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Scripture Focus: James 5.1-5
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

Reflection: Wealth is a Dangerous Tool
By John Tillman

When people think the New Testament is soft and the Old Testament is harsh, they probably haven’t read James. 

Among other teachings, James holds some of the harshest words in scripture directed towards the wealthy. They are so harsh we often feel the need to soften them.

We tend to focus on the idea that the wealthy have a responsibility to use resources ethically. This is true and important. God repeatedly expresses concern for vulnerable people and his wrath towards those who fail to help, or worse, take advantage of them. Tim Keller described God’s special concern for a biblical “quartet of the vulnerable” that included orphans, widows, foreigners, and the poor. The law and the prophets describe neglect and oppression of these people as shedding blood which cries out to God.

James mentioned unethical practices we should avoid. Hoarding is storing up wealth for ourselves beyond what we need. Wage theft is unpaid, partial, or unfair wages. Self-indulgence is treating ourselves to luxuries. Over-consumption can mean food, entertainment, or anything else we binge on.

But James didn’t start with “You are not doing good with your wealth.” James’s first point was “Your wealth is doing evil to you.”

James didn’t seem to think of wealth as a passive, neutral tool. James described wealth as actively harming us, corrupting us, poisoning us. He called it a corrosive force that will “eat your flesh like fire” and bring misery.

Is wealth harming us because we misuse it or are we misusing it because it corrupts and harms us? I think James would say, “Both.”

So, is it all bad news? What should we do?

We must avoid unethical practices and do as much good with our resources as we can. But we can’t completely avoid participating in harm. Even if we pay the best wages, we benefit from those that don’t. Even when we do good with our wealth, evil exists within the flaws and failures of whatever system through which we earned it. If Solomon, the wisest to ever live was corrupted by wealth, we can’t rely on our wisdom.

Take James’s words to heart and don’t soften them. Let them inspire humility and respectful fear. If wealth is a tool, it is a dangerous one. Handle your wealth like a hazard—like a radioactive substance. The more you have, the more shielding you need from its corruption.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
When Jesus was at dinner in his [Matthew’s] house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at the table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this he said to them, “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the upright, but sinners.” — Mark 2.15-17

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 9 (Listen 4:38)
James 5 (Listen 3:01)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice starts in September, so it’s time to share your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form.

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Read more about Kingmakers Unmade
Wealth has unique and difficult dangers that can poison us.

Scripture Focus: James 2.1–13
1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

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Reflection: How To Be Terribly Un-Practical 
By David Z. Blackwell

This summer, my son and I are reading C.S Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew. When Polly first meets the witch she struggles in vain to get the witch’s attention. Digory later feels the same way when the witch no longer needs him. Lewis writes of the witch, “I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.” 

 It is not only fictional witches that treat others this way. Many real-life Christians can too.  What Lewis called “practical” we might call “transactional.” If church members only treat well those who seem “useful”, then even an army of greeters at every door won’t make people feel welcome.

James wants Christians to give the same attention and honor to the poor person wearing “filthy old clothes” as they would someone rich, powerful, and well-dressed (James 2.2–4). Valuing people by what they have to offer is favoritism. People who do this are “judges with evil thoughts” and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers (James 2.4, 9). 

James draws upon many themes found in the Gospel of Matthew. James refers to the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” as “the royal law” (James 2.8), which Jesus calls the second greatest command (Matthew 22.36–40).

Likewise, Jesus provides a similar warning in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5.46–47).

James and Jesus encourage Christians to value others. James juxtaposes favoritism and mercy. Mercy is the opposite of favoritism. Mercy is loving our neighbors and avoiding favoritism by refusing to be transactional in our relationships. Jesus went further than this by calling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5.44). 

James and Jesus invite us to reflect…

Do I base my relationships on what others have to offer me or to get what I want? Do I go out of my way to treat others equally and fairly with dignity and respect? Do I love my enemies? What actions can you take to show genuine love to those around you? Especially those who aren’t “useful”?


Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 6 (Listen 5:10)
James 2 (Listen 3:32)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice starts in September, so it’s time to share your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form.

