Poverty

One fifth of the world's population lives below the poverty line. That's over a billion people. On average, they live on 60p a day. By those standards, we are all rich. And we need to know how Jesus as our Lord wants us to use our wealth, and to do it. And if there's one New Testament book on that issue, it's this letter of James. It seems that it was written to churches where most Christians were poor, but some were wealthy. The poor were getting envious and angry towards rich people. Because the rich - including rich Christians - were being careless towards the poor. So there was a good deal of conflict and disunity. But the underlying issue was the rich/poor divide. So: First, WEALTH AND POVERTY: TWO TRIALS FOR BELIEVERS (1.2-18, especially vv9-11) First off, James says that both wealth and poverty are a 'trial'. In different ways, they both put us to the test, if we're believers. Verse 2:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

And then we're told to pray for wisdom in order to respond to those tests. Verse 5:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God

And wisdom in the Bible is seeing things from God's perspective and living accordingly with God's priorities. Here, for example, is an example of wisdom on this issue from the Old Testament book of wisdom known as 'Proverbs':

give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. {9} Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God (Proverbs 30.8-9).

Then, in verse 9 we meet the issue head-on:

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (1.9-12)

'Brother' means Christian. So, verse 9, 'The brother in humble circumstances' is the Christian who's poor. And in the original it's clearer that 'the one who is rich' in verse 10 is also, almost certainly, a Christian. Two trails: poverty and riches, and both demand wisdom if we're to respond rightly as believers. Verse 9:

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.

So wisdom for the materially poor Christian is to see that he/she has everything to gain. Verse 12: the 'crown of life', ie heaven, awaits. Beyond death they're going to inherit a place in a new and perfectly just world - which includes material, economic justice. 'But,' verse 10:

the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.

So wisdom for the rich Christian is to see that he/she has everything to lose. We'll take nothing with us to heaven when we die. The story is told of an American banker. At his funeral they sang the hymn 'Guide me, O thou great Redeemer'. But there was a misprint on the service sheet. In the last verse, instead of 'Land me safe on Canaan's side', it read 'Land my safe on Canaan's side.' But as the Bible says, 'we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.' (1 Timothy 6.7) The richer we are, the more we'll leave behind. So the test for the rich Christian is to sit loose to wealth and use it for godly purposes. John Wesley, the 18th century Christian leader, at one stage earned £1400 a year from his books. He lived on £30 a year and gave the rest away. He once said, 'If I leave behind me £10, you [may] bear witness against me that I died a thief and a robber.' Ie, 'You may bear witness against me that I held on to what wasn't rightly mine.' Sit loose to it and use it for godly purposes. That's wisdom. From there, James has two main themes, which are my second and third headings: Secondly, GODLY AND UNGODLY RESPONSES TO THE POOR (1.19-2.26) · The first ungodly response is this: to think that concern for the poor is optional, rather than essential, for a Christian. 1.22:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

The churches James wrote to were evangelical churches - Bible-teaching, Bible-studying churches. But they needed to be told, 'Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.' And specifically they needed to be told 1.26:

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. [And for what James means by 'the world' and 'worldliness', see 4.1-4: it's still very much the issue of wealth, desires, covetousness, etc] (1.26-27)

James is not saying that those things in verses 26-27 are the sum total of genuine Christian discipleship. He is saying that if they're missing, our genuineness as Christians is in question. The Bible often calls us to look after 'orphans and widows' - women and children left at a loss. But that little phrase really stands for all people who are powerless and vulnerable. All the fall-out of war, famine, natural disaster, disastrous migration to the cities, corrupt government and so on. And to look after them we first have to know about them. To my shame, in my busyness I haven't even opened the last two copies of the Tearfund magazine which I get. But if I'm too busy to be informed, I'm too busy to help. ie, I'm too busy. Then we need to respond. Whether in this country or overseas, we need to choose effective and responsible agencies or individuals to give through. If you've read through our Mission through JPC booklet (available from the Welcome Desk), you'll know we give to medical and community work as well as to evangelism and Bible translation and church-planting. And that raises the question: how much should we give to material needs and how much to specifically gospel-work? The Bible just says: do both. Christians must support gospel-work, because no-one else will (see 3 John 6-8, and the sermon on that, 6.30pm, 25 July 1999). But, verse 27, we must also look after the poor. And the ideal is to do both together, and support agencies that do both together, to show God's love for the whole person. The balance of the material help and the spiritual help in each of the projects we support as a church is different. The Armonia project in Mexico grew out of the needs of the poor living in some of the most vulnerable housing in Mexico City; yet from that, two churches have been planted. On the other hand, the Bible translation workers we support are clearly aiming to translate the Bible into unreached language-groups; yet their community literacy work is a strong contribution to 'empowering' the poor. The ideal is 'both, and': the material and the spiritual. But verse 27 may mean more than giving. It may mean taking our professional skills to jobs here and abroad which will particularly help the poorer; and I know a good number here have done that. It may mean becoming a missionary. · The second ungodly response is: favouritism towards the rich. 2.1:

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor (2.1-6a)

James imagines a scene in one of the churches he's writing to. In comes an obviously rich man. In comes an obviously poor man. And the rich man gets the better treatment. Because he's the 'more important' neighbour, the easier neighbour to love, perhaps the more rewarding neighbour to love. And James says, verse 4:

have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised?

