Post by Shepherd on Nov 18, 2008 11:20:12 GMT -6
69 Judgement On The Ones That Put their Goods Before God.
JAMES 5:1-6
I. THE COMING OF JUDGMENT....
WEEP AND HOWL, weep, and do it in this open, violent manner, with loud, bitter cries of distress–do it wailing, shrieking howling–as was, and still is, so customary among the orientals in times of mourning.
Lament thus, for, or over–THE MISERIES THAT SHALL COME UPON YOU.
More exactly and impressively, WHICH ARE COMING ON are already even now impending. Here again, their possessions did not have to keep them from God, they allowed them to.
These miseries were not simply those which in all circumstances the love and abuse of money entail, but specially, and in addition to them, the temporal judgments which were about to visit the guilty parties in this instance.
They were to be the peculiar objects of vengeance, their treasure were to be rifled, their possessions wrenched from them, and stripped bare, they were to be subjected to hardships, all the heavier because of the pleasures once enjoyed and the loser thus sustained.
II. THE COMMENCEMENT OF JUDGMENT.
Verse 2...YOUR RICHES ARE CORRUPTED–either their possessions of all kinds, these being afterwards spoken of in detail, or as distinguished from what follows, those hoarded stores of gain, fruits, and other provisions, in which the wealth of orientals largely consisted.
To the latter the term CORRUPTED could most properly be applied. They were rotting, perishing, V2 YOUR GARMENTS ARE MOTH-EATEN.
In eastern countries one of the most valuable possessions was a stock of costly clothing, a number of dresses, ward robes filled with a great variety of articles of apparel.
They were moth-eaten– a way in which articles of dress, when long kept and little used, are often wasted, destroyed. Verse 3...YOUR GOLD AND SILVER IS CANKERED–rusted, corroded.
This does not take place in regard to silver and gold as it does to iron and steel; but they are spoken of as under-going the change to which metals generally are subject; and there is that which corresponds to it in their case, for they get discolored, blackened, tarnished, wasted, corrupted looking.
Verse 3...AND THE RUST OF THEM SHALL BE A WITNESS AGAINST YOU literally, SHALL BE FOR A TESTIMONY TO YOU–AND SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH AS IT WERE FIRE....
In the moth-eaten garments, the cankered silver and gold, their sin no doubt appeared, but appeared in the judgments which had followed it, for in that process of destruction which had commenced there was the avenging hand of God visible.
VERSE 3...YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE TOGETHER FOR THE LAST DAYS. Treasures has been understood here in the figurative sense of a store of wrath, vengeance to be opened and emptied at the time mentioned.
THE LAST DAYS are those introducing and issuing in the season of judgment which was approaching –the last days of the Jewish church and nation, and, in many cases, of the individual persons themselves; for what multitudes were then to perish by the sword, by famine, by disease, by captivity.
They had gathered wealth for season like this, when they could not enjoy it, could not retain it.
But the literal translation of the original is IN THE LAST DAYS–they had heaped treasures together, not for, but in the periods thus designated.
These days were already upon them–the days were begun, and hastening to their terrible close; and it was at a season like that, one fitter far for repentance and reformation, one calling them to break off their sins by righteousness, to prepare for impending judgment by turning to the Lord–One specially imposing on them, the obligation to lay up treasures, not on earth but in heaven, where no moth or rust can corrupt, and where no thieves can break through and steal.
III. THE CAUSE OF JUDGMENT.
INJUSTICE.........................................
The wages of he workman should be paid honestly and punctually. To withhold it is a flagrant wrong, and such a wrong was committed by the rich men hose conduct the apostle is here denouncing. They kept it back BY FRAUD.
In various ways may such fraud be perpetrated—by not all earned money, unjust deductions, take advantage of his position and powers, beat down the price of labor, get work below proper value.
Often, the oppressed are not listened to on earth, however just their claim and urgent their pleading, but they are heard in heaven.
