James writes to the 12 tribes scattered abroad with a strong exhortation. He has all kinds of things to hit them on, from persevering in trial to helping the poor to maintaining good works. One of James' favorite targets in this letter is the rich. He doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about them. He describes them as suing Christians, blaspheming Christ's name, and receiving sinful favoritism from people in the church. He says the rich persecute their employees and even kill the righteous with impunity. As if this weren't enough, James even says God didn't choose rich people to inherit the kingdom! As a quick qualifier, God did choose some rich people for salvation, though admittedly, Paul says God didn't choose many. Generally, God chose the poor. And James rebukes the rich for one other thing. He accuses the rich of entrepreneurial pride. Here's what I mean: He describes the rich as planning a business venture without taking God's will into account. He calls this arrogance, boasting, ignorance, evil and sin. Why does James think this is so bad? Two reasons: First, we don't know what our life will be like in the future, even five minutes into the future. Second, we do know that, whatever happens, our life will be brief, uncertain, and vain. Now this is not a sermon about rich people; they just happen to be James' target. Rather, this is a sermon about your life. Specifically, this is a sermon about the brevity, the uncertainty, and the vanity of your life. So let's take some time to look at each of these in turn. |