The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 281


The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 281

Boasting about worldliness
James 5:1-6 – Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned; you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Christ/Messiah is The Wisdom and knowledge of God

James uses this interesting phrase ‘come now’ twice in his epistle, it is not used by any other writer in the New Testament which means little; but interestingly the phrase is like something we may say today to grab the attention of those listening to an important message—like ‘listen up’! In chapter four James uses the term and again in chapter five so I believe that verses 13 – 17 of chapter 4 are connected to verses 1 – 6 of chapter 5. James reveals in chapter four that people plan to do this or that, to secure a profit, to travel and to enjoy life. (Remember too that there are no chapters or verses in the original writings).

On the personal side of living life, we have goals that reach far into the future and should God allow us to live and reach some of our goals, this is a blessing from Him; God then should be praised and thanked. This does not mean that the pathway to every goal will be paved in gold, silver and precious stone. There remains the obstacle of the greedy rich, those who are clothed in the garments of deception and fraud. Their gold and silver come from selfish desire and not from the blessings of God. These people will not give God glory because they steal from God, like the devil.

I am reminded of the garments of a shepherd but clothed on a ‘wolf’, or the garments of a well-dressed person who is a thief or a murderer. I am sure you get the picture as it does not take much of a thought to visualize these corrupted persons. However, in our days as we live these out, we can and do run into some folks who come on strong; yet seemed gentle and kind, but after a bit of song and dance are nothing more than a ‘hot flash in the pan’. When they go away, they usually do not go away hungry, since they have taken from the faithful the wages of fraud and deceit.

These schemers know what they do, they live in luxury by way of the appetite of their flesh, preying on those who are poor in human spirit – Jesus reveals in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) that—blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Meaning that these folks are not burdened with the lust of the world and the pride of life, like those who are. It is these souls that the worldly rich seek and destroy because these folks do not resist them.

(I like being poor in human spirit as God teaches me to be rich in personal faith in Him).

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