When I was a young Christian, one of my friends came over and critiqued my music collection. He went through my cassette tapes one by one (this was before CD’s) and told me I needed to get rid of all of them. Now that I had become a Christian, he said, I should stop listening to secular music. He informed me that there was Christian music in the styles I liked, so there wasn’t really any need to listen to secular music anymore. Whatever my musical preferences, the Christian music industry would be able to provide a spiritually-acceptable substitute. He was trying to protect me from worldliness, being infected by the spirit of this world that rejects God and refuses to bow to His lordship. He was right to be concerned, even though I now think he was misguided in his approach.
Michael Card, in his song, “The Sunrise of Your Smile,” has a good exhortation about resisting the spirit of the world: “Reject the worldly lie that says that life lies always up ahead. Let power go before control becomes a crust around your soul. Escape the hunger to possess and soul-diminishing success. This world is full of narrow lives; I pray by grace your smile survives.” The solution is not to bury ourselves in a subculture of Christian entertainment which gives us (often second-rate) substitutes for the things we like in the world. The thing we need is to recognize and resist the lies the world tells us, lies that will draw us away from God and that will diminish us as creatures made in His image. That’s one of James’ major concerns in this letter, the problem of worldliness, the problem of living a godly life in this world that rejects God. He wants us to recognize, and reject, the lies this world tells us. I think James would approve of Michael Card’s list: the temptation to always live in the future, the lust for power and control, the lure of materialism and the kind of success that diminishes us spiritually.
This passage has a strong connection to the verses at the end of chapter four. Notice that verses 13-17 of chapter four, and this section at the beginning of chapter five, are both introduced in the same way: “Come now you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money’” (4:13); “Come now, you rich people....” (5:1). Remember that in chapter four James was warning against an arrogant, presumptuous spirit. Here, in chapter five, he’s confronting the same general problem. The people he’s addressing in chapter five are people who think their money makes them better than others and who are willing to go to any lengths to get more. They’re people who are taken captive by the sin of greed, who think getting money for themselves is just about the most important thing in life. Or, even if they don’t come right out and say it, they live as if getting more money is the most important thing in life.
The first thing James warns us about is the danger of putting confidence in something that can’t possibly last: “Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you....” Jesus gives the same warning in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). The point is that riches in this world are uncertain and unstable; we can’t possibly hold onto them forever. Even if we manage to keep them till the end of our lives, we can’t take them with us. It’s foolish to give our hearts to something that is passing away, something that can’t possibly last.
But James is saying more than this. In verse 3, he says: “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.” His point is that in storing up treasure on earth we’re not only doing something foolish, we’re doing something sinful, something that makes us guilty of wrongdoing before God.
We instinctively think that we have the right to do whatever we want with our money. After all, we’ve worked hard for it; we think we deserve it. James is saying that this is not true, that everything we have comes to us as a gift from God’s goodness and mercy. When God blesses us financially, His purpose is for us to use our money graciously, following the example of Jesus: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). When we say, “this is mine; I can do what I want with it,” we’re forgetting that Jesus impoverished Himself for our sake.
Those who selfishly hoard their financial resources are like the rich man Jesus talks about in Luke 16: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things” (Luke 16:19-25). Notice that the rich man knows who Lazarus is. He identifies him by name. We’re not told that this man was exceptionally wicked, only that he passed by Lazarus every day and refused to show compassion. God had entrusted him with the resources to help Lazarus, but instead of putting his money under God’s lordship, he selfishly hoarded it all for himself.
This world, and everything in it, is passing away. Life in this fallen world is uncertain and fragile, so it’s foolish to give all our efforts to storing up treasures here on earth. Francis Schaeffer, in one of his printed sermons, said “We all tend to live ‘ash heap lives’; we spend most of our time and money on things that will end up in the city dump.” This fallen world has been “subjected to frustration, and decay” as Paul says in Romans 8. Treasures here on earth are uncertain and unstable: “moth and rust destroy, and... thieves break in and steal.” Earthly treasures aren’t reliable. God entrusts us with things in this life and He calls us to use them in submission to His lordship; it’s sheer foolishness to try to hold onto them, to allow the things of this world to grip our hearts.
The second thing James warns us about is the danger of being so concerned about bettering our financial position that we’re willing to take advantage of others. Listen to verse 4: “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” The rich, in James’ time, were guilty of cheating laborers out of their wages. They were taking advantage of the power that their money and land gave them, and the laborers they’d hired were powerless to do anything about it. The rich were so concerned about getting more money that they were willing for others to have less, so that they could have more for themselves. Compare this with what Paul said about Jesus: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus was willing to have less, so that we could have more. He impoverished Himself in order to enrich us. When we take advantage of others to better ourselves financially, we’re not acting as followers of Jesus Christ.
