James 5:1-11
As we approach this last chapter of James, we need to shift our format a bit. We have been going verse by verse for the most part but here it is going to be helpful to look at the verses a few at a time. We are going to go through verse 11 because there is no good way to divide the argument. We could stop after verse 6 where James shifts gears but to do that loses the point of the argument.
In the first three verses James is going to turn his attention once again to the rich in the community, “Come now, you rich people.” A start like this makes us think that James is going to criticize rich people or wealth in general but that is really not the issue at hand. The Bible does not have a problem with wealth but rather how wealth makes people act. That is what James is addressing here.
Notice he calls them rich people. In chapter 4 he called them adulterers and then brothers and sisters. Last week we talked about how both can be true and we need to be careful how we criticize, slander, and speak evil against them because they are believers. Now James is calling them rich people. Here is what is going on.
Throughout this letter, James has argued against being double-minded, trying to live in two opposing realities at the same time. Those two opposing realities are the world and God’s Kingdom. They co-exist in some form here on Earth, but they do not go together. Many who are followers of Jesus, brothers and sisters, try to live in both worlds simultaneously, hence they are adulterers.
What James expects is for believers to choose a side. Here, by using the phrase “rich people” he is pointing out that they have indeed chosen their side. They have chosen to side with the world. This is a foolish choice and James is going to explain why.
The wealth they are so proud of, often exhibited in the clothes they wear, has already rotted and is moth-eaten. It might not be apparent to them by looking at their clothes but in the eyes of God, it has already happened. Their silver and gold have corroded and will serve as a witness against them.
The foolishness has been to store up treasures in this world in the last days. The phrase “last days” is often misunderstood. Every generation believes they are living in the “last days” and to a degree they are right. When the NT speaks of the last days it is speaking of the time between Christ’s ascension and His return. How long these “last days” last only God knows. They could end tomorrow or they could continue for another 2,000 years. I don’t know and I don’t pretend to know. What I do know is everyone needs to be ready and storing up worldly treasures is not the way to get ready. But, again, the problem is not the wealth but how the striving for wealth makes people act, and that is what James explains in verses 4-6.
In the next three verses, James shows the problem with wealth. The pursuit of wealth oftentimes makes people treat others as less than to bring in more wealth. The issue James addresses is not paying the workers what was due to them as they brought in the harvest. The cries of these people reach the ears of God. How does James know this? He knows what the Scripture says. See Deuteronomy 24:15.
These rich people care more about their own luxury than they do about other people’s lives. The end result of this is that they have condemned the worker and even murdered them.
There are two ways to take this statement. It could be that they have murdered them in the sense that their hearts are full of hatred for the worker that it has turned them against their plight. The other option is because they have denied these workers pay, and they needed this pay to purchase food and other necessities of life, the rich person is guilty of their subsequent death. When the rich people are focused on acquiring more wealth the poor always suffer.
Beginning in verse 7 James has an answer for the poor. That answer might not be what they want to hear but it is the only true course of action. His advice for the poor are to be patient until the Lord comes. What does it mean to be patient?
Here the word patience has a sense of waiting and enduring. It means to do what the Lord is doing and what the Lord is doing is enduring human evil for a season. I realize this might sound controversial but God endures human evil for time. He could wipe it out anytime He wants to but He doesn’t. For whatever reason, He allows it to endure for a time.
If God is not going to end human evil, what chance do we have of ending it? The only thing we can do is introduce people to Jesus one at a time and pray the Holy Spirit convicts them into changing. However, what we have seen from this letter, some of the people introduced to Jesus refused to change. James encourages the faithful brothers and sisters to endure this because 1.) is nothing they can do about it and 2.) the alternative is far worse.
Complaining about other people invited you to be judged, and the judge stands at the door. This is another way of saying we are living in the last days and don’t know when those days will end. What we don’t want is to be caught in the sin of condemning others when the true judge returns. This is the same concept as not building up treasures in the last days. Both are wrong.
Instead, we must strengthen our hearts because the Lord’s coming is near. That could either be by Jesus returning or you going to Him. James’s point here is that these sufferings are temporary but the next life is eternal.
In concluding this part of the argument in verse 10 and 11, James then reminds the people that the prophets endured similar experiences but they did so with patience. They endured the same human evil and trusted that the Lord would provide for them in the present and the Lord would deal with the evil in the future.
Just one example is the life of Job. He endured a lot and what we see in the end is the Lord is compassionate and merciful. If God did it for Job then He is going to do it for other believers as well. That does not mean the poor will have twice as many riches by the end of their lives but that they will have countless riches in the eternal life. What happens in this life is far less important than what happens in the life to come. The evil and righteous will both get their rewards.