Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

In summary, one thing is crystal clear. The oppressing rich are insatiable
and unstoppable in their folly of hoarding, their crime of fraud, their addiction
to self-indulgence, and their resort to murder (Martin, 183-184). “James, ‘on
a note of majestic pathos,’ concludes the paragraph by reminding us that the
righteous are helpless victims of the stratagems of the rich and powerful, ‘He
does not resist you’” (Tasker, 116). The process of lawlessness surely accelerated,
from the subversion of justice by means of the courts to the extinction
of justice by means of murder!
In reflecting on this section one commentator reminds us of the missed
opportunity to show unbelievers what a Christian society in the midst of a
turbulent world could look like. Just picture a scenario of social peace and
progress, without exploitation, in which employers make a reasonable profit
and employees receive a living wage, in which in a spirit of standing shoulder
to shoulder and joining hands the books are opened and both prosper together
in rich times and roll with the punches together in lean times. A world in
which there is no fraud, no unpaid wages, no luxurious self-indulging, riotous,
wanton, wasteful, stylish, high on the hog living, no eating like a glutton
and drinking like a fish, no oppression of the poor in puppet courts, no rationalization
of predetermined guilt without the right to muster a sustained defense
(Zodhiates, III, 64-67, 69, 75)! It would be a non-dialectic world,
guided and guarded by self-denial in the one-and-many spheres, and sacrifice
and submission in the authority structures, in all around affection and integrity.
Clearly, James’ statement of the utter seriousness of the sins of omission,
just prior to the start of this section in James 4:17, adds an awesome depth
perspective to this “reminder.” Of course, one can brush off its impact simply
by refusing or failing to apply this section to the covenant community. But
reading through James in 3-D only once, certainly must make anyone think
twice to fall into this trap. James presents the covenant community with the
threat of self-destruction (Jam. 1:13), the reality of overflowing filth (Jam.
1:21) the danger of self-deception (Jam. 1:26), the fact of discrimination
against the poor (Jam. 2:1-4), the neglect of the hungry (Jam. 2:16), the presence
of a poison pipeline to hell (Jam. 3:8), the horror of ecclesiastical wars
(Jam. 4:1), the fact of pernicious judging (Jam. 4:11), and the callousness of
independent planning (Jam. 4:13). All these features make for a grim picture
of blaming God, despising God, competing with God, ignoring God, etc.
In the light of all this darkness, why would James 5:1-6 (suddenly) not
apply to the covenant community? The conclusion must be that there is no
reason to believe that the grim picture of this section could not be a factual
reality in that community in part or in whole. Without Jesus we can do noth-
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