Matthew Henry Commentary James 5:1-6

"Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous [one]; he doth not resist you." — James 5:1-6 (ASV)

Public troubles are most grievous to those who live in pleasure, and are complacent and worldly, though all ranks suffer deeply at such times. All idolized treasures will soon perish, except that they will rise up in judgment against their possessors.

Beware of defrauding and oppressing, and avoid even the appearance of it. God does not forbid us to enjoy lawful pleasures; but to live for pleasure, especially sinful pleasure, is a provoking sin. Is it not harmful for people to make themselves unfit for attending to the concerns of their souls by indulging their bodily appetites?

The righteous may be condemned and killed; but when such people suffer at the hands of oppressors, this is marked by God. Above all their other crimes, the Jews had condemned and crucified that Just One who had come among them—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.