affluence and influence…

an issue that james deals with in his nt book is the application of wealth or how we use it’s influence.  he says, don’t abuse it. 

wealth gives us much more than simply buying ability.  richard foster in his book, money, sex and power, says that money has a lot more power than simply buying power.  when you have money, it gives you influences, authority.  we listen to people who make money more than people who are poor.

why do they get away with things that we don’t get away with?  scripture says, the children of this world are wiser than the children of light.  they recognize that money is influence.  they use it to influence people, often for very poor reasons.

they use it to manipulate, finance campaigns.  we are seeing that right now in our presidential campaign.  CHRISTians need to recognize that it has influence and use it for good and the point that james is making in this passage is that we ought to use our affluence for good influence.  james says that we should recognize that it’s powerful and not abuse it.  use it on good ways.

james 5.6 (niv), you have condemned and ruined innocent men and they were powerless to stop you.

evidently in james time, the rich were buying off judges and circumventing justice.  if they wanted to take advantage of a guy, they'd take him to court, talk to the judge and slip him a couple of bills and they would get their own way.  james says, you have condemned and ruined innocent men and they were powerless to stop you.

even today, a lot of people use money to manipulate others.  there are families where one person would keep the relatives under control by threatening to cut them out of the will.  we keep our kids under control, a lot of times, by bribing them with their allowance.  this is the wrong application of wealth.

just a thought from the front porch…

is it wrong to be wealthy?...

as i came to this section of the book of james i contemplated just skipping it and going on.  it is really a difficult thing to look at, this matter of money.  but there are truths here that we all need to see here at the beginning of 2012 so stay with me and let’s go.

we are looking here at the first six verses of chapter 5 here in the new testament book of james.  many people wrongly believe that the bible teaches that it’s wrong to be wealthy.  they think the bible says that money is the root of all evil.  it actually says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

in new testament times, there was no such thing as a middle class.  the people in the entire new testament times were either very rich or very poor.  you were either a have or a have not.  the system caused the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer and the rich tended to manipulate and oppress the poor people, who were continually abused.

now james lashed out at the non-CHRISTian use of money by the wealthy and he gives a rebuke – probably one of the most negative passages in the entire new testament.  he condemns them with four specific abuses they were guilty of.  although we may not commit these sins to the same degree, this passage is a healthy warning to us to make sure that no matter how much money we have, we use it wisely.

here in the united states according to world standards we are all wealthy.  if you own a car, you’re wealthy.  if you have more than one change of clothes, you are wealthy.  if you own your own home, you’re in the top 5% of the world.  we need to be grateful for what we have.

just a thought from the front porch…

is it verbal abuse?

we all argue. we all say the wrong things sometimes. so how do you know if you’ve crossed over the line and you’re verbally abusing the people around you?

1. these outbursts rarely occur in public. it's always private, it's always secret. nobody else can know. that way you can turn it on and off.
2. they often come out of the blue. everything’s going along fine and them bam! everything explodes. by explodes i don’t mean you have to be yelling. you can verbally abuse people by put-downs, by quiet talk sometimes, too.
3. they often occur when your spouse, your kids, your friends are feeling happy and enthusiastic. when they’re feeling great, something in you triggers and you want to put them down. usually because you’re feeling not too good about yourself.
4. it becomes familiar, a pattern. the people in your life can say, “wow! we’ve been through that one before. i’ve seen that one happen before.”
5. the communication involves a lot of put-downs. it expresses disdain. it expresses a real put-down of other people. “you’re no good at this…you’ll never amount to… “ kind of talk.
6. you never seek reconciliation and often you’re not even bothered by the incident. that’s how you know if you’re starting to cross over the line.
   

maybe some of you are caught up in this. if you are, i want to encourage you to get help. you can get out of that vicious circle. you don’t have to stay stuck there. this is a circle that can be broken so you can use your words not to tear people down but you can begin to use your words to build people up.

just a thought from the front porch…