James 5:1-6 - Blessed to be a Blessing
James 5:1-6 - Blessed to be a Blessing
Last night I played tennis for a few hours, and it was really apparent the longer matches went on, the less energy I had, and my game was slowing down. I started pretty strong, and by the end of the night, I was pretty sluggish. We are jumping into the final chapter of the Book of James, and James has come out of the gate hot and on fire, and here is what we have to look forward to, James has not lost a step, and he is not out of energy. It might be the fifth set or overtime, but James opens chapter five with some of the strongest, harshest language yet, and he is intense. So get ready for a fastball coming high and inside.
“Listen all you who are rich, for it’s time to weep and howl over the misery that will overtake you!” - James (Jacob) 5:1 TPT
Whoa, right out of the gate, James is laying into the rich! The miseries coming, the terrible troubles ahead James is talking about is the coming judgment, the return of Christ. So is James saying just because of wealth, we will be judged? NO! We must understand this full context, James is not saying being rich or wealthy is wrong - we see all through the Bible amazing men of God that are wealthy, King David, Abraham and the list goes on and on. What James is diving into is more about oppression, and leveraging wealth in the wrong way.
“Listen! Can’t you hear the cries of the laborers over the wages you fraudulently held back from those who worked for you? The cries for justice of those you’ve cheated have reached the ears of the Lord of armies!” - James (Jacob) 5:4 TPT
How are we using our blessings? How are we leveraging our resources for the Kingdom of God, and what are we doing with our wealth? James in v4 shows an example of being fraudulent, holding back wages, and cheating others to advance and grow their wealth. This is a strong visual, and powerful reference, but I am afraid that we might read this and jump right past it, not thinking this could be us. Sure, we are not to scam others, yes we are not supposed to suppress others and use our wealth to advance our own pocketbooks. But James is also really trying to get to the heart of the matter, we need to really take this in and understand deeper the messaging here. Where is our motivation come from, what are we using our blessing and resources for?
“Your riches lie rotting, your fine clothing eaten by moths, and your gold and silver are corroded as a witness against you. You have hoarded up treasure for the last days but it will become a fire to burn your flesh.” - James (Jacob) 5:2-3 TPT
The reminder of everything on this earth will perish. Our heart condition can not be fixed with stuff, our state can not be medicated with consumption, and we can not buy our way into joy, happiness, or freedom. James, the little brother of Jesus I have to think, was preaching these words off his notes from the Sermon on the Mount.
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” - Matthew 6:19-21 NLT
I do not think James is trying to get us into a legalistic mindset here. James is not telling us to sell everything, give it all to the poor, and live in poverty. Honestly, that may sound hard, but I believe that would be easier in some ways than living in the tension of what James is driving at. The growth, the development the refinement happens when we are in the middle of the heat, and living in the friction and tension. This is a heart condition, and a way of life, not being controlled by things of this earth, but living a life for God. Our financial resource is a blessing from God, it all comes from Him, and we must steward it appropriately.
Got me this principle is lived out on a regular occurrence with honoring the tithe and giving generously on top of the tithe. These principals are things that honestly God just planted into my heart the movement I gave my life to Christ and heard about tithing. It was a very black and white issue for me, and something I could “do” and check the box. What started as something I needed to do became a part of who I was, and my heart was changed. I got a hold of the principle of everything I had was from God, and I was thankful and honored just to bring Him 10% as it tells us in Malachi. You see, I used the word to bring Him, that is on purpose because if it is all his, then I would not use the words give Him since it is not mine.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” - Malachi 3:10 NIV
This is the only place I am aware of where God pushes us to test him. For me, this transformed my heart, and as a family, now we have a relatively good-sized percentage where we give over and above our tithe and have a monthly budget amount we set aside when we see a need that we would like to meet. This rich issue James is diving into pushed deep to the heart, and how we live our lives, and what purpose money has in this world. Please do not get me wrong, I am a long way from perfect, I have many areas where I still need to grown, but this is an area where I see the fruit of our labor and the sweetness of God's blessing on our lives. Just the other day, our family was able to do something we had never done before, and we were able to bless another family with my truck. Earlier in the year, God placed it on my heart that we were supposed to give away our vehicle instead of selling it. The money we would have made on the truck would have been nice to go towards my new car, but it was clear God had another plan. Without hesitation, I text Robin as I heard this, and we were both convinced it was the right thing to do, and this past week, we were able to deliver it to a local family. The overriding joy and excitement that Robin and I had was met with the joy and excitement of this family that could not believe it. It was indeed a double blessing, and this has set Robin and I up again to realize we can not out-give God.
“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” - 2 Corinthians 9:11 NIV
Paul reminds us of this principle; we are blessed to be a blessing. Everything we have comes from God, we must return to him what is His, and the rest we must steward well. The blessing of God, His thanksgiving, His abundance is awaiting us. James casts a warning, a shot across the bow that we must heed and pay attention to. I am reminded of the words of my dear friend who preached a powerful message this past weekend, God’s abundance often follows faith. Maybe today is your day to take a considerable faith step with your bank account. Let’s not skip right over James words, let's take them to heart and live a life of generosity.