the justice of God. James makes it clear that vengeance belongs to Jehovah, and that Jehovah will exact payment for the oppressive and fraudulent treatment of others, Christian or not. The church of Jesus Christ must have the right perspective concerning the rich. Much of the epistle of James seems to be written for this purpose.
There is another perspective the Christian should vision correctly, also. This concerns the terrifying danger of riches. Money brings with it the ability to make money. What we really mean when we say that money makes money, is that he who has money can so manipulate his fellow man, and the law, so that he can make more money.
The rich can find legal loopholes about which the poor cannot even dream. The rich have plenty of time to scheme how they shall take money away from others. The poor man is so busy trying to earn his bread he has little time for such scheming. Money buys more than material possessions; it buys temptations, it buys smugness and self-satisfaction; it buys fraud and unchristian action. It also buys a great company of evil men who strive continually to encroach upon those same riches.

The weeping the rich man does is not a weeping of Godly sorrow, but a weeping over the terrible denunciation and future destruction predicted. It is not a sorrow over sin, but a sorrow over the results of sin. If the rich could really see their destiny and realize the justice that will be brought upon them, their weeping would reach the proportions of howling, or shrieking in terror. The miseries that shall come upon them are of such proportions that the very thought of it would make them howl like a dog that has just lost his tail.
Some commentators feel that the suffering herein described refers to the destruction of Jerusalem; or of the suffering the rich shalt have in the disappointments of this life. The language is so vivid, however, that both the magnitude and the certainty of the suffering would seem to indicate the justice of the judgment day when the Lord shall come again.
The corruption of their riches, the decay of the garments, of gold, and even the flesh of the rich man seem to indicate either a literal decay that shall be brought about by time; or a decay in the realm of spiritual values. In the latter sense, the good the riches could have done was not done, that the reward that could have come from proper usage is corrupted. The garments were used to nurture a body of sin and shameful oppression of the poor. The gold and silver were used to condemn, oppress, and persecute those that had little or nothing; and so their rust (misuse, if this view is correct) shall be a testimony against the rich man on the judgment day. Non use (i.e., non use for the purpose it should have been used) has caused the rust which is inclined to be a testimony to (or against) the rich.
In verse three, it is possible that the treasure laid up is the fire. If this is the intended reading, then the rust shall eat your flesh because you have treasured up fire. Thus the fire could be the fire of Gehennathe torture of the lost. Whether the rust shall eat your flesh like (as) fire, or the rust shall eat your flesh because you have treasured up fire, the meaning is not materially changed. In a very striking and vivid description the Holy Spirit here informs the Christian that the rich persecutor's lot is not one to be envied, but rather one to be pitied.
It might seem that James here lays a charge directly against all rich people, but his context makes it quite clear that his charge is against the misuse of their riches. It is possible for a rich man to enter heaven, even though it will take special care and intervention of God Himself (see Matthew 19:23-26). It is also an established fact that the road to riches is so often a road of oppression of the poor and cheating and law circumvention. To become wealthy through covetousness or greed is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

Rusted riches may also be laid to the charge of many wealthy people who die and leave their wealth to the State in taxes, or to relatives who are not Christian or who have no possibility of using it to glorify the cause of Christ Jesus. Many blessings also bring with them a charge of much responsibility. Worry over the possible misuse of fortunes has caused many rich folk (even Christians) to neglect and overlook the right usage of their fortunes. They finally die with their wealth giving no glory to God but all glory to the contentious and greedy spirit of the devil. No wonder God sees fit to keep so many of his own precious saints in a state that most of the world calls poverty. These saints are the truly rich, for God in His infinite wisdom has kept their lives beyond these temptations that they might not resist.

The rust of these condemned rich people is spelled out in verses four to six in very clear terms. They took advantage of their hired servants. These workmen needed their wages for their daily bread, yet they were robbed to add to the fat and delicate lives of their rich masters. The injustice done to the tenant farmer, or the hired man, will one day be made just. The cries of the persecuted poor will one day be the testimony that will cause the shrieks of their tormentors. The Lord of the Sabaoth will see to this justice. (Sabaoth means armies or hosts).

The rich man who takes his pleasure now from the poor is simply fattening himself for the day of his own slaughter. He has fed himself on the wages of the poor, and prepared his heart like sheep prepared for the kill; and he is already in the chute heading for the great slaughter-house of the judgment day.

As a final tribute to the magnitude of the testimony against him, the Holy Spirit says you have condemned, you have killed the righteous one. The righteous one could be a reference to the death of Christ through the death of His saints (Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me Matthew 25:40). Or, it could be referring to the suffering, even to death, of the righteous man that has been persecuted by the rich. Since this has been the subject of James, the latter seems to be the preferred meaning.