James 5:1

This chapter has a dramatic denunciation of the wealthy class who had murdered the Messiah, that is, the rich Sadducean aristocracy in Jerusalem who had slain "the Just One" (James 5:6), and whose approaching doom was prophetically announced in this denunciation. This paragraph (James 5:1-6) is parallel to those passages in the gospels which Jesus Christ pronounced against Jerusalem, and the similar pronouncement of the apostle Paul in Acts 28:25-28. Calvin was probably correct in failing to find here any call to repentance.[1] It was past time for that. The hour was approaching when the wrath of God would be poured out upon Israel for their final rejection of Christ; and James adopted the stern language of the Old Testament prophets for pronouncing their doom. As Gibson said, "This paragraph might almost be a leaf torn out of the Old Testament."[2] Despite the original application of these verses, however, there remains an eloquent warning for all men who may be tempted to amass their wealth through selfishness and exploitation. If Christians are in this ungodly class, the warning is for them also. As Lenski said, "Merely bearing the Christian name does not exempt them."[3] James, more than any other New Testament writer, identified the true reason why "the righteous one" was slain. It resulted directly from the selfish hatred of the Jewish religious hierarchy in Jerusalem, a hatred which was inspired by Jesus' twice cleansing the temple and challenging their godless robbing of the people. It was their conduct in the temple that figured prominently in the teachings of Jesus; but in this inspired paragraph, James gives a little more extensive view of their "operations," in the wicked defrauding of farm laborers, and their selfish lives of luxury.

The next paragraph (James 5:7-12) has an admonition directed to the brethren with a plea for them to be patient and wait until the Lord himself would avenge their wrongs and execute judgment upon their oppressors. There is more here than merely a social injustice. "The rich" in focus here were also the persecutors of Christians (James 2:6,7).

[1] Calvin as quoted by E. G. Punchard, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 375.

[2] E. C. S. Gibson, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 21, James (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 67.

[3] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle of James (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1938), p. 644.

Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. (James 5:1)

Ye rich ... "Neither here nor elsewhere in the New Testament are the rich denounced simply because they are rich."[4] Many God-fearing souls have been wealthy, from the days of Job and Abraham until the present day; and the frequent New Testament warnings relative to riches must always be understood as reference to wealth held without regard for the kingdom of God. Yet, there is an inherent dishonesty in riches themselves, meaning not that such wealth was dishonorably procured, or even that its possessor is unmindful of God, but that wealth inherently, within itself, has an evil influence. For discussion of this, see in my Commentary on Luke, pp. 349,350.

Weep and howl for your miseries ... "The verb [@ololuzein] (used here) means more than to wail; it means to shriek ... it depicts the frantic terror of those upon whom the judgment of God has come."[5] This supports the interpretation that what we are dealing with here is a judgment of God upon a self-hardened and rebellious people.

Which are coming upon you ... The tense of the verbs in this paragraph is the present perfect, the traditional prophetic tense of the Old Testament, in which God's judgments are announced in the present tense, indicating that such prophesies are as certain to be fulfilled as if fulfillment had already come to pass. Gibson said that "The perfects are probably to be explained as prophetic in accordance with a common Hebrew idiom."[6]

[4] A. F. Harper, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 238.

[5] William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977), p. 115.

[6] E. C. S. Gibson, op. cit., p. 67.