Destiny of the Rich
Their coming miseries
In chapter five, James leaves his discussion of a living faith evident in good works and returns to another major theme of his epistle, a theme he touched on both in chapter one, where he advised the rich man to humble himself (vv. 10-11), and in chapter two, where he denounced the rich for oppressing the poor and blaspheming God (vv. 6-7). Now he issues the rich a chilling prophecy of what their future will be.
He begins by summoning them to hear his words. He calls out, "Go to now, ye rich men" (v. 1a). As in the previous usage (Jas. 4:13), the opening words are better translated, "Come now." In other words, stop whatever else you are doing and listen closely. He immediately justifies his claim on their attention by telling them bluntly that they are headed for disaster (v. 1b). They face such miseries that, if they could now see them in all their horrible detail, they would not be able to contain their grief. They would be helpless to hold themselves back from utter despair. Indeed, James advises them to "weep and howl." Both are strong words, referring to vocal expressions of grief in extremity. A translation giving a better idea of the anguish suggested by these words is, "Wail and scream."
Why does James urge the rich to distress themselves about miseries they will not face until sometime in the future? Because now is the only time they can change their destiny by repenting of their sins. James hopes that they will repent if they look with realistic fear and sorrow at the future awaiting them.
In his appeal he seeks to counter the two reasons that the rich continue in sin. First, as they lie on their beds of ease and drink in all the pleasures that money can buy, they are satisfied with life as they know it. They see no incentive to change. To unsettle their apathy and contentment, James reminds them that their life of pleasure will not last. Soon it will be gone, and then they will suffer misery and loss. After death, they will enter into a different sort of life, not really life at all, but a state of consciousness that they will express through weeping and howling. Therefore, if they wish to get a taste of their coming experience, they should start even now to weep and howl. This way of facing the stark reality of future miseries will, if they are wise, move them to repent.
The decay of their possessions
The second reason that the rich continue in sin is that they are entranced with the beauty of their riches, so entranced that they cannot see anything else. James tells them that they are wearing blinders. They do not see the true condition of all the wealth around them. He says, "Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered" (vv. 2-3a).
James is showing the transitory nature of three specific kinds of wealth. Because "corrupted" is the word for rotten, many expositors agree that the first kind James has in view is perishable foodstuffs, which in antiquity were a valuable commodity that the rich sought to acquire (Luke 12:16-21). The word translated "cankered" refers to rust. Also, each verb signifies an event already past. Thus, a more illuminating translation of James's warning is, "Your foodstuffs have become rotten, your garments have become moth-eaten, and your gold and silver have become rusted."
In summary, as the rich survey all their accumulation of property and rejoice in its eye-fixating glamour, James says, "Look, it is already starting to decay." Jesus pronounced a similar verdict: "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt" (Matt. 6:20). Indeed, nothing in this world is exempt from deterioration. Nothing lasts but a moment in a perfect state. The point James is making is that it is folly to pin one’s happiness upon possession of things that are wasting away and will soon vanish. When they vanish, so will any happiness they provided.
Why James supposes that gold is vulnerable to rust is a question long debated. Perhaps he is using "rust" as a generic term for every form of metallic decay. Although gold is not subject to oxidative corrosion, it yields to the corrosive effects of various other agents, such as fluorine, chlorine, and aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids). The other precious metal he names—silver—is prone to the type of oxidative corrosion known as tarnish.
Their sins requiring punishment
Why do the rich deserve the terrible fate that God has ordained? James next proceeds to give the answer, listing four grievous sins that they have committed.
- The very decay that is eating away at their wealth witnesses to their first sin (v. 3b). They have devoted their lives to what is worthless. Instead of seeking eternal reward by doing works of eternal value, they have collected pretty junk, here today and gone tomorrow. As a result, they have wasted their time, their talents, and everything else God has entrusted to them for accomplishing good.
James continues, saying literally, "Ye have treasured up in the last days." He means that they have done nothing better than to amass troves of fleeting treasure, even though they should have known that they were living in the last days: that is, in the days right before they would face God in judgment.
