“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 ESV)
Now, this doesn’t have to apply just to rich people who are wealthy and who have enough money to hire people to work for them. For there is a heart issue at work here which can apply to any one of us. And that issue is greed. And along with that goes lying, cheating, abusing, and hoarding. But the hoarding doesn’t necessarily have to do with material wealth. For it has to do with being utterly selfish and holding on to what you want and not being willing to surrender your selfish desires in order to show love to others.
And this can be selective selfishness, too, being willing to give up some things, but not the things you want to hold on to most, or being willing to be generous with only certain people but not with others who are also in need. And again, this doesn’t necessarily have to do with money at all, but this can have to do solely with being kind and loving and giving of oneself to the legitimate needs of others as opposed to just thinking about oneself, especially at the expense of others whom you are supposed to be loving.
So, your “treasure” can be anything you love more than anything else, and it doesn’t have to be anything of material value. Your treasure can be a sinful addiction that you don’t want to give up, even if it means destroying your marriage, family, and/or other relationships, or even if it means destroying your own health and wellbeing. And if it is a sinful addiction it will definitely destroy any possibility for a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ and it will send you to hell and not to heaven if you refuse to give it up.
Now if this describes your life, holding on to a sinful addiction at the expense of others who you hurt by your sinful addiction, then those who you are sinning against may also be those who are crying out to God in their pain and suffering for God to intervene on their behalf and to rescue them from your abuse of them. Or they may be praying to God that he would intervene on your behalf and would do something to get your attention so that you would surrender your life to Jesus Christ and so you would now obey Him.
For if you are one who is greedy about what you want, regardless of who gets hurt in the process, and if you are one who refuses to give up your “treasure” in order to show love and genuine compassion to others, then you are definitely one who is living in self-indulgence with your “idol” of choice. For you are someone who is living in lasciviousness, which means “excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, having a complete disregard for the integrity and honor of others” (source: gotquestions.org). Well stated!
Thus, you are also one who has rendered himself or herself fit to be destroyed in the day of God’s wrath. And one other reason for this condemnation is that those who choose to hold on to their sinful practices, at the expense of others, have, in essence, joined in with the throng who cried out “crucify him” when they called for Jesus Christ to be hung on that cross to die. And some or many of them may also be guilty of persecuting the Lord’s servants and messengers who are living for the Lord and not in sin.
So, this is both a warning and an encouragement. The warning is that if you continue to hold on to your sinful addiction and to your greed, and you refuse to submit to the will of God for your life and to love others as Christ loved you and gave himself up for you, you will not inherit eternal life with God. But the encouragement is that if you do repent (turn from your sins), and you now walk in obedience to the Lord in treating others with love and kindness, then you will have the hope of eternal life. The choice is yours!
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
My Heart’s Desire
An Original Work / June 29, 2013
Based off Rm. 10; Lu. 9:23-26; Ep. 4:20-24
Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire
Is that you might come to Jesus.
Many appear zealous for God,
But they do not trust in Him.
They have not submitted to the One
Who saved them from their sins;
Not forsaken their sins,
Nor have they obeyed their King.
The word of the Lord is near you:
The word of faith we’re proclaiming:
That you must confess your faith
In Jesus as your Lord and King:
Believe in Him as your Lord,
And follow Him where’er He leads.
Share the gospel; be a witness,
And meet others’ needs.
Beautiful are the feet of those
Who bring the good news of Jesus:
Anyone who would come to Him
Must deny himself today;
Die to sin and self, and
Let the Spirit transform you in heart;
Put on your new self in Jesus,
Yielding to the cross.
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