James 5:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

NIV: Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

NASB: Your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will serve as a testimony against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!

CSB: Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.

NLT: Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment.

KJV: Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

NKJV: 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.

James continues his harsh condemnation of wealthy non-Christians who had been oppressing the poor. This includes abuse against the very Christians James is writing to. He warns these rich oppressors that their wealth is as good as gone, including their gold and silver.

James's attention is on the day of God's judgment against these wealthy oppressors. The misuse of their gold and silver will testify against them, according to this symbolic description of corrosion. Instead of using their stockpiles of precious metals to help the poor, they just hoarded the money until it began to waste away. When God rules against them, their own flesh will be eaten away by fire in the same way the corrosion has eaten away their gold and silver.

Without doubt, this is a harsh and cutting pronouncement. James offers no grace from God for these unrepentant unbelievers. They will be condemned for their greed and selfishness. They are guilty of laying up earthly treasure for themselves in the last days instead of spending it to help those in need.

James echoes Jesus' own teaching: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

James 5:1–6 has a tone similar to that of an Old Testament prophet pronouncing the coming judgment on a group of people. This includes describing the ruin of these people as if it has already occurred. James lays out the charges against the rich landowners who were oppressing the poor. These crimes include selfishness, abuse of their workers, and indifference. Those rich sinners should start weeping and wailing now; their judgment was coming on the day of the Lord.

What was causing fights and quarrels among the Christians to whom James was writing? They were living by the world's wisdom. This false perspective says human beings should do whatever it takes to get what they want in this life, even if it hurts other people. James says that to live that way is adultery, but God gives grace. Christians should repent and move close to God again. We should trust Him to provide, to be the Judge, and to lift us up in His time. In humility, we must acknowledge that all of our plans are dependent on Him, and He can change them at any moment.

Prior chapters in this letter focused on the relationship between beliefs and actions, and how to practically apply the concepts of Christianity. In chapter 4, James called his Christian readers to repent of their worldliness and turn back to closeness with God. Now in the last chapter of his letter, James addresses three things: He pronounces to the rich oppressors of the Christians that their judgment is coming on the day of the Lord. He urges those suffering under that oppression to remain patient, strong in their faith, as they wait for the day of the Lord. And he encourages all Christians to show their faith in God by praying in response to every circumstance.

The book of James is about specifically understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life? What choices does real trust in God lead us to make? Those are the questions James answers. Most scholars believe the writer was Jesus' half-brother, a son born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth. James may not have come to believe Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Eventually, though, he became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This is possibly the earliest-written of all the New Testament books, around AD 40–50. James addresses his letter to Jewish Christians scattered around the known world.