“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.” (James 5:1 ESV). The sarcasm of James does not become the person who was called the brother of Christ. But even as today, the rich and powerful are tempted to do the outrageous in order to “protect” their wealth. James seems to echo 1 Tim 6:10 with a vengeance. The love of money is the downfall of many good Christians. The need to accumulate wealth in excess stands in the way of the path of righteousness as a mighty roadblock and causes most to forget the statutes of God and the power of Chirst living. In the final days, in the days of judgement, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” (Proverbs 11:4, ESV). God does not count your gold or silver but the intent of your heart. If you used money for the good of mankind, it is well; but if you kept the fortunes and denied the welfare of the needy and the poor then it will be charged against you. It would appear that those who amassed great fortunes at the expense of others have found it of no value in heaven and useless in the pit of torment. Many have stood at the feeding trough, leaving millions of people jobless, homeless and penniless. and they cry out “Woe is me, I have lost fortunes! Please bail ME out while I let others wither by the wayside!” It is as if they did not listen to the words of Jesus, as He preached on the mountain side, “Do not lay up your treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up yourselves Treasure in Heaven…” (Matthew 6:19-20 ESV).

Today I see the same mindset in not only the very rich but also in those who struggle day to day to provide for their families. The forces that causes them to work hard to provide for their families causes them to forsake the needs of others. I hear their cries that others don’t deserve help because they didn’t earn it as much as others. It is an attitude that if you want it, go earn it yourselves, regardless if they are capable working, have an opportunity to work or the skills to provide for their needs. They reject the needs of the elderly, sick or weak because they are afraid that if they help, they will become just like them. So they hoard what little they have to prevent the “undeserving” from getting anything at all.

James 5:3 states, “Your gold and silver have corroded you and their corrosion will be evidence against you…” When the final judgement comes God will ask you if your desire of wealth, and the reluctance to give aid to others, was more important than your desire to please Your God. Are you so afraid that the health needs, the food on other tables, the education of those in the inner cities, the starving, persecuted in foreign lands would come out of your pocketbooks that you forsake the Gospel of the Sermon on the Mount? Here in America, the land of the free, we are leaning toward a land of the haves and the have-nots. What we create by our reluctance to share with one another, to fight for the issues that provide for all, to meet the needs of the many, is in fact partnering with the oppressors in the dehumanization of the poor, weak and those who have medical needs that they can not meet by their own means.

Moses told the people, “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him, the wages of the hired servant will not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. but you shall fear [revere] Your God.” (Lev 19:13-14 ESV). Yet while our nation debates on a National Heath Program, struggles to create jobs for the unemployed and provide programs for those struggling with mortgages that they were tricked into getting and they could not afford, many good Christians cry out they do not deserve our help. But let me ask you this; do any of us deserve to be rescued by Jesus from our sins? What makes us better than God? Who are we to decide who is worth saving and who is not? I have long held the notion that if those who loved the Lord Our God as we claim to do, the Government would not need to create programs for society, the Christians would naturally do it themselves. While we struggle to keep our heads above water, we hear those who have robbed us of our well being by shady deals, unscrupulous business practices and outrageous profit taking tell us the the government want to take from us what is ours. The facts are that they are the ones who are the robbers. They convinced us to buy what we did not need, to invest in their schemes and to trust their bad judgements. They try to convince us that by helping one another to survive, we are only hurting ourselves. They try to tell us that some people deserve not to have a living wage, to be denied medical aid, to earn a right to live in a safe place, to have equal and affordable education. And to make things worse, many come to us as leaders in our communities and our churches.

In Deut. 24:14 comes the commandment of the God of All; “You shall not oppress the hired servant who is poor and needy…” Jeremiah tells the rich and the powerful. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper room on injustice.” (Jer. 22:13 ESV). The prophet Malachi tells them, “Then I will draw near to you a judgement, I will be a swift witness against… those who oppose the hired workers in his wages, the widow and the fatherless…” (Mal. 3:5). therefore when James says, “Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. And their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” (James 5:5 ESV).

