James 4:13-5:7_Humilty about opportunities and position
6/10/24
Questions
Humility about opportunities and position [4:13–5:6]
1a. Do not boast about tomorrow [4:13–17]
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there, and carry on business and make a profit,” 14 you who do not know what will happen tomorrow, what your life will be like. For you are a smoky vapor [ἀτμὶς] that appears for a short time and then disappears.
1. Where might James be getting his “smoky vapour [ἀτμὶς]” [v14] imagery from? What is his point?
15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
2. Why is it boastful to speak of future plans with certainty [Hint: DV, ishallah etc.]? What is the opposite of boastfulness/pride?
2b. Rich oppressors will be judged [5:1–6]
1 Come [ἄγε!] now, you rich people, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.
3. Gold doesn’t corrode! Or does it? What is the perspective that James is giving?
4. What will consume wicked rich people in the end?
5. When are the last days?
4 Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Consider the following passages…
14 “You [s] shall not exploit a hired worker, who is needy and poor, from among your fellow men or from among your aliens who are in your [s] land and in your [s] gates. 15 On his day you [s] shall give his wage, and the sun shall not go down, because he is poor and to him it is a lifting up with respect to his life/soul; do this so that he does not cry out against you to YHWH, and you incur guilt.
Deuteronomy 24:14–15
9 “ ‘And at your [pl] reaping the harvest of your [pl] land you [s] must not finish reaping the edge of your [s] field, and you [s] must not glean the remnants of your [s] harvest. 10 And you [s] must not glean your [s] vineyard, and you [s] must not gather your [s] vineyard’s fallen grapes; you [s] must leave them behind for the needy and for the alien; I am YHWH your [pl] God.
Leviticus 19:9-10
6. Does the Torah permit rich people to exploit their workers? Did you notice all the singulars? What is the Law saying? Do you remember Boaz?
5 “Then I will approach you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against the oppressors of the hired worker with his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those pushing aside alien, and yet do not fear me,” says YHWH of hosts.
Malachi 3:5
And back to James…
5 You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.
7. It is not sinful per se to be rich. What does the sinful use of wealth look like?