James 5:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let us turn to the narrow way. How long shall there be comfort? How long rest? Have we not had enough of carelessness, laughter, and singing? The same foods, satiety, luxury, wealth, purchases, and buildings will not come again. And what is the profit? Death. And what is the end? Ashes and dust, the grave and worms.

The thrift and stinginess of the rich often makes them weep. But the Apostle makes them lament, that is, weep bitterly, because they gather their wealth for corruption and do not distribute it to the poor. Wealth does not perish only when it is spent on the poor. Therefore the writer says, “Cast your bread upon the face of the water” (Eccl 11:1), that is, upon apparent destruction and corruption. For this happens with bread cast upon the water: it does not perish, but through its dissolution it brings us refreshment. This will be refreshment when our tongue is tormented in the flame there.

The holy Apostle James speaks thus to those who grow rich: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you." By exhorting them to weep and howl, he urges us to repentance.

Knowing that the passion of covetousness is not easily overcome, even by the most diligent effort, he says, "Your riches have rotted." They are, as it were, useless, if they are not distributed to others. Many of us possess this wealth even apart from estates, having buried greed like gold in the treasuries of our minds.

God foretells His punishments out of love for mankind, so that those who repent may be found outside the number of those threatened by punishment.

Listen, you rich, that is, while there is still time for repentance. These are the greedy rich, who show no kindness to the poor people of Christ.

James laments the greed and miserliness of the rich, commanding them to howl, that is, to lament. They store up their wealth for corruption and non-being, and do not spend it on those in need.

For only on the needy are the expenditures of the rich not lost. Rather, they are preserved whole for the one who spends them. Therefore the author of Proverbs says, "Cast your bread upon the waters" (Prov 11:1). That is, cast it upon what seems to you loss and corruption, for this is what happens to bread thrown into water. Yet the bread does not perish, but by its very dissolution gives us encouragement.

Here once again the holy brother of God repeats his word against the rich. According to Saint Mitrophanes, he lists their sins by kind, using the strongest rebukes against them.

This is so that it may be clearly understood that the rich need greater counsels than the poor, and frequent instruction. They must leave the broad way of pleasures, wealth, and glory, and prefer the narrow and sorrowful way of poverty and virtues, which mediates eternal life.

True is the word of the Lord, who said, “It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 19:23).

First Saint James inclines the rich to weep and howl because of the future torment they are to receive. Then he sets forth, by kind, the causes that mediate torment for them.

On verses 1-6. Exhorting the rich to amend their life, and threatening them with God’s judgment for the oppressions and injustices they inflict on their neighbors and for their luxurious life, the Apostle says that the miseries awaiting them are already drawing near.

He says that the wealth they unjustly gathered is corruptible and swiftly passing. The rust, in a figurative sense corruption, that consumes gold and silver will also consume their well-fed bodies.

The treasure they have gathered will become a treasure of God’s wrath for the last days. In this case the Apostle adapts himself to expressions often found among people concerned with gathering treasure “for a dark day,” or for later days.

Here there is a denunciation and condemnation of the rich, but not of all rich men or of every kind. Neither Christ nor His apostles preached equality of possessions among people, nor did they condemn wealth unconditionally.

The Apostle condemns to grievous miseries only those rich men who hoped that wealth, and not the mercy of God, could turn away from them the calamities of the days to come, “you have heaped up treasure in the last days” (v. 3).

He condemns those who withheld the wages of the workers who reaped their fields, so that the cries of the reapers reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (v. 4).

He condemns those who lived in luxury on the earth and indulged themselves, fattening their hearts as animals are fattened for slaughter, “as in a day of slaughter” (v. 5).

He condemns those who condemned and killed the righteous man, though He did not resist them, and therefore deserved mercy all the more (v. 6).

Rich men for whom nothing is dear except their gold truly deserve strict condemnation.

“Listen now, you rich,” and so forth. From the merchants who trade and gain profit (Jas 4:13), the Apostle turns to the rich.

As is clear from what follows, he is not speaking of all the rich, but only of those rich men who are hard-hearted and unjust toward others. The Apostle directs a threatening word to them.

In tone and expression it has the character of the punitive speeches of the Old Testament prophets. Were these rich men members of the Christian community, or unbelieving Jews who oppressed poor Christians in the affairs of everyday life and forced them to work for them?

After a general instruction to the powerful and the rich, the Apostle turns with a special instruction to the rich. He exhorts them to weep and howl, since every adversity may be especially grievous for those accustomed to the comforts and abundance of life.

This will happen when their wealth rots and becomes the possession of moth and rust, when their very body decays, and afterward is delivered to fire in the last days. That is, according to the word of the Lord, when evil men go into everlasting fire.

Here the words of Christ are, as it were, reproduced: do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.