Title About Wealth (James 5:1-6)
Contents
On October 8, 1988, 20 years ago, there was a runaway incident that caused a stir across the country, and 7 vicious criminals, including Ji Kang-heon, the main culprit, escaped during the escort. The fugitives roamed downtown Seoul for a whopping 9 days, committing a total of 9 robberies, including 5 hostage plays. Then, on October 16, after 14 hours of last hostage play, one of the four fugitives was arrested, and two of them committed suicide by shooting themselves in the head. Ji Kang-heon, the boss at the time, said, ‘All we need is money in our country. He was shot and killed by the police, leaving behind the words, "No Guilty, Hereditary Innocence..."
“If you don’t have money, you become a sinner even if you have no sin, and if you have money, you become innocent even if you have a sin, and you are all set free.” As the saying goes, money has so much power that it even determines the fate of a person. Money, on its own, is value-neutral and cannot be evaluated as good or bad. However, when it is used for bad, it becomes bad, and when it is used for good, it becomes good. Therefore, the Bible consistently warns against the accusation of wealth and the misuse of wealth.
The financial crisis that is shaking the world these days is a misfortune caused by not properly managing the wealth entrusted to us by God.
have to be fair
The Bible does not condemn the gathering of wealth as wrong. All the patriarchs of the Old Testament, including Abraham, refused, and David and Solomon also had great wealth and lived to the fullest. It also teaches that we should live in the same way as Job received the blessings of worship after overcoming hardships well.
However, it is a very serious mistake to make money by dishonest means. These days, the act of selling goods by selling fakes by deceiving the real thing like Chinese people these days, receiving money that should not be received like a debit surge, or using ex officio to find out development information and make a lot of money through real estate speculation is an illegal method. It is about collecting wealth.
In the text, James rebukes the rich for filling their stomachs without paying the workers their wages. From the fact that they did not even pay the fair wages they were supposed to receive, it remains to be seen how severe the exploitation of the poor was by the rich at the time.
Not all rich people are like that, but there are many people who have amassed enormous wealth through this unfair means. Nowadays, the law is too much and it is not well received by the public, but conflicts or confrontations between labor and management that occur every year are also a bad practice that occurs because employers do not pay fair wages to workers.
Some business owners divert legitimate money that should be returned to workers, creating huge amounts of slush funds. And they use the money to lobby political figures and enjoy great privileges. A prime example of this is Samsung. The Samsung Group, the largest conglomerate in Korea, is a huge company that accounts for one-fifth of all exports and one-quarter of the total stock market in Korea. It is an immoral company that has become a hotbed and root of all kinds of social evils such as labor oppression. In 2004, Daehan Electric Wire Chairman Seol Won-ryang, who was ranked 99th in the business world at the time, paid 135.5 billion won in gift tax when he passed the company down to his children. However, the immorality of the wealthy Samsung chairman is clearly visible when you look at the fact that Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, the largest company in Korea, donated to his son Jae-yong Lee by an expedient and paid only 1.6 billion won in taxes.
James, who foresaw this phenomenon in advance, warned, “When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (1:15). Even in the stipulations of the law, ‘wages must be paid on the same day’ (Deuteronomy 24:14-15) and ‘do not oppress or exploit your neighbors’ (Leviticus 19:13).
I know that there may not be such a person among you. wish.
use it correctly
There is a saying, ‘Make money like a dog and spend it like a sage’. Rather than saying earning like a dog, there is more emphasis on using it like a sage. In other words, you need to use your money wisely. But these days, there are more people who spend money like a dog than people who spend it like a regular.
People who make easy money through dishonest means use it like a dog. Or, even a person who made a profit like Jeongseung could misuse it like a dog, and then lose it. It is publicly known that most of Southeast Asian travelers are sex tourism. It is said that the scope has now expanded to Mongolia. So, Koreans were even given the title of 'ugly Korean', that is, morally bad and ugly Koreans.
People who make hard money by working hard and sweating really don't spend it that way. There is a saying 不汗黨 (不汗黨), which means 'a person who does not sweat'. So, it has become a negative word to refer to a person who spends money in idleness without working. The more rogues there are, the more corrupt and ruined the society or country where the entertainment industry is developed.
