Money Problems? It's worse than you think!

Money Problems?

James 5:1-6

Introduction: Some of the fastest growing churches in the world are those that advocate a gospel of “health and wealth.” That is certainly popular in America today as many view the “American Dream” in terms of “whoever has the most toys, wins.”  James will show us that some of the abuses of today are nothing new, they were already showing themselves in the early church. Like most ungodly behavior, the misuse of money usually begins as a problem in the heart.  The passage we are looking at today has a context; James was speaking in 4:13-17 about those who would arrogantly plan their future without consulting and submitting to the will of God. It also leads up to 5:7, where he says “Be patient then…”  It seems James is signaling out some rich in the community who have acted unjustly toward the poorer Christians. Their money gives them a feeling of independence; they are in control of their life and their future. You might think, well if this is about the rich, I can tune out. If money talks, the only thing it ever says to me is “good-bye”!  Two responses:

     1) According to a recent study, the poorest 5% in American are richer than 68% of the people in the world. The average American is in the top 5% of the wealthiest people in the world. So you are richer than you think!

     2) Whatever your level of income or your possessions, the “love of money,” greed and covetousness, can creep into our lives. The problem isn’t money in itself, but rather our attitude toward wealth and possessions and how that affects our attitude toward God and toward others. Jesus taught his disciples that it is impossible to serve two masters, you can’t serve both God and money (Lk 16:13). Elsewhere He said that where our heart is, there our treasure will be also. Where is our treasure (Matt 6:19-21)? 

The Big Idea: God knows how we handle what He has entrusted to us, so we must be good and godly stewards.

I. We will be held accountable for our use of what has been entrusted to us: Rich oppressors are called to lament their coming miseries (v.1). “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…”

           As in 4:13, James begins again with the phrase, “Come now…”  The repetition ties the two passages together as a stern admonition. He once again is speaking like an Old Testament prophet, condemning those who are living as “practical atheists,” forgetting God as they arrogantly plan their lives and their futures, hoarding wealth and using or disregarding people who get between them and their aspirations.

          “Come now, you rich…” The context makes it clear the rich that James is confronting: those who are hoarding wealth and disregarding others in the process. It’s the “me first, too bad for you” attitude that characterizes so many today. It’s the attitude that says “My comfort and security is all the matters to me, every man for himself!” Its quite different from the attitude pictured by Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the attitude that “looks out not only for our own personal interest, but also the interest of others…” (Phil 2:4). Jesus’ teaching is clear that we are called to love our neighbor, our fellow humans, and that their need and their good is something that should impact our decisions.

          To the “rich” James warns, “…weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…” This is strong language, it speaks to the wailing and mourning that often accompanied the death of loved ones in the the Ancient Near East. It’s used of the crying out of demons as they are cast out by Jesus. Here, the language implies heart breaking despair, like Judas weeping bitterly after betraying the Master. In James admonition it points to the divine judgment that the oppressors of the poor were bound for – the eternal judgment of Hell. Two things to consider:

     1) This is a warning to those who are in fact perishing, who don’t know God and are living with all their focus on this present world. James, as a prophet in the Old Testament, is warning them that judgment is coming and that they had better repent while there is time. Actually he is preaching a bit like Jonah in Ninevah in that he is announcing impending judgment. I think, like the Ninevites, the implied message is “repent before it’s too late!” (Or at least that was God’s message even if it wasn’t Jonah’s!).

     2) Secondly, he is also sounding an alarm for others in the community, believers in Jesus, who have been letting the love of the world creep into their thinking and their choices. It is a wake up call: Is this how you want to act (from the previous context, “Don’t you remember that friendship with the world is enmity toward God?” Have you forgotten who you are in Christ? Walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called!  Listen, God knows how we handle what He has entrusted to us, so we must be good and godly stewards.

II. The useless hoarding of wealth: You can’t take it with you (2-3b) ! “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.”

          James is reminding his readers that the riches that they are pursuing are temporary. This is not something new to James. In a passage I alluded to above, Jesus had taught saying,

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

The things that we treasure in this life are temporary and fleeting. Real estate, investments, our cars, our collections, all of it can be lost, broken or stolen. We should plan – Scripture talks about the wisdom of thinking ahead, planning for an emergency. We should not be a hoarder in the sense of neglecting legitimate needs and the work of the Kingdom. Missionaries are a good example. Men and women hearing the call of God to serve in difficult or even dangerous places to bring the Gospel of Christ to those who need to hear need and deserve our support – the worker is worthy of his/her hire. Am I so tied to things that I covet but don’t need that I am neglecting opportunities to invest in eternity?

