Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.  (2) Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  (3) Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  (4)Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  (5) You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.  (6) You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

It is generally believed that the James who wrote this letter to Jewish Christians was the half brother of Jesus Christ.  This letter may have been written close to the end of his life – James was martyred in 62 A.D. – or it may have been written earlier around 50 A.D.  In any case, this letter is addressed to Jewish Christians who are described as “scattered abroad”.  There was a persecution of the early believers that Jesus was Messiah and these believers were forced to leave Jerusalem.  James was the leader of the Jerusalem church and it follows that he may have written this pastoral letter on the occasion of this early dispersion to aid them in dealing with oppression by the rich and to encourage them to hold fast to their faith, especially in the light of coming judgment.

James declares that those who are guilty of wrongs and make use of the power of wealth to injure those in humble circumstances will be judged.  James uses the rot and rust of material goods to illustrate the bondage in which the means of doing good was kept, profiting no one.  He prophesied that there would be a swift and total judgment of those leading such a life.  The first crime of the wicked rich is hoarding so much wealth that it has rotted – the crime of uncontrolled greed.  James declares that this greed will result in the destruction of the rich just as the corrosion that eats the material  wealth – clothing, possessions, gold and silver.  The second crime the rich are charged with is that they failed to pay the workmen who harvest their crops.  The rich are also accused of extravagant and wasteful self-indulgence for which there will be judgment.  James indicates that the men to be judged were unaware of their impending destruction.

Finally, the rich are accused of having “murdered the just”.  This is meant literally and the examples are Christ, Stephen and James the son of Zebedee.  The prophesied judgment is a warning for the wicked and a consolation for the righteous.