"Éyou ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

 

            In this passage, James brings a word of judgment against two groups of people. To understand what he is saying, it is helpful to think a bit about the economy in the ancient world. Since 90 percent of the people were poor, and focused mainly on finding enough to eat, the demand for consumer goods was very low. People did not buy goods, but would make what they absolutely needed themselves. The one exception to that was cloth, which they would buy to make clothing, but of course at nowhere near the quantity we seem to require. So merchants were going around the world buying goods and bringing them to the wealthy, to the 10 percent of the population. That meant that most of the goods were moving to the center of power and wealth, to Rome. Goods were drained from other regions and concentrated in Italy.

            The other factor is that this is long before capitalism and socialism. Craig Blomberg says that in the Roman world people thought of wealth as limited. If someone had a surplus of money, it was because the poor had been deprived of having as much as they otherwise might.

            James says there are traveling merchants who go from city to city and they plan to make money. Their business was not necessarily honest or just. They were most likely not doing God's will. They were generally not trusted in the community and most people thought of them as a class as liars.

            For James, there are two problems. First, they thought they were in control of the future. They were thinking about their business life in a way that was independent of God. In their planning they had eliminated faith and prayer. Their business was a matter of total self-reliance. Craig Blomberg writes, "Wealth allows people an independence from God that can be dangerous for their spiritual state." David Nystrom calls it an attitude of certainty apart from God, and says such an attitude betrays friendship with the world. James calls them to seek God's will in their business.

            The deeper issue here is that not every endeavor is in God's will. Whether they were dishonest or not in their dealings, James is calling them to put God's will first in their lives. The Pietists of the 17^th century in Germany talked about living for "God's Glory and Neighbor's Good." When we do God's will our lives bring glory to God, and good to our neighbors. This is a repeated theme in scripture:

            "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my father who is in heaven." -- Matthew 7:21.

            "Jesus says, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." -- John 4:34.

            In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, "if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done." -- Matthew 26:42.

            This is not a word against planning or setting goals. It is a call to submit to God's will in all our planning and doing. We are to confess our own limits and finiteness and also God's sovereignty. When you plan your day or your year, your budget or your commitments, do you pray for God's will, and do you test your plans by the will of God? Do your plans reflect both God's glory and the good of your neighbor?

            The second group that James addresses is landowners. This portion is very strongly worded. One way to make quite a bit of money in the ancient world was to own good farm land. Especially if one owned vineyards, there was money to be made, because wine commanded quite a good price. Many landowners did not actually work themselves, but hired others to do the labor.

            James sees two issues with the landowners: hoarding and defrauding workers. Hoarding is storing up wealth without a plan for its use in God's will. James speaks of those who become rich to the point of waste and yet are not generous to help others. Their crops in storage are rotting, their extra clothing never worn is being eaten by moths, and their jewelry never used is corroding. They are wasting precious goods and food in a setting of want. They keep far more treasures than they need on earth, but no treasures in heaven. The one who hoards wealth thinks of the immediate future without any faith, and gives no attention to eternity. Your view of eternity will shape how you live today.

            In our men's Bible study on Fridays, we completed reading James, and so we decided to turn the page and read I Peter next. In the opening verses Peter writes about the elect, those chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, for obedience to Jesus Christ. He does not say there that we are chosen for heaven or for reward, but that we are chosen for obedience. We are chosen to be honest, to follow Jesus, to do God's will, to be generous with what we have been given. We are chosen to use our wealth for a purpose, to further the kingdom of God.

            The deeper problem with the landowners was one of deliberate fraud. They were not paying their workers. Laborers got paid each day, and needed their wages to buy food for their families. For the landowners to live in wasteful luxury and then not pay the laborers meant both people going hungry and for any trying to pay off a debt, the threat of jail. James proclaims that God has heard the cries of the workers and will act against them. "You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter."

            David Nystrom lays out what he calls "The power and peril of wealth." He says it causes us to ignore God, and then to ignore our brothers and sisters, and finally to experience judgment. Richard Foster wrote a book about money a number of years ago, and he said that money is not a neutral medium of exchange. It is a spiritual power, and it affects us all. Either the power of money will control us, or through Christ, we will be in control of our money as faithful stewards.

            Arthur Simon wrote, "The problem is not that we have tried faith and found it wanting, but that we he tried mammon and found it addictive, and as a result find following Christ inconvenient."

            James uses strong language because he knows the power of money and what it does when it becomes the master of people. He speaks out courageously, because he knows how important it is that we submit our attitudes about money and wealth to Christ. He knows the freedom that comes when we use our wealth for Kingdom purposes. He sees the power of a faithful life living for God's glory and neighbor's good. He understands what it means to store up treasure in heaven, to think with an eternal perspective.

            We were chosen for obedience to Christ. To live out that obedience, we first must come to a place of commitment. When Christ is Lord we no longer live under the power of money. We do not hoard goods or money, but we live with generosity, giving to the poor, to missions, to ministries that make an eternal difference in people's lives. We make a plan for the use of our resources, prayerfully asking for the Lord's will to be done. While we live, a portion of our earnings goes to the purpose of God's Kingdom. When we die, a portion of our estate carries on the mission of the church. This kind of obedience takes faith. Who is your provider? In whose hands do you place your future? We are not self-sufficient. We are not in control of tomorrow. We serve the risen Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth. Into his future we place our trust. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

            Amen.