STOP in the Name of Love

"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 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. " James 5:1-4

Think about your life. Your clothes, your money, the computer that you are sitting at right now reading this. The computer that I am sitting at, my own MacBook, cost me an arm and a leg, but I have it and it is mine. Or am I it's? When I read this verse, I thought about how scary this is for people of wealth, basically people in our culture of American Middle-Upper class. 

Let me more clearly define my purposes for writing this article though, I do not wish to demean or condemn anyone more than myself. Honestly, I don't even think that this scripture is limited to a literal interpretation although the literal definitely does apply. I want to look at this scripture through the lens of a metaphor and a broad-scope interpretation. I don't mean to make you or anyone else "feel bad" about these things and motivate them to sell all of their belongings for a good old-fashioned guilt trip. 

I believe that all people have gifts and talents that are also not meant to be hoarded. I think that we should lay our lives and talents down for each other. I think that in the same way, we should be motivated by love to lay our possessions down for each other. The "Me" culture is really what I am attacking here. If we understood the meaning of sacrifice and humility, we would be more motivated to do these things. Our culture has an emphasis on "me". I want to make enough money to provide for ME and MY family. I need to get a job that I will enjoy. I need to find a person that I want to marry. I should give to the people in Africa because I feel guilty...and so on and so forth. We hoard things because everyone else does too. We can't share anything because if I give up MY stuff, I will be taken advantage of and get nothing in return. Living in community and bearing with one another really means looking out for your brother or sister and caring for them first, and letting them care for you. 

I submit that James is trying to get the point across that those who hoard wealth and gifts and things are condemned by God because God condemns living on an island unto yourself. Taking care of  YOU is not good enough for God because there are people who need to be taken care of. Don't live because of your selfish-dog-eat-dog attitude, live aspiring to something higher.