wealth has power...

wealth also can be used to influence in your favor, it is powerful.

richard foster in his book, money, sex and power, says that money has a lot more power than simply buying power. you and i want to hear what people with money say more than people who don't have it. people with money have more power, more influence. and they get away with things that you and i can't get away with.

why do they?

the bible 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 have just gone through an election and we have seen this fact first hand. we 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.

but too many time we use our wealth to influence in a wrong way. james 5.6 (ms), in fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

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.

the consequences of misused wealth are in verse 2-3. hoarded wealth is going to decay and devalue; dishonest, wasted abused wealth will be judged in eternity. james has some pretty
strong words on the abuse of wealth.

just some thoughts from the front porch...