My dear brother Wally asked a very good question. In a post titled Faith In Action-Who Do You Love? Wally gave an exposition of James 5:1-6. Our brother asked what my thoughts were concerning whom James 5:1-6 was referring to. Some take it to refer to believers who were rich and hurting their fellow believers who were poor. Others understand this to refer to nonbelievers who were persecuting poorer believers.
Let me quote James 5:1-6:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! 4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of [a]Sabaoth. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have [b]fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and [c]put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Now I’m not going to be dogmatic here since I believe there is room for Christians to disagree in an agreeable fashion. But the following is my take on James 5:1-6 on the fly.
I take it that James 5:1-6 is not referring to believers. I make a distinction between God’s judgment/wrath and God’s discipline. The reason why I don’t see James 5:1-6 as referring to believers but instead that it is referring to those who persecute Christians is due to the following reasons:
- The general tone of the passage expresses God’s judgment rather than advice on improving one’s Christian living.
- The Epistles of James is written to an audience that is Jewish (verse 1: “To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad“). James 5:14 mentions a Jewish phrase: “a day of slaughter.” This phrase echoes Jeremiah 12:3 and Isaiah 30:25 of God’s future judgment. It would be strange to see James 5:4 describe Christians facing this slaughter on the Great Day of the Lord since Christ have already taken the punishment we deserve.
- James 5:1-6 does not call the people he was addressing as “brethren.” I thought this was pretty neat to find tonight/this morning: Nearly ever major section in the epistle by James he calls the believers “brethren” or “brother” but here in James 5:1-6 he does not employ the term “brethren” at all.
- The United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament divides the letter into the following sections:
- Salutation (1:1)
- Faith and Wisdom (1:2–8)
- Poverty and Riches (1:9-11)
- Trial and Temptation (1:12–18)
- Hearing and Doing the Word (1:19–27)
- Warning against Partiality (2:1–13)
- Faith and Works (2:14–26)
- The Tongue (3:1–12)
- The Wisdom from Above (3:13–18)
- Friendship with the World (4:1–10)
- Judging a Brother (4:11–12)
- Warning against Boasting (4:13–17)
- Warning to the Rich (5:1–6)
- Patience and Prayer (5:7–20)
- Each section either addresses the readers as “brethren” or “brother” or give other statements that presupposes the referents includes (though in some instances not limited to) the brethren. A major exception is James 5:1-6.
- Salutation (1:1)= (the Salutation technically does not have the word “brethren” but since the letter as a whole use the term “brethren” it is presupposed that it is whom James was addressing).
- Faith and Wisdom (1:2–8)= see verse 2.
- Poverty and Riches (1:9-11)= see verse 9.
- Trial and Temptation (1:12–18)= see verse 16.
- Hearing and Doing the Word (1:19–27)= see verse 19.
- Warning against Partiality (2:1–13)= see verses 1 and 5.
- Faith and Works (2:14–26)= see verse 14.
- The Tongue (3:1–12)=see verses 1, 10 and 12.
- The Wisdom from Above (3:13–18)= (true wisdom comes from God to those who believe as seen earlier in chapter 1, so believers here are among those in view)
- Friendship with the World (4:1–10)= (there are discussions of drawing near to God, God showing grace, etc)
- Judging a Brother (4:11–12)= see verse 11.
- Warning against Boasting (4:13–17)= (if we believe repentance is a gift from God to believers per 2 Timothy 2:25, we see that repentance is possible in verse 13).
- Warning to the Rich (5:1–6)
- Patience and Prayer (5:7–20)= see verse 7, 9, 10, 12, 19.
- I would say in light of the evidence above this is not just a fallacious argument from silence but given his frequent use of brethren and presupposition he’s addressing the brethren in other sections, the silence in James 5:1-6 is very telling.
- The United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament divides the letter into the following sections:
- James 5:1-6 connects logically with James 5:7 since verse 7 uses the word “therefore” that indicates that what follows are implications of James 5:1-6. Here James 5:7 shows the implication of God’s pronounced judgment in James 5:1-6 is that the “brethren” should be patient in view of the coming of the Lord. Here we see Christians being persecuted in which God’s wrath against evil will be demonstrated in the end times. Given that James uses a lot of Old Testament motif, we expect the coming of the Lord/Day of the Lord is invoking God’s wrath and judgment against His enemies. Thus we are not here dealing with His children in need of discipline here in James 5:16. God has in mind His eschatological punishments among those who are unregenerate.
- An objection someone might raise is why does James then use the second person pronoun “you” in James 5:1-6 to refer to nonbelievers who persecute Christians. Given James allusions and echoes to Jewish prophetic and apocalyptic writings, why should we be surprised that James was using “you” in addressing the enemies of God’s people? After all, do we not see in the Old Testament prophetic literature records of God’s messenger writing messages addressed to the enemies of God but are read by believers? We do. But what is the purpose of this? To encourage the believers who are persecuted with the truth of God’s justice against His enemies.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for the reblog Vince!
You’re very welcome Pastor Jim 😊
Reblogged this on Truth in Palmyra and commented:
This subject came up during a chat on my little devotional on this passage, and I asked brother Jim his thoughts on who James was addressing in the passage. All I can say is many thanks for a fine and detailed breakdown. I am with him, I certainly would not want to be dogmatic about it, but brother Him does make much sense here. Blessings and enjoy!
Great post, Jim! Very informing and well researched.
Thanks Lucas!
[…] SlimJim […]
Good passage to share, thanks SlimJim!
Great handling of the text. I had come to the same conclusion but you’ve articulated this view well.