Note for study: The Word of God is powerful and full bodied.
These are some thoughts on James.
The hope for all of us is that we hear from the Lord as we read
and integrate what we have learned into our lives.
This is by no means every explanation possible.
The word of God is alive and this is just what the Lord exposed to me.
Keep digging for more, the riches and richness of God’s treasure
is way beyond one person or any certain teaching.
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl
for your miseries that shall come upon you. v 1
God does not want us to be impressed by riches.
It is not just referring to money and worldly material worth.
This also is anything and everything that gives you position in the world.
Enjoying your fleshly admirations so that you do not need God
or put those things ahead of God.
This could be a job or possessions or popularity, anything that you cling to.
Jesus said we cannot serve God and money.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24
Ask yourself: What is your treasure?
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare,
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith,
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:9-10
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. v 2
They missed it.
Treasuring the wrong things.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. v 3
Not so for those who have trusted in God and His riches.
Here is their fate:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth:
and the cries of them which have reaped
are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. v 4
And he said, What hast thou done?
the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:10
Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy,
whether he be of thy brethren,
or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:
At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it;
for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it:
lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15
Our pure religion is expected by the Lord. That means, not our way,
the way we see pure religion, but this is how God sees it:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton;
ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. v 5
Here is the New Living Translation, same verse:
You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire.
You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.
Feeing your flesh, letting the world direct your importance.
Carrying your cross does not get the admiration of humans.
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. v 6
They already killed Christ and now you kill the just.
You are not stopped yet.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. v 7
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Matthew 16:28
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts:
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. v 8
To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable
in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 In your patience possess ye your souls. Luke 21:19
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned:
behold, the judge standeth before the door. v 9
Thou shalt not avenge,
nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts:
and then shall every man have praise of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Matthew 7:1-2
Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. v 10
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:12
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,
and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears,
and ran upon him with one accord,
And cast him out of the city, and stoned him:
and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet,
whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:54-60
Behold, we count them happy which endure.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord;
that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. v 11
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait:
let me fall now into the hand of the Lord;
for very great are his mercies:
but let me not fall into the hand of man. 1 Chronicles 21:13
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, Exodus 34:6