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Scripture Focus: James 5.11
11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Reflection: The Patience of Job
By Erin Newton

Some English versions use the phrase, “the patience of Job.” Really? If you remember the book of Job, patience is typically not the description you had in mind. The Old Testament story of Job reveals a man in the midst of great peril and distress. He lays out his petition before God, pleading for an answer, “Why me? What did I do to deserve such suffering?” Job’s words are tense and angry. He speaks openly through his pain and spares no words.

We can look at the end of Job’s story and see that God restores him once more. We might call that “patience,” but it looks very different than what we would expect.

There is another story of Job that you might not know. The Testament of Job is a Greek version of Job’s story and was not included in the Protestant Canon. This story emphasizes the patient, long-suffering nature of Job and includes a message from Job to his children to be patient, for “patience is better than anything.”

Both stories about Job reveal the essence of patience: keeping the faith. Despite the bitterness of Job’s words in the canonical book, he proclaims, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” Patience turns hearsay faith into realized faith.

Patience has been a theme of James 5. Be patient like a farmer waiting for the Lord. Be patient in your interactions with one another. Be patient like the prophets who spoke of promises and days that they would not live to see.

What is patience? Patience is perseverance. Patience is the long and steady endurance of faith. Patience is waiting for God to answer your prayer. Patience is waiting for the healing of the sick. Patience is asking God to show a miracle and waiting years to see it happen.

The trials and struggles of life will test our perseverance. Our patience with ourselves, one another, and God will wear thin. We will speak angry words in our prayers and speak judgments on our neighbors. James understands the reality of the difficulty of patience.

James’ final words are a picture of patience that wanes during trials. When perseverance fails, a person wanders from the faith. James knows the amount of patience required for one to seek out their lost friend. Yet, we consider it a blessing to persevere for Christ and our neighbors.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. — Isaiah 9.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 10 (Listen 4:11)
James 5 (Listen 3:01)

Read more about Job’s Christlikeness
Job is an early “type” or example of Jesus. He demonstrates or proves God’s righteousness through suffering and death.

Read more about Lamenting With Job
Lament is frequent and important in the Bible and should be in our lives as well.

Scripture Focus: James 4.7-8
7…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you…

Reflection: To Whom We Draw Near
By John Tillman

The writing in James is tight, terse, and tense. Its short, pithy quotables, at first glance, seem disconnected from one another. But, just like in the book of Proverbs it is sometimes compared to, larger thoughts are developing and each thought shines a light on the next.

James copies the style of Proverbs often—writing a balanced statement of a good on one side, contrasted with its opposite. In James 4, his balanced statements help to contrast living as a “friend of the world” rather than a “friend of God.”

We want to be a friend of God and of the world too but James reminds us that is impossible. We are called to have a single love and to be faithful to God alone, satisfying ourselves in God and clinging to him to the exclusion of all others. If we maintain a polyamorous relationship that includes our worldly, fleshly desires, God, in response, will distance himself from us.

James calls this being double-minded rather than single-minded. Our conflicts, struggles, anger, and rage come from attempts to achieve our worldly desires—seeking wealth, seeking power, seeking pleasures. We want God’s blessings to spend on devilish pursuits. When we choose this, we are choosing enmity rather than friendship with God, war rather than peace.

We live on Earth which rightfully belongs to God, but  “the world” is the powers, systems, and spiritual forces that usurp God’s rule and authority. We are aliens and strangers in the world, not citizens. God does not acknowledge dual citizenship with a rebellious world. We cannot keep one foot in two kingdoms that are at war.

James recommends that we choose our enemies carefully, for when we choose our enemies, we are also choosing our friends. Choosing to be near to the world is choosing to be far from God. Resisting the devil will cause him to flee from us. Coming near to God will cause him to come near to us. The distance of the devil and the nearness of God are affected by our responses.

We must choose whom to resist and whom to draw close to. May we draw close to God and be safely kept in his hand. We need not fear having the world as an enemy when we have God as a friend.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me. — Psalm 66.14

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 9 (Listen 3:20)
James 4 (Listen 2:25)

Read more about Perishable and Imperishable Kingdoms
There are kingdoms of this world that are passing away. These earthly kings…ask us to shed others’ blood by endorsing, normalizing, or embracing violence.

Read more about Humble in Suffering
Keep our minds sharp and aware—awake to the dangers and threats of our enemy the devil.