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“Rebuking the Rich”
Rebuking the Rich (Jam. 5:1-6)
Wade Webster
James had a lot to say about the rich (1:10-11; 2:5-6). His strongest words were saved for the final chapter. He wrote, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you” (James 5:1-6). As we examine these words, we will see their future, their fortune, their fraud, and their feasting.
Their Future
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!” (Jam. 5:1). The rich were to weep and to howl for the miseries that were coming upon them. Some think that this is a reference to the suffering that was coming upon the Jews in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in A.D. 70. However, this destruction came upon the poor and the rich. It seems more likely that these words have reference to the final judgment. On that day, those found wanting by the court of heaven will be sentenced to hell where there will weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mat. 25:41). This sure sounds like misery.
Their Fortune
“Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days” (Jam. 5:2-3). The fortune of the rich consisted of garments, gold, and silver. Their riches were corrupted or rotted. Their garments were moth-eaten. Their gold and silver were corroded. Since gold and silver don’t literally corrode, the reference must be figurative. Because they laid up their fortune on earth, rather than in heaven, they lost it. This is likely a reference to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. We read, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mat. 6:19-21). Instead of storing up treasure in heaven, they were storing up wrath (Rev. 2:5).
Their Fraud
“Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” (Jam. 5:4). It seems that the rich had accumulated their fortune through fraud. They had hired workers to harvest their wheat and had kept back their wages (Col. 4:1). This was a strongly denounced sin in the Old Testament (Jer. 22:13; Lev. 19:13). Although the rich had likely manipulated the local courts, they couldn’t manipulate the court of heaven (Jam. 5:6). The Lord of hosts had heard the cries or yells of the withheld wages and the wronged workers. He would act on their behalf.
Their Feasting
“You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter” (Jam. 5:5). The rich had lived in luxury and passed their time in pleasure. They had feasted. They had fared sumptuously (Lk. 16:19). They had enjoyed the good things of life (Lk. 16:25). Like the rich farmer, they had set their hearts on eating, drinking, and merriment (Lk. 12:16-21; 21:34-35; Amos 6:1-6). They had lived selfishly. They had turned a deaf ear to the cries of the workers and the poor. In their feasting, they had simply fattened themselves up for judgment.
James’ brethren were showing preference to the rich (Jam. 2:1-4), even though they were blaspheming the name that they wore (Jam. 2:6-7). Perhaps, they were hoping for preferential treatment from the rich. Maybe, they even had dreams of their own of being rich (Jam. 4:13). Either way, James wanted to set them straight. The rich that James had just described were not to be envied.
