RICH PEOPLE, RIGHT TREATMENT (JAMES 5:1-6)
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Here are some of the wiser quotes on the rich and the poor on the Internet:
The rich get richer and the poor get children. John Brunner
No matter how rich or poor you are, all life will come to an halt with two types of destinations; Heaven and Hell. Callum Illman
History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything. Jeffrey D. Sachs
If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, But if you die poor it’s your mistake. Bill Gates
Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. Sholom Aleichem
Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs. Zig Ziglar
A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.
The poor walk miles to get food, and the rich walk miles to digest food.
Without love, the rich and poor live in the same house.
You are not poor because someone else is wealthy.
Hong Kong, where I live, has the highest income gap between the rich and the poor of any developed economy in the world. The top 10 percent earn 29 times more than that of the poorest 10 percent. Oxfam reports, “In other words, the latter has to work two years and five months in order to earn what the top 10 percent earns in a single month. In Hong Kong, the poverty line is set at HK$3,275 (US$420) per month — 50 percent of the median income. Following this standard, one in five people live in poverty.
http://www.chinadailyasia.com/asiaweekly/2016-10/28/content_15517393.html
What kind of responsibility does the Lord expect from those with power and privilege? How can owners make a difference with their riches and resources? What can the downtrodden and the deprived do in their despair?
Find the Appropriate Feelings
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.
When the unpopular Henry III (an oppressing prince) sent a load of clothing material to the friar minors to clothe them, they returned the same with this message, that he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of that abominable gift. Trapp, John.
There is no consensus to the “rich” that James targeted in this chapter: rich Jewish unbelievers, Gentiles, or unbelieving and wicked men (Schaff) in general.
The Bible is not against having riches, but against trusting in wealth, boasting in the multitude of riches (Ps 49:6), trusting in the abundance of one’s riches (Ps 52:7), obtaining riches not unjustly (Jer 17:11). Five times the Bible warned against trusting in riches (Ps 52:7, Prov 11:28, Mark 10:24, 1 Tim 6:17). Proverbs says, “The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.” (Prov 22:2). Oxfam claims that in 2016 the richest 62 people own half of the world's wealth. Yet in 2017 I heard that 10% of the congregation in our church bear 45% of the offering.
Verse 1 begins with two imperatives – listen and weep. The rich (missing in older manuscripts) in the Bible are not softly challenged, counseled, countered and corrected but strongly cautioned, criticized, chided and confronted, because the verb “listen/go” is an imperative, a command or a charge. The verb means going, leading, and heading. James asked the rich, What’s the future? What’s to follow? What is forthcoming?
The second imperative is weep. It is translated also as “bewail” (Rev 18:9). It is to weep and wail, to cry out rather than cry, with heart-breaking, gut-wrenching and tear-jerking distress, rather than sobbing, sniffing and straining. It warns of haunting, horrific and harmful passion and pain.
The noun “misery” occurs only twice in the Bible but, unlike the other instance in Rom 3:16, which is singular, this misery is plural. It does not mean moderate but much wretchedness, woefulness and weightiness. The noun literally spells of heaviness rather than heartache, encumbrance rather than emotion, a balance and a bulk rather than the blues.
The verb “coming” is in the present tense, not the future. The tribulations, trappings and tears are a present, permanent and prominent reality, not a just projected, proposed or promised. The cost, consequences and condemnation would be greater than the power, profit and prosperity acquired by the rich by depriving, defrauding and destroying the poor.
Fix the Atrocious Flaw
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.
There was a king whose officers, in the midst of battle, decided to go and take food that was desperately needed from some homes in the area. When they came back with it, the king asked, “Did you pay them for what you took?” They said, “No, the king doesn't have to pay.”
The wise king said, “Go back and pay them for everything that you took.”
The king, to his credit, knew that a taking king is a tyrant, but a benevolent king is beloved.
Two important words in verse 2 occur for its only time in the Bible – rot and moth-eaten (KJV). Rot means decay, decompose, deteriorate and decline. It means losing, lessening or lacking in value and virtue. The next verb “moths have eaten” or moth-eaten in KJV means insect bed and breakfast, food and feast, diet and drink. Rot is pollution, and moth-eaten refers to pest. One becomes trash and the other treasure (to bugs). One is garbage and the other grub. One is compost and the other is consumption.
