Text: James 5:1-6
Focus: Worldliness and Riches
Function: To help people get a proper perspective on their wealth.
Form: Expository
Intro:
From J. Ligon Duncan, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MI.
As we know, James is written to believers. The intention of the book of is to teach us pure religion: how to love God and love our neighbor, to teach us how to be pure and not worldly. Today’s lesson is on the worldliness of riches.
Our Lord and our God, James' words are jolting and bracing. They are convicting. Especially for us who live in a prosperous land and a prosperous culture, who experience the blessings and benefits of widespread prosperity. And so we would think Christianly about this. Give us a mind to hear Your word. Search us out to see if there is any unclean thing in us. Challenge us, we pray, by Your word. Help us not to resist, or to be tempted to apply this word to someone else other than ourselves. At the same time, O Lord, it may be this very sin that reveals to someone in this room the need for saving grace. If that be so, draw that one to Jesus Christ. All these things we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
James' words are, to be blunt, blunt. This isn't very nice language. James’s words are blunt. And we have to ask ourselves, "To whom is James speaking?
Is this how you would expect a Christian minister to speak to a congregation that he assumes to be brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ?
After all, over and over in the book he refers to us as ‘brethren.’
As we ask that question, who is writing to? Let us consider what he is teaching first:
I. Your use of money may reveal the presence of worldliness in your heart.
What's James teaching? Well, he's teaching us the same thing the rest of the Bible teaches us, that our use of wealth is an important spiritual indicator. And in this passage he shows four ways that we can see problems with our use of money. He shows us four ways in which we can see that the problem of worldliness in the use of wealth is not just a problem for someone else, but a problem for ourselves. And I’d like you to see those four things.
First, he begins with his master point. You see it in verse 1. "Come now you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you." In this verse James gives a call to the rich to consider the final judgment to come, and to tremble in light of that final judgment.
And James is teaching a very important lesson in that verse. He's simply reminding us that (SHOW) Your use of money may reveal the presence of worldliness in your heart.
Now there's considerable debate amongst commentators as to whom these comments are directed to. Is James speaking about wealthy Christians in the congregation? Or is he speaking about wealthy unbelievers?
And there are some good things to argue both pro and con. For instance, people will point out the fact that James frequently reiterates when he is speaking to believers in this book the word, using "brethren." And in verses 1 through 6, you will remember that the word "brethren" was not used.
On the other hand, the very phrase "come now" which introduces the section was used in reference to believers just a few verses before in chapter 4. So there are reasons to read it both ways.
At the very least James' words are designed in part to create a mindset amongst believers about wealth. Let's say that James is talking about wealthy unbelievers. Let's just assume that for a minute.
The fact that he's writing something that he's directing at wealthy unbelievers, but he's writing in a book that he's sending to believers, indicates that he wants believers to hear what he's saying to those unbelievers, to think about it, and to have it impact their own mindset with the way that they deal with their own material wealth.
And let me say, it's also tempting because of the language James uses to say, "Well this is not something he's writing to me. I'm not rich. I don't have an annual income of above $200,000, or a million dollars, or wherever you want to set it artificially, wherever rich becomes. But whatever it is, it is always $l0,000 more than I’m making.” Now rich is up there somewhere.
Before you're quick to excuse yourself as not being among the rich, let me ask you to think about it three ways; historically, globally, and personally. Historically, it is simply a fact that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world, and we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, and we are the wealthiest Christians in the history of the world. That puts us among the wealthiest Christians to have ever walked on this planet. You are rich by comparison.
In Chapter 2, he references wealthy has having a gold ring, almost every married man has one.
Think globally as well. Amongst the Christians who live on this planet right now, you are without question the wealthiest Christians on this planet.
Almost every mission agency throughout the world is primarily funded from us.
We are the country that is giving the most in that regard, because our Christians have more than others.
I might also add that our Christians don't give proportionally more than others. We only give absolutely more than others. But that's another story for another day.
