How We Get It

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! . . . The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth . . . You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

—James 5:1, 4, 6

The issue of how we get our wealth is vitally important to God, and that thought pervades the first paragraph of James 5. As he wrote these words to the scattered church, James had in mind a man who received his money through two particular means: exploitation and expropriation.

James began with an accusation of exploitation. He was not speaking softly here: “The wages of the laborers who mowed your field, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and . . . have reached the ears of the Lord” (emphasis added). Never does the Bible condemn the acquisition of wealth by legal and legitimate means. James was calling out those who acquired their wealth through illegal or illegitimate means. A man who had contracted to pay his employees a certain amount exploited them by refusing to pay them what was owed. James called it what it was: fraud. From the start, the landowner never intended to pay the workers what he had promised them for their services. There are still those around today who are looking for any and every loophole in agreements that can be found. But, as James warned, God, the righteous Judge, is listening and looking.

Throughout its pages the Bible gives clear and cautious warning against acquiring wealth through exploitative means. In Leviticus 19:13, we read, “You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.” Deuteronomy 24:14–15 brings us this warning: “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.” God heard the prayers of the Jewish slaves in Egypt: “The children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage” (Exodus 2:23). Jesus added bluntly, “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10:7).

There is an interesting message hidden behind the verb tenses found in James 5:4. The verb translated mowed is in the aorist tense, which indicates the task was done at a point in time: the job had been accomplished; the task, finished. The work was done. No argument here. When we read that this landowner failed to pay, we find it in the imperfect tense, meaning that the employer had held back the pay and had no intention of paying it. Then, when James said these wages “cry out,” he formed it in the present tense: they were continuously crying out about this injustice. In life, payday comes sooner or later. Especially when God is looking and listening.

Next comes a stinging accusation from the pen of James: “You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” Now we see that this man is guilty not only of exploitation but of expropriation as well. In accusing this man of “condemning” his workers, James borrowed a judicial term for the manner in which the rich pervert the legal system to accumulate wealth. The term implies that some people control and manipulate the courts so much that justice is eliminated. In other words, their money buys them power to use the courts to take away someone else’s means of support. This landowner thought he had the power to control the system and so prevent his workers from opposing him. As he deprived them of what was theirs, it was as if he murdered them.

There are ways of killing people without actually taking their physical lives. We can kill a person’s reputation by vicious and untruthful slander. We can kill a person’s incentive and drive with constant criticism and rebukes. Here James was pointing out a man who would stop at nothing to gain a little more for himself.

Victims of crimes don’t stand up against injustice when those with financial means—and therefore power—control the system, rendering the victims unable to defend themselves. Earlier in his letter James had commented on this very point: “You have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?” (James 2:6). James wanted people to know that, in the end, wealth gained by any illegitimate means brings nothing more than “miseries.”

It was the love of money that was at the root of Jesus’ own betrayal. Judas was the treasurer of the group. He managed the money. He loved it. In fact, he sold the Lord out for thirty measly pieces of silver. And look at how “he got it.” In the end, he epitomizes someone whose final scene is “misery.” Yes, money talks. What is how you got your money saying about you? If you don’t get money in the right way, sooner or later your gold and silver will “cry out” against you.