Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

ering of all for readers of James to come face to face with this, to turn a
blind eye to it, consequently to miss his point, and ultimately to share the
judgment of the original perpetrators in the early Church. Apparently lots of
folk will be “surprised by wrath” in the Judgment (Mt. 7:21-23; 25:41-46).
Genuine Christians will be fully aware of this, and ever be on sober alert (1
Cor. 9:27)!
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(b) Second Sin of Commission: The Retention of Riches (5:6)
Finally, James focuses the attention upon the manner in which the riches are
preserved. The cruelty of the oppression is quite apparent. The fraud to acquire
riches is now complemented by violence and murder in order to retain
them. Whenever anyone stands “in the way,” some process is used to condemn
him, whether “legal” or illegal (Jam. 2:6). If it would prove to be needful,
either judicial or cold-blooded murder would conclude this process (Ps.
10:8-9; 37:32; 94:20; 1 Ki. 13:23; Lam. 4:13; Am. 2:6; 5:12; Mic. 2:2, 6-9;
3:1-3, 9-12; 6:9-16; Mt. 23:35; Acts 2:23, 36; 1 Thess. 2:15). This is properly
described as “a climactic charge” (Cargal, 184)!
The rich clearly controlled both society in general and the courts in particular.
So much so that no resistance is offered up, most likely because it
would have been useless from the outset, and therefore would have been
doomed before it would have started. The victims do not resist because they
cannot resist (Ps. 10:8-10, 14; Prov. 1:11; Am. 5:12)! As has been suggested,
it is also possible that the non-resistance was a matter of religious conviction
(Mt. 5:39). But this is unlikely, since it simply does not fit in the present setting!
The perfect example of the sinless man, who did not resist when he was
killed, was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, although he certainly had all the
means to do so (Is. 50:6; 53:7; Mt. 26:52-54). However, this passage does not
appear to point to him in its reference to “the righteous man” (So Manton,
416, with reference to Lk. 24:7; Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14). This designation in
this context appears to be a generic term and refers to righteous people as a
class, the saints of God (Is. 57:1; Am. 2:6; 5:12) (Laws, 206; Martin, 182;
Johnson, 304; Tasker, 116, with a reference to Wisdom 2:17-20). “The specific
link between idolatry, oppression, and murder is established already by
Scripture (Deut. 12:30-31; Am. 5:4-6; Hab. 1:16; Jer. 2:27, 34; 22:3; Ezek.
16:49; Is. 1:21-23) ... but nowhere is it more powerfully stated than in Sir.
34:21-22, “The bread of the needy is the life of the poor. Whoever deprives
them of it is a man of blood. To take away a neighbor’s living is to murder
him. To deprive an employee of his wages is to shed his blood” (Johnson,
303-305; Keddie, 162; see also Ps. 94:21; Mt. 23:35).