#13 The deceitfulness of wealth

[AI translation] At the head of this passage, which we are now reading, is the title of our Hungarian Bible, "On the deceitfulness of riches. James is as much against riches as his master, Jesus. Almost the words of Jesus proclaiming severe judgment against the rich echo here like thunder on a great mountain. He sees wealth as a demonic power that mocks its victim. He ruthlessly exposes the blatant injustices of his time and foresees and proclaims the judgment to come. It is in fact a dress rehearsal for the doomsday that he is here unleashing on the rich. Soon the terrible prophecy is fulfilled upon them! So far, this may be understandable and even shocking, but what does God have to say to us today with this Word? We live in very different social circumstances from James. There would hardly be a rich man among us who would find pleasure in hoarding gold and silver and sitting at a richly laid table, as here, according to the Word. What then have we to do with this Word?Well: the deceitfulness and demonic power of riches can fall not only on those who have, but also on those who have not. Not only can existing wealth be an idol, but also wealth that has never been, or has already been lost! Often it is the very fact that one does not have that ties one's life! For this reason alone, the Word has something to say to us about the deceitfulness of riches. Let us try to understand it!
This deceitfulness consists first of all in being blinded to one's own worth. With its seductive glamour, it cannot judge correctly between true and false value. It makes one believe that wealth, carefree prosperity, is the supreme value that can make life problem-free. He makes you believe that if you had a lot of money, a good job, the life you wanted, the travel you wanted, the entertainment you wanted, the nice apartment you wanted, all the problems in your life would be solved. And a man addicted to the deceitfulness of such wealth has no ambition for anything but this, this kind of thing. This is what he aspires to, this is what he longs for, this is what his whole life is set up for!
And that is the danger of it, of this attitude. It is kept busy by things that are not the essence of our life, but at most the encumbrance of it. Nothing shows better how much it is not the essence of our life than its transience. James expresses it thus: 'Your riches are corrupt, and your clothes are eaten away by moth; your gold and silver are eaten away by rust' (James 5:2-3a) If not before, we shall see at death how wasted life is in vain: for what can we carry over from it into eternity? We know the man of whom Jesus speaks, who, having made himself well provided with earthly goods, carefully stocked his barns and chambers with provisions sufficient for a long time, and then made himself comfortable, saying, "My soul, you have many possessions laid up for many years; make yourself comfortable, eat, drink, and be merry!" (Lk 12,19) And into this great untroubled prosperity God suddenly interjects, "Fool, this night they will take your soul from you; and the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be?" (Lk 12,20)
I once read about a rich lord who, according to the custom of the time, had a court jester. Once his lord gave him a clapper with these words. And when you have found one, give it to him. The court jester came to visit him and learned that his master was about to die. "And where will you go now?" he asked his master. 'Far, very far,' he replied. And when will you return, in a month? - No! - In a year? - No! When, never? - Never! - And what preparations have you made for this departure? - None! - You are going away for ever, and have you made no preparations at all? Here's my rattlesnake, I'll give it to you, for I've never met such a fool!
And how many of us live so foolishly: blinded by the deceitfulness of wealth, whether existing or not yet, we fail to prepare for the great journey. James refers to this in these words, "You have laid up treasure in the last days!" (James 5:3c) By "the last days" the Bible always means the period between Christ's ascension and His return in judgment. In the light of the glory of Christ's return, projected for the time, oh, but all the brightness of earthly riches fades away, the glittering gold and silver become rusty scrap, the splendid garments are worthless as moth-eaten rags: woe to those who still live under the spell of the splendour of such treasures!
But the danger of wealth is not only that it deceives its victim, but still more that it makes him heartless, pitiless to the poor! Thus continues James' terrible revelation. And the cries of the harvesters reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. Ye have fasted upon the earth, and have tossed; ye have fed your hearts as in the day of sacrifice." (Jas 5:4-5) The helplessness of the slave, the serf, the hireling, the robotic, the eternal day labourer, roars out of this judgment. All that has made them a world problem and the struggle of labour, all that has brought about class struggle, all that has intensified the explosive power of bitterness to the point of bringing about world revolutions, is contained in this Word, in which we are again fully acquainted with the words of Jesus! So, in fact, it is not the riches that are thrown at us, but how and on what we have used our riches.
