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 (NKJV)
James has been pretty tough all along, but this might be the harshest yet.
Yes, here James gets back to what it means to be rich in the first century. Back then, the rich generally did not come by it through their own effort. So, James gives them an alarming warning.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
That’s creepy.
This time, James details how their riches are corrupted. Their gold and silver came from the sweat of others. Even so, they weren’t content to garner profits honestly. Instead, they cheated their workers.
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.
But justice is coming!
Yup. The Greek word transliterated as Sabaoth (Σαβαώθ, Sab-a-oath) literally means armies. James is warning them of their ultimate fate at the hands of the heavenly host. This is what Jesus was talking about when He explained the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13.
“…the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” — Matthew 13:39b
Then James wraps up this point with a grotesque forecast—“you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.”
It’s amazing that James would use such harsh language. He has to be talking to people that would read this letter.
Yes. His bold admonishment of them reflects his authority. James has to expect that they will listen.
While this tongue lashing is only directed at some of his readers, we should all pay careful attention to its message. Every modern American is incredibly wealthy compared to even the richest people in the first century.
Exactly. Just consider what the teeth of first century folks must have looked like. The only dental treatment they had was extraction. Being rich didn’t make any difference either. And there was no modern toothpaste and nothing even approaching the cleaning power of a modern toothbrush. And while soap had been invented, it was mainly used for washing things, not people. And don’t get me started on the lack of basic hygiene.
Yes, things back then stank, literally and figuratively. That’s true even today in some parts of the world. We are incredibly blessed, yet we tend to take it all for granted. We don’t thank God enough.
Still, modern blessings are not, in and of themselves, wrong—and this passage explains that.
So, what’s secret?
The key is attitude. You can have a bad attitude with little wealth or a good attitude with great wealth. James especially lights into the ones who “have heaped up treasure in the last days.”
That reflects a direct lack of faith—trusting in stored treasure instead of in heaven. That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 6:19–21 in the Sermon on the Mount.
“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. (NKJV)
Wait. What’s the causality order in what Jesus said at the end there. Does the location of the treasure cause the heart to follow, or do you tend to put your treasure where your heart is?
That’s a very advanced question. It could be both, but Jesus is speaking to the former. His command, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” is in the imperative. He’s effectively saying, “Do this or else this will happen.” That’s the heart following the location of the treasure.
Okay. Either way makes sense psychologically.
Maybe it is both, forming a grand feedback loop. Your heart follows your treasure, which follows your heart, which follows your treasure, in a vicious cycle.
In any case, we’ll wrap up everything tomorrow.
Okay. See you then.
