The Bible says a lot about rich people, and most of it isn’t pleasant. For some reason, I often find myself wanting to skip over those passages. Or, if I pay attention to them at all, I want to explain why they don’t really mean what they say . . . or why they don’t apply to me or the people I’m teaching.
Could it have something to do with the fact that—because I have access to clean drinking water and plenty of food—I’m in the top echelons of the world’s population?
Is that why I’m tempted to skip passages like this?
That’s probably the best explanation.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 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. 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. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have con-demned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you (James 5:1-6).
Here’s the caveat most readers are expecting: James isn’t teaching that rich Christians are inherently outside of God’s will. He’s addressing specific sins in a specific context. But with that caveat acknowledged, the larger principle remains, and it shows up every-where Scripture warns about money. Having it brings very real spiritual dangers.
That’s why Jesus told the rich ruler to sell what he had and give the money to the poor. That’s why the villain in one of his most famous stories is a rich man who isn’t guilty of anything overtly “bad,” at least as far as the text is concerned. That’s why Jesus condemned a man who made what looked like a wise business decision by replacing his storage buildings with bigger ones.
Money does things to us. It can quietly convince us we’re above other people. It can take our eyes off Jesus. It can lead us to trust in what we own rather than in God. And it can make it easier to justify using others to our own advantage, which is exactly the temptation James confronted in his readers.
In short, wealth can become a god.
So we should read James carefully and resist the temptation to apply his warning to the guy at work who “really needs to hear this” or the ultra-successful entrepreneur we’ve never met. There’s a very good chance the warning lands closer to home.
If we’re honest, most of us have felt the pull to let our possessions distract us, protect us, or define us. And more often than we’d like to admit, our stuff has tried to take our eyes off the Savior. —Chuck
0 Comments