From our Journey Through James series, our Sunday service on June 25, 2023, James 5:1–11. The morning ran long, so we split James 5 into two parts, and this is the first. Watch the full message: A Journey Through James 5 on YouTube.
Where We Have Been in James
We began our journey through James a couple of months ago. James was the half-brother of Christ and the pastor of the Jerusalem church, and he wrote to the scattered Christians fleeing persecution throughout the Roman Empire. He wrote words of encouragement, but he also told them there were things they were not doing that they should. They gathered in their churches every Sunday and heard the word, but they had not become doers of the word. Here are the seven lessons so far:
Lesson one: God wants you to show love, not favoritism. People favored the rich, wealthy, and powerful when they walked through the church doors and belittled the poor and those of little fame.
Lesson two: God wants you to show genuine faith through your works. They had faith in Jesus Christ, but no actions to show it to the world around them.
Lesson three: God wants you to control your tongue. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire by hell, and it can ruin the course of our lives. Christians must control it if they want to keep their testimony.
Lesson four: God wants you to have a wise lifestyle. Our behavior should reflect Christ well and show His teachings in our lives.
Lesson five: God wants you to be at peace with your Christian family. They were in conflict because they lusted after what other believers had, and it made them bitter and hateful toward their brothers in Christ.
Lesson six: God wants you to avoid condemning others. They were belittling their brothers. Next week we will talk about how to correct in a way that builds up instead of rebuking in a way that destroys.
Lesson seven: God wants you to control your arrogance and humble yourselves. Some of the wealthy members were gloating in church about their business deals and the profits they would make, which was humble bragging about their status.
In James 5 there are a few more lessons. First, beware the dangers of wealth. Then, wait patiently for the Lord. Make sure you make your intentions clear to others. Know the healing power of prayer. And those who turn a backslider back from his sin will be blessed. Because we had to restructure this message live, we are looking at the first two of those today.
Lesson Eight: Beware the Dangers of Wealth
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
James 5:1–3
For the first time in James, we have a rebuke that is not aimed at believers. We know this because of verse 7, where he says, “Be patient therefore.” When you see the word therefore, as they say in Bible college, ask what it is there for. It is there because James is talking about these people. The Christians are not the ones being rebuked. They are reacting to this rebuke, so keep that in mind. This is a rebuke against the wicked and a warning for believers: do not be jealous of the wicked’s wealth, because in the end it is not to their benefit but to their destruction.
This is not a condemnation of the righteous. Wealth is not evil in and of itself, but it will always be an obstacle on the path of God rather than something that directs you to it. Jesus says it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Because he can rely on his riches in this world. A lot of people are drawn to Christ through the struggles they face. They find out they have no answers and no ability in themselves to overcome the affliction, and so they turn to Christ. But those with wealth just throw money at the problem and it goes away. Why do I need Jesus? I can throw a million dollars at it and it will disappear today.
These rich men are not suffering now. They are living in luxury. But their riches are corrupted, their garments are moth-eaten, and their gold and silver are cankered. They are storing up wealth for themselves, and it is going to rot away. James is probably referring to three types of wealth. “Riches” carries the idea of possessions or property, likely food storage, like the grain you store for other years. No matter how much food you store, eventually it rots away. The rich fancy clothing is slowly eaten away by moths. And the gold and silver, your money, is slowly corroding. It does not matter what kind of riches or comforts you have. All of them will go away, if not in this life then at the end, because no one can take their riches to the grave. When you stand before God, your wealth will not be a testimony for why you should go to heaven.
It will “eat your flesh as it were fire,” going back to that idea of fire, a world of iniquity. It will burn up and ruin your life. If you ask rich people whether they have enough money, they usually answer no. If you ask whether they worry about losing their riches, they usually say yes. That is not something that brings a lot of comfort. Sometimes it brings more problems. The pursuit of wealth never ends. Does Elon Musk have enough money now? Has he accomplished everything he wants to do? Buying Twitter, does that end it? No, the pursuit of wealth and status consumes your life. How many multi-millionaires haven’t been able to hold together a family? How many of them have great relationships with their kids? Every part of their life in this pursuit of money is burned and destroyed.
So James is saying to the believers: don’t look at that rich person and think they’ve got it all together. Don’t think, “I wish I lived like that, they are so blessed to have all that money and do whatever they want.” What if they sacrificed to get there? What struggles do they have that you don’t have to face? They have “heaped treasure together for the last days,” while we are supposed to store up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break through and steal. These rich men are storing their money here, and in the end they will never feel satisfied. But we as believers have the opportunity to look heavenward and find peace and comfort in knowing we did what God instructed us to do.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
James 5:4–6
Here is another condemnation of the wicked. They were cheating the people who worked for them. You hired people to plow your fields and kept back their pay by fraud. You did not pay a fair wage. You are heaping up money for yourself, nickel and diming everybody who works for you. God hears that employee who has been cheated by their employer. Their cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. If you are not familiar with the word, that is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. That is not a peaceful term. God hates greed, and He hears the cry of those who suffer from it.
So do not be jealous of these people. Have you seen what they have done to their employees? They have defrauded them and held back their money. God says, “I have heard the cry and the desperation of them, and you had better believe I’m doing something about it.” These wicked people are not going to get away with it.
Then comes the warning. “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton” means you have lived comfortably in luxury. “Ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter”: you are like a fatted calf ready to be killed, and you have fattened yourself up for the day of judgment. “Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” The Christians had done nothing against these rich people. They had not sought them out or done them any wrong, and yet the rich came and condemned and killed the just. Once again this is a comfort for us, not a condemnation. Though we may suffer under people with such power and hatred against our cause, God is watching. The Lord of armies is standing by for the day of judgment.
