November 21 - James 4:13-5:6

For several of my New Testament assignments, I have to do a 'close reading' of a passage, then with a team of 3-4 others, we combine all of our work together into one single observation of that scripture.  Since I have some time this week and have two of these coming up, I decided to finish them yesterday so that I can be a little ahead of the game - especially since I have a lot of end of term work about to hit me.


Here is the close reading of James 4:13-5:6 that I did.  One word you may not recognize is 'pericope.'  When you are reading along in your Bible and you see a subheading ... that begins a pericope.  It is simply a portion of scripture that has been sectioned off.  These have been pretty arbitrary throughout the centuries, as have verse numbering and chapter sectioning.  But the pericope is the most flexible by translators.  


James 4:13-5:6

This passage immediately follows James’ teaching on submission to God and seems to expand the thought as he points out instances in which we submit to no one but ourselves.

We all make plans without consulting God.  James rightly knows that these plans include everything from travel, to where we will live, what business we will participate in and how we hope to make money.  And then he reminds us that we can’t even be certain of our existence tomorrow.  Is it possible that James is drawing on OT ideas of the brevity of life? (Job 7:6; 9:25, Psalm 39:5; Isa 38:12; 40:6-8)

Does the verse about being mist and then vanishing after appearing for a little while sound like the question a lot of people ask when they say, “Will this even matter in one hundred years?”  If we are doing things for ourselves, they will fade like that mist.  But, doing those things that exist within the Lord’s will and living in that will is the better way to live.  Boasting of our own plans and our own accomplishments is evil.

The last sentence in this pericope regarding knowing the good to do and not doing it equals sin is both a general statement regarding sin and a very specific statement regarding the previous idea of living within the Lord’s will.

James moves then to the coming trauma for rich people.  He warns them to weep and wail because the things that they count on will not last forever.  Wealth, gold and silver all will fade away, like those things in the previous section that we do only for ourselves. 

By using these two ideas together, is James commenting on the self-centeredness of wealth?  All of humanity’s plans, all of its wealth will be worth nothing in the final days.  The hoarding of wealth is even more offensive if doing so has caused difficulty for those who look for payment and are cheated.  What ideas from Jesus’ teaching on wealth – the rich man entering heaven, for example – have affected James’ teaching in this letter?  The OT is quite explicit about the fleetingness and uncertainty of wealth (Ps. 49:10, Proverbs 23:5, 27:24) and Jeremiah speaks specifically to this point in Jeremiah 17:11.  Is there someone specifically that James is considering as he writes this letter?  How does this thought continue across time to our present circumstances?

James is quite critical of those who live in extreme luxury at great cost to others and not themselves.  When things are falling apart (the day of slaughter), they ate as gluttons (fattening themselves).  With no thought, they condemned innocents to death, even though there was no opposition.  James is making a clear statement with regards to those who step over others to achieve great plans for themselves.

All of this is in great contrast with the man who submits to the will of God.  Self-indulgence, achieving wealth with no thought for others, making plans alone, living as if we alone are in control of our lives is boasting and bragging … sin.  James calls for people to do the live within the Lord’s will and do things in our lives according to that will.