20240209

perspective on the prospective

James 5:1-8 (JDV)

James 5:1 Come on, you rich ones, weep howling over the miseries that are coming on you!
James 5:2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten.
James 5:3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.
James 5:4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.
James 5:5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughtering.
James 5:6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
James 5:7 Be patient then, brothers and sisters until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
James 5:8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

James writes to readers who have been welcoming the rich as prospective members of their churches with open arms while shunning and turning away the poor. In today’s passage, he tells his readers that the destiny of these rich people is condemnation by the Lord at his second coming. To prefer the rich is to side with those who will be destroyed.

Patience in this context is to open your hearts to all, without looking at what we might benefit from our hospitality. It is to proclaim the gospel to all, without stopping to ask whether this person might be able to support us or not.

Knowing what will happen at the Lord’s coming helps us to see people with the proper perspective.