          The mention of “evidence against” them implies judgment, it pictures a courtroom and it reminds us that we will give an account. In a real sense the unbelieving rich will have the ashes of their lives behind them as a testimony of what they valued. Remember the story Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-25,

"There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,  ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.  ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,  ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  ²⁴ And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'  ²⁵ But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish...’”

Judgment is coming for those who reject Christ and fix their heart on the things of this world that are so fleeting. 

           As believers in Christ we should have the perspective that we are called to be stewards of what has been entrusted to us. Paul stated a principal in I Corinthians 4:2 when he said “…it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy…” Paul is talking there about our faithfulness with the message that has been entrusted to us, but the principal of stewardship applies more broadly to all of life. Paul asked the Corinthians in that same chapter “What do you have that you did not receive? IF you received it why do you boast as if you had not?” (I Corinthians 4:7b).  All that we have, life itself, is because of the grace and mercy of God.  God knows how we handle what He has entrusted to us, so we must be good and godly stewards.

III. A heart issue: The Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (3c-6). James points specifically to some of the sins of oppression that characterized the unbelieving rich of his day, and unfortunately at times showed up among wealthy believers as well. Elsewhere Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:6-10,

^“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment,  ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.  ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.  ⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith…”

Paul is not saying that every sin starts with the love of money, but he is saying that’s where a lot of sins begin, and James points out just a few.

     The sin of wrong priorities, specifically, living only for today (v.3c). “You have laid up treasure in the last days.”  The perspective of an atheist is that we are living only for today – so eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.  Since this life is all there is (they suppose), the chief concern becomes looking out for number one, or perhaps my family as well, but beyond that, you are on your own! James says we are living in the “last days” and that truth should mold our priorities in such a way that we look beyond our comforts and desire for security and think about the kingdom and the mission that has been entrusted to us. Wait a minute, you might say, if James thought we were in the “last days,” and here we are 2000 years later, what’s the big deal? The writer to the Hebrews uses similar language in 1:1-2, the work of Jesus initiated the “last days.”  The same phrase is used by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-4  where Paul describes some of the same attitudes that James is confronting in his letter:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…”

Does that not sound like a description of America in the 21^st century? If atheists are on a path to destruction living only for today, why in the world would a believer conduct his life, Monday to Saturday, like a “practical atheist,” making choices with our possessions that seems to imply I am living only for myself and my comfort and security? In these last days we have been entrusted with an urgent mission. Time is short and eternity is at stake for those who have not yet believed. God alone saves, but He works through us, the church, His followers, and the preaching of the Word. We need to refocus our perspective.

     Next James points out the sin of unjust gain (v.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.” The picture is that of unjustly gained wealth, a willingness to bend the rules or step on other people to get what we want.  Fairness is not a motive, much less generosity. 

     Next he turns to the sin of self-indulgence (v.5). ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have had your day, you have experienced “comfort” in this life, but again speaking like a prophet in the Old Testament, judgment is coming.  I point the finger at myself as well as I say this, but this is America in the 21^st century. We think we deserve it, we are “different” than the rest of the world. So millions starving in Sudan have nothing to do with me eating out four times this week or spending $100 a month on lattes. What would Jesus say? Would to God that more and more we would look on the world around us through His eyes, and think beyond the games that entertain us to the souls that are headed toward a lost eternity.

     The sin of injustice (v.6). ^“You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.” The language here is a little difficult. Ultimately we know that only Jesus is righteous, and He, the Just, died for the unjust, willingly, and silently, like a lamb before its shearers, He opened not His mouth.  I think James’ point here is that their treatment of the poor by the rich, the innocent who did nothing to deserve their hatred, was leading to their suffering and death. Is this the love for our neighbor that Christ followers are called to exhibit? If we are God’s children, if our heart is to know Him, more and more we should see the world around us through our Father’s eyes. Compassion, grace, and generosity will increasingly guide the decisions we make.

What is God saying to me in this passage? The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The things we accumulate here are temporary, they will all rust, corrode or burn, so why do we hold it so tightly? God will hold us accountable, He knows how we handle what He has entrusted to us, so we must be good and godly stewards.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? You are richer than you think. Money is not evil, having it is not sin, but hoarding it, coveting it, gaining it unjustly surely is evil, which is sin. You might identify yourself more with the oppressed poor, but remember, fellow American, you are richer than you think. Sometimes we can develop a sense of entitlement, an idea that we deserve to be supported by society. There are legitimate needs, and then there is also laziness. We should be willing to work. We should be cheerful givers: God is not only interested in tithes, he expects us to be wise stewards of all that He has given us, using all that we have been entrusted with for good, for the gospel, and for His glory.               AMEN.