You're Richer Than You Think: Here's How to Be a Good One

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Being a good rich person means using what you have to help people in need instead of storing it up for yourself, and refusing to take advantage of anyone to get more. And if you're reading this on a phone you own, in a house you live in, after eating today, you qualify as rich. Here's what God expects from you.

We're continuing our series in James, and last week we looked at how you talk about other people. This week James turns to a group a lot of us assume he's not talking about: the rich.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. (James 5:1-6)

That's not cheery stuff. And it raises a fair question: does this mean having money is a sin? Abraham was wealthy enough to field a private army. David was a rich king who wrote a good chunk of the Old Testament. Neither of them lost their standing with God over it. So James isn't condemning wealth itself, he's calling out specific things wealthy people were doing that showed they were friends of the world instead of friends of God.

Their wealth was doing nothing for anybody. Back then, you didn't keep money in a vault, you kept it in grain and clothes. Grain stored in a barn, clothes stored in a closet, both cashed in later when the price was better. James says these people had closets full of clothes going moth-eaten while naked, orphaned children ran around their city, clothes that could have covered every one of them. They had piles of gold and silver corroding from disuse while people starved during famines, because the rich were waiting for the price to climb just a little higher before they'd sell. Nothing wrong with making a profit. The problem is they weren't satisfied with a profit. They wanted more, and they let people die waiting for it.

They were stealing from their own employees. "The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud." There was an Old Testament law requiring employers to pay workers the same day, because most people couldn't survive without that day's wages. These employers just didn't pay. "I'll pay you once I sell the crop." Meanwhile the worker needed groceries today.

They used the legal system to crush people who got in their way. "You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you." Nobody's literally swinging a sword here, this is legal language. Sue somebody, get a friendly judge (because judges and rich people golfed at the same places), take their farm or their unpaid wages through the court, and walk away clean while they starve. The rich would say that's not murder, they never laid a hand on anyone. James disagrees. Take away everything a person needs to live, and stand by while they die from it, and you're guilty of the same thing as if you'd killed them yourself.

James says all of that will stand as evidence against them, not because they had wealth, but because they hoarded it while people suffered right in front of them. We're not saved by our poverty, and we're not lost because of our wealth. We're saved by the blood of Jesus, full stop. But what we do with what we've been given gets weighed, and it shapes what our lives look like on the other side of this one.

So, Are You Rich?

Here's the problem with the word "rich": it always means someone else. As a kid, rich meant a trampoline, satellite TV, an in-ground pool, because those were the things I didn't have. Rich was never a fixed line, it was just whatever sat on the other side of what I owned. And that's still how we use the word: rich means somebody with more than me. But flip that around with some real numbers.

If you make $31,500 a year, you're in the top 10% of income earners in the entire world. If you make $50,000 a year, you're in the top half of income earners in the United States, the richest country in the world. If you make $75,000, you're in the top 10% in America.

Forget cash for a second. James was writing to people who didn't own extra clothes and bought food one day at a time because that's all they could afford. Can you buy a week's worth of groceries at once? Do you throw food away because you don't feel like eating leftovers? Have you eaten meat more than once this week? Do you have air conditioning you complain about the bill for, but pay anyway? That's rich people stuff. If you have more than you strictly need, meaning you get to choose your groceries instead of just surviving on them, you're rich. You may not feel rich, but 90% of the world would trade places with you in an instant.

How to Be a Good Rich Person

This isn't about guilt, and it's not about giving away everything you own. Abraham didn't do that. David didn't do that. It's about what you do with what you've got.

Stop looking at what you don't have and start looking at what you do have. Live like you're rich, meaning when you see somebody in need, you help them, because you can. Maybe you can't cover their mortgage. Could you make an extra sandwich? An extra pot of rice and beans? Could you share a little of what you have instead of using all of it on yourself?

Don't take advantage of people to get more. If you owe someone, pay them. If you're selling something, don't hide what's wrong with it just because you can get away with it. Be honest about how you get what you have, not just what you do with it once you've got it.

Remember whose example you're actually following. Jesus was wealthier than everyone who's ever lived combined, and he set all of it down to come live in poverty and give us what we couldn't get for ourselves. If he gave up everything for you, "I don't have enough to share" doesn't hold up. This was never really a money question. It's a question about how you see God and what he's already done for you.

What Kind of Rich Person Will You Be?

If you're rich, and by the Bible's measure, you almost certainly are, the question isn't whether James 5 applies to you. It's what you're going to do about it. Look at what you have instead of what you don't, and let that gratitude turn into generosity toward the people around you.

If you're wrestling with what that looks like for you specifically, we'd love to help you think it through. Come visit us this Sunday, or reach out and let's talk.

This message continues our series in James. Catch up on "I Can Predict Your Future (And So Can You)" and last week's "Why Talking Trash About Someone Says More About You Than Them." For another story about a rich man Jesus turned upside down, see "You Don't Have to Be Good Enough for God to Want You."

Living Generously and Living Without a Shoulder: Money / Giving dig into similar ground from the back catalog.