Lesson Nine: Wait Patiently for the Lord
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
James 5:7–8
So what should we do in response? We wait patiently for the Lord. It says “therefore” because the rich are persecuting you, so be patient. Think about what we are supposed to do. If you don’t think about it long enough you might miss the idea. We are to be like the husbandman, the farmer, who waits for the precious fruit of the earth. We have seen this farmer before: the parable of the sower, the ministry, some seed falling on stony ground. Here we are to be like the farmer waiting for that precious fruit to grow, who has long patience for it.
Is this just saying, “You are Christians, the Lord is coming back someday, or you’ll die and go to heaven, so just wait”? No. It is not saying do nothing. Does a farmer do nothing while he waits for his crops to grow? No, he still has work to do, and that is why this illustration is used. We should wait for the coming of the Lord as a farmer waits for the rain.
David Guzik, I believe, wrote that the early rain came in October or November and was essential to soften the ground for plowing, and the latter rain came in April and May and was essential to the maturing of the crops shortly before harvest. So there are two rains we are waiting for. We are waiting for God to prepare the ground for our ministry, so that it is tender and ready, and then for the harvest of the fruit of our labor when the time comes. That does not mean the farmer does nothing. He tends his field and removes thorns while looking heavenward for the coming rain. We ought not stand idly by. We should wait patiently for the day of judgment while doing the work of Christ in our lives.
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
James 5:9–11
Now James gives us some comfort for this life. We are facing wealthy oppressors who control us and persecute us. We wait patiently for the Lord’s return while doing our ministry, and in this we still have reason to rejoice.
Do Not Grudge One Against Another
“Grudge” has the idea of sighing or moaning within yourself. What is that about? Life is so hard. When is God going to do something about it? I’m so tired of waiting. The church people of this day were complaining to each other: when is Jesus coming to collect His church? I’m so tired of the Roman Empire, they’ve scattered us and taken us from our homes, this is so unfair. Jesus said this generation would not pass until the kingdom came in power, and that was talking about church growth, but they thought it meant Him literally returning. So they were bitter and sad and sighing and groaning about it, and James says they had it all wrong. Do not sigh and groan to each other, lest you be condemned. God doesn’t like this. Do not condemn yourselves through your complaint.
“The judge standeth before the door.” I like this because of Revelation, where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Everybody uses that passage for unbelievers, as if God is knocking at your door to be saved, but that passage is written to the church, to one of the seven churches. Jesus says He is outside the church knocking, asking to be let in so He can sup with them and have fellowship with them. The church had not opened the door for Him on Sunday. Here James is telling individual believers that the judge is at the door. You have locked Jesus outside. He is listening, and He can hear your complaints. Why is Jesus outside in your life? Let Him in, let Him commune with you and comfort you. Your bitterness is not of Christ, and your sorrow and sighs are not of Christ.
Take the Prophets as an Example
In verse 10 he says you need encouragement, so take the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering affliction and of patience. How many can we think of? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, and he is going to use Job next. Think of David, who ran from Saul for years, just trying to do the right thing: “I can’t kill the king, I can’t murder someone, he’s God’s anointed, I won’t touch him.” That was righteous, and yet for years he suffered affliction for doing the right thing by the person he was showing mercy to. David waited on the Lord, wrote Psalms, cried to the Lord in his affliction, and found comfort. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet who mourned over his nation, as we should mourn over ours. Isaiah stood up against the wickedness of his day and preached against it. Elijah prayed for rain to stop for three years to get his nation back on track, and he suffered all that time.
We come to church and preach about these people and say, “Isn’t that a great story?” And then when it comes to our own lives, we say, “This is horrible.” But when you read those Scriptures, are you not encouraged? Your glasses are the wrong set. Take off the bitter glasses and put on the glasses of Christ’s compassion and look at it from a new perspective. You are living those stories. Your life can be a testimony just like all those other people in the Scriptures. You will have stories to tell others about how, when you came through that trial, God was there. “We count them happy which endure.”
The Patience of Job
Job is the one we associate with enduring the most hardship. He lost everything and had no answers, and even his comforters came and mocked and condemned him. “Ye have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” That word pitiful means full of compassion. We never learn why Job went through all those things. We are not told the details. We just know that it was for Job’s benefit, that in the end God doubled everything he had, and that Job remained faithful despite all the hardship. We have seen the end of the Lord, but we do not know what is going on in the middle. Job was never told what was going on in the middle either. We do not know why we are facing hardship in our lives, but we have seen the end of all these stories: God was full of compassion and had tender mercy. We celebrate those stories, so why don’t we celebrate the trials we face in our own lives right now?
We might not understand them, and they might be difficult, but instead of sighing and groaning within ourselves, we ought to look at the Scriptures as an example: “I’m not alone. I’m not the first person to endure hardship, and I won’t be the last. God, I don’t know where you’ve taken me today, I don’t know why I’m here, but I know where I’m going. You said in Romans 8:28:”
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
“God, I’ve dedicated my purpose to you. I’m going to surrender the rest. Wherever this path takes me, Lord, I know that at the end you are full of compassion and tender mercy.”
What Kind of Christians Are We?
This is where we have to stop for today, so consider this. Are we Christians who are groaning and complaining, just waiting and praying, “Lord, return, take me away from this, I’m ready to go home”? Or are we Christians who are the farmer waiting for the rain: “Lord, I’m in a drought spiritually, and I’m waiting for you to send that early rain so I can plant the gospel in someone’s life. Lord, I’m praying for the latter rain so I can help lead somebody to the Lord. God, I’m going to wait in anticipation for the goodness and mercy that you are going to show me.”
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