Smoodock's Blog

James begins the final chapter of his epistle with, “Come, now, you rich men…” (James 5:1), and he then proceeds to condemn their behavior of hoarding and defrauding the laborers who worked in their fields. Once more, most Biblical scholars apply James’ words to dishonest businessmen, as though James’ main interest was social and humanitarian. While much of James’ content can be applied to dishonest businessmen as a secondary point, the main focus of his epistle was how the Gospel was being defrauded by false teachers, and how the legitimate teachers of the word of God were being slandered and abused. No doubt, it was because of such a wrong understanding of James that Martin Luther pegged this epistle as, An Epistle of Straw! Nevertheless, I am convinced that this epistle is what got James killed, and this chapter, more than any other, lays the blame for all the wrongdoing mentioned in this epistle at the feet of the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem.

James mentions rich men in James 5:1, saying “Come now, you rich men…” The Greek word for come now (G33) is used only one other time in the New Covenant text, and that by James, as well (James 4:13). There he is speaking with believers and calling them to repentance, but here James is speaking of the unbelievers who are responsible for the troubles in the churches he addresses in his epistle. There, James encouraged erring believers to return to the ways of the Lord, but here he censures the evil men who planned the debacle the churches were facing, telling them to weep and howl, because judgment that was about to come upon them.

James also uses the Greek word, ololuzo (G3649) for howl or shriek, used only here in the New Covenant text but is used in the Septuagint for shriek or cry aloud, because of idols (Isaiah 10:10), for the nearness of the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 13:6), for judgment upon the Philistines (Isaiah 14:31), and then Moab (Isaiah 15:2), but not once is it used to warn folks about bad business practices. Judgment came due to Israel breaking covenant with the Lord through worshiping idols, or judgment came upon the nations for how they treated the people of God. Another interesting word James used is talaiporia (G5004) for miseries. The noun form used by James is used only once more by Paul in Romans 3:16 who quotes from Isaiah 59:7. The adjective (G5005) is used by Paul to describe his penitent condition: “O wretched (G5005) man that I am…” (Romans 7:24), and the verb form (G5003) is used by James to say “Be afflicted…” (KJV) or “Be miserable… (NASB) or Grieve… (NET) in James 4:9. In other words these rich men are unrepentant and don’t grieve over their sins, so they will grieve over their judgment, which was soon to come upon them, because they’ve broken covenant with God, and mistreated the Lord’s people.

James tells them, “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten” (James 5:2), which reminds me of the words of Jesus: “I counsel you to buy from Me gold purified by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be clothed, and so that the shame of your nakedness does not appear…” (Revelation 3:18). Literal gold doesn’t rust (James 5:3), but James has something else in mind. Rather, he refers to the gold used to do the work of God, like the pound (mina) in Luke 19:11-27 or the talent in Matthew 25:14-30. There Jesus gave his disciples the money it took to carry on **his** business, meaning the work of God. In the context of James’ letter, he is saying what the rich men think they do for God is corrupt, and their righteousness (clothes) is in ruin. Jesus mentioned that folks would begin to believe to persecute and slay Jesus’ disciples would be doing a service to the Lord (John 16:2), and this is what James had in mind in this part of his epistle. The rich men, those responsible for the persecution of Jesus disciples, where heaping riches (works) for themselves for the coming day of judgment (cp. Romans 2:5).