Reviewing Our Assets
Opening Prayer
Lord, thank You for my low station in life as a servant of Jesus the
Messiah.
Read James 5:1–6
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Tim. 6:18). Give thanks to God for
everything good in your life that has no financial value, such as friendship, health, beauty and intelligence.
Like an Old Testament prophet, James names his target (“you rich people”; 1) and threatens God’s judgment on those who generate economic and social injustice. He isn’t subtle! We applaud his
candor as he condemns the hoarding of wealth, the outrage of withheld wages and the inequality of the law. We say “Amen” to his analysis of the inherently transitory, and potentially destructive, nature of riches (2,3).
Yet are we sure who James’s target is? Are the rich people he condemns inside or outside the church? Is this a warning to wealthy members of the church or to the Roman and Jewish community within which the church was struggling to exist? If the latter, how would they hear of James’s fulminations in a letter written to the faithful? Or is this actually an encouragement for those within the church who are exploited by the rich? God has heard the voice of the victims, and the day of reckoning for the rich is near (1,4,5). The oppressed can live in hope.
Ron Sider’s book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is an eye-opener featuring the premise that, in global terms, most so-called Western Christians are among the rich people of the world. It feels no less relevant today as the gap between rich and poor grows. So, can we so easily exclude ourselves from James’s attack? When we find a bargain, do we ask how much the workers were paid? How many of what were once special items have become routine luxuries? How much does money dominate our decision making? The sin lies not in being rich. What matters is how it affects us and how we deal with it. Do we own our money or does our money own us?
Apply
Read Paul’s advice: know where your hope is and be generous in your deeds (1 Tim. 6:17–19). Take time to review your generosity to the church, to friends and to charities.
Closing prayer
Lord, teach me to appreciate fully how comfortable my life really is
and that it is a gift from God.
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