Thursday 13th
James 5:1-6
NIV (v3) – ‘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.’
ESV (v3) – ‘Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.’
Sound investments are essential in the business world, how often do we hear of investments that have gone pear shaped, either through carelessness by the individual or company concerned, maybe through listening to wrong advice or the result of a downturn in the economy, causing markets to crash and big deals going wrong, causing failure and bankruptcy.
When I left school I wasn’t earning a very big wage, but I was given some advice to invest at least a little each month in a trust account, so I went into the bank and set it up, it was to be a fund that would remain in place for a period of four years, I was so glad that I did, for, at the end of the four years I had gained enough to be able to attend Bible College for a year, and what’s more a year in with the first fund I started another and that eventually became enough for us to put the deposit down on our first house. They both turned out to be sound investments. At the same time as I began to earn a little more money, I followed some advice to invest in another scheme, with the promise that it would lead to being guaranteed to being able to get a mortgage, however when the time for getting a mortgage arrived, no one would take on the scheme, I had been mis-sold and had to go down the route of an ombudsman to sort the issue out. Why have I included all this here in a devotion? It highlights the need for honesty and integrity with money, wealth, riches. In my two experiences there was the one side which was dealt with integrity by those involved, the other showed a lack of integrity, it was a scheme in which the one selling was getting richer and I the customer and possibly others like me were being misled, he acted without integrity and here in James 5:1-6, James is highlighting the need for integrity in the business world. He talks of the employer earning plenty and yet skimping on what he was paying the ones who were making the money for him, the employer was living in luxury with far more than he ever needed or could ever do anything with, while the employee was living by what I will call sub-standard means.
So much so that the difference was crying out to God, the parity between the employer and the employee was such that God saw it as unjust, the verdict being the wealth would rot a way, nothing would come of it.
What is the lesson James is wanting us to learn here? Integrity and honesty in matters of money and business, yes, but he is also showing that there needs to be a fairness in the way that employees are treated, and although it is something that should be so in all areas of life, even more so in the life of a Christian employer, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we should treat others fairly, we should not be unjust toward others, we should if we happen to be a Christian employer, be a good example to others around us. It also teaches a lesson against greed, for the love of money is the root of all evil, note, not money, but the love of money, when making money becomes a person’s top priority, and making it consumes them, it must be pursued whatever the cost, it will become a god in their life, and it will eventually be their ruin. ‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ Luke 12:34
There is of course another application, we can accumulate a mountain of wealth and possessions here in this world, but it is only what we have invested for eternity will last. ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.’ Matthew 6:19–20
Would I like to be richer? Of course, I would, but not if it is going to affect my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and with others. We need as Paul said, which I mentioned a few days ago to learn to be content, knowing that God knows the things that we have need for.