It's like what Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1.26f):

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called [ie, when you came to faith]. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no-one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1.26-30)

I don't know what percentage of the world-wide church is poor, but over 200 million of the world's poor are Christians. God deliberately calls many poor people to himself, to overturn our worldly value-systems. In the world, if you're rich, you're important. If you're rich you're 'in', you have access - which was a brilliant name for a credit card. That's the great privilege of the rich: access, to things, to places, to people, to opportunity. So God deliberately calls lots of poor people to show the world that our riches and ladders of importance cut no ice with him at all. The only way 'in' with God, the only access to being one of God's people, is to admit our spiritual poverty, and come with everyone else to the cross of Jesus for mercy. Where the ground is totally level. And James says: how dare we unlevel the ground again, and accept and love one another preferentially. No, verse 8: If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbour as yourself," you are doing right. And we're not to narrow down the definition of 'neighbour' to our rich neighbour. Our 'neighbour' is everyone - poor, and rich. How does chapter 2 apply to our congregation? It means we'll welcome in and accommodate whoever comes, whatever background. We'll work hard not to send out the signal (by who we talk to or by laying on social things that are costly and therefore exclude people, etc) that we're a church for the richer. And our constant danger by the way we do things here is to send the signal, 'this is a church for the richer'. And then it applies to our place in the world-wide body of Christ. Very simply, do we favour ourselves? If the wraps were taken off our giving, would we discover we were giving much more to ourselves here, than to poorer brothers and sisters world-wide? · Then the third ungodly response to the poor is: sentiment without action. 2.14: What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (2.14-17) Which hardly needs comment. Faith which merely wishes the poor well is bogus faith. Genuine faith acts. Bogus faith just wishes. Thirdly, GODLY AND UNGODLY ATTITUDES TO WEALTH (4.13-5.11) we'll skip 3.1-4.12. That part of the letter is about the conflict in these congregations. And my understanding is that the rich/poor divide was the root of the conflict. And in 4.13, James comes back to address the rich in particular:

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (4.13-17)

I take it he's addressing Christians in those verses. I say that because of verse 15: 'Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." Which sounds like he's correcting rich Christians who've left God out of their thinking. Verse 13 sounds like people who assume they have a right to make money for themselves. But James says, verse 14-15: 'Hold on, we need to put God back in the picture, here.' And that's the basic trial of being rich: we forget God. So, 'What is your life?' he asks us. It's a tiny, short-lived stay in this world which depends entirely on the will of God. We're not independent. It's God's world, full of God's resources - for everyone. And we don't even own our own lives. So we're to live them not as the free-agent materialists of verse 13, but as the godly stewards of verse 15. What the Bible says about stewarding God-given wealth is this. Material wealth in itself is good. God created it. And he meant everyone to enjoy enough of it to meet their needs and have a livelihood. But human sin means the constant division into the 'haves' at the expense of the 'have nots'. So believers should see their own wealth like this. It's given so that we can meet our needs - and the needs of any dependants - which includes saving for future needs. Beyond that, it's given so that we can give and share. And in a culture as materialistic as ours, the battle is to come anywhere near to honesty about what we need. But we must. Because the most obvious thing to say is: the more we spend on ourselves, above our needs, the less we have to give and share. We need to peg our standard of living so that as our income grows our giving and sharing power grows, rather than it being consumed in luxuries and unnecessaries. Statistics from America say that the average charitable giving for Americans is 2.1% of their income (it's 1.6% in the UK). The average for American Christians is just 2.5% of their income. And the percentage giving of Christians goes down as their income goes up. Application: we need to peg our standard of living against the pressure of the world that's constantly wanting to drive it up. And we need to give a percentage of our income, so that giving goes up with income. Again, it's striking how much money we spend on things not wrong in themselves, but which do eat into our giving and sharing power. Just think about these figures, again from America. If you take the total amount of money given per year in the US to (Protestant) overseas missionary work, Americans spend (per year): twice that amount on cut flowers, 5 times that amount on pets, 7 times that amount on sweets, 17 times that amount on dieting and 26 times that amount on soft drinks. Application: we need to budget and be careful. Before we know where we are, 'innocent' things, not wrong in themselves, have drained our resources. (Figures from Neither Poverty nor Riches, Blomberg, IVP Apollos) 4.15 again: 'If it is the Lord's will,' should be written over all our planning and spending. But verse 16:

As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (vv16-17)

The sin of the rich is not owning their wealth, but the good they fail to do with it. If verses 13-17 are to believers needing correction, 5.1-6 are about the unbelieving landlords of the day, who lived by exploiting poor tenant farmers like many of the Christians James was writing to. 5.1:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. [And he's talking about the day of judgement when justice is finally done.] Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 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. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (vv1-6)

Those are the potential economic sins of the rich. Hoarding so that God-given resources benefit no-one (not even the hoarder - let alone others). Living at the consumer end of structures at the expense of those at the production end. And living in such isolation from the poor that we lose all feeling for their situation. How to resist those sins is a complicated business. It may be through giving. Or through fair trade. Or through lobbying and voting for structures which benefit the poor. (Ronald Sider's classic book Rich Christians in and Age of Hunger, Hodder, tackles the issue of 'structures' at length.) But finally, verse 7:

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. [ie, until Jesus returns to wrap up history and judge.] See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. [Ie, don't spend your time assessing/criticising what other people are or are not doing about this issue. Each of us is accountable to the Lord] The Judge is standing at the door! (vv7-9)

Everyone will be there on that day. Rich and poor, professing Christian and non-Christian. To many - rich and poor - Jesus will say, 'I never knew you. Away from me' (Matthew 7.23) The believers who were poor here will, by mercy, inherit heaven - everything to gain. The believers who were rich here will also, by mercy, inherit heaven. But they'll leave everything behind. And doubtless realise with shame how much more good they could have done with their wealth her on earth. Still others - rich and poor - who professed faith will be shown up as bogus - people who listened to the word but didn't act. How best to take action - as an individual, as a church, as a nation is not easy to see. But most of all, perhaps, we need chapter 1:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Start somewhere. Do something. Because once we've done something, we'll be on the way to doing something better.