They will pay an awful price for their love of corruptible wealth. James says that corrosion ("rust") will "eat your flesh as it were fire." It is a law of human existence that every man is destined to be molded in the image of whatever god he chooses. As believers in the true God, we assume His attributes and change into His likeness, which is the summit of every virtue. An idolater, however, replicates his lifeless gods, for his destiny is death, when he too will be unable to speak, see, or walk (Ps. 115:4–8; 135:15–18). The rich worship money. Mammon is their master and god. Hence, just as material wealth succumbs to irreversible decay, causing its substance to crumble and scatter, so the worshipers of wealth will waste away forever. The processes of decomposition, which James calls "rust," will degrade their bodies without relief, yet without ever destroying them completely. As Jesus says, they will go to the place "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). Their most terrifying prospect is that they will perpetually feel the corrosion at work upon their bodies. It will burn like fire. - James indicts the rich with a second grievous sin (v. 4). "By fraud" is not actually in the original, but without it the text is still clear. As employers, the rich have cheated their employees out of rightful compensation. James refers specifically to day laborers hired to assist in the harvest of crops. It was the custom for a landowner to visit the marketplace early in the morning and pick out workers for the coming day. When he hired them, he promised certain wages. Yet at the end of the day, when the work was done, an unscrupulous employer might pay less than he promised, or he might pay nothing at all. What recourse did the laborers have? Virtually none in the ancient world. There was seldom a legal remedy. Judges were reluctant to hear complaints against a leading citizen, and any accusation that he failed to keep a verbal agreement was hard to prove anyway. Besides, a rich man could use bribery to secure a favorable ruling.
James warns the rich that there is a judge who cannot be bribed and who is not indifferent to the complaints of the poor. He is the Lord of "Sabaoth," transliteration of the Hebrew word for hosts. The title "Lord of hosts" is of course common in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps. 24:10; 84:1; Isa. 1:24; Jer. 32:18). James is saying that although the poor appear weak and defenseless, in fact they have on their side the most powerful defender of all, the very God who can summon all the forces of heaven to do His will.
Down through history, the rich have exploited the poor, and the poor have resented the rich. In the last few centuries many political movements promised to wrest power from the rich and give it to the poor. The most important was Marxist Communism, which promised to organize society under the dictatorship of the proletariat (the working class), but in reality merely succeeded in creating new oppressors. The wealthy capitalists at the top of society were replaced by wealthy Communists, who expanded the power of the ruling elite at the expense of everyone else's freedom. While promising liberation, Communism brought the iron grip of tyranny. Who is the only advocate and defender of the poor who can be trusted? James gives the answer. It is the Lord of Sabaoth. - The third grievous sin of the rich is that they wallow in self-indulgence (v. 5). This has taken two forms. First, they have "lived in pleasure," which might be translated, "lived delicately." That is, they have furnished themselves with every manner of comfort and convenience as a buffer against anything unpleasant. Second, they have "been wanton." The Greek word speaks of carrying self-indulgence to the point of riotous living. But to what purpose have they nourished their lusts? James says, "Ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter." Here, James offers us two distinct pictures of the rich man. The day of slaughter suggests an overfed cow ready for butchering. The overnourished heart suggests a heart so fat with sin that it is insensitive to the gentle touch of conviction, and thus God can do nothing with the rich man except bring him into judgment. The image of a fat heart derives from Isaiah’s famous denunciation of the godless in Israel (Isa. 6:9-10), twice quoted in the New Testament (Matt. 13:15; Acts 28:27).
- The last grievous sin of the rich is murder (v. 6). In an effort to multiply wealth, they have not scrupled to kill good men. Perhaps the specific instance James has in mind is the evil that came from Ahab’s greed. He framed Naboth on a charge of treason so that he might put him away and take possession of his vineyard (2 Kings 21:1-16). History is replete with other examples. It would not be an exaggeration to say that human life is cheap in any society where greed reigns supreme.
What does the just man do in self-defense? James takes it for granted that because he is just, he will not resist the evildoer. Again we see James’s debt to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus commands, "Resist not evil" (Matt. 5:39), but rather, "Love your enemies" (Matt. 5:44). By resistance, Jesus means stooping to your enemy’s level, returning gibe for gibe, sneer for sneer, and blow for blow. The mark of a good man is that he seeks his enemy’s welfare. Thus, even when under an attack that could take his life, he will strive to spare his attacker.
