<p>5:3<i>&nbsp;Your gold and your silver are rusted, and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days</i>-Their riches were specifically &quot;gold and silver&quot;- which we have identified as the main thing which these brethren were desiring (see notes on 4:3). The idea of corruption of financial wealth is repeated in 2 Cor. 8:15, where Paul likens the Corinthians' giving of their financial blessings in order to make an equality among the brotherhood, to the manna not being left to corrupt by the morning, but instead being gathered and shared out (Ex. 16:18,19). Those who refused to obey this command found their manna was corrupted by morning- teaching that unless we share our manna or money (as 2 Cor. 8:15 interprets it) before the morning of the Lord's coming, we will incur His wrath. This fits beautifully with the situation in James; in our notes on v.1 we saw that there was probably the suggestion that they share their riches with the poorer brethren, so that the curses on the rich and happy in the beatitudes did not come upon them.</p><p>The eating of the flesh with fire connects the literal and symbolic use of fire to destroy the Jewish heavens and earth (2 Pet. 3:7). Note the equation of the believers with their riches- as rust ate gold and silver, so fire would eat their flesh. Their life (&quot;flesh&quot;) <i>did</i> consist in the abundance of the things which they possessed (Lk. 12:15). The fire also represents the Gehenna fire of the rejected at judgment; its connection with the rust of their riches perhaps indicates that the punishment of the rejected at judgment is at the hands of those things which caused their rejection. Alternatively, this language may be similar in idea to &quot;delivering to satan for the destruction of the flesh&quot; in 1 Cor. 5:5; the satan, or evil desires, in this case being their love of riches.</p><p>The Greek for &quot;rust&quot; occurs also in 3:8 translated &quot;poison&quot;, concerning the nature of the tongue and the evil heart it is associated with. Thus they are being reminded that their gross materialism was rooted in their evil desires, and it is this fact that &quot;shall be a witness (judicially) against you&quot;. Again this is the language of judgment, as if they were to be soon at the Lord's judgment seat. The idea of eating flesh at judgment occurs again in Rev. 17:16 and 19:18- prophecies which must have an initial application to the AD70 destruction of Israel. They describe the military forces responsible for the AD70 punishments and subsequent persecutions as eating the flesh; here in James the evil desires behind their riches do the eating, implying that it was because of these that the judgment came, again stressing the ultimate importance of the heart's spiritual condition. Remember that the judgments on Jerusalem in AD70 had repercussions for natural and spiritual Israel throughout the Roman world.</p><p>The heaping of treasure together is another allusion to the early chapters of Romans: &quot;Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance (cp. 2 Pet. 3:15 concerning the delay in judgment upon Jerusalem in order to allow natural and spiritual Israel time to repent), but after your hardness and impenitent heart (notice the emphasis on this) you treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath&quot; in AD70 (Rom. 2:4,5). The treasures they had heaped up were therefore directly proportionate to the amount of wrath they would receive- perhaps because their wealth was proportionate to the amount of defrauding and subsequent lack of love shown to their brethren (5:4). The Heavens and earth (natural and spiritual Israel?) were &quot;kept in store&quot; (2 Pet. 3:7)- the same Greek phrase for &quot;treasuring up&quot; and heaping treasure together- for judgment by fire in AD70. The fact this fire was to come on individuals (2 Thess. 1:8) invites us to interpret the heavens and earth as referring to the individual people that comprised the Jewish system; and we can conclude that this included both apostate, largely Judaist-influenced Christians, as well as the natural Jews.</p><p>This Greek phrase for laying up treasure also occurs in Lk. 12:21 concerning the 'greater barns' man laying up treasure for himself. Note that Lk. 12:15, also in this context, has already been alluded to in James 5:3 (see above). The rich man was a farmer- as were some of the rich brethren amongst James' readership (5:4); he thought he knew the future, as the same class in James' letter thought they did (4:13), and the suddenness of his destruction corresponds with the rich in the ecclesia thinking that spiritually they were in peace and safety, and then the sudden destruction of AD70 coming (1 Thess. 5:2,3) at &quot;the day of the Lord&quot;- note the many links between 1 Thess. 4:15 - 5:9 and the Olivet prophecy concerning the same destruction. Again, James opens up a parable with an interpretation many of us otherwise would not have reached. The emphasis on their time being &quot;the last days&quot; is doubtless because they thought they knew the future- as indicated in 4:13-15 by their lack of saying 'If the Lord will', presumably because they thought the Lord's coming was far distant. Therefore along with their prototype in the rich farmer parable, they thought that they could go on building up their own Kingdom on earth.</p><p>Especially in our generation, we hold wealth- any wealth- in the full knowledge that our Lord could return at any moment. James 5:3 brings out the paradox- of hoarding up wealth for the last days The Greek for &lsquo;hoarding up&rsquo; means &lsquo;to reserve&rsquo;. And this is just what our flesh tells us to do- reserve &lsquo;our&rsquo; wealth for a rainy day, for long term security. It&rsquo;s as if James foresaw that in our last days, this would be a particular temptation. See on 1 Cor. 7:29.</p><p>Our words are as fire, and are to be connected with the fire of condemnation (James 3:5,6), which our words have already kindled (Lk. 12:49). Speaking of the last day Isaiah 33:11 had foretold: &quot;your breath i.e. words, as fire, shall devour you&quot;. Likewise wrongly gained wealth is the fire that will burn those who have it at the last day (James 5:3). James is picking up a figure from Is. 33:11, again concerning the final judgment: &quot;Your breath, as fire, shall devour you&quot;. Their breath, their words, were as fire which would in the end be the basis of their condemnation. Nadab and Abihu kindled strange fire, and it was with that fire that God burnt them up, in symbol of His destruction of all the wicked at judgment day (Lev. 10:2). &quot;He that believes not is condemned already&quot; (Jn. 3:18). A heretic is already condemned of himself (Tit. 3:11); our heart can condemn us now (1 Jn. 3:20).</p><p>There is an amazing ability in human nature to believe that wealth lasts for ever. That's why we recoil in horror at the idea of forsaking all we have. James 5:3 says well that gold rusts. Yet we know it doesn&rsquo;t rust. But in the very end, it does in the sense that it doesn&rsquo;t last in our hands for ever. Especially in the perspective of the soon return of Jesus, materialism is totally inappropriate for the believer awaiting Him. James 5:3 RV says it so clearly: &ldquo;Ye have laid up your treasures in the last days&rdquo;. It&rsquo;s as if it&rsquo;s self-evidently inappropriate to build up wealth in the last days. Period. The men of Beth-Shemesh were smitten because they looked into the ark (1 Sam. 6:19). I suspect this was because they wanted to find any more jewels which the Philistines might have placed there. In the face and presence of the things of the supreme glory of Jehovah of Israel, they scavenged around in a spirit of petty materialism- just as men gambled for the clothes of Jesus at the foot of His cross.</p>