NOVEMBER 23 "IGNORANCE IS BLISS!"
There’s no denying, James is not that fond of
“rich people”. If it was only this reference in Chapter 5, that would
be bad enough, but James has taken jabs at the rich in other chapters as
well. No doubt, James did not grow up with affluence of any kind. We
know from the Gospels that Joseph and Mary (James’ parents) were poor.
Historians believe that Joseph died at an early age, as he is not
mentioned in the Gospels; except in the early stages of Jesus’ life. Now
with Joseph dead, James & Jesus (step brothers) probably had to
work that much harder to make ends meet at home. Jesus himself takes a
jab at rich people saying, “it is easier for a camel to get through the
eye of an needle than for a rich person to get into heaven”. I’m sure
in the Church of Jerusalem where
James was an elder, there were not many affluent people in that
congregation. However we cannot deny that it was Joseph of Arimathea, an
affluent man, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin that God used to
purchase the burial place for Jesus. Mathew calls Joseph of Arimathea, a
rich man. The tomb Joseph purchased was so large that a huge boulder
had to be rolled in front of the entry and guards placed at the door to
prevent anyone from stealing Jesus’ body. This was by no means, a poor
burial. The rich young ruler Jesus did try to call to follow him,
failed. However, Zacchaeus was also wealthy (though it was gained
unrighteously) and he did follow Jesus. Interesting though, that
although most that followed Jesus were poor, they were not lazy non
working men, they were all working men. Jesus never called one disciple
to follow him that was not a “working man”. If you were to categorize my
income by any economic census, I would be considered poor. But yet I
have always worked a job, as long as I can remember. Christians tend to
think that if they go into an impoverished area of town, where everyone
is on welfare; and preach the Gospel “to the poor”, that there is going
to be an overwhelming response. You may have a response, but it will
not be for Jesus, it will be for handouts. It would be good for us to
understand that being poor is not an automatic ticket into Heaven. And
we would do well to also understand, that neither is being rich an
automatic refusal into Heaven. I could write, as James wrote, just as
many ugly comments about my experience in working with “the poor” over
the years, as James writes about his experience with “the rich.” Some
of the poor people I’ve worked with used me, drained me of my money, my
time, my vehicles, everything I had, they drained me and the church for
all that it was worth and the one time they were ever told “no” that was
their marching orders to move on to the next welfare program. All I was
to them was another welfare program and because I was a Christian it
was my duty to help them. All the while they never gave a dime to the
church, never helped in anyway; they took, took, took, and never gave
and then left. It is true that affluent, rich people, are hard to reach
and are often very arrogant about their success and often do mock the
Gospel and accuse Christians of just needing “a crutch”.
I
have worked around people (because of my profession) like this for
many, many years. I don’t know how a rich Christian is to respond to
James’ epistle, as he/she sits down to read his epistle. He/she might
take offense to it. He or she might feel that James is being unfair or
resents rich people. Is there anyone wealthy and/or rich that is reading
this today? I think the best we can try to do is not categorize people
and/or allow people do create social class wars. I have been equally
blessed by well to do family’s in the church, in times of financial
need, as I have been placed by middle class or poor, by their Fellowship
and strong faith. Are the rich hard to reach? Yes, but so are the poor.
God will bring the poor and the rich into the church and encourage them
to live in harmony and not allow social classes and prejudice to
divide. Each social class has their own unique (and sometimes not so
unique) characteristic flaws that they must overcome, now that they have
been called into the body of Christ. Don’t’ hate the rich because they
are rich and don’t’ look down on the poor because they are poor. It is
our duty to be no respecter of persons and not give preferential
treatment to one or the other. Am I saying that James is wrong, about
what he writes in his Epistle? Of course not, all scripture is God
breathed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. All I'm trying to do is bring a
balance, that if you were to just open your bible up to James Chapter
5, you might not get. God's not trying to get us to "hate the rich',
that's class warfare and it's ugly, He is simply trying to give us
perspective, which I hope you got today!
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