Sermon Tone Analysis

Warning to not be like the rich

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 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.

4 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.

5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.

You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.

He does not resist you.

ESV

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The rich people pictured are clearly wealthy landowners, a class accused of economic exploitation and oppression from early times.

In James’ surroundings, we may think particularly of Palestinian Jewish landlords, who owned large estates and were often concerned only about how much profit could be gained from their lands.

James proceeds to announce the condemnation of these rich landholders (v. 1) and justifies their condemnation on the grounds of their selfish hoarding of wealth (vv.

2–3), their defrauding of their workers (v.

4), their self-indulgent lifestyle (v. 5) and their oppression of ‘the righteous’ (v. 6).

IN the first six verses of this chapter, James has two aims—first, to show the ultimate worthlessness of all earthly riches, and, second, to show the detestable character of those who possess them.

By doing this, he hopes to prevent his readers from placing all their hopes and desires on earthly things.

If you knew what you were doing, he says to the rich, you would weep and wail for the terror of the judgment that is coming upon you at the day of the Lord.

The first indictment of the rich has to do with the worthlessness of the worldly goods that they have so carefully assimilated.

James singles out three classes of material goods.

Riches (ploutos) is sometimes understood as a reference to crops, with garments and gold and silver then specifying the two other most common forms of wealth in the ancient world.

But it is more likely to be a general summarizing term for any wealth; rot (sēpō) can refer to the decay or transitoriness of all forms of human endeavour ().

The moth-eaten garments remind us strongly of Jesus’ similar warning about the transitoriness of ‘earthly treasures’ that are consumed by moths ().

James’ reference to the rusting of gold and silver has sometimes been taken as an indication of his impoverished background since, of course, these precious metals cannot, in fact, rust.

But the word rust (ios) was already being applied to gold and silver (Epistle of ) and the image seems to have become a traditional way of designating the temporality of even the most precious metals (cf.

also ).

All three statements, in fact, reflect the traditional Old Testament and Jewish teaching about the foolishness of placing reliance upon perishable material goods.

The rich people pictured are clearly wealthy landowners, a class accused of economic exploitation and oppression from early times.

In James’ surroundings, we may think particularly of Palestinian Jewish landlords, who owned large estates and were often concerned only about how much profit could be gained from their lands.

James proceeds to announce the condemnation of these rich landholders (v. 1) and justifies their condemnation on the grounds of their selfish hoarding of wealth (vv.

2–3), their defrauding of their workers (v.

4), their self-indulgent lifestyle (v. 5) and their oppression of ‘the righteous’ (v. 6).

The first indictment of the rich has to do with the worthlessness of the worldly goods that they have so carefully assimilated.

James singles out three classes of material goods.

Riches (ploutos) is sometimes understood as a reference to crops, with garments and gold and silver then specifying the two other most common forms of wealth in the ancient world.

But it is more likely to be a general summarizing term for any wealth; rot (sēpō) can refer to the decay or transitoriness of all forms of human endeavour ().

The moth-eaten garments remind us strongly of Jesus’ similar warning about the transitoriness of ‘earthly treasures’ that are consumed by moths ().

James’ reference to the rusting of gold and silver has sometimes been taken as an indication of his impoverished background since, of course, these precious metals cannot, in fact, rust.

But the word rust (ios) was already being applied to gold and silver (Epistle of ) and the image seems to have become a traditional way of designating the temporality of even the most precious metals (cf.

also ).

All three statements, in fact, reflect the traditional Old Testament and Jewish teaching about the foolishness of placing reliance upon perishable material goods.

The first indictment of the rich has to do with the worthlessness of the worldly goods that they have so carefully assimilated.

James singles out three classes of material goods.

Riches (ploutos) is sometimes understood as a reference to crops, with garments and gold and silver then specifying the two other most common forms of wealth in the ancient world.

But it is more likely to be a general summarizing term for any wealth; rot (sēpō) can refer to the decay or transitoriness of all forms of human endeavour ().

The moth-eaten garments remind us strongly of Jesus’ similar warning about the transitoriness of ‘earthly treasures’ that are consumed by moths ().

James’ reference to the rusting of gold and silver has sometimes been taken as an indication of his impoverished background since, of course, these precious metals cannot, in fact, rust.

But the word rust (ios) was already being applied to gold and silver (Epistle of ) and the image seems to have become a traditional way of designating the temporality of even the most precious metals (cf.

also ).

All three statements, in fact, reflect the traditional Old Testament and Jewish teaching about the foolishness of placing reliance upon perishable material goods.

The first indictment of the rich has to do with the worthlessness of the worldly goods that they have so carefully assimilated.

James singles out three classes of material goods.

Riches (ploutos) is sometimes understood as a reference to crops, with garments and gold and silver then specifying the two other most common forms of wealth in the ancient world.

But it is more likely to be a general summarizing term for any wealth; rot (sēpō) can refer to the decay or transitoriness of all forms of human endeavour ().

The moth-eaten garments remind us strongly of Jesus’ similar warning about the transitoriness of ‘earthly treasures’ that are consumed by moths ().

James’ reference to the rusting of gold and silver has sometimes been taken as an indication of his impoverished background since, of course, these precious metals cannot, in fact, rust.

But the word rust (ios) was already being applied to gold and silver (Epistle of ) and the image seems to have become a traditional way of designating the temporality of even the most precious metals (cf.

also ).

All three statements, in fact, reflect the traditional Old Testament and Jewish teaching about the foolishness of placing reliance upon perishable material goods.

Moo, D. J. (1985).

James: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol.

16, pp.

165–166).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

James talks about the 3 sources of wealth in the middle east.

Corn and grain which becomes rotten

Garments nice clothes showed wealth

gold and silver of course they do not actually rust, this is james vivid way of showing that all things are doomed to decay

The bible has many examples of the rich taken advantage of the poor

The old testament book of

28  Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,

Therefore because you trample on the poor

and you exact taxes of grain from him,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not dwell in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

Woe to those who join house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is no more room,

and you are made to dwell alone

in the midst of the land.

28  Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,

28  Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

The problem is not being “rich”, rather having gained the wealth by injustice, not paying labor wages, taxing where not needed.

HERE is condemnation of selfish riches and warning of where they must end.

(1) The selfish rich have gained their wealth by injustice.

The Bible is always sure that the labourer deserves to be paid (; ).

The day labourer in Palestine lived on the very verge of starvation.

His wage was small; it was impossible for him to save anything; and if the wage was withheld from him, even for a day, he and his family simply could not eat.

That is why the merciful laws of Scripture again and again insist on the prompt payment of wages to the hired labourer.

‘You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy labourers … You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt’ ().

‘You shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning’ ().