Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. James 5:1-6
“These questions address three areas of economic justice: the accrual of wealth, its use, and its distribution:
Q: To what extent is the wealth of modern Christians the produce of injustice in the form of coercive or exploitative practices in labor, management, or marketing?
Q: To what extent does our material prosperity rest upon and help to perpetuate unjust structures and institutions?
Q: Can we defend the work we do in terms of its contribution to human good and its compatibility with Christian obligations to love and serve the neighbor?
Q: How do contemporary Christians make use of the social power conferred by wealth? Are our economic resources used to give unfair access to, or privileged treatment within, the mechanisms of law and government? To coerce the behavior of others?
Q: Do we hold idle assets that might be used to help those in dire need? Can we defend our share of the benefits and burdens of society as just and equitable?
Questions about justice in the accumulation, use, and distribution of wealth can also be addressed to the public institutions which Christians participate in and thereby help to support. Of particular concern in both Testaments is the potential of wealth for fostering corruption and inequity in the political and judicial structures of society… The test case for the questions about justice is the text from James 5…
James draws upon Old Testament and apocryphal traditions to condemn the wealthy who hoard their goods and give nothing to the poor, who accumulate their wealth by cheating their laborers, and who use their power to corrupt the judicial process. The passage will stand for the condemnation of all kinds of economic injustices and for the retribution of the Lord of Hosts that is said to await them.”
Sondra Ely Wheeler in Wealth as Peril and Obligation: The New Testament on Possessions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 140-142.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, and the head of the Jerusalem church speaks pointedly about not hoarding wealth. This passage was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for Jenni and me, a study of this text led us to distribute all our accumulated financial resources about a decade ago.
Candidly, we felt we had no answer for our Lord, should He have returned and found us hoarding wealth in the last days when we had been resourced for generosity. While advisors justified our behavior as “saving for a rainy day and for retirement” we were accumulating money in precisely the place Jesus said not to.
Related to Jubilee, justice is not about doing what is legally right. It’s about handling money in a manner that reflects God’s abundant economy and contributes to the flourishing of all. If your financial practices widen the gap between you and your neighbor, make sure you are prepared to give an account for your actions.
These questions aim to get people thinking and acting with justice while they have time. The Lord Almighty will hold us accountable for how we have handled what He has entrusted to us. Our actions and not our words will testify for or against us. I don’t know what “misery” awaits the rich but it does not sound pretty.