The Epistle of James - Godly Values
Part 36 - Injustice
James 5v4-6
22nd February 2019
Last week we looked at James's prophecy of doom for rich people who persecute the church. Now he moves on to condemn people in positions of power and luxury who act unjustly towards their fellow men and women.
James 5:4-6
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against
you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the
day of slaughter.
You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.
God sees injustice in this world, and He hates it. And the day is coming when perfect justice will be done.
Some employers treat their employees with huge injustice. As I write this, I'm thinking particularly of business people who spend or hoard their employees' pension plans. In my country - which is supposed to be a democratic, fair society - there are retired people living in poverty because their employers raided their pension plans and are buying yachts with the money. God sees the oppression of workers by bosses. God sees injustice.
God sees young people made to work a shift for free because their bosses claim that it's "training". Employers ought to pay them for that shift; they need the money. God sees young people on "zero hours" contracts, making little or no money in a week, for companies that make millions. God sees the injustice.
And is it not profoundly immoral that some people have become multi-millionaires by running gambling web sites, and putting gambling machines in various places. Some of the richest people in my country were broke twenty years ago. They invested in these web sites and machines, and are now multi-millionaires. And, as a result, normal working people who are unhappy enough to want to gamble because the hope of riches seems more important than feeding their families, are some are deeply in debt because they're addicted to these gambling machines.
Some business people don't care what happens to others, as long as they're wealthy. God sees, and God hates it. Through James, God says "The wages you failed to pay are crying out against you". The people whose pensions have been stolen are crying out. The poverty of those you persuaded to gamble their financial well-being away are crying out. You might say it's their own fault if they gamble, but some people are so unhappy. And some are literally addicted to gambling. And your gambling web sites are exploiting them.
James says "The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fatted yourselves in the day of slaughter".
You can read that two ways. Some people read it to mean people who work for you are dying. They're dying from poverty, or because of the Romans, or for whatever reason, and you, who have the means to help them, just sit in your big fat house with your big fat meals and your big fat car on the drive, and you don't care, and God hates it. You could have used the money you've hoarded to help these people stay alive, and you chose instead to buy another car, or another holiday. God hates it.
Or it could mean that, on the day of Judgement, your day of slaughter is coming. You're nothing more than a fatted calf waiting for the day of slaughter. You think your life on earth is so cool, because you've got your own swimming pool, but the day is coming soon when you'll stand naked before God, your sins will be revealed, and you'll be condemned to hell for all eternity. You are fattening yourself for the day of slaughter.
James says, "You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who have not opposed you". James is primarily talking here about injustice in the legal system, and across the world many legal systems are perverted by bribery and corruption, and God hates it.
In the country where I live, approximately 170,000 unborn children are condemned to death every year. And I've have been told that abortion is the greatest cause of death in the world. It's estimated that 42 million unborn children were slaughtered in 2018. God hates this injustice. These babies, still in the womb, never hurt us. How dare we kill them? Where is our compassion? Where is our justice? God sees.
Wealth is power. And power is responsibility. If the Lord God has granted you wealth, he requires you to use it for good.