Page 30 - General Epistles (James through Jude) Textbook

why he did say that the rich people would “fade away even while they go about their business” (cf. Jas.
1:11). That is, exploitation of their employees. How? Deliberate failure to pay their wages.

Just like he admonished the Jewish Christians in James 4 to show their sorrow caused by their
repentance by means of grieving, mourning, and wailing, in the same way, James is calling the rich to do
the same. Why? James gave three reasons. 1) their wealth has rotted, 2) moth had eaten their clothes,
and 3) their gold and silver have corroded. The rotting and corrosion of their wealth signify that every
aspect of their wealthy would disappear. Also, the fact that it will stand as witness against them suggest
that the rotting was gradual until in eternity. Were those rich people part of the redeemed people or
not? “It is unclear whether these rich people are inside or outside the church. Only those inside the
congregation would have had an opportunity to hear James’ message. However, unlike in other
passages, James does not call the rich to repent or refer to them as “brothers” (e.g., James 1:2, 16, 19;
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2:1, 5, 14), possibly implying that he is addressing outsiders.” Douglas J. Moo noted too that “The “rich
people” whom James addresses in this paragraph are clearly the wicked rich. The Old Testament often
uses “poor” and “rich” almost as synonyms for the righteous and the wicked, respectively (see Prov.
10:15–16; 14:20; Ps. 37; and also, the intertestamental book 1 Enoch 94–105).”
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So, why does James address the wicked people? It could be that some among the
Jewish Christians were employees to those rich people. Or maybe some among
the assembly of the called out were trying to get rich like their wicked masters.
Hence, James’ admonition was needed to caution them on what wealth would do
to them were they going to spend it in a similar way to that of their wicked and
rich masters. John Calvin notes that James “. . . has a regard to the faithful, that
they, hearing of the miserable end of the rich, might not envy their fortune, and
also that knowing that God would be the avenger of the wrongs they suffered, they might with calm and
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resigned mind bear them.” However, in the end, the corrosion of their wealthy would stand against
them and eat their flesh like fire.

So, why was their wealth bad? James describes that they failed to pay the wages for their workers.
Instead, they lived as follows; 1) luxuriously, 2) in self-indulgence, 3) they fattened themselves in the day
of their slaughter, 4) they condemned innocent people, and 5) they murdered those people who were
opposing them. Despicable and vile! So, the rich landowners were not paying the workers full salaries,
instead, kept some money back and it kept accumulating without having to help anybody with it. As a
result, their workers (possibly Jewish Christians among them) were raising their cry to God. Some of
those workers were possibly condemned for doing that and murdered. Peter H. Davids’ observation on
what James could have possibly mean is worthy noting here:

He is not speaking of literal murder, for the Greek term translated ‘condemned’ indicates that the
courts are involved. Nor does he mean that the righteous were executed. He is probably thinking of
lawsuits in which the rich took away the wages or land of the poor. Left without adequate resources,
the poor Christians starved or weakened by poor food, died of diseases. James point out that the
poor were not opposing the rich.
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It is possible however that some Jewish Christians could have gotten weak from poor food or could have
died of diseases due to lack of resources. Innocent could possibly imply those Christians who did not
involve themselves in lawsuits or remain blameless in their complaints against the rich people who were
exploiting them. However, the interpretation that fits James’ context was presented by Douglas J. Moo.
He argues that innocent one could possibly mean the following:

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