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PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY

Scathing Attack on the Unjust Rich

James 5:1-11

INTRODUCTION

In these 11 verses James climaxes his attack on the unjust rich. In chapter 1 James writes: "Let the rich man glory in his humiliation because like flowering grass they will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls off and its beauty is destroyed. So too, the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away" (1:10-11).

The heat is turned up in chapter 2: "Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you've been called?" (2:6-7). Later in chapter 2 James claims that the faith of the rich man is worthless if he does not help the poor: "14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man claims he has faith but has no works? Can such faith save them? 15 If a brother or a sister is without clothing and in need of daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; be warmed and be filled ,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith without works is dead." (2:14-17).

Before we flippantly dismiss James, we need to understand that he was not the first to begin to attack the unjust rich. Attacking the unjust rich was a major theme in the Minor Prophets, Amos being the most famous. Referring to helping the poor (the right thing to do), Amos declares: "Let justice roll down like streams" (5:24). The whole goal of Paul's third missionary journey was to collect funds to help the poor Christians in Judea. The early church focused on helping the poor (end of Acts 4 and beginning of Acts 5). Probably the greatest Christian since the days of the apostles was St. Francis of Assisi. His main concern? Helping the poor. Whatever else constitutes true Catholicism, according to G.K. Chesterton, helping the poor is one of the major tent poles of Catholicism. (He claimed that St. Thomas Aquinas was a true Catholic because he cared for the poor.)

Why were Christians almost obsessed with helping the poor? Helping the poor, especially the poor CHRISTian, was huge in the teachings of Jesus. In Luke, Jesus doesn't say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit"; He declares, "Blessed are the poor." As the Messiah, one of His main objectives is stated in his first sermon: "“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18).

As radical as this is, the icing on the cake is found in Jesus' last sermon on the parable of the sheep and the goats, a parable C.S. Lewis declares is frightening. The sheep go to heaven and the goats go to hell. What determines whether one is a sheep or goat? Their treatment of the CHRISTian poor. "Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me" (Matt. 25:34-40). The reason the sheep go to heaven is that they helped the CHRISTian poor.

Now, what about the goats? Why do they go to hell? "“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not [e]take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:41-46). In other words, the goats went to hell because they did not help the CHRISTian poor.

Now as you approach this passage in James, you need to understand that it is not morally bad to be rich. In fact, many Christians in the NT were rich; however, they used their wealth to help further the cause of Christ and to help the poor. Most notable of these were Lydia, who financially supported Paul and his companions on Paul's second missionary journey, and Barnabas, who sold some of his properties to help the CHRISTian poor in Jerusalem. The issue is never wealth. The issue is the proper or improper use of wealth.

One final thing before looking at this passage. The economic situation James is attacking is not completely equivalent to the modern American economic system. I have students from Africa who are so critical of the "poor" in America because of their refusal to take advantage of the educational and economic opportunities which a free market society like the US provides. Their countries and their economic situations are much more akin to what James is addressing. In their countries, the Gambia for example, the wealth is totally within the control of the powerful but few elite. There is no room at all for advancement. You were born in poverty, and you will die in poverty. A person may be born and die in poverty in the US, but for the most part the main reason they do so is that they have not taken advantage of the economic freedom this country provides. This passage has something to say to ALL of us, but let's not overshoot the mark in the interpretation.

INTERPRETATION: 5:1-6

"Come now you, rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you!" There is no call for repentance here. Calling the unjust rich to repentance is not the purpose of this passage, though hopefully some unjust rich businessmen will take this seriously and repent! James is following the time-worn principle of giving comfort to the oppressed by promising wrath to the oppressors.

The image in this verse is that of the unjust rich business man who is suffering excruciating pains in eternity. The Greek word translated "howl" is like the English word "howl" in that it is an onomatopoetic word, that is, it sounds just like the noise it is describing. Just like "murmur" itself sounds like people murmuring, so the word "howl" sounds a lot like the noise people make when the do howl. The same is operating in the Greek. These are not experiencing a peaceful eternity of rest; they are in throes of hell.