We must use the wealth God has given us wisely. So Jesus told us to lay up our treasures in heaven. On earth, thieves may steal it, and it may be thrown away because it has moth or rust, but the storehouse in heaven is safe (Matt 6:19-20). James also said that the riches of the earth decayed and ate and rusted (verse 3). Laying up wealth in heaven refers to doing good things with money in this world. It is such a thing to help the needy or the poor, and to use it for the glory of God.
Where will you build your wealth? Those who believe and realize that God is the giver and that God is the one who will take them away will be able to use them properly.
Judgment follows unclean riches
It's something I read in a newspaper, and it may not fit the sentiments of believers, but I'm going to introduce it because the meaning is important. It is said that wealth plays a very large part in human affairs, but unfortunately, there are people who are born with no wealth. It means that if a poor seller tries too hard to make money, he will get sick or go to prison. Because you put an irrational number. However, it is not easy to humbly accept this even if you know that your salesperson is a non-selling person.
It is said that Park Jae-wan, who is known as a ‘Doctor Doctor’ who lived in Daejeon and looked after many people’s eight children, humbly accepted his eight-year-old son as a ‘no-jae seller’. In the late 1970s, when the area near Daejeon was being developed as a new city, there was an opportunity to make money easily like so-called swimming on the ground, where if you buy land at a few thousand won per pyeong, it rises to tens of thousands of won after 2-3 years. People around me came and said, "If you buy some land now, the price of the land will go up a lot in the future." When a poor seller who has no wealth suddenly gets a lot of money, he gets angry. If money comes in to me, I can't live my life and die."
Many people do not live according to the rules of law and try to make money by force, but they commit illegal acts and are punished or condemned by the world. It is said that even a promising young politician received illegal money here and there. Also, in the last presidential election, Moon Mo, who was well-received for his clean image, was even proposed to the National Assembly for an arrest warrant for violating the election law. It is often seen that the heads of once-prosperous companies are sentenced to prison. All of these people are paying the price for collecting or misusing their wealth in an unholy way.
Verse 1 says, “I warn the rich to weep and weep for the troubles that will come upon you.” The day will come when those who do not use their wealth properly will stand before the judgment seat of God despite numerous warnings.
In 1923, Charles Scherb, president of an American steel company, and Curtain, who had been rejected for wheat farming, ended his life miserably. Because the acquisition and use of wealth was wrong, they had already been severely judged by God while they were still alive.
In the text, there is also a content of rebuking ‘those who accumulated wealth in the last days of the day, those who enriched their hearts in the day of slaughter’ (verses 3 and 5). Such a person is an economic animal that finds a way to make a living out of wealth. For a true believer, the last day should not be a day of slaughter, but a day of grace and reward, receiving praise from God and receiving a reward for hard work.
There was a rich man in Jerusalem, and one day a voice came from heaven saying, “All the money you have belongs to Abraham the carpenter who lives in Jerusalem, so do not use it arbitrarily.” So I hid all the money and valuables by drilling holes in the trees in the garden.
After that, there was a great flood, and a fisherman found a tree floating on the water and took it to Abraham, a carpenter he knew well. Abraham liked the tree and bought it with money. There, he saw a lot of money and valuables, and he thanked God for his grace.
On the other hand, the rich man who had put his money and valuables in a tree later became a poor beggar and went to beg, wondering if his money and possessions actually belonged to Abraham, so he went to the house. When they saw that the vessel they were using at the table was the silver vessel they used in the past, they lamented. After hearing all the circumstances, Abraham said he would return all the money back. Then the man who was the original owner refused, saying, 'I cannot own wealth that God does not allow.' Reluctantly, Abraham put a large sum of money into the bread when the poor couple left. Gratitude, the couple took the bread, went and arrived in a certain city. But I had to pay customs tax there, but I didn't have the money, so I gave the bread that Abraham had given me. When the taxpayer saw the bread, he thought, ‘I should bring this bread to the wedding of Abraham the carpenter’s son,’ so the money was eventually returned to Abraham’s hands.
According to Ecclesiastes, “Money is used for all things” (10:19). In English, it is said that “money is the answer for everything.” In this way, wealth is essential in our life. However, how you collect and use your wealth is more important than the wealth itself. Don't follow the money, let the money follow you. Without God's grace, nothing can be mine. Seneca once said, “If you resist fate, you will be dragged away; if you obey, you will be carried away.” If a believer resists God's will, he has no choice but to live as if he is being beaten and dragged into suffering.