The Truth about Rich People
James 5:1-6
Watching all the financial news this week, I heard names of wealthy people mentioned that I did not recognize. One of the people mentioned had thrown his support behind one of the hurting financial companies. The said that he was putting up “9 billion dollars” of his own money for them to invest. Can any one her tell me in a way that I can understand how much 9 Billion dollars is?
Not that I plan to purchase one, I decided to look up that a 2009 Mercedes – Benz E – class cost $52900. So I divided that into 9 billion and it equaled – 170 – Thousand 132 cars. I don’t know where I could park that many cars so I need something else to help me understand something that big.
I looked for ideas on the Internet. I found a site that tried to explain how much a billion is.
First, a billion is 1000 Million that is a 1 with 9 zeros after it.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.
That last one stings a little. The world’s richest man, Warren Buffett, the 9 Billion dollar investor, has a net worth of 62 Billion dollars. (His wealth could run the Federal Government for 20 days.)
Today’s scripture does not seem to be directly addressing believers. It mentions rich people and there could be some Christians that were on the wealthy side back then.
James says, “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.”
I sort of like the way that starts out. James is warning the rich to watch out. He does not call for repentance he just tells them to weep and wail because misery is coming.
Since I am obviously not rich, I can’t invest enough money to impress anyone or stabilize the economy. My yearly income won’t even run the Government for even a 10th of a second.
I will guess that most of us are in the same boat. We can safely assume that James is talking to someone else. So, we can sit back and try to hide that little …you tell-em James smile that comes to our faces as James tells them that those rich people are going to get it. They’ll be sorry when judgment comes!
Maybe that is James’ intent, to encourage the people that were not rich and probably really poor and oppressed and abused by rich people.
- James continues by talking about three mainstays of wealth in the ancient culture; commodities like Grain and Animals, clothing and precious metals.
There are lots of wealthy people in scripture that God approves of and even blesses; Job, Abraham, and David are three quick examples. So, if being wealthy is not the problem, then what is?
He writes, “Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.”
He does not flatly state that being rich is bad. I can live with that.
It is not having the riches themselves that is the problem. He is saying that the things that make a person wealthy have a limited shelf-life.
They go bad, spoil and decay. Grain and meat rot, clothes get eaten up by moths and gold and silver corrode or in other translations rust.
It is not having the wealth that is a problem; it is the spoiling of the resources that God does not like.
- Years ago I had an old pickup truck that I used to haul trash and to move larger items. It seemed like the longer I let the truck go unused the faster it rusted and the harder it was to start. But the more I used it the better it ran.
- I found a similar thing with older clothes. The longer I leave them in my closet the smaller they seem to get. They shrink up when I don’t wear them.
Having wealth is not a problem…the problem is not putting wealth to proper use.
James gets more specific about the problem for the rich. He says, “You have hoarded wealth in the last days.”
Hoard – to accumulate, to gather, to keep private. The rich are oblivious to the coming judgment. They don’t know how short their time really is. And yet they store up the materials of wealth as if they would live forever.
James says that the rich are keeping everything for private use and ultimately wasting what they have. Foods are wasted when there are hungry people living not too far away. Clothes are destroyed when winter is just around the corner.
Gold and silver amore permanent method of storing wealth was also spoiled. James knew that gold and silver do not corrode or rust. Perhaps, he meant tarnish from disuse. Or perhaps he was speaking of inflation… a loss of value?
The central idea is that all three are worth more if used, instead of hidden away and ultimately lost.
Something else that was shown on the news this week was how people are reacting to a shortage of gas.
Some people were filling up their car everyday so that they knew that they had a full tank. I saw a few people interviewed that were filling several gas cans “just in case.”
In a small way these people were filling their personal needs and lessening their personal fears by hording fuel.
They had little if any regard to other people in line behind them and their needs.
-- They were hording fuel when other people were stuck on the side of the road with no gas at all.
Basically, James does not condemn wealth, or having stuff. He says that God is displeased when people hide their stuff and keep it only for personal use.
The Bible often indicates that wealth carries a special responsibility to the poor and widowed. The rich are given clear direction to be just in their dealing with their workers and to make arrangements for the poor. It seems that the people James is referring to The Wealthy Jewish people are ignoring what scripture teaches.
