THE HUSBANDMAN WAITETH

As James continues his rebuke of rich believers, who in the pursuit of ever greater riches were leaving God out of their reckoning, he addresses all rich men, saved or not. It is as though, by pointing out the wickedness of being greedy and self-centred, he might shame his brethren into more Christ-like behaviour. Some rich believers were behaving like ungodly masters who arrogantly denied their servants their proper wages and who, ultimately, were guilty of sending those hap­less souls to an early grave after a thoroughly miserable life of oppression. Their greed for money meant these mean and bloated masters never gave so much as a thought to the misery of their servants, but James warns them that the Lord of sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, was watching and would one day avenge those who had no voice of their own.

It is an uncomfortable thing to do, but we must measure our own thinking against the teaching of James. He condemns the rich for hoarding their money to the extent that it had become cankered and rusty. It was doing them no good but they would­n’t use it to help others. Their garments were motheaten because they had lain unused in storage for so long. The rich did not wear the clothes but neither did they give them to those who were destitute. What a solemn stewardship belongs to those who have plenty! Many believers today discard one thing to buy another that is bigger, better or more fashionable, never thinking of the needs of brethren and sisters in poorer lands. Self-indul­gent spending by us denies the necessities of life to poor saints elsewhere. Do we care? Do we give?

Turning again to his ‘brethren’, v. 7, James exhorts them to be patient in the face of the inequities of life. Their faith in Christ for salvation had begun a process that would surely result in the enjoyment of the riches of heaven. As the husbandman waits in the expectation that his toil in ploughing and sowing will even­tually bear fruit, so oppressed believers must patiently endure until, at the coming of the Lord, all their humiliation, tears and scars will be forever removed and replaced with glory and the eternal companionship of the Saviour.