Besides, it is very difficult, almost impossible, to draw the line between rich and poor: where does one begin and the other end? And the ultimate question, in the spirit of Scripture, is not whether I am rich, but how do I own my wealth, how do I use what I have? Anyone who thinks that he has a self-evident claim to the enjoyment of any material or spiritual possessions, because the secular law gives him the right to do so, is, according to the Bible, unscrupulous! For no man is the owner of his own goods, but only his trustee, his steward, - in biblical terms, his shapha. Nothing is mine, everything is God's! And we forget that as soon as we have something! We can keep what we have, but only in the knowledge that the claim to it has been made. It is reserved for God! But then really everything we have: our money, our time, our strength, our talents, our health, the strength of our two arms, our will, our intellect, our marriage, our children! One day I will be held accountable for what I have done with it? Have I lived it only for myself? Was it only to live well, to "feed my heart"? Had I ears to hear the cries of those who were bitter?
Our worship service last Sunday ended with the plea, "Lord, let someone benefit from your being my Lord! Well, a week has passed. Who has benefited from Jesus being your Lord? In practice, being a saint means that someone else benefits from what I have, what I have received from my Lord, what He has entrusted to me. If I have faith, it is from having bread, it is from having health, it is from having money. My very life itself is an unheard of wealth that makes me responsible to serve for the benefit of others! All wealth becomes a demonic power that corrupts as soon as one begins to accumulate it for oneself. And only he is saved from being corrupted who has it transformed into goodness and service. I always cut a man short, if he has no use for me to live! If it does not benefit me in some way what I have and he has not.
And if in our great selfishness we forget that all we have belongs to God, who gave it to us to use for the benefit of others, then God warns us so that we understand: with judgment! He takes away everything so that we understand who is the owner, the lord of all our goods. This is what James proclaims when he says: "Now therefore, you who are rich, weep for your afflictions which are coming upon you." (James 5:1) - And if we have not, nor have not, ears to hear the cry of those whom we have shortened, so much the more will God hear. This statement of James is eerie: "Behold, the wages of the labourers who reap your fields, which you have taken, cry out. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." (Jas 5:4) This means that all the social injustice suffered by the so-called little people is recorded in heaven, it cries to heaven. God hears it, even if it is not a silent prayer of a believing soul complaining to him, but a blasphemous outburst from the heart of a desperate man. What James is saying is that God has not only religious matters to deal with, not only spiritual matters and matters of salvation, but also earthly matters to deal with. He is involved in everyday life, he has a say in the most material things of our existence, such as money, wealth, wages. He is Lord of all life, has from the beginning defended human life and does not let social injustice go unpunished!
The many great crises that have already taken place in the world, the collapse of old worlds and the emergence of new situations, are not accidental, not the whim of blind fate, not the result of mere shifts of power, which could be viewed with the cool objectivity of a physicist looking at the natural process, but all of it is a judgment. From time to time, an accountable God holds to account the economic and social life of entire generations, the use of their wealth, and pronounces judgment in a long and complex trial that no one can see through. Who else but God, the Lord of history, can pass judgement on history, open the books, scrutinise the books and draw up the balance? And if anyone has personally experienced what James expresses, "Your riches are corrupt, and your garments are eaten by moth; your gold and your silver are eaten by rust," let him bow under the judgment of God!
For the wonderful thing about God's judgment is that it becomes grace as soon as one humbly accepts it from His hand! God always wants to save through judgment. He cries out a halt to humanity rushing to its own destruction. He grips you with a grip that hurts - but then, the drowning man also suffers a grip when his Saviour reaches out with a strong hand into his arms. If only he would judge us truly to the depths of our hearts! We should accept His judgement in there, deep in our hearts, to see if we are not one of those who want to store up treasure in the last days. There we should give into death all the secret desire and ambition with which we are still dependent on the power of money.
With our innermost being we should return to Him who bought us with His blood and tell Him: Lord, I too need to be broken. I too am one whom only You can deliver from the spell of the deceitfulness of riches. Redeem me also with all that I have under Your dominion, draw me also into Your death, so that with You and through You I may begin my life anew. Grant that my faith in You and the love that comes from it may be a truly productive and restorative force in the world, both economically and socially!
Amen
Date: 6 September 1953.