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…