Why are they going to experience such an eternity? The main reason is that they have misused their wealth. In fact, instead of USING their wealth in a healthy manner, they have HOARDED IT UP. [In the following quote James lists the major indicators of wealth in the ancient world: food, garments, and gold. Few of us think of clothes as an indicator of wealth, but that was not the case in James' day. For example, according to Josephus, Herod Agrippa 1 wore a robe that was so luxurious because it was laced with silver; the robe must have weighed a ton. When he stood up in the open air to address the people of Caesarea, the rays of the sun reflected off the strands of silver creating a dazzling sight. (See Josephus, Antiquities 19.8.2 343-361)].

"Your riches [food] have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.
Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.
It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure" (5:2-3).

Riches here are treated as fruit (the word "riches" here actually may mean "food"). Why does fruit rot? Because it has not been eaten in a timely fashion. Why do garments become moth-eaten? Because instead of being worn, they are stored up. Why are they stored up? Because the person has so many clothes, he doesn't have to wear them consistently. Although gold doesn't rust, in this case it does because it is being hoarded up instead of being used.

The picture though is not only of gold rusting. This is the picture of the unjust rich businessman who has hoarded wealth, who for all practical purposes loved his gold so much, he metaphorically hugged that gold. James says that on the last day you do get to take your gold with you; you hugged it on earth and you will hug it on judgment day. On judgment day though the rust on that gold will turn against you in 2 ways. First, when you are on trial for your life, the gold which you loved so much on earth will turn against you and witness against you. The wealth will actually condemn you; it will claim you used it in a wicked way. Second, the rust on the gold will spread from the gold onto your body and consume your flesh like fire. Although this is symbolic, it nevertheless paints a horrific picture for the person who refuses to use his wealth appropriately while on earth.

How should a businessman use wealth in a healthy manner so that it doesn't rot, get eaten by moths, or rust? By treating your employees appropriately, by paying them in a timely fashion and also by paying them appropriately. That was exactly what was not going on in James' day, and sometimes even in our own day.

"Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you.
The outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth" (5:4).

I know that it is easy for businessmen or businesswomen to come up with a lot of excuses to justify not paying their employees what the Lord would have him pay them. "We're paying what the market dictates" is a common excuse. It doesn't matter what wages the market sets. They are your employees, not the market's. God, and not the market, is going to hold the business man responsible for the way he has paid his laborers. Look at the title of the God who is going to judge businessmen: the Lord of Sabaoth. This title refers to God as being the commander of a mighty angelic army. That is not the person you want to judge you, especially if He is unhappy with the way you treated your employees.

The picture gets even worse. The rich businessman here hoarded up wealth on earth. He did it so that he could live luxuriously upon the earth. In the ancient world being fat was considered chic because it showed everybody you were wealthy. James compares that fat person (physically and metaphorically) to the fattened calf. That calf thinks that he is living high on the hog. He is treated with great deference. Little does he know that the one fattening him is looking at him like he was a piece of steak to be thrown on the grill and served with sautéed mushrooms. That is the perspective the rich person should have of his financial fatness. He is being fattened for the slaughter.

As if all of this was not enough, James concludes with the condemnation: "You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you." Many wealthy persons seriously value their wealth and yet befriend the poor as well. The question comes though: "What happens when the wealthy man has to choose between his wealth and the poor, righteous person?" There's the rub. As long as you don't threaten a person's wealth, he won't have a problem with you. Christianity though does threaten wealth. Christ threatened the economic/financial and political powers of His day. The result was that they killed Him. On the basis of such an event, James claims that the rich will kill the righteous. Little did James know how prophetic he was being. Within a few years (62 AD) those same forces will murder him. (James is re-highlighting his earlier statement about the rich's treatment of the poor: "Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?" (James 2:6).

INTERPRETATION: 5:7-11

In the first six verses of this chapter, James has launched one of the most scathing attacks against the unjust rich in the entire Bible. His purpose was not to bring the rich to repentance (although he would have rejoiced if they had done so). So little of this letter is meant for the rich because so few Christians in the early church actually were rich. James intends to address his audience which just happens to be poor. Following good Old Testament precedent, James encourages the poor in verses 1-6 by promising them that their oppressors, the unjust rich, will get theirs one day, especially on the day of judgment.

