James 5:6 (KJV) No Sin in Being Rich

James 5:6 (KJV)
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

An envious person, or one jealous of another’s successes, is prone to use James 5:1-5 to scold and otherwise browbeat those “rotten rich” people. Secretly I think they want their riches, they just aren’t willing to do what they had to do to get there.

Barnes Notes says of rich men… “There is no sin in merely being rich; where sin exists peculiarly among the rich, it arises from the manner in which wealth is acquired, the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart, and the way in which it is used.”

I find Barnes’ three-point category of the wrong sort of riches to be helpful.

• The manner in which it is acquired
• The spirit which it tends to engender and
• The way in which it is used 

But James 5:6 really isolates and fixes which rich men this passage intends, it is

• Those who have condemned and killed the just.

The point I want to make is that it is not all rich who are here targeted but those who, perhaps due to their riches, have a proud heart and an aggressive spirit against people of faith.

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James 5:6 (KJV) No Sin in Being Rich

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