Charles Ellicott Commentary James 1:11

"For the sun ariseth with the scorching wind, and withereth the grass: and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his goings." — James 1:11 (ASV)

For the sun is no sooner risen . . .—Translate, the sun arose with the burning heat, and dried up the grass; and the flower thereof fell away, and the grace of its fashion perished. The grace, the loveliness, the delicacy of its form and feature—literally, of its face—withered and died away. The Apostle must often have seen such an effect of the fiery Eastern sun, scorching with its pitiless glare the rich verdure of the wilderness; and in his ear, perhaps, was the cry of Isaiah (Isaiah 40:6–8):

All flesh is grass:
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth;
The flower fadeth;
Because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
—Surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth;
The flower fadeth;
But the Word of our God shall stand for ever.

So also (or, thus) shall the rich man fade away (or, wither) in his ways.—Observe, it is not the rich brother who is to fade in this way, though his wealth will pass away in the same manner. The warning is rather for them that trust in riches. Even the mammon of unrighteousness, well used, will make for us friends that may receive us into everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9).

And he who, out of the possessions with which God has blessed him, deviseth liberal things, by liberal things shall stand (Isaiah 32:8). Moreover, looking closely at the text, there seems a special fitness in its exact words, for they mean that the rich shall perish in their journeys for the sake of gain. To no people could the rebuke apply more sharply than to the Jews, the lenders to many nations (Deuteronomy 15:6), the merchants and bankers of the world. Nor can the sword of the Spirit, unsheathed from this Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), be without an edge for those of us in these latter times who err in the former ways.