Sometimes God speaks to the world through a message written for His people. He addresses an absentee audience, as it were. We encounter this phenomenon in the Old Testament prophets. For example:

“Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.”–Isaiah 34:1-2.

We see a very similar thing, with equally shocking language, in the prophetic words of James 5:1-6. Standing in the rich and authoritative tradition of Israel’s inspired prophets, James pronounces a word of doom and destruction upon the “rich” (v. 1) who are destined for “slaughter” (v. 5). The audience in view here, however, is the unbelieving world outside the Church. James is warning all unbelievers, but especially those who are “rich” in worldly goods, that a day of reckoning is on the way. But if this is true, then we might be curious as to why the Lord would say things intended for an audience of people who will never read these words.

The solution to this puzzle is discovered in the fact that by speaking this way to His own people, God both instructs and warns those who belong to Him. In this passage, James is demonstrating the awful peril of making a god out of one’s wealth. He wants us—the followers of Jesus—to see what’s really happening to such people, the “rich,” when we look past the glitz, glamour, and the care-free spirit that effectively disguises their real “miseries” (vv. 1-3), terrible sins (vv. 4-6), and ultimate destiny (v. 6). And it’s not a pretty sight at all! Yet the point is well-taken, and the warning intended for us is clear enough! There is a grave danger associated with the accumulation of earthly treasures. It is an indisputable fact that “worldly wealth is an area of high risk in the battle to walk humbly with God” (Alec Motyer).

On Sunday, we will feast upon this passage of Holy Scripture. We will be both instructed in the way of righteousness, and warned of the peril of allowing our hearts to be captured by the love of things.