Here their cries are said to have ENTERED INTO THE EARS OF THE LORD OF SABAOTH. V 4.
He was able to vindicate the cause of the defrauded reapers who groaned and supplicated.
LUXURY................................................
Verse 5...YE HAVE LIVED IN PLEASURE — that is, in a self-indulgent, sumptuous, effeminate manner.
In the qualification, ON THE EARTH, there is an implied contrast with another region, where vengeance was stored up, and their portion was to be one of want and misery.
VERSE 5 AND BEEN WANTON, This word conveys to us the idea of lewdness, lust fulness; but what is intended here is luxuriousness, full of pleasure or full of delight, gratifications.
It intimates that the persons were devoted to earthly enjoyments, and regardless of expense in procuring them, for the term is expressive of extravagance, wastefulness.
VERSE 5–YE HAVE NOURISHED YOUR HEARTS AS IN A DAY OF SLAUGHTER. They have satiated, pampered their hearts, for there were seated the tastes and appetites which they gratified; there the craving for, and the sense of satisfaction, repletion, as they fed and dressed, fattened and adorned their bodies.
And they had been doing this as in, or simply, in a day of slaughter. They were in the brink of destruction. God was about to draw his glittering sword and smite them in His anger.
They disregarded all warnings and signs, they were sunk in brutish insensibility.
VIOLENCE–VIOLENCE GOING THE LENGTH EVEN OF BLOOD, OF
MURDER.
Stephen was the first of a band of early martyrs whom the Jews, in the malignant unbelief has put to death for their adherence to the gospel.
The holiness, the righteousness of these victims of fanatical fury, instead of saving them, had excited the rage and drawn down the vengeance of their adversaries.
Verse 6...AND HE DOTH NOT RESIST YOU—not only or chiefly because of a want of power, but because of the meekness of his character, his patience, endurance, long-suffering.
He submits to your murderous violence. He commits his cause to God, and allows you to do your utmost, striving to exhibit the spirit of his crucified master. And this made their guilt the greater. Their cruelty was the less excusable. It had no provocation.
JAMES 5:1-6
I. THE COMING OF JUDGMENT....
WEEP AND HOWL, weep, and do it in this open, violent manner, with loud, bitter cries of distress–do it wailing, shrieking howling–as was, and still is, so customary among the orientals in times of mourning.
Lament thus, for, or over–THE MISERIES THAT SHALL COME UPON YOU.
More exactly and impressively, WHICH ARE COMING ON are already even now impending. Here again, their possessions did not have to keep them from God, they allowed them to.
These miseries were not simply those which in all circumstances the love and abuse of money entail, but specially, and in addition to them, the temporal judgments which were about to visit the guilty parties in this instance.
They were to be the peculiar objects of vengeance, their treasure were to be rifled, their possessions wrenched from them, and stripped bare, they were to be subjected to hardships, all the heavier because of the pleasures once enjoyed and the loser thus sustained.
II. THE COMMENCEMENT OF JUDGMENT.
Verse 2...YOUR RICHES ARE CORRUPTED–either their possessions of all kinds, these being afterwards spoken of in detail, or as distinguished from what follows, those hoarded stores of gain, fruits, and other provisions, in which the wealth of orientals largely consisted.
To the latter the term CORRUPTED could most properly be applied. They were rotting, perishing, V2 YOUR GARMENTS ARE MOTH-EATEN.
In eastern countries one of the most valuable possessions was a stock of costly clothing, a number of dresses, ward robes filled with a great variety of articles of apparel.
They were moth-eaten– a way in which articles of dress, when long kept and little used, are often wasted, destroyed. Verse 3...YOUR GOLD AND SILVER IS CANKERED–rusted, corroded.
This does not take place in regard to silver and gold as it does to iron and steel; but they are spoken of as under-going the change to which metals generally are subject; and there is that which corresponds to it in their case, for they get discolored, blackened, tarnished, wasted, corrupted looking.