The next word “corrode” (v 3) means rusted. It could mean dissolved, discolored, defaced literally. Its surface, substance and shine are gone for good, leaving stain, smell and slush in its wake and waste.
Testify (v 3) means eye-witness, evidence, exhibit and expert testimony. It means submit proven, pointed and powerful facts, findings and forensics against the rich.
Eat (v 3) means digest, devour and damage. It will burn, blaze, bite and burrow into your flesh, frame, body and bone, skin and substance.
Here are some contrasts:
Rot Moth-eaten Rust Witness Eat
Capital Creatures Chemistry Court Consumption
Devalued Devoured Decomposed Decided Devastated
Financial Biological Chemical Legal Personal (flesh)
Insolvent Infestation Ignited Indictment Injured
Wear
(polluted) Worm
(penetrated) Warning (poisoned) Witness
(prosecuted) Wound
(pained)
The conclusion is from bank to body, from finance to flesh, and from one’s savings to one’s skin, the biggest loser is the unfeeling, unsympathetic and uncaring rich
Fear the Advancing Fury
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.
Many newspapers often report how rich nations give generously of their wealth to the poorer nations to help them eradicate poverty and improve their economy – up to $125bn (£102bn) in aid each year to prove their benevolent goodwill.
The US-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and the Centre for Applied Research at the Norwegian School of Economics, however, had published some interesting data. They tallied up all of the financial resources that get transferred between rich countries and poor countries each year: not just aid, foreign investment and trade flows (as previous studies have done) but also non-financial transfers such as debt cancellation, unrequited transfers like workers’ remittances, and unrecorded capital flight (to tax refuge countries).
In 2012, the last year of recorded data, developing countries received a total of $1.3tn, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3tn flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2tn more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $16.3tn –roughly the GDP of the United States.
Developing countries have forked out over $4.2tn in interest payments alone since 1980 – a direct cash transfer to big banks in New York and London, on a scale that dwarfs the aid that they received during the same period. Another big contributor is the income that foreigners make on their investments in developing countries and then repatriate back home.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jan/14/aid-in-reverse-how-poor-countries-develop-rich-countries
In Hong Kong it is no joke that people living in tiny subdivided flats of 30 square feet pay HK$4,000 monthly, which is more expensive per square feet than the rich in their mid-level homes!
The Pope once told the story of the death of a miser. The people joked: “The funeral was ruined,” they said. “They couldn’t close the coffin,” because “he wanted to take all that he had with him, and he couldn’t.”
The first part is the owners’ relationship with the laborers. “Woe to you!” is a prophetic mode of speaking (Calvin) of divine, dreadful, deliberate and decisive judgment. Verse 4 concerns the workers, their wages and their weariness. The verb cry is more than cry; it is an outcry. It is more shout than say, more clamor than call. It is roaring, resounding and ricocheting with rings of repercussion and redress, and never of reticence or refrain. The rich masters gave the poor men little or no remuneration, rest and recovery. I once heard a lady who said this of her daughter, who worked for one of the biggest banks in Hong Kong: “She gets to work, but could not get off work.”
The second part is the owners’ relationship with the Lord. The sins of the owners have reached or entered into the years of the Lord Almighty. Not just reached, but entered in Greek, not just hear but heed, not listen to, but look into. Not merely into the house, but into the heart.
The rich men’s depraved, decadent and disgraceful lifestyle in verse 5, however, was detrimental, damaging and even deadly to others. The cost, consequences and casualties, however, were not counted to the rich, but to others.
Condemn (kata-dikazo) is more than words; it is to pronounce, proclaim or paint a person as guilty, unrighteous and worse. The prefix “kata” is against and the verb (dikazo) is righteous imply to undo, undermine and undercut a person.
Condemn and murder is before and after relationship, the action and the aftermath, from worse to worst, from demoralizing to deadly.
Conclusion: The rich have advantages, assets and additions beyond their need, so the last thing the rich need is the condemnation of their heir heart, their souls and conscience. Do you see the need of others, seek their welfare and share your wealth? Do you treat others morally, magnanimously and mercifully? Let our greatest benefit and reward be in the riches of His goodness (Rom 2:4), the riches of his grace (Eph 1:7, 2:7) and the riches of his glory (Rom 9:23, Eph 3:16).