It is no wonder then that those who have been denied, who are victims of other peoples greed and carelessness, who live without the benefit of health insurance, who are now jobless and have lost their homes in these days of crisis cry out as did David, “I call upon You, for You will answer me, O God; incline Your ear to me to hear my words.” (Psalm 17:6) “In my distress, I called upon the LORD. to My God; I cried for help.” (Psalm 18:6). The poor, the lame and the rejected cry our for justice while those who have all the benefits, the wealth and the power cry out, “Woe is me, I can not spare pennies of my millions to help you.” They do not care for the plight of the people, they seem to worship another God than we do.

Did not Isaiah warn the people of Judea, “Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.” (Isaiah 5:8 ESV). If ever there was an argument against mega-conglomerates, this is one. As the few amassed great wealth by cutting jobs, rejecting decent wages and joining together to create a false sense of security with “paper profits” , fewer and fewer people had real jobs and real pay. If James wrote to the churches today, his words would be even stronger at the mega-preachers who drive luxury cars, and live in mansions while thousands of people are out of work, with no food to feed their families, no homes. Do not think that you are “saved”, when we wish to reap desolation on those who have less by neglect. We are then no better than the Pharisee who thanked God he was not like the publican. (See Luke 18:9-14).

So when James says that the injustices of the rich and powerful against the workers cry out against them, they reach the ears of the LORD. And those who support the injustice because they fear that they shall “lose” riches on earth, they share in the injustice. I have heard prayers that the health plans of the government fail. I have heard people say that those who are in fear of losing their homes because banks talked them into loans they could not afford should not be helped. To them I say, Christ is not in your heart. James says, “You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.” (James 5:6). When our hearts are hardened to the point that we no longer want to help those who are in need, or who foolishly listened to the advise of greedy men, that our hearts no longer hear God’s Love of all men. As we fret over the cost of programs to help the needy, we lose sight that we are to love one another as equals in the eyes of the Lord.

Paul wrote to the citizens of Rome, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1 ESV). Jesus told the Pharisees, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your heart. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15 ESV). So these men who were the lovers of money, (Luke 16:14) are the same people who justify accumulation of wealth that serves no purpose but to deny others. The need of greater wealth is status and they become bored and feel useless without it. 2 Peter 2:19 speaks of the powerful and sinful as those who live in error, “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” to the rich and the powerful who resist paying good wages, who fight against health programs and would rather lay off or fire a good worker to hire someone else for less, they have enslaved themselves to a false god. They have come to worship the need of money over the Grace of God. They have forsaken righteousness for greed, no matter how much they justify or candy coat their intentions. To them, their reward is in the wealth they acquire. because they have turned to worship manna, their only reward will here on earth. They will be rewarded by a swift and hash judgement in the final days. Their god, manna, money, will not save them. they may cry our, “Lord, LORD,” but he will not hear them, the god of wealth has no ears.

To which James says, “Be patient, therefore, brother,…” (James 5:7) The righteous will be served, the faithful to the Spirit of Christ will prevail and those who suffered on earth by the hand of the ungodly and the unrighteous will see heaven and be able to praise God eternally. what we must guard against is that we don’t lose sight of God in our struggles to survive day to day. We must focus on the riches of a godly life and not on the frivolous thing of the world. we must be satisfied with what we have and not desire to have more than we need if it means others do without because of it. We must strive to live within our means and use our excess to aid others. We are to protect ourselves form placing to much importance on worldly things and be satisfied by the pleasures of God rather than the desires of material things.

I ask myself today if I really need all the trappings of man that surround me and I find that I have way more than I actually need. I could do away with most of the things I have and still be comfortable enough. Even the house I live in is more than I wanted and I have lived in a smaller house most of my life quite well. For years I have tried to convince my family that I don’t need a second car, ( I don’t like driving anyway) but they have always found a need for it. God has always prevented me from selling it. God knew that I still needed to keep it so that my daughter can use it until she can affords one of her own. (She does not want to buy it, she hates it!) As I write this, I have been thinking of all the things I can do without. When the Mobile Park has its next yard sale, I want get rid of most of it and donate the money to missions. Convincing my wife will be a problem though, much of the stuff was bought with her own money and I have no right to ask her to sell or dispose of things that I have no control over. As I realized that I have not practiced as well as I should the lessons of God’s word regarding my own meager “wealth”, I see that I enjoy pleasures to much while members of my own family are struggling with their lives. So I intend to put into practice what I preach.