James Chapter 5
Mood:
chatty
Topic: Bible
Disclaimer: I ocassionally write here to reflect on what I read in the Bible...if you prefer other topics, just keep checking back or look at some of my other posts
-------------------------
At first blush it seems that the beginning of this chapter is a condemnation of all who are rich. Surely, I thought, this can't be the case. Just because someone has worked hard and used their mind in creative ways should not be reason for condemnation! For there are many CEOs nowadays who are Christians and run their companies with integrity. Certainly, God doesn't hate that!
But as I read more of the chapter I came to see that the problem was not with being rich. It was with being rich at the expense of others. The chapter speaks of people not paid wages for work done and murdered for dubious reasons. Back then when there was a lot less paperwork (yes, there was SOME paperwork) it was a lot harder to track if people were indeed getting paid for work done.
So the beginning of the chapter is actually about people who are becoming rich on the backs of others. THOSE people are the ones who will face all sorts of judgement day horrors.
The next section was a call to patience with regards to the Second Coming of Christ. Christ was to come soon anyway...so just be patient for a little while. Whenever I read that I wonder if the Saints knew how long it was really going to take. Did they really think that it was going to be soon as in sometime in the current generation? Or did they understand it as soon by God's standards? Since they may have understood the world to be 10 thousand years old, they could have reasoned that God is insanely patient and therefore soon may have meant sometime in the next millenia or so.
It's a concept that's of, in my humble opinion, medium importance to Christian theology. If it meant soon as in during the biblical time period then it is obviously wrong and that could have huge ramifications for the faith. If it meant within the next few thousand years, then it's ok. However, it's one of those things that you wonder about without being something necessary to understand in order to live your life in accordance to Christian principles. In other words, being nitpicky about it will be of no real use.
The final part was just about prayer, but it didn't say anything out of the ordinary. Basically it just exhorted the followers to pray for things they need.
So ends the book of James
Posted by Eric
at 2:50 AM EST