Wednesday | James 5:1-6

James 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

Money is a sensitive topic, especially in the church. A few weeks ago, we addressed the differences in the godly rich and poor and the ungodly rich and poor. Here, James tackles the heart of finances once more but from a different angle. If we’re honest, money isn’t so much an issue as our heart is. And while James strongly rebukes the rich in this passage, it’s not about their wealth, but their misuse of wealth that’s at the center of the rebuke. 

Christians, must come to understand that there is a great difference in being an owner and being a steward of our finances (Genesis 2:15-17). These two ways of living are in conflict with one another and when it comes to money, ownership or stewardship will collide with our theology; what we believe shapes how we live. 

Ownership can be viewed as believing what we have doesn’t belong to God, but us because at the end of the day, we’re in control and it’s our life. This was the lie that Adam and Eve believed in the garden. It’s as if they believed that what they did defined who they were. 

Stewardship, however, begins not with what we have, but who we are. It begins with our identity in light of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. This is what God commissioned Adam and Eve to in the garden, to be stewards of all that He had given and entrusted them with. Stewardship breeds generosity because the Christian understands that generosity doesn’t begin with our wallets, but belief in the gospel as an act of grace (2 Corinthians 8:7). 

Wealth isn’t bad, but it can be dangerous because our hearts are deceitful and if we’re not careful, we will throw ourselves on a treadmill chasing after something we hope is going to finally grant us peace and satisfaction. We will worship creation rather than the Creator. 

God is not opposed to treasure. It’s where we store it that is of significance (Colossians 3:1-4). How we view ourselves (owners or stewards) is important because one leads to indulging in the temporary joy of sin and the other leads to contentment in Jesus and His eternal promises (1 Timothy 6:9-10).