Verse 3...AND THE RUST OF THEM SHALL BE A WITNESS AGAINST YOU literally, SHALL BE FOR A TESTIMONY TO YOU–AND SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH AS IT WERE FIRE....
In the moth-eaten garments, the cankered silver and gold, their sin no doubt appeared, but appeared in the judgments which had followed it, for in that process of destruction which had commenced there was the avenging hand of God visible.
VERSE 3...YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE TOGETHER FOR THE LAST DAYS. Treasures has been understood here in the figurative sense of a store of wrath, vengeance to be opened and emptied at the time mentioned.
THE LAST DAYS are those introducing and issuing in the season of judgment which was approaching –the last days of the Jewish church and nation, and, in many cases, of the individual persons themselves; for what multitudes were then to perish by the sword, by famine, by disease, by captivity.
They had gathered wealth for season like this, when they could not enjoy it, could not retain it.
But the literal translation of the original is IN THE LAST DAYS–they had heaped treasures together, not for, but in the periods thus designated.
These days were already upon them–the days were begun, and hastening to their terrible close; and it was at a season like that, one fitter far for repentance and reformation, one calling them to break off their sins by righteousness, to prepare for impending judgment by turning to the Lord–One specially imposing on them, the obligation to lay up treasures, not on earth but in heaven, where no moth or rust can corrupt, and where no thieves can break through and steal.
III. THE CAUSE OF JUDGMENT.
INJUSTICE.........................................
The wages of he workman should be paid honestly and punctually. To withhold it is a flagrant wrong, and such a wrong was committed by the rich men hose conduct the apostle is here denouncing. They kept it back BY FRAUD.
In various ways may such fraud be perpetrated—by not all earned money, unjust deductions, take advantage of his position and powers, beat down the price of labor, get work below proper value.
Often, the oppressed are not listened to on earth, however just their claim and urgent their pleading, but they are heard in heaven.
Here their cries are said to have ENTERED INTO THE EARS OF THE LORD OF SABAOTH. V 4.
He was able to vindicate the cause of the defrauded reapers who groaned and supplicated.
LUXURY................................................
Verse 5...YE HAVE LIVED IN PLEASURE — that is, in a self-indulgent, sumptuous, effeminate manner.
In the qualification, ON THE EARTH, there is an implied contrast with another region, where vengeance was stored up, and their portion was to be one of want and misery.
VERSE 5 AND BEEN WANTON, This word conveys to us the idea of lewdness, lust fulness; but what is intended here is luxuriousness, full of pleasure or full of delight, gratifications.
It intimates that the persons were devoted to earthly enjoyments, and regardless of expense in procuring them, for the term is expressive of extravagance, wastefulness.
VERSE 5–YE HAVE NOURISHED YOUR HEARTS AS IN A DAY OF SLAUGHTER. They have satiated, pampered their hearts, for there were seated the tastes and appetites which they gratified; there the craving for, and the sense of satisfaction, repletion, as they fed and dressed, fattened and adorned their bodies.
And they had been doing this as in, or simply, in a day of slaughter. They were in the brink of destruction. God was about to draw his glittering sword and smite them in His anger.
They disregarded all warnings and signs, they were sunk in brutish insensibility.
VIOLENCE–VIOLENCE GOING THE LENGTH EVEN OF BLOOD, OF
MURDER.
Stephen was the first of a band of early martyrs whom the Jews, in the malignant unbelief has put to death for their adherence to the gospel.
The holiness, the righteousness of these victims of fanatical fury, instead of saving them, had excited the rage and drawn down the vengeance of their adversaries.
Verse 6...AND HE DOTH NOT RESIST YOU—not only or chiefly because of a want of power, but because of the meekness of his character, his patience, endurance, long-suffering.
He submits to your murderous violence. He commits his cause to God, and allows you to do your utmost, striving to exhibit the spirit of his crucified master. And this made their guilt the greater. Their cruelty was the less excusable. It had no provocation.