The first six verses in this chapter negatively address the situation the poor are facing in James' day. They didn't have to do anything as a result of what James wrote in these verses. In the passage before us James is addressing the situation positively, that is, he is showing his audience how they should respond to their oppressive situation. The proper response to this oppressive situation? Be patient and anticipate!

BE PATIENT/ANTICIPATE (5:7, 8)

Through the 5 verses of 5:7-11 James mentions the words "patient" and "anticipate" or synonyms no less than 6 times. The 2 main commands to be patient and anticipate are verses 7 and 8:

Be PATIENT, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. . . .
You too be PATIENT; strengthen your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

The first word in the Greek translated "be patient" actually means "to be bear under." It has the idea of a person carrying a heavy load and not shirking that responsibility, that load. No matter how heavy the load is, that person does not drop the load.

How do we drop the load? Sometimes young dads OR moms can decide to work overtime so that they don't have to face the responsibility of bearing the load of their families by spending time with them. especially their children. Sometimes people who are middle-aged can put their parents in a nursing home, refusing to visit their parents on an occasional basis because it just overwhelms them. Some people quit their jobs because of an overbearing boss, even though they have a family to support. The different ways to shirk the load, to drop that heavy load, are numerous. James exhorts us NOT to drop the load God has allowed to fall upon us. We are to remain under that load.

The second work in the Greek translated "waits" means "to anticipate." We are not looking to drop the load God has allowed to fall upon us because we are anticipating that God is about to do something wonderful with respects to that load. God has us bear our loads for a specific purpose. God will fulfill His purpose in our lives if we don't drop the load He has placed upon us.

HOW NOT TO LET THE LOAD AFFECT YOU (5:9)

At first verse 9 looks out of place in this passage. What does complaining against somebody else have to do with carrying a load? A lot! Unfortunately when we are wronged, many times we will sit around and complain against the person who wronged us. We badmouth them to other people who have been wronged by them. We claim that we are just venting and that venting is good for the soul. Yet C.S. Lewis rightly claims that each time we speak negatively against a person, we are developing a hateful spirit towards that person. We are the ones who end up suffering.

If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his "gratitude," you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less (Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 9: Charity). Earlier in MC, Lewis wrote:

The real test is this. Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, "Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that," or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything—God and our friends and ourselves included—as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred (MC, Book 3, Chapter 7: Forgiveness). Or,as one of Lewis' many disciples wrote,

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you (Friedrich Buechner). These 2 examples illustrate the reason that works "save" us or "damn" us. Our works proceeding from faith or lack of faith develop us into beings: either gods/goddesses appropriate for heaven or devils appropriate for hell. There is no third choice.

The judgment upon those who complain will not be a long time in coming. James continues: "For the judge is standing right at the door." In other words, God is about to walk through that door any moment and hold you and me accountable for the way we have mistreated others whenever we are going through a lot of stress. Yes, illtreatment may explain the reason we complain against others; however, it never justifies our complaining against those who mistreat and misuse us.

POSITIVE EXAMPLES OF PATIENCE (5:7, 10-11)

Introduction

Is the goal of being patient and watching realistic? "Surely since we are human, James can't seriously mean that we should be patient, can he?" "We are who we are, and if we have to explode during times of stress, so be it. Right?" The truth is that James' teaching here is realistic; the goal of being patient during stressful times is attainable. The farmer, prophets and Job are compelling examples of men who actually did undergo times of great stress, stress far greater than the stress we experience; and yet they exhibited tremendous patience.

The Farmer (5:7)

James, like his step Brother Jesus, points to nature as revealing to us the way God operates and the way we should operate. (The God who created us is also the God who created nature; we should not be surprised then whenever there are similarities between the 2.) James lists the farmer and his produce as being an example of patience: "Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient over it until it gets the early and late rains."

How are we to be like the farmer? Too often we get so impatient over things happening in our lives. We want things to happen now! We want spiritual results now! It just isn't going to happen that way because that is not the way God has designed physical and spiritual nature. In order for fruit to be produced, time must pass, plus some things, such as rain and sunshine, need to occur. The farmer knows that if he just honors the process and lets the process take place, he is going to have a good harvest in the future. Trying to short-circuit the process won't produce a harvest. It may in fact keep the harvest from occurring. In the same way, we need to be patient and allow the laws of the spiritual harvest to run their course.

