"if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?"
1 John 3:17
I was recently assigned to preach out of James 5:1-6 last week. It would have been really easy to jump on the political wagon against the wealthy and hammer the rich for 40 minutes, until I recognized that in the text, as well as in all of scripture, the wealthy are not the problem; the unrighteous wealthy are. Biblically there are no binaries, where the ‘oppressed’ are righteous, and those that have the means to produce are always unrighteous. Wealth building for the sake of human flourishing is a biblical idea (Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 10:22). Just like Jesus, "though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, by His poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), we are to see our 'wealth' as a way to bless others. The problem in this James text is is the greed and corruption that often oppresses those less fortunate. James’ letter wasn’t written to pick on the wealthy, it was written to demonstrate that though we are saved by faith, that saving faith should work its way out in good works. Works that include how all of us respond to the poor around us. We can see this idea that we are created 'for' good works in Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 2:14; 3:14 among many other verses that show us that our salvation wasn’t just to be saved from God’s wrath, but was saved from something, to something. James’ issue that he is addressing, is the unrighteous wealthy who have taken advantage of the poor and marginalized and used them to live in luxury. You can't read through the bible and not notice that God cares for the poor and marginalized. When Jesus came to earth, He preached out of Isaiah 61 and Luke recorded that scripture in chapter four of his gospel. It reads...
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18-19
I would be writing for hours if I quoted everything the bible says about the poor, and our duty to help when we can. But as I studied this more, I realized this isn’t a rich/poor thing, it’s a heart thing. Unfortunately, like many of our social issues, justice for the poor and marginalized have been politicized, and as usual, we pick a tribe, rather than seeking our answers in scripture. So, we create sides, the "woke" side, or the "Anti-Woke" side; what will it be? And then we vilify anyone that sounds like they are coming from the other tribe. You might be doing it to me for just bringing it up.
The fact is, the Love of God permeates every nook and cranny of our lives, and it doesn't know words like woke and anti-woke. It doesn’t care about our petty grievances within our political system. The biblical reality is the wealthy are not always unrighteous, and the poor aren't always righteous. I have seen some of the most generous wealthy people in the world, who continue to give of their time, talent and treasure to help anyone in need. I have also seen very greedy poor people. It is a false notion to believe that the wealthy are the problem because of wealth. James shows us they are the problem, because of the human heart's propensity toward greed and corruption. Being generous, and giving has nothing to do with wealth, but it has everything to do with our heart. If you are greedy, there is not enough money for you to have a giving heart, because it is not about money. For sure, the gospel saved us from God's wrath, but it saved us to something; His Kingdom, which is not just for eternity, but begins in our time now! Jesus didn't preach the sermon on the mount to teach us how to live in His future Kingdom; He preached it to show us how to live in His present Kingdom, now! That's right, we are citizens of the heavenly Kingdom (Philippians 3:20), and that Kingdom was inaugurated when Jesus came the first time, and will be completed when He returns the second time. Meanwhile, we are proclaimers of that Kingdom, which doesn't see woke and anti-woke; it just sees opportunities for the gospel of our kingdom, because we are ambassadors of it (See 2 Corinthians 5:20), not hacks for some political system. I pray we can all put God's Kingdom truth before any political desires we have, and love those around us in ways that are very peculiar to the world's version of love. Acting out in a love that makes no sense to the world, is the key to transforming its own definition of love, which is nothing but a sappy version of it. Something laws and politics and lobbying can't do!