James 4:13

New Testament

11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. 12 But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge—the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 15 You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast about your arrogant plans. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.

Luke 12:13

New Testament

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”

 Notes and References

"... Jesus’ return is not like a steady walk toward earth with a known time of arrival, but more like one waiting on the other side of a door, ready to appear at any moment in history. The imminence of Jesus’ return creates an urgency about how we conduct ourselves and how we steward our resources. If history could consummate tomorrow, what point is there in hiding your riches under a rock to let them rust? Why defraud your workers when you cannot fathom how to spend all the resources you have anyway? We are reminded of Jesus’ parable of the rich fool who hoarded his grain for its own sake and whose life God took the next day to demonstrate the pointlessness of storing up treasures in such a way (Luke 12:13–21). So, in the last days, resources must be stewarded ethically, must be employed for kingdom purposes with a sense of eschatological urgency, and must not gather rust under a rock. This last warning brings us to the final, positive point that James is making ..."

Scacewater, Todd The Dynamic and Righteous Use of Wealth in James 5:1-6 (pp. 227-242) Journal of Markets & Morality Volume 20, Number 2, 2017

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