James further identified why the rich should weep and wail. “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
That sounds pretty bad. Not paying wages to the workmen. Not worried about their needs not keeping the instructions in the law in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
In the day, most workers really lived hand to mouth. The pay was low and there was no way to save. That meant they worked so that the family could eat something that day.
If the wealthy put off paying or just refused to pay his workers it put the worker and family in a bind. It left them physically hungry. The workers had little or no rights and could be easily taken advantage of.
This kind of treatment is an indication of a deep selfishness.
James adds, “You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.”
James is accusing the rich of being comfortable and living in luxury at the expense of other people. The problem with selfish rich people is how they get their wealth and how the live in luxury at the expense of others.
Their luxury and self indulgence at the expense of the poor is like murdering them.
This scripture may even indicate that in some cases the wealthy person may have made false accusations against their workers and literally murdered them to avoid paying what was right.
James says the workers cries of injustice have reached the ears of the Lord.
The workers are not alone, The most powerful being in the universe has heard their cries of injustice, pain and hunger.
He likens the rich men’s situation to the fatted calf that was raised up eating the best feed and getting special care and was oblivious of the day where it would be slaughtered for a banquet.
He suggests that the rich have fattened themselves for judgment. Basically, selfishness leads to the destruction of the soul.
-- I am stuck with a problem. I have been having trouble dealing with the concept of rich that James is speaking about.
He has not defined what it requires to be considered rich.
He has only identified problems which we attribute to getting wealth.
He absolutely condemns taking advantage of someone, not paying debts. And he points to several problems related physical wealth that is not properly used.
I don’t know about you but at my house we throw away a fair amount of old and suspected bad food.
We have closets with shrunken clothes.
We have money in a bank account that becomes worth less and less as fuel and everything else goes up in cost.
I don’t think I am rich, but according to James I have signs that condemn me as not properly using the resources I am blessed with.
- I learned that only 2% of the world’s population owns half of the world’s wealth.
- I did not realize that if a married couple has $4400 dollars of assets, (stuff) , that household is among the 50% of the wealthiest people in the world.
- If your bank account and home and possession, (your Stuff) are worth $61K your family is among the to 10% wealthiest households in the world.
Measuring wealth compared to the world scale easily qualifies everyone in this room as being rich.
That made me think, if only $2200 worth of clothes, cars, appliances, jewelry puts us in the top 50% of wealthy people and that would be basically a homeless person in our culture. How bad is it for the bottom 50%?
-- Nearly 3 Billion people live on $2 per day and have only a few dollars of net worth in food and clothing.
They live hand to mouth like the workers that James writes about.
Here is my point. We can’t claim to be poor just because we think we are poor.
We can compare our wealth to the top 1% rich people and feel we are poor.
But, if we measure where we stand on the wealth scale of the world, we are pretty wealthy.
When we see news stories where people living in 3rd world countries describe Americans as being rich…it is more true than I want to admit.
Folks, there is nothing wrong with being rich.
There is nothing wrong with being financially and physically comfortable.
However, God will judge our stewardship. He will judge if we hoard for personal use the resources and blessings he has provided out of his riches.
It is important for us to look at how we use the wealth we have been given. It is important to be good stewards of what we have no matter how great or how small the value. Because, Judgment is coming.
All the forms of earthly wealth, the stuff we have, the savings we put away will not endure.
Some will rot and become useless, some will be moth eaten and ugly and some will lose value and none of it will accompany us beyond this life.
Wealth that parishes does so because of hording, of not being put to good and proper use. It rots in warehouses and kitchen cabinets instead of feeding the hungry.
Moths don’t attack clothing that people are wearing. They attack things that are stored and unused.
The same goes for corrosion, rust or loss of value. When it takes more gold or money to take care of the needs of life then the value of savings vanishes and makes new opportunities harder to fulfill.
According to James, things that are left idle and unused deteriorate while things that are used make a difference.
It hording, hiding, stockpiling of earthly wealth that cause it to lose value and becomes worthless by its non-use.
The stockpile of wealth will be a testimony against the rich on the day of judgment.
It will be evidence that the rich did not minister by using their wealth for the needs of others.
Mathew 6:19-21 says that, Earthly wealth is lost when it is not converted into treasure laid up in heaven.
Folks, We live in stressful and scary times. It is only natural to want to plan for the future and to be able to care for ourselves and our families.
However, we have to be careful in how we obtain and use the wealth we have.
All Glory be to God!