James says two things about this situation: 1) “the wages..., which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.” Acts of injustice cry out to be made right. Their public sin has created an imbalance in the order of things, and it’s going to catch up with them eventually. And 2) “the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” God has heard the cries of the laborers against these unjust employers. The “Lord of Hosts” is the Lord of all the armies of heaven, who has all power in heaven and on earth at His disposal. James is saying, “you’ve made yourselves enemies of God, who has the power to destroy you.” The Lord of hosts comes to the rescue of those who are oppressed and taken advantage of. Beware of becoming a person who causes others to cry out to the Lord in this way. Beware of taking advantage of others to get more for yourself.
The third thing James warns us about is forgetting the day of judgment. This is what he says in verse 5: “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” They’ve been obsessed with getting the best for themselves, using their resources to pamper themselves and indulge themselves in luxury, forgetting that God is going to call them to account for how they’ve made use of His gifts. All they have, all they are, has come to them from His goodness. The reason they’re able to make money at all is because He’s provided them with gifts and opportunities. And in providing for them, His intention was that they use these resources graciously and unselfishly, following His example. Instead, they’ve spent it all on themselves, storing up guilt for the future.
Is it such a bad thing to live a life of luxury and self-indulgence? After all, that’s what people are usually hoping for when they play the lottery. Their hoping to become rich, so they won’t have to work any more and so they can live the kind of life James is describing here in verse 5. But listen to how the prophet Ezekiel describes the city of Sodom, a city we usually associate with gross sins of the flesh: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). They were arrogant, like the people James has been describing in these verses. They had plenty of resources, but they refused to use them unselfishly. They indulged themselves, without taking care of others in need. They were obsessed with getting the best for themselves no matter what, and this led them in a downward spiral which eventually brought about their judgment. James is saying to the rich people of his day: “you think you’re storing up wealth for your future, but all you’re doing is storing up judgment for yourselves.”
Then he says, in verse 6, “You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.” In their whole way of life, they are setting themselves in opposition to God and His righteousness. Some commentators think verse 6 is a direct reference to Jesus, that He is the “righteous one” they’ve condemned and murdered. The language fits, but this doesn’t seem like a reference to the crucifixion. Listen, though, to what Jesus says in Matthew 25: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.... Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they... will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me’” (Matthew 25:31-33; 41-45). “Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” What these rich people have done to the least of God’s people, they have done to Jesus: “You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.”
Their arrogance has reached the point of setting themselves up as enemies of God. They’ve set their hearts on things that are perishing; they’ve taken advantage of others to better their situation in this life; and they’ve forgotten that a day is coming when they’ll have to give account. They’ve forgotten that this One to whom they’ll be giving account has always been concerned about the poor and powerless and that He so identifies with His people that anything done to the least of them is something done to Him.
They’ve been captivated by the sin of greed, one of the seven deadly sins. One of the characteristics of these deadly sins is that they lead into other types of sin. It’s not that they’re necessarily worse than other sins. They’re deadly because when we become captive to them they produce all sorts of other sins. That’s what has happened to these rich people in James five. The sin of greed has led them into violence and injustice; it’s led them into the absolute folly of fighting against God Himself.
This is a strong warning for us, living in a society that encourages us in the sin of greed every day. Listen to this description of the advertising industry: “In a simpler time, advertising merely called attention to the product and extolled its advantages. Now it manufactures a product of its own: the consumer, perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored. Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life. It ‘educates’ the masses into an unappeasable appetite not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfilment. It upholds consumption as the answer to the age-old discontents of loneliness, sickness, weariness, lack of sexual satisfaction; at the same time it creates new forms of discontent peculiar to the modern age. It plays seductively on the malaise of industrial civilization. Is your job boring and meaningless? Does it leave you with feelings of futility and fatigue? Is your life empty? Consumption promises to fill the aching void” (Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, pp. 137-38). This consumer who’s “perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored” is a captive of the sin of greed. Every day we’re bombarded by messages that want to draw us into this deadly sin.
The way to resist this temptation is to be intentional in doing what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 6: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; [this is what James has been warning us against in addressing the rich, and it’s likely that he had these words of Jesus in mind] but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (vv. 19-21). Store up treasure in heaven. Think of generosity as a spiritual discipline to help you resist the deadly sin of greed. Be intentional in sharing with those in need; be generous with both your material resources and your time. As we serve one another generously in Jesus’ name, we’re storing up treasure in heaven, a treasure that doesn’t rust away but which lasts forever; we’re following the example of Jesus, who became poor in order to make us rich; and we’re preparing ourselves for the day when we’ll have to give account. If we persevere in this way, we’ll be ready to lay aside our lives when God calls us. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
No comments:
Post a Comment