I do not believe that either Jesus or James means that we should never protect ourselves from violence or oppression. The scenario James implies is a rich man manipulating the justice system to destroy someone standing in his way. In that situation, providing no legal refuge, a man seeking to honor the Sermon on the Mount can do nothing but submit.
Self-Test
The first questions address whether you are devoting your life to corruptible things. To be specific, where does gaining money and possessions fall on your scale of priorities?
2. How do I spend any extra money?
Does it go to pad your investments? Do you spend it on increasing your collection of bric-a-brac and your arsenal of toys? God may choose to bless you with some nice things that you do not really need. But still, if you have surplus funds sitting unused, you would be well advised to invest them in God's work.
3. When I make major life decisions, what is my overriding goal?
Are you trying to become a more fruitful servant of God, or are you positioning yourself to make more money? This is a critical question for young people as they take steps that will shape the rest of their lives—steps determining their education and career, as well as whom they will marry and where they will live. But the question also applies to older folks, for they are not exempt from life-shaping decisions. Perhaps you receive an offer of a better job, but it requires that you move to a place lacking a sound Bible-believing church. What should you do? If money and career are most important to you, you will move, after convincing yourself that the available churches are good enough. But in response to your declaration of priorities, God will not bless your family. They will suffer spiritually. Your children will probably copy your priorities and devote their lives not to pleasing God, but to promoting themselves and gaining worldly riches.
Remember Lot (Gen. 13:5–13; 18:20–21; 19:1–38). He went to live in the wicked city of Sodom because he wanted to make money. But the city corrupted his children. When the angels came to bring him out of Sodom before God rained destruction on it, he begged his married children to leave, but they refused and died in the fiery catastrophe that reduced the city to a perpetual ruin. The unmarried daughters who accompanied Lot proved to be women of poor character.
Are there any Sodoms today? Yes, there are many. Any city that fails to pass the following tests may prove as dangerous as Sodom:
- Does it provide a good church?
- Does it allow children to receive a Christian education?
- Does it furnish employment that will not require the employee to hide his identity as a Christian or to conduct himself in a morally compromising manner?
The remaining questions deal with the other sins that James charges against the rich.
4. Have I increased my wealth by defrauding others?
The person most vulnerable to this sin is a businessman. A Christian in business must renounce sharp practices, such as false advertising, price gouging, price fixing, cost-cutting measures that reduce products and services to inferior quality, high-pressure salesmanship, refusal to honor legitimate complaints, exploitation of employees by routinely demanding overtime or by denying reasonable pay and benefits, etc.
5. Have I spent money to provide myself with sinful pleasure?
Money naturally gravitates to the providers of sin. I remember reading about a respectable, churchgoing man who won a major lottery. Before another year had gone by, he was frequenting places of wicked pleasure. The story of the prodigal son is a picture of the ruin that threatens any man with a big bankroll in his pocket. Ask yourself whether having some extra money has ever been the lure that led you into compromise or corruption.
6. Have I harmed any just man?
James's exposé of the sins committed by rich men was written not to exhort believers, but to warn the wicked. It is most unlikely that you, if you are a believer, have ever killed a just man. Yet perhaps you have sometimes been so distracted by riches that you have failed to serve his welfare. Your brothers and sisters in Christ need your encouragement, your help, your friendship, your cooperation in carrying on the work of the church. Therefore, your presence in the church and in their lives must be dependable. You cannot be constantly skipping town for the sake of selfish pursuits made possible by your money.
1. How do I spend my free time?
Do you use it for improving your money-making skills, planning out new money-making strategies, poring over your accounts, shopping, basking in the luxuries money can buy, and daydreaming about new luxuries to acquire? It is not wrong to shop, for the alternative is to make hasty purchases soon regretted. And it is not wrong to practice money management, for God expects us to be good stewards of whatever wealth he has given us. The question deals with your priorities. Your use of free time should testify that for you, serving God is more important than self-enrichment.