JAMES
Lesson 15: The Lord of Hosts
Study Guide
James 5:1-6 CSB
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.
2 Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.
4 Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.
Practical Discipleship for Everyone.
Bible Memorization.
Psalm 119:11
I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
Last week’s memory verse:
James 4:15
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
This week’s memory verse:
James 5:1
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.
Point 1: The love of money will deepen your
“Come now”:
an interjection
“an abrupt emphatic exclamation expressing emotion.”
Come - present imperative - a command calling for the reader to give attention to what follows.
now(nun) - adverb - increases the sense of urgency.
“rich man”:
- (4145)(plousios from ploutos = wealth, abundance, riches)
- “Worldlings make gold their god; saints make God their gold.” Matthew Henry
“Are coming upon”:
- (1904)(eperchomai from epi = upon + erchomai = come)
- to come upon or over a person or place.
- present tense which depicts these woes as already on their way!
Revelation 3:17 CSB
For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Matthew 6:19-24 CSB
19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
“Look”:
- (2400) idou. James uses look in
- 4 times in chapter 5 (James 5:4, 7, 9, 11)
Weirsbe, “This is the ‘military’ name of God, for ‘hosts’ comes from a Hebrew word which means ‘to wage war.’”
In the end, all that matters is
Steven Cole, “To be rich without God provides short-term advantages, but long-term loss.”
Include your notes for Point 1 here.
Key takeaways:
1- Prioritize
1 Timothy 6:9-10 CSB
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
2- Set
Proverbs 22:7 CSB
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.
1 Timothy 6:8 CSB
If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.