Is it a sin to be rich?

We have to answer this question of is it actually a sin to be well off financially? James goes to speak to the rich and he says this. Now come, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotten and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Okay, now he's speaking of a rich person. He's starting to lay out some context of what he means. So let's look carefully at the sins of the rich man here being talked about. And he says in verse four, behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Alright, so I think what's important is when we read these words, it can be easy to think, wow, is it like a huge sin to be wealthy like God? It sounds really like God is speaking negatively about to the rich people, to the wealthy, you rich, you should weep. You know, talk of this nature. But we have to look at the context and we have to answer this question of is it actually a sin to be well off financially? First we see that the certain rich man being talked about here is using his riches, using the blessings that God has given him in this life for the purpose of evil. We see for a few things. He actually says the evidence of the evil of this rich man is the corrosion of his silver and gold. Now think about that. That's an interesting statement. What causes things to corrode? When we store things up, when we accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, then there is corrosion that starts coming in. And he explains further what that is. He says specifically that this rich man has been keeping back wages from his laborers. In other words, he has people working for him and he's not paying them their salaries or not even paying them on time because he's rather accumulating money for himself. Instead, he goes on and he says that he is a murderer of the righteous. What does that mean? Well, we can think of many examples in life of that. I mean, in fact, unfortunately, it is that the rich, the extremely wealthy in this world have a name for themselves of this kind of oppression. Now this, let me state before we go Further, this is not all. As we can obviously know, there are rich people of various degrees. So just because you have wealth does not determine your character. But when you do have wealth, it opens you up to the risk of wealth corrupting your heart when you start serving it. And so some examples of the wealthy murdering the righteous is, for example, how they could take advantage of the court systems in order to defraud others, or how they would use the courts to take advantage of the misfortune of others. One example of this could be people who are renters and the landlords coming and not actually taking care of the renters, not fixing problems and using fees and malpractice to burden those who are financially vulnerable. Who. Who could take no action against the rich. To just plainly answer the question, is it wrong to be blessed in wealth in this world? Well, let's look at Abraham. We see that Abraham, in Genesis 24:35, it says, the Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks, herds, silver, gold, male servants, female servants, camels and donkeys. So we see that Aram is blessed. God has given him silver and gold, but that silver and gold did not corrode because he submitted these things at the Lord's feet. Do you remember even Melchizedek, how Abraham came to Melchizedek and gave him a tenth, right? So we know that his heart was for the Lord, giving to the Lord's service, to the Lord's work, and however the Lord directed him. Let's look at another example of Cornelius. Acts 10:1. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort. A really wealthy man, of course, then. So it's then spoken of him as being a devout man who feared God with all of his household, giving alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. So, wow, this is a man who is wealthy. He was well off his blast, but yet he feared God with his entire household. He gave alms generously to the people. So he was meeting needs of people. He was caring for people. He was giving hope to people. He was being Jesus to people, and so he was being known. That's why the Scriptures even write of him in this way, which. How amazing is it that he was known in this matter? Like, it warms my heart, right? Like, wow. And we know what happens later, like with Cornelius. God sees Cornelius being such an honorable man and steward of the gift of God. Like, wow. Like, how precious is that? And God sends Peter To Cornelius fills Cornelius in this house with the Holy Spirit. Like Cornelius is a man after God's own heart, and Cornelius is a wealthy man. Like, how awesome of an example. And so I want to submit to you, brothers and sisters, that God isn't as concerned with wealth or poverty, but rather he's concerned most of our righteousness and justice. He's looking to what we do with what we do or don't have. But wealth and riches do bring a heightened risk and responsibility to steward what has been given to us. Well, to whom much has been given, much is required. And one more thing to remember then is let's not pretend that that which God has blessed us with belongs to us. Let's not be disillusioned to think that we are the ones who own anything. Truly. See the Torah, the law of God actually tells us who the owner is. And it says in Deuteronomy 10:14, behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. So everything in your bank account, it belongs to the Lord. It doesn't actually belong to you. You are given those things to steward. But ultimately it is according to his purposes that you ought to steward it. And he has also given you, of course, with that things to enjoy in life. He has blessed us with the ability to work beforehand, or however he is blessing us. And with that we are allowed to enjoy the blessings of this life. We even see an instruction given to us that in the feast times God allows us to use what he has given us, the some of the tithe, in fact, in order to rejoice before Him. That is why the Messiah drank wine. That is why the Messiah rejoiced at the feasts along with the people. God has given us the ability to rejoice as long as we do so without sin and above reproach in every manner. Sa.