James 5:2

"Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten"."have rotted" -"make corrupt, destroy" (Vine p. 243); "cause to rot, decay, decay" (Arndt p. 749). "In Oriental lands, riches, in addition to gold, silver, and precious stones, consisted of highly perishable goods, such as grain, oil, food, and garments of many types and kinds" (Woods p. 259). "your garments have become moth-eaten" -"Eastern people have always reckoned collections of raiment among their choice treasures, and estimate them in the accounts of their wealth along with silver and gold" (Manners/Customs, Freeman p. 213).

Points To Note:

1. "Of course, as these wealthy men looked at their goods, it did not appear to them this way at all. Their barns were well cared for and the grain protected. Their robes sparkled with lavish care and the finest of fabrics. James was looking with. prophet's eye, seeing things from God's point of view. He saw judgment as already in progress and man's opulence revealed as temporal at best, subject to swift destruction" (Kent p. 170). 2. The thought in these verses also seems to be that. tremendous amount of wealth was being hoarded, which is an abuse of wealth (Luke 16:19 ff). 3. Jesus made similar comments in Matthew 6:19. Davids writes, "Temporality is one side of the coin, but the very temporality of goods points to their being withheld from the service for which God intended them" (p. 176). 4. The Bible often comments upon the temporary nature of wealth, probably because mankind insists on believing that wealth is the cure for all problems and can deliver us from all trials (Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 2:10; Proverbs 11:4 "Riches profit not in the day of wrath"; James 23:4 "For wealth certainly makes itself wings"; James 27:24; Mark 4:19; Luke 12:15).