John Calvin Commentary James 5

Go to now. In my opinion, those who consider that James here exhorts the rich to repentance are mistaken. It seems to me to be a simple denunciation of God’s judgment, by which he intended to terrify them without giving them any hope of pardon, because everything he says tends only to despair.

He, therefore, does not address them in order to invite them to repentance. On the contrary, he is concerned for the faithful, so that they, hearing of the miserable and the rich, might not envy their fortune, and also, knowing that God would be the avenger of the wrongs they suffered, they might bear them with a calm and resigned mind.

But he does not speak of the rich indiscriminately, but of those who, immersed in pleasures and inflated with pride, thought of nothing but the world, and who, like inexhaustible gulfs, devoured everything. For by their tyranny, they oppressed others, as is apparent from the whole passage.

Weep and howl, or, Lament, howling. Repentance indeed has its weeping, but since it is mixed with consolation, it does not extend to howling. Then James intimates that the weight of God’s vengeance on the rich will be so horrible and severe that they will be compelled to break forth into howling, as if he had briefly said to them, “Woe to you!”

But this is a prophetic manner of speaking: the ungodly have the punishment that awaits them set before them, and they are represented as already enduring it. Thus, while they were now flattering themselves and promising themselves that the prosperity in which they thought themselves happy would be perpetual, he declared that the most grievous miseries were very near.

Your riches. The meaning may be twofold: first, that he ridicules their foolish confidence, because the riches in which they placed their happiness were entirely fading, even able to be reduced to nothing by one blast from God; or second, that he condemns as their insatiable avarice the fact that they heaped up wealth only so that it might perish without any benefit to them.

This latter meaning is the most suitable. Indeed, it is true that those rich men are insane who glory in things as fading as garments, gold, silver, and similar items, since this is nothing other than making their glory subject to rust and moths. The saying, "What is ill-gotten is soon lost," is well known, because the curse of God consumes it all; for it is not right that the ungodly or their heirs should enjoy riches which they have snatched, as it were, by violence from the hand of God.

But as James enumerates the vices by which the rich brought upon themselves the calamity he mentions, the context requires, I think, that we should say that what he condemns here is the extreme rapacity of the rich in retaining everything they could acquire, so that it might rot uselessly in their chests. For in this way, what God had created for human use, they destroyed, as though they were the enemies of humankind.

But it must be observed that the vices he mentions here do not belong to all the rich. Some of them indulge in luxury, some spend much on show and display, and some deprive themselves and live miserably in their own squalor. Let us understand, then, that he here reproves some vices in some individuals and other vices in others.

However, all those are generally condemned who unjustly accumulate riches or who foolishly abuse them. But what James now says is not only suitable for the rich who exhibit extreme hoarding (such as Euclio of Plautus), but also for those who delight in pomp and luxury, yet prefer to heap up riches rather than use them for necessary purposes. For such is the malignity of some that they begrudge others even the common sun and air.

A witness against you. He confirms the explanation I have already given. For God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but, on the contrary, He has designed them as aids and helps to human life. Therefore, even spending without benefit is a witness of inhumanity. The rusting of gold and silver will be, as it were, the occasion of inflaming the wrath of God, so that it will, like fire, consume them.

Ye have heaped treasure together: These words may also admit of two explanations: — that the rich, as if they would live forever, are never satisfied, but weary themselves in heaping together what might be sufficient until the end of the world, — or, that they heap together the wrath and curse of God for the last day; and this second view I embrace.

Behold, the hire. He now condemns cruelty, the invariable companion of avarice. But he refers only to one kind, which, above all others, ought justly to be considered odious.

For if a humane and just man, as Solomon says in Proverbs 12:10, cares for the life of his animal, it is a monstrous barbarity when a person feels no pity for the one whose sweat they have used for their own benefit. Therefore, the Lord has strictly forbidden in the Law that the wages of the laborer should be withheld overnight (Deuteronomy 24:15).

Moreover, James does not refer to laborers in general, but, for greater emphasis, he mentions farmers and reapers. For what can be more despicable than that those who supply us with bread by their labor should suffer from want? And yet this monstrous thing is common, for there are many with such a tyrannical disposition that they think the rest of humankind exist only for their benefit.

But he says that this wage crieth, for whatever people retain by fraud or violence of what belongs to someone else, it calls for vengeance as if by a loud voice. We should note what he adds: that the cries of the poor reach the ears of God, so that we may know that the wrong done to them will not go unpunished.

Therefore, those who are oppressed by the unjust should endure their sufferings with resignation, because they will have God as their defender. And those who have the power to do wrong should abstain from injustice, so that they do not provoke God against themselves, who is the protector and patron of the poor. For this reason also, he calls God the Lord of Sabaoth, or of hosts, thus indicating His power and His might, by which He renders His judgment more dreadful.

In pleasure. He now comes to another vice, namely, luxury and sinful gratifications; for those who abound in wealth seldom keep within the bounds of moderation, but abuse their abundance by extreme indulgences. There are, indeed, some rich men, as I have said, who languish in the midst of their abundance. For it was not without reason that the poets imagined Tantalus to be hungry near a well-furnished table. There have always been Tantalians in the world. But James, as has been said, does not speak of all rich men. It is enough that we see this vice commonly prevailing among the rich: that they are too given to luxuries, to ostentation and excesses.

And though the Lord allows them to live freely on what they have, yet profusion should be avoided and frugality practiced. For it was not in vain that the Lord by his prophets severely reproved those who slept on beds of ivory, who used precious ointments, who delighted themselves at their feasts with the sound of the harp, and who were like fat cows in rich pastures. For all these things have been said for this purpose: that we may know that moderation should be observed, and that extravagance is displeasing to God.

Ye have nourished your hearts. He means that they indulged themselves, not only as far as to satisfy nature, but as far as their inordinate desires led them. He adds a comparison, as in a day of slaughter, because they were accustomed in their solemn sacrifices to eat more freely than according to their daily habits. He then says that the rich feasted themselves every day of their lives, because they immersed themselves in perpetual indulgences.