We are the wealthiest Christians in the world. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing starvation. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 2,976 people died in the terrorist attacks, but 36,315 people died of starvation.
We need to remember what we have in a global perspective. And we need to take account of what we have personally. Think of what you have in comparison to your parents, your grandparents and your great grandparents. James' words are not for somebody else. They're for us. Let's not excuse ourselves.
And James uses jolting language. And he calls on the rich here to lament their impending doom because of their misuse of wealth, and by implication he calls on them to repent. He wants us to consider our use of wealth in light of God's scrutiny of that use of wealth. He wants to consider our use of wealth in light of the final judgment, in light of God's standard of measurement, in light of God's evaluation, and live accordingly.
In the background of James' directive here you can hear the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents; or the call of Abraham, blessed to bless others, and God's judgment of how those men used their resources.
James is reminding us that our use of money reveals something about either the spirituality or the worldliness of our hearts. Our attitude toward and our use of money and things is a major indicator of either our Christianity or our worldliness.
And, I suspect, for many professing Christians in this room, it's an indication of both. In other words, it's an indication that we do have a spiritual desire to follow the Lord. But on the other hand we see a lot of the world in our heart. We need to realize what we are. We are rich and that brings certain challenges.
(SHOW) Do you view yourself as the rich recipient of God's bounty? And do you use your money and things in light of that?
Over and over the bible says that the way you use your money is an index of who you really are. Not just the money that you give to church and charitable organizations, but the way you use all your money and things.
II. (SHOW) Your home inventory (and the general presence of extras) may reveal wealth-worldliness.
James gives you four areas to look at to make an evaluation of your own money and things. Here they are. In verses 2 and 3 here's his first area. He gives here a specific condemnation of hoarding wealth and things.
Let me put it provocatively. Your home inventory and the general presence of extras may reveal something about wealth worldliness in your life. Notice James' illustration. "Your riches have rotted, your garments have become moth eaten, your gold and silver have rusted. He speaks of overage, spoil, of moth-eaten clothing, and of disused wealth. All of them are signs of hoarding wealth. A person has so much they can't even get around to using what they have. So their clothes end up being moth-eaten. They never get to use the riches that they have so those riches rot, and even their gold and their silver tarnish because they never can use them. They never can clean them and prepare them for use. He's speaking about the hoarding of wealth.
Our closets indicate this. When we were looking for a home, a year and a half ago, I noticed something, the newer the home, the larger the closet. Our house was big when it was built and it has a walk in closet, but that closet isn’t big enough for all our stuff.
The hoarding of wealth is a sin in three ways. It's a sin because it's an improper use of wealth. There's a quote in your bulletin. Take a look it From Randy Alcorn: He says, (SHOW) "God prospers me not to raise my standard of living but to raise my standard of giving.”
God gives us more money than we need so that we can give generously." When we hoard, we're improperly using the wealth that the Lord has given us. He has given it to us that we might be more generous in giving.
Secondly, hoarding of wealth is a sin because it may indicate that a person finds his/her satisfaction in things rather than God.
Hoarding of wealth is a sin, thirdly, because it shows no awareness of God's scrutiny and final judgment, that one day He will come and take account.
Good money management and wise financial planning alone is not Christian stewardship. (SHOW) Learning to give away, to evaluate real needs, to limit expenditure on self and family is essential.
Isn't that the point of Jesus' story of the rich fool in Luke 12? If our wealth use is self-use, and often disuse, then we don't have a kingdom view of wealth. In the kingdom view every dime counts.
Now we tend to be scrutinizing when it comes to the church or the charitable organizations budget, and then we tend to allow our own portion of the budget, and less careful when it comes to what we want to spend for fun. But both ought to be scrutinized. God prospers us that we might be generous in our giving. And our home inventory itself may reveal a wealth worldliness.
III. (SHOW) Your lack of fair treatment of employees may reveal wealth-worldliness.
Secondly look at verse 4. Here James gives a specific condemnation of the mistreatment and lack of concern for the well being of employees. He says that your lack of fair treatment of employees may reveal a wealth worldliness.
Now, I know of only one employer here, and I know how well they treat their employees, so why should I mention this point?
Well, let’s think about it in a practical way.
When I was in Seminary, they had a code of conduct for us seminarians. Every time we went to a restaurant with wait staff, we had to tip at least 15%. My son worked in a restaurant during college and he told me that many times, people would come in, pray before a meal and make a show of their faith and then leave a pathetic tip of less that 10%.
Those people make their living that way. So, here is what I do, if the waiter/waitress is poor, I give the 15%, if they are good, I give the 20% rounded down to the nearest dollar and if they are great, I give 20% rounded up.
Shoes. My son will tell you the arguments we had growing up over the fancy gym shoes they wanted to wear. They saw the athletes making the millions and endorsing a shoe brand and they wanted to be like these heroes. Their peers judged them and their worth by the quality of their shoes. But I was thinking of my own budget, and more importantly, I was thinking of this system of sweat shops and children being exploited in 3rd world countries to make these shoes and the immorality of the whole system. How and were we spend our money indicates our concern to make sure that the business arrangement is win/win for everyone involved.
SERRVE. Dan Patterson serves on the board of SERRVE. Serve is an organization dedicated to selling original craftwork by artisans without exploiting them by taking the bulk of the profit for themselves.
IV. (SHOW) Your self-indulgence may reveal wealth-worldliness.
Thirdly if you look at verse 5 James identifies another area. He specifically condemns selfish extravagance in our use of wealth. He's saying that our self-indulgence may reveal a wealth worldliness. James has really started meddling now. He says, "You have lived luxuriously on earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." He attacks extravagant comfort and the softness of luxury.
What he's attacking is a life without self-denial. Any general pattern of the use of our wealth that is only self-focused and self-pleasuring is sinful. We must learn to deny ourselves. We need to ask questions like this; "What have we given up to support the work of the church or of missions, or to care for poor Christians?"
Not, “What have we given?”, but, “What have we given up? How have we denied ourselves? What have we refrained ourselves from?” If our spending and our Christian giving does not have a component of self-denial, then we're sinning. And this is especially true in the case of the greatness of the needs of the world.
I wonder how much of our money, in our congregation, is thrown away on personally trivial things during the year, which if we totaled up would have made up our deficits? You know, I’m not sure I even want to see that number. Are we giving up in our giving?
If we're never self-restraining, if we're never self-denying, then we're in sin. It's just that simple. No matter where our level of income is, if we're not denying ourselves from time to time, we're in sin. And frankly the more you have, the harder it is to deny yourself in that way.
Notice again in each of James' statements, there is no condemnation of wealth in and of itself. Nothing wrong with it. This is no class warfare that's being enjoined, urging poorer Christians to resent what wealthier Christians have, but in each case it is a condemnation of how wealth is misused.
You see, wealth itself is not sin. Sin comes in three ways. First, it comes in how we get our wealth. Do we get our wealth at the expense of our neighbor? Secondly, it comes in our heart attitude towards wealth. Do we love that wealth, that worldly wealth, too much rather than loving God and fearing him above all else? And thirdly, it comes in our use of wealth. And therefore, the giving of a significant proportion of our wealth for the Lord Jesus, a giving of a significant proportion of our wealth for the aid of the needy, a moderate and modest self use of our wealth, are all three conducive to our resisting sin in these areas.
(SHOW) May God give us grace to respond to his message with both generosity and prudence.
Let's pray.
Our Lord and our God, search us out. Convict us of our sins. Change us. Make us to be a more generous people. Help us to resist the onslaught of a world that tells us that real life is in the taking, and help us to believe what Jesus says. That real life comes when we give it away. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
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