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 We are all God’s creation, and although we all have the potential of becoming God’s children, purchased with a price, reborn, and reconciled to Him, not all who walk the earth are His children. It’s obvious, given all the darkness in the world and how little light remains. If the universalists were right, and we all end up in the same place regardless of whether or not Christ is Lord and King of our lives, then God sending His Son to die hanging on a tree would have been needlessly cruel.

Jesus laying down His life for the sheep was not one option among many; it was the only option. It was the only way that we who received Him denied ourselves, picked up our crosses, and followed after Him could attain everlasting life. To say that there is more than one way, more than one path, is to minimize Christ, what He did, and the sacrifice He made on behalf of mankind.

In order to understand what James is saying at the beginning of the fifth chapter, you must read it within the context of the tail end of the fourth chapter. When he wrote his epistle, and that goes for all the New and Old Testament writers, the books were not divided into chapters, and there was no delineation or separation between the writings. They were all written as one continuous letter but were later divided into chapters and verses sometime in the early 1200s.

Although it makes for easier reading, when we fail to consider that the original letters were one continuous text, we neglect to properly contextualize an idea or see it in an erroneous light. What would seem easy enough to understand had we accounted for the continuity of the text becomes muddled and easily exploited by those who would weave an entire doctrine out of a handful of verses.

James 5:1-6, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.”

If you read these six verses without the benefit of having read the previous chapter, you would tend to throw anyone who doesn’t live paycheck to paycheck into the same pot and be done with it. Poverty is not a sign of righteousness. Righteousness is a sign of righteousness. There are poor wretched sinners, just as there are rich miserable sinners. The opposite is true as well. The rich James is referring to are those he described in the previous chapter as those who boast in their arrogance and those who know to do good and do not do it.

If God hated the rich, as some insist, then Abraham could never have been God’s friend, and Job could never have been a man after God’s own heart. They were, after all, some of the wealthiest men of their time, yet their wealth did not define them, and their desire did not revolve around amassing more of the wealth they’d been blessed with.

James refers to those who trust in their gold and silver, exploit the poor, and defraud their laborers while being closed-fisted and closed-hearted to the cries of the poor and needy.

But what about the rich man and the camel and the eye of a needle? Didn’t Jesus say that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Yes, He did, but it’s not because of their wealth, but rather because their hearts are consumed by it; they prioritize it above all else, and they feel as though they’ve insulated themselves from the hardships of life with the wealth they’ve amassed. It’s a heart issue, not a money issue, and yes, those who have amassed fortunes or inherited them are less likely to be open to their need for a savior.

It’s not exclusive to the rich. Even the poor live their lives with no thought of eternity or the hereafter, but it’s easier for a rich man to adopt the mindset of everything being about living in the moment and doing what pleases the flesh. James says as much when he condemns those who have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury and fattened their hearts as in a day of slaughter.

Is Jesus Lord of your life, or does money lord over you? Do you extend your hand to the poor, or do you close your fist to those in need? Are you fair and honest in your dealings, or do you exploit those who labor on your behalf? These are the questions that need answering; these are the questions that matter, not whether you’re over the threshold of what is considered rich or not.

Who rules your heart? That is the question, and if Jesus is Lord of your heart, then when He blesses you, you will bless others, and when a season of famine arrives, you will praise Him just as readily because it wasn’t about what He gave you but who He is.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.