James 5

Verses 1-6, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 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. 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. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.”  Those who have spent their life in pursuit of riches and the pleasures of the world will be condemned, whether or not they have actually achieved their goal. If your life is consumed with selfish desires and pleasures, it is evidence that you are on the wrong road. Acts 14:22 gives us insight into the reality, which is that the road that leads to eternal life is difficult and we may become weary from the labor (not taking our ease), so we must continue in the faith...“We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”  Again, we will enter through tribulations, not pleasures, so do not seek them over God.

Just the desire alone for riches and pleasures demonstrates that you do not understand what is truly important...eternity. If our hearts are right, we will be more concerned about storing up treasure in Heaven, rather than pursuing the lusts of our flesh now.  Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Where you store up treasure shows where your heart is. Your heart can grow bitter when you covet, yet do not receive, often growing envious of others and hating them in your heart when they have the very thing you desire.  James 4:1‭-‬4, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  We must understand that nothing stored on earth is certain. It can be here one day and gone the next. So for all the labor to attain them, you will be laboring in vain...and you will reap death from your own corruption.

Luke 12:16-21, “...The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’  So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  When you understand that everything you have comes from God, it is easier to be generous back toward Him with a portion of what He has provided to you. Those who are not rich toward God suffer from the lack of belief that their needs will be met when they do give to God, acting as though it cannot be replaced. Many have pride in thinking that they have earned their wealth all on their own, and have no need to honor God with the firstfruits of their increase. We cannot take any of it with us, but that is not the reason we should give. It is simply the right thing to do, “...God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). If you want to reap bountifully, it will most definitely not happen by giving sparingly. Jesus willingly gave us everything!

The word tells us not to be deceived in the matter of giving. Our hearts will deceive us and convince us that it is okay not to give, but giving is a clear matter of sowing and reaping. If you do not sow into the kingdom, you cannot expect to reap eternal blessings. How much blessing you want to reap will be shown by how much you give. Also, if you are sowing to your flesh, you will certainly reap corruption. Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”  Verses 7-8 also use the farming analogy, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”  The patience comes in when we do not see immediate fruit, but we continue doing what is right in faith anyway, knowing that the fruit will come in due season, if we wait in faith. After all, according to Hebrews 11:1, “...faith IS the evidence of things not seen.”  The faithless will not wait and take matters into their own hands.

We have examples of suffering and patience in the word to encourage us. Verses 10-11, “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”  When you have your eyes on the end goal, and are not focused on your present circumstances, you can persevere, trusting in God's promises and His mercy toward us.  Hebrews 11:13‭-‬16, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

Verse 16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  Confession of sin does not always equal repentance. Some will confess often, with no desire to be healed of their sin. Godly sorrow over sin should motivate one into taking action in faith to cast off their sinful works. We are all one body, and when one part of the body is in sin...we all suffer. Our hearts should be to pray for others that their hearts would be cleansed and they would be healed of their iniquities. Enjoying the downfall of others is evil and wicked; and ignoring their sin, so they will likewise ignore yours, is evil too! Prayers are effective IF done in faith by those who are in right standing with God. Keep in mind that if you are in disobedience to what God has spoken to you, your prayers are ineffective because you will receive nothing from God until you repent. If you are persistently disobedient and hard-hearted, He can spiritually blind you so that you will no longer even see the truth. Your wisdom will come straight from the devil. Then you'll never have the peace you desire, but rather confusion. Go back to where you got off track and take action to make it right quickly. God wants you right with fellow man AND right with Him before you come to Him.

Verses 19-20, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” Keep in mind that in order to determine that someone is in sin, you will have to make a judgement. Matthew 7:16-18, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”  Not that you will stick your nose in everyone's business looking for sin, but rotten fruit stinks and is not that easy to hide from believers. The only one deceived is typically the one with rotten fruit, who has grown accustomed to the stench so that they no longer smell it. If the Lord reveals others' sin to you and you are made aware, He may just want you to address the issue. Knowing the sin of others is often a burden and weight on the person to whom it is revealed. There is no pleasure in having to address it, but we must do it for their good, and the health of the whole body. It may not feel pleasant for the person being corrected, but we know that true love necessitates the wound.  Proverbs 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”  Beware of those who only tell you what you want to hear (all good things), whether a pastor or a friend. True friends tell you the truth!