Some may wonder why God set it up this way. First, God is not interested in developing us into Mimosa trees which spring up overnight but can be easily destroyed in a thunderstorm. Rather, He is interested in developing us into oak trees--trees which take a long time to mature; yet once they've matured, they can weather some of the most violent storms. This pushes back the question as to why He made it so that the great oak trees took a long time to develop. To that we just have to admit that we don't know. We do know this though: God is perfect. As a result, anything God does, any system He sets up is going to be perfect as well.

The Prophets (5:10-11a)

James next lists the prophets as examples of patience during times of great stress. Too often we read the Bible with rose-colored glasses. We act as if the Israelites were always good, and therefore, being a prophet must have been a cushy job. The Israelites weren't always good though. Jesus in His parable of the vineyard (Matt. 21:33-41) actually claimed that the history of the Jewish people was a story of them constantly rejecting God and His prophets.

Joseph: rejected by his 10 brothers and sold into Egypt.
Moses: rejected by his people TEN times in the wilderness until finally God wiped out the generation who followed Moses from Egypt into the desert.
Samuel: the people rejected his rule and opted for the rule of a king, Saul.
Jeremiah: because the people rejected him and his God, he wept so much that he is called the "weeping prophet."
the list goes on and on and on and on.

Yet in spite of their trials, the prophets remained true to God. So much did they impress the author of Hebrews that he writes: "[The prophets] Men of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. 11:38). This is high praise indeed.

Job (5:11b)

Finally, James lists Job as being an excellent example of patience. This mention of Job as an example of patience has caused many Christians to scratch their heads. How in the world could Job ever be conceived of as an example of patience in light of the all the belly-aching he did. There are 4 wonderful passages of Job exercising patience out of 40 chapters in the entire book. In the other 36 chapters Job is complaining first against God for allowing him, a righteous man, to undergo such hardships and second against his false friends for accusing him continually of doing something wrong. How does any of this demonstrate patience on the part of Job?

First of all, keep Job's story in context. Look at all the horrible things which occurred to him. First, he tragically lost all his children in an accident. Second, he lost all his possessions. Third, he lost his health. He was so sick, covered with sore which pussed constantly, that his friends sat down and wept over him for 7 days when they saw him for the first time after these events occurred. Few people have ever experienced what Job experienced. Surely we should be allowed to give him a little bit of grace in any of the complaining he did.

Second, he not once cursed God, in spite of his wife urging him to do so. Instead we have some of the greatest statements of faith in the entire Bible--made by one who suffered beyond all measure. Job claims: "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" (13:15). Next, "I know that my Redeemer lives and that He shall take His stand upon the earth, and I shall see him" (19:25). Just how lofty is the Book of Job. C.S. Lewis claims that it is the greatest piece of literature before the writing of the New Testament. No book until the New Testament plunges so deeply into the arena of human suffering and despair, and yet no book reaches such lofty heights of hope and faith as does this same book before the NT. We are not always going to be singing happy songs whenever we are going through the pits of despair; however, like Job we can continue to hold onto Jesus and claim: "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him." He refused to accept that a good God was the author of evil--and he was right! (See Elenor Stump's treatment of Job in her masterpiece Wandering in Darkness.)

James uses Job as an example, not only because of the way he responded to his sufferings, but also because of the outcome of the Lord's dealings with Job. Some claim that by using the phrase "the outcome of the Lord's dealings" James is referring to the material blessings God poured out upon Job after Job had come to full faith in God. That may be true; however, these material blessings are NOT guaranteed to God's sons and daughters while we live on earth. Health and wealth are guaranteed for us in heaven, but not here on earth. James seems to be referring to something which will happen to us on earth.

James is probably referring to the spiritual maturity which suffering can produce in the lives of God's sons and daughters when they respond to those sufferings by faith. This brings us back to the beginning of the book of James: "Let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (1:4). This is the blessing God guarantees His sons and daughters if they respond properly to suffering.

Lewis compares our lives to that of God repairing us, our spiritual houses. We are miserable, so we want God to come in and repair our lives so that we can enjoy a comfortable little life. This is what happens: