James 5
McGeeCHAPTER 5THEME: Riches are a care; the coming of Christ is a comfort; the prayer of the righteous is a power
James 5:1
RICHES ARE A CAREWe have come to a remarkable section of the Epistle of James which may seem out of place in this epistle. A cursory reading of these first six verses might give the impression that James is teaching a socialistic doctrine of “soak the rich” or “let’s divide the wealth.” But on the contrary, a careful reading of these verses reveals that James is not teaching any such thing. He was instructing believers as to their attitude and action in a world that was going to the bowwows, a world filled with injustice, where freedom was only a dream. The Roman world of James’ day was not like the modern world in which we live. The life-styles were entirely different. There was no middle class in the days of James.
There were the very rich, the filthy rich, and the very poor, the filthy poor. The majority of the Christians of that day came from the very poor and slave classes. They had no great cathedrals on boulevards, and they were not building kingdoms as are many of these great churches which are spending millions of dollars these days. The early church just wasn’t that kind of church. As we approach this passage of Scripture, we should understand that James is not condemning riches. Riches in themselves are not immoral; they are not moral, either. They are just unmoral or amoral. The Bible actually does not condemn money. A great many people have the viewpoint that there is something dirty about money; they call it “filthy lucre.” Scripture doesn’t say that. What Scripture does say is that “…the love of money is the root of all evil …” (1Ti_6:10).
The problem is not in the coin; the problem is in the hearts of men and women. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. James was not condemning people just because they were rich but because of their wrong relationship to their riches. He was concerned with how they got their money and what they were doing with it after they got it. The Lord Jesus Christ had a great deal to say about money and about riches. He gave three parables which I think will help us to understand what James is saying. In Luk_16:19-31 we have the story (which I think is a true story) of the poor man, Lazarus the beggar, and the rich man. This parable has to do with the way the rich man spent his money. He was really living it up. It is interesting that this beggar, Lazarus, was placed at his gate.
Who put him there? I don’t know, but in some way the rich man was responsible for him. And the rich man let the beggar have the crumbs from his table. May I say to you, I would wager that the rich man deducted those crumbs from his income tax! Nevertheless, we are told that the dogs licked the beggar’s sores while the rich man “fared sumptuously.” It was the way this man became rich that in some way made him responsible for the beggar’s condition. Someone will ask, “What makes you think that?” Well, where did the two men go after death?
Lazarus went to Abraham’s Bosom, and the rich man went to hell. That shows us how God judged the lives of these two men, my friend. In Luke 12 the Lord Jesus gave a second parable about a rich man. This man is the one who built bigger barnsat least he had plans to build them. However, he never did build the barns because he died. The Lord Jesus Christ never condemned that man for being rich; when He stated it, He just stated it as a fact. To all outward appearances, this man was a good man and an honest citizen. But he hoarded his money. He wanted to live it up in his old age, and he gave no thought to eternity. The Lord Jesus called him a fool. Actually, he was more than covetous; he was selfish. He was hoarding his money for himself, and that, may I say, is a form of idolatry. We are told in the Word of God that covetousness is idolatry; it is the worship of things. But selfishness is when you worship yourself. There is a lot of that going on today; in fact, it is even being taught as a Christian virtue. We are told that we are to have great respect for ourselves and great confidence in ourselves. But the Lord Jesus said, “…without me ye can do nothing” (Joh_15:5). There is a third parable concerning riches which the Lord Jesus gave. It is the parable of the unjust steward by which we are taught the wise use of money by Christians. God holds man responsible not only for how he makes his money but also for how he spends it. There is another question we should consider before we examine the text: Are the rich whom James is condemning here Christians or non-Christians? Are they the godly rich or the godless rich? There is some controversy and difference of opinion among commentators on this question. I personally believe that they are the godless rich, and in that I follow the opinion of one whom I respect a great deal, John Calvin. Thomas Manton writes that it was Calvin’s judgment that “these six verses are not so much an admonition as a denunciation, wherein the apostle doth not so much direct them what to do, as foretell what should be done to them, that the godly might be encouraged to the more patience under their oppressions; for that the apostle inferreth plainly.” Why does James turn from talking to the godly and begin talking to the ungodly? The fact of the matter is that he doesn’t change. He is still speaking to the godly. How can that be, when he is so obviously speaking to the rich? As he speaks to the ungodly, he is at the same time telling the godly that they live in a godless world, where the godless rich will impose certain hardships upon them and take advantage of them and where they will be at the mercy of these wicked, rich men. The Lord Jesus Christ had already made a general reference to this when He said, “…In the world ye shall have tribulation [trouble]: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (Joh_16:33). The godly are to be patient in these circumstances, knowing that God will deal with the godless rich in eternity if not here. This is made very clear in verse Jas_5:6 of this chapter: “Ye have condemned and killed the just"God condemns these actions of the rich; “and he doth not resist you"but God permits them, so it seems, to get by with it. However, He will judge them in the end. May I make this rather startling statement. I would rather go to hell a poor man than a rich man. But I thank God that I am not going there, and that is because Christ died for me and I have accepted His gift of eternal life. David was troubled by the prosperity of the wicked; it bothered him no end. In Psa_37:35-36 we read, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.” Earlier in this psalm, David gives the same advice that James gives: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass” (Psa_37:7). That is a tremendous statement, and he is speaking of the godless rich. David was troubled by this until he went into the temple and saw that, in time, God would deal with these people. Let us come now to the text Is James speaking to the godless rich of his day or of some future day? He is giving a warning to the rich in his day, and it has an application for any day and certainly for our day. James wrote this epistle, we believe, somewhere between A.D. 45 and 50. Many others now give the date as A.D. 60. Regardless of the date, the destruction of Jerusalem was in the near future, for in A.D. 70 Titus the Roman came and destroyed Jerusalem as it had never been destroyed before. He plowed it under.
He hated Christians and he hated Jews, and they both were in that city. Believe me, when he got through, there were no rich Jews left. They had either been killed or had been put in slavery, and all the riches had been destroyed or lost or confiscated. James can make these strong statements in view of what was coming, for the Lord Jesus had predicted this before He ascended back to heaven. He told His disciples, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh” (Luk_21:20). That was fulfilled in A.D. 70.
James 5:2
In light of the coming of Christ, they are warned that all the riches of the world will come to naught. This obviously would not impress a godless rich person in that day any more than it would today; however, the rich man knew that the future was uncertain for him, just as many realize that today. There is always a danger of a panic, a crash, a drought, or a depression. That has been the order of the day since men started to mint money. There will always be good years, and there will always be bad years. Some of us can remember the depression of the early 1930s when millionaires by the score leaped out of the windows of skyscrapers, and many rich found that they became paupers overnight. Some former millionaires sold apples at street corners, and gilt-edged stocks and bonds in safety deposit boxes were not worth the paper they were written on.
James 5:3
James says, “Do you know how your silver and gold are going to rust? It is because you are going to decay.” This is the judgment that comes upon the godless rich like the men in two of the parables which Christ gave. Death came to both of them, and death certainly separates a rich man from his money. It is said that when one of the Vanderbilts was dying, the family was waiting in an outer room. When the lawyer and the doctor came out, one of the more outspoken members of the family stepped up to the lawyer and asked, “How much did he leave?” The lawyer replied, “He left it all. He didn’t take any of it with him.” May I say to you, that is the way that it rusts, my friend. A gentleman was being shown through the magnificent grounds of a rich nobleman’s estate, and he said to the owner, “Well, my lord, all this and heaven would be noble; but this and hell would be terrible.” James is condemning the godless rich for hoarding their money. Gold and silver do rust. It’s boom today and bust tomorrow. When a man makes a million, he is not satisfied with that. He wants to make two million. It’s like drinking sea waterthe more you drink, the thirstier you get. The rich keep on making millions, but it doesn’t make them any happier. We had here in America two men who were billionaires whose lives are an example of the futility of riches. Both of them were remarkable men who built great financial empires. Howard Hughes was one of them, but in his last days, from all we can learn, he was a recluse and a sick man. He could not have been happy in those years. All that money just didn’t seem to do him very much good. The other man, J. Paul Getty, was reported in the press to have made this statement: “I’d give all my wealth for just one happy marriage.” How tragic! God gave wealth not to be hoarded but to be dispensed. The rich man in Christ’s parable planned to build bigger barns in which to store his goods and his fruits. But you can eat only so much; you can drink only so much, and you can wear only one suit at a time. After the first million dollars, when you start gathering more millions, they are just like a pile of rocks. You cannot eat them; there is nothing you can do with them. That is the reason our Lord called that man a fool. Instead of filling his own barn, he should have gone and filled someone else’s barn. I know a Christian farmer who lives in the fruit belt of California. He told me that the organization of farmers to which he belonged asked him to dump some of his fruit crop in order to keep the prices up. He said that tons of fruit had been destroyed. There were a lot of folk who could have used and enjoyed that fruit. James says that wealth is to be dispensed and not hoarded. Let me pass on to you two little stories which have come my way. A certain young person very impatiently said, “I’m living now, and I mean to have a good time. The hereafter isn’t here yet!” A very wise companion replied, “Noonly the first part of it; but I shouldn’t wonder if the ‘here’ had a good deal to do with shaping the ‘after.’” There was an irreligious farmer who gloried in the fact that he was an agnostic. He wrote a letter to a local newspaper, saying, “Sir, I have been trying an experiment with a field of mine. I plowed it on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I cultivated it on Sunday. I reaped it on Sunday. I hauled it into my barn on Sunday. And now, Mr. Editor, what is the result? I have more bushels to the acre in that field than any of my neighbors have had this October.” The editor wasn’t a religious man himself, but he published the letter and then wrote below it: “God does not always settle His accounts in October.” God has eternity ahead of Him, my friend.
James 5:4
James condemns the godless rich not only for hoarding money but for making it in a dishonest way. They have robbed the poor to get rich. In the parable, the rich man let fall some crumbs for the beggar. What a message is in that! That beggar had been placed at the rich man’s gate because the rich man was responsible for him. In Pro_22:7 it says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” God condemns the godless man who makes his money in a dishonest way, especially when it is by putting down the children of God. God may do nothing now, but He is going to judge in the future. If men are making their riches by stepping on the hands of those beneath them, then God will judge that. This should serve as a word of warning to the rich man, to great corporations and labor unions, and also to great church organizations. God will judge the way men make their money and the way they spend it.
James 5:5
The rich were spending their money in a sinful manner. The miser says, “Dollars are flat to stack them,” but the spendthrift says, “They are round to roll them.” Either way, God says that you are wrong, my friend. Again, let me quote a proverb: “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit” (Pro_18:11). Then in Pro_28:11 we read, “The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.” This is the picture of the two godless rich men whom the Lord Jesus told about; both wanted to live it up. One wanted to store it up now and then live it up in his old age. The other rich man was living it up at the time while the beggar lay outside his gate. If you have decided to live for this life only, be sure to live it up, but God says you are a fool, my friend.
James 5:6
“Ye have condemned and killed the just.” When we look about us at our own government and the other governments of the world, it would seem that there is a power structure which manipulates government and which manipulates the economy. We hear a great deal about the freedom of the press, but that freedom is a freedom to brainwash people to their way of thinking. Although we are supposed to have freedom of speech and of religion, on the most powerful radio stations in any city in this country, you cannot buy time on weekdays for the teaching of the Word of God. That is true no matter how much money you might have to pay for it. “And he doth not resist you.” The rich seem to be getting by with it today, and the sinner is getting by with it. That disturbed David at first. He said, “They spread themselves like a green bay tree and do not cease from flourishing.” If I do something wrong, I get punished for it. God takes me to the woodshed, but the king of Babylon just keeps on going and nothing stops him. Actually, that is God’s judgment on the wicked. He is not judging them now, but the end to which they come is very terrible. Riches have never brought happiness to mankind at all. There is a lesson here for the rich man who is a Christian. How big is your bank account? If Jesus should come right now, would you be willing to let Him look into your safety deposit box? He is going to do that someday. How are you making use of your riches? Pro_30:8 says, “…give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.” I am thankful that I am neither rich nor poor, because if I were rich, I would forget God, and if I were poor, I might steal. I thank God that I can go down the middle of the road today in the middle class.
James 5:7
THE COMING OF CHRIST IS A COMFORTJames had made it very clear what kind of world we live in. It’s a big, bad world with a dog-eat-dog philosophy. Those who are climbing up the ladder of riches are stepping on the fingers of others as they go up. Should Christians join some organization and go all out for good government? Certainly we ought to be interested in trying to elect the best men. However, we cannot change this world, my friend. What, then, can we do? Listen to God; He is speaking now to His own children The Word of God has a great deal to say about the fact that when Christ comes and sets up His kingdom, the poor are going to get a good deal, a right and honest deal, for the first time in the history of the world. This is something that all of the prophets mentioned and which they emphasized. In Isa_11:4 we read, “But with righteousness shall he judge the poor….” Believe me, the poor have not had a good deal yet. If you think that by changing a political party you will somehow get a good deal for the poor, you are wrong. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, my friend, but you simply cannot look to mankind, to men who are grasping for power and money, and expect them to act righteously. It does not matter what they promise, they are not going to take care of the poor.
Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. If there is any group of people who ought to be interested in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the poor people of this world, because He is going to give them the right kind of deal when He establishes His kingdom here upon earth. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” This is a tremendous statement. The coming of Christ will correct the wrongs of the world. We can read this again and again in Scripture. Not only do the prophets mention it, but Christ Himself made it clear in the Sermon on the Mount (which will be the law of His kingdom) that He intends to give the poor a square deal under His reign (see Mat_6:19-24). “Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.” In other words, when the farmer plants his grain, he doesn’t go out the next morning to see if it is time to harvest it. James says, “Be patient. The harvest is coming.” We often hear it said that Christians are harvesting when they go out in evangelism to give out the Word of God. I disagree with that. The Lord Jesus was at the end of an age when He said to His disciples (He was sending them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not worldwide), “…The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few …” (Luk_10:2). They were at the end of the age of law. Every age has ended in judgment; the present age will end in a judgment from God. That will be the harvest.
In Matthew 13 the Lord Jesus said that He will send His angels to do the gathering in for the harvest. Believers do not harvest. He is the one who separates the wheat from the tares. Therefore, what are we doing when we give out the Word of God? The Lord Jesus is also a sower, and today He is sowing seed. I consider that to be my business.
I teach the Word of God, and there is nothing in the world I can do but simply give it out. I’m just sowing seed. Some falls on good ground. Maybe not too much of it, but some falls on good ground. Hallelujah for that! Our business is growing seed.
James 5:8
All the way through Scripture we are taught that we should live in the light of the coming of Christ.
James 5:9
It would be very embarrassing if the Lord should come while you are sitting in judgment on someone else. You would suddenly find yourself in His presence with Him judging you. What James is really saying here is, “Set your house in order. Get your affairs straightened out before He comes, because He is going to straighten them out if you don’t.” This is very important for believers to realize.
James 5:10
The prophets are an example to us. They suffered, and they were patient.
James 5:11
“Ye have heard of the patience of Job.” That is about all I know about Job’s patienceI’ve heard of it. As I read the Book of Job, I feel Job was very impatient. Actually, he learned patience. He was an impatient man, but he learned patience. “And have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” In other words, the Lord is full of pity or compassion and is merciful. You have to go to the end of Job’s trial to see that he learned a great lesson and that the Lord was indeed compassionate and generous with him.
James 5:12
In other words, my friend, when you say you are going to promise something, it ought to be as if you were in a courtroom and had taken an oath to tell the truth. All your conversation ought to be like that. I can remember when my dad went to the bank one year to borrow money to get his cotton gin started. The banker was busy and said to my dad, “Go ahead and take the money.” My dad said, “But I haven’t signed the note.” I never shall forget what the banker said, “If you say you will repay it, that is just as good as if you have signed a note. So come in later and sign up.” May I say to you, a man’s word ought to be just that good. Some people, even if they take an oath on a stack of Bibles, do not honor their word.
James 5:13
THE PRAYER OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS A POWERJames says that the afflicted are to pray and the merry are to sing psalms. Sometimes a song leader will get up in a service and say, “Now everybody sit up and smile.” I used to have a song leader like that in a church I pastored years ago. I told him, “Don’t you know that in this congregation there are people who are really burdened? As I look out there, I see one man who is a doctor and who has been busy all week taking care of patients. I also see a lady who is a buyer in a department store. She is weary and tired.
And you ask them to sit up and smile!” No, you don’t have to sit up and smile. The afflicted are to pray. The merry are to sing psalms. Some people go to church and then try to work up some enthusiasm. We ought to have the great passion and enthusiasm in our hearts even before we go to church, but we do not need to put on a false front.
James 5:14
A few years ago there was a tragic incident which occurred in a little town near Los Angeles where a man threw away the insulin that his little son was supposed to take because he said God was going to heal his son. The little fellow died, and then the man, who must be very fanatic, said, “The Lord is going to raise him up from the dead because he has been anointed.” The leaders of the denomination to which the man belonged said that he had never been taught anything like that. I believe that is true because I have had the privilege of meeting on several occasions with the man who taught theology in one of the outstanding Pentecostal schools. He said this to me, “Dr. McGee, I want you to know that I agree with you that not everyone can be healed. It must be the will of God in order for someone to be healed.” That is my position, and I agree with what he said. If you say that it is God’s will for every Christian who gets sick to be healed, you must agree that the logical conclusion of that line of thinking is that the Christian will never die. He will be healed of every disease which causes death. May I say, that is ridiculous. I have been healed of cancer, but I expect to die, if the Lord does not come in the meantime. It is a cruel hoax perpetrated upon simple believers that it is God’s will for all to be healed. James is not actually asking a question here. He is saying, “Someone is sick among you.” What are you to do? “Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him"that’s the first thing. The second thing is"anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” There are two Greek words which are translated “anoint” in the New Testament. One of them is used in a religious sense; that word is chrio in the Greek. From that we get the word Christos; Christ was the Anointed One. It means to anoint with some scented unguent or oil. It is used only five times in the New Testament, and it refers to the anointing of Christ by God the Father with the Holy Spirit. The second word translated “anoint” is aleipho. It is used a number of times in the New Testament. In Mat_6:17 we read, “But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face.” That simply means to put oil on your hair so that you will look all right. Trench comments that aleipho is “the mundane and profane word.” The other, chrio, is “the sacred and religious word.” The word used in this verse in James is aleipho, and all it means is to rub with oil. You remember that when Hezekiah was sick, they put something medicinal on that boil he had. James is saying something very practical here.
He says, “Call for the elders to pray, and go to the best doctor you can get.” You are to use medicine, my friend. It is a mistaken idea to say that this refers to some religious ceremony of putting a little oil from a bottle on someone’s head, as if that would have some healing merit in it. It has no merit whatsoever. James is too practical for that. James is also a man of prayer. He says, “Call for the elders to pray.” This is the reason that when I get sick I ask others to pray. I believe in the priesthood of believers. James makes this very clear in the following verses
James 5:15
“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” I believe you are to call on God’s people to pray for you when you are sick. “Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” We are to confess our sins to God but our faults one to another. If I have injured you, then I ought to confess that to you. But I will not confess my sins to you, and I do not want you confessing your sins to me. You are to confess that to the Lord. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). I cannot forgive sins: neither can any clergyman forgive sinsonly God can do that. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James was a great man of prayer. He was called “Old Camel Knees” because, having spent so much time on his knees in prayer, his knees were calloused. He speaks now of another great man of prayer, Elijah (Elias is the Greek form of Elijah)
James 5:17
Can you imagine that? Elijah was a weatherman for three and a half years, and for three and a half years he held back the rain! It did not come until he prayed. You are the same kind of person Elijah was. Elijah wasn’t a superman; he was “a man subject to like passions as we are.” But he was a man who prayed with passion, and that is the kind of praying we need today.
James 5:19
“Converteth the sinner from the error of his way.” Some expositors believe that this refers to a child of God who has gone astray. However, I believe it refers to an unsaved person who has not yet come to the truth. “Shall hide a multitude of sins.” When he comes to a saving knowledge of Christ, his sinsthough they be multitudinouswill be covered by the blood of Christ. The wonder of justifcation by faith is that once God has pardoned our sins, they are gone foreverremoved from us as far as the east is from the west. This is a wonderful conclusion for this very practical Epistle of James.