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03/15/2005: "James Lesson 9: Faith Tested by Reaction to Injustice(5:1-11)"

James:Tests of a Living Faith
Faith Tested by Reaction to Injustice (5:1-11)

Steve Budd

Section Summary
The genuiness of a person's faith is characterized by patience under persecution, no matter how severe or relentless the suffering.

Outline

I. The Sins of the Persecutors: The Cruelty and Oppression of the World. (1-6)

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.

Here, as in Chapter 4:1-11, it is important to remember James’ intended audience. In 4:7-11, we saw James’ Ten Commandments, which were intended to solicit a response from professing Christians in the assembly (cf. Matthew 7:21-23). This was an evangelistic passage describing the characteristics of a true believer, paralleling Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. True believers would be reassured as they saw these characteristics in their lives, while false believers would hopefully turn to Christ and be truly converted.

In 5:1-6, James employs a rhetorical devise called an apostrophe, which is when a speaker seems to turn from his intended audience (professing believers in this case) to address an imaginary group with the idea of having the intended audience “overhear”. This is like the father who, with his disobedient child within earshot, turns from him and shouts into the air, “What am I going to do with this kid?” There is no call to repentance in these verses, but rather a scathing indictment of judgement. James is “addressing” an absent audience, most likely wealthy Jewish landowners of large estates in communities where the readers lived, with the intention of acknowledging before believers that God is not unaware of their unjust treatment. It was a reminder to believers that a final judgement awaits those who don’t repent and believe, and that they should not be discouraged by God’s delayed justice.

A. Their wealth was uselessly hoarded (2-3). James is describing those who had more than they needed, yet were consumed by uncontrolled greed. While gold or silver cannot rust, the terms used here could refer to alloys of the day that could actually rust, or more likely, the word “rust” could be taken to mean tarnish. In either case the idea is clear; Obsession with wealth and the acquisition of it can literally consume one’s flesh, and the consumption of their flesh is the testimony against them.

B. Their wealth was unjustly gained (4). Through his apostrophe, James reminds his readers that God will vindicate them.

C. Their wealth was self-indulgently spent (5). The verbs here describe the lifestyle of these unjust persecutors:

1. Lived luxuriously: A soft life led at the expense of others. Used only here in the NT.
2. Led a life of wanton pleasure: Plunging headlong into dissipation in an attempt to satisfy insatiable desires.
3. Fattened your hearts: Self-indulgent robbers who have satiated themselves on plunder taken form their victims.

D. Their wealth was ruthlessly acquired (6). James describes the final progression in the downward spiral of human depravity; the murder of the righteous.

There is a fascinating irony when one observes the brutal treatment of these believers by wealthy Jews in view of how the Nazis treated the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.

"His (James’) primary concern is to dissuade hesitant Christians from falling into a foolish attitude of envy towards the powers and privileges which wealth seems to confer on those who possess it." -C. Leslie Mitton

"Christianity is strongly opposed to all forms of social injustice, but it also urges believers to maintain a proper attitude and perspective amid such injustices." -D. Edmond Hiebert

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