The last part of chapter four of the book of James focused our attention on the fact that God has given us today to do his will.

And we know that his will is for his children to do good works.

We are known as the body of Christ and Christ’s body is created to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.

God expects all parts of His body to be profitable to him on a

daily basis just as we expect all parts of our body to be profitable to us on a daily basis.

What would you think of an arm that wanted a day off during the week, or an eye that refused to open from time to time?

We know the body does not store up food for next month’s use.

The body does not hoard blood but all blood is involved in the body’s daily needs.

There is no bank for depositing future heart beats that can be withdrawn when the heart gives out.

No, the principle of scripture as far as man is concerned, is to use that which God has provided to perform his will on a daily basis.

So one of the problems we face in whether or not we do good works is how much we attend to this day, versus how much we attend to future days.

How much of that which God gives us is devoted to his will for today and how much of that which God gives us is devoted to what we claim as our future.

That is the rub, and that thought is captured in the last verse of chapter 4 which tells us: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Now that is quite a statement when you consider how much good is needed in this world.

No man knows of a time when all good works were done for the day.

There is more than enough to be done.

Therefore the need to do good works for the Lord is ever present, but ignoring the needs when you have the wherewithal to satisfy them by your good works is clearly sin in God’s eyes.

He has given you stewardship over his treasure to use for his glory but if you hoard his treasure for some imagined future use it is the same as stealing from God.

It is understandable that the world system which Satan has created is to seek personal pleasure and personal security, but it is not understandable that the church is afflicted with the same lust.

The problem is that there is too much of the world in the church, and there is too much of the world in us.

Unless we take a long hard look and absorb God’s truth we do not know how immersed we are in the culture of this world.

The epistle of James is just the book that should open our eyes to how worldly we are when it comes to the use of that which God has given us to steward.

We are not to play God when it comes to satisfying our needs.

God has that responsibility and fulfills it well and when we assume the future, and hoard for the future we intrude upon God’s dominion.

James deals with this desire to hoard as he continues his instruction in Chapter 5

James 5:1-6,  Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. ²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. ³Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. ⁴Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. ⁵Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. ⁶Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

James now addresses the matter of wealth.

Are you wealthy in a monetary or property sense?

Wealth of course is a relative condition for any of us are wealthy in comparison to most of the rest of the people of the world.

This passage about rich men is a severe passage, probably the most severe passage in this book.

It is a call to rich men to repent.

Not to repent because of the fact they are rich but to repent because they are laying up their riches for the last days, they are laying up their riches for the future.

This is exactly contrary to the instruction of our Lord in Matthew 6:19-21 where it is a black and white issue with no grays, for our Lord Jesus said:

Now the rich were first addressed in the book of James in the first chapter.

They were not rebuked for being rich, nor were they instructed to give all their wealth away.

They were warned not to become proud and arrogant about their wealth.

They were to glory in their humiliation, always being aware that they, like the grass of the field, will pass away.

They were reminded in chapter four that their life is but a vapor which briefly appears and then vanishes.

So it is not being rich that is a sin, but rather the gaining of and using wealth in a sinful way.

The rich are warned that both they and their wealth will all too quickly pass away, and that any hoarded wealth will not do them any good beyond the grave.

James calls on specific rich men to repent.

He calls on those who have obtained their wealth by means of injustice.

These are those who have increased their profits by refusing to pay their laborers in a fair and timely fashion.

Imagine that, withholding pay from the very ones whose labors have produced the riches that wealthy men and women enjoy.

God hears the cry of those who are oppressed by the men like those described by James.

The rich have power to help the powerless or to harm the powerless.

But God expects them to help the powerless.

The Proverbs are rich with this instruction:

Proverbs 22:16,  He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

That phrase "he that giveth to the rich" means he that giveth to the rich hoping for something in return.

The message of this proverb is that both the rich who wish to increase their riches and those who invest in the rich are neglecting their stewardship to the poor.

Another Proverbs 14:31,  He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

And Proverbs 22:22,  Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: ²³For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

This is a solemn warning to those who take advantage of the poor, both in business and in civil matters.

For the Lord himself will be their protector and defense attorney.

The verdict will be harsh against those who rob, oppress, and afflict that poor for God will spoil the soul of those that spoiled the poor.

And then our Lord’s admonition to those who have been given much is also to be remembered by the rich.

And that is taught in Luke 12:48, For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

God holds those who have been given much to a higher standard as to giving.

They are not given to hoard and to increase but to give to those who have not.

The Apostle Paul gave this instruction to Timothy in:

I Timothy 6:17-19,  Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; ¹⁸That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; ¹⁹Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

The rich man has not been given wealth to indulge in his own desires.

Being rich is a great burden in many ways for the rich have far more capacity to satisfy the desires of the flesh than do the poor.

God is not against his children enjoying the good things of this life, but if you have been given much it is simply that you have been given stewardship over God’s wealth.

And Timothy was told to charge the rich that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.

Not laying up their riches for some unsure future but laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.

In other words they are to use their riches to lay up for themselves treasure in heaven.

For the choice is this.

Lay up your treasures in heaven where moth nor rust corrupts, where it is safe from thieves, where it does not decrease in value or you may hoard it for some future time with absolutely no guarantee that it will survive.

James tells the rich man that hoarding will bring miseries.

Hoarding will cause his riches to be corrupted, his garments to be moth-eaten, his gold and silver to be cankered (corrode).

The wealth that they have accumulated will not endure, but will perish.

Their agricultural wealth – like that of corn or grain – would rot.

Their elegant clothing, which was also a form of wealth, would become moth-eaten.

Their silver and gold would rust.

We think of gold and silver as non corrosive but that is relative, for all things of this world have a given life including gold and silver, but James tells his readers that it will not accompany them beyond this life.

Notice that in each case the wealth that perishes does so by virtue of being hoarded and not being put to good use.

Grain would not have rotted in the hands of the poor.

It rotted in warehouses, where it was hoarded.

Moths do not attack clothing on our bodies; they attack clothing that is left in storage unused, and the same goes for rust.

Things that are left idle and unused rust, not things that are put to use.

It is the hoarding of wealth that is evil, when there are needs that it could have met.

The picture is one of a stockpile of unused wealth, all of which is now worthless by virtue of non-use.

It is this stockpile that testifies against the wealthy in the day of judgment, evidence that they did not use their wealth to minister to the needs of others.

How different things would have been had these goods become converted to treasure laid up in heaven:

And then James warns the rich men that the rust of them shall be a witness against him.

God is going to pile up the remnants, the rust and corrosion, of that which the rich man hoarded for an assumed future and face the rich man with that of which he thought so highly.

When I read that I wonder if the Lord, at the judgment seat of Christ, will have a copy of our bank account statement and face us with that which we so carefully saved for some future date and held back from doing that which we knew to do.

I don’t know if this will be the case but there is going to be much fuel at the judgment seat that will be consumed in the judgment fires.

The gold and silver and precious stones that we hold back in this life will be consumed as wood hay and stubble.

But the gold, silver and precious stones that are sent ahead, in the form of good works in the name of Christ will be perfected in the fires of judgment and last throughout eternity.

This message is certainly pertinent to us as it was to the early readers of James for shortly after its writing many of the wealthy of James’ day suffered great loss of their wealth due to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans.

How prophetic the words of James were as he told them in verse 1: