“THE DEADLY PERIL OF AFFLUNZA”

James 5:1-6

INTRODUCTION Did you hear the news this morning? Thousands of people in our nation have died from an outbreak of a terrible disease. An epidemic is sweeping the country, claiming the lives of men and women, young and old, black and white. And what's worse, there seems to be no cure for it. What is this epidemic? Is it the West Nile Virus? Another anthrax outbreak? The AIDS epidemic? No, the disease that I'm referring to is much more widespread than any of those diseases. And much more deadly. I'm talking about something that has already hit our community hard, as well as our congregation. And yes, I'm afraid, is may have already infected you and me. What is this debilitating disease? "AFFLUNZA. It’s a term coined by sociologists that combines two words together: affluence which means having a great deal of wealth; and influenza which is a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. Mix these two words together you get the term affluenza which is a useful word to describe the problems generated by a wealthy consumer culture that has an endless hunger for more and more stuff. Affluenza is the disease of greed. It's the disease that is marked by a desire to be affluent, to have more money, more things, more everything. It's a disease that is absolutely running rampant in our world today, the materialistic mindset that thinks that getting more money and possessions for yourself is the ultimate aim of life. But even though it is a very common disease these days, it's not exactly a new disease. It's been around a long, long time. In fact, one of the more well-known cases of the disease is recorded right here in the Bible. In our text today James the prophet/pastor again assumes the role of Old Testament prophet, thundering his full fury against the disease of affluenza. He loves God too much and knows what is at stake. Life is precious, time is short, and eternity is long. He knows that one of the greatest hindrances to the spiritual life and growth is the worldly mindset and lifestyle infected with affluneza. James knows what spiritual peril this can put the church. The intensity of James words shows the reality of this threat. So James specifically addresses those outside the church and indirectly within the church whom he calls rich, those who love and trust in their riches more than God. James will not allow niceness and postmodern relativism to placate those who deserve to be warned, even condemned. The consequences are so dire that he will not allow himself to conceal his concern. His understanding of the difference between ways of the city of God and the ways of the city of the world keeps him from indifference. The intensity of his rebuke is not optional. His angry indignation fits the crime. I pray that you will hear his warning and instead of resenting it and saying, "You have no business talking this way to born- again Christians," that you will say, "We know how fragile we are in ourselves. Thank you for keeping us alert to the dangers of the deceitfulness of wealth and sin, and reminding us to fight the fight of faith every day." I believe that the warnings will not drive you away in resentment, but will deepen your vigilance and earnest pursuit of all that God has for you in Christ.

I. GOD’S JUDGEMENT ON AFFLUNZA (verses 1-3) As I have already mentioned, James is not making an indiscriminate attack on the rich. Some notable saints have been rich: Abraham, Job, David, Josiah, Philemon, Joseph of Arimathea, and Lydia, for example. Moreover, there is not a word here against riches per se. The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil, but that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). The focus, again, is on those who have succumbed to afflunza, who seek to gain their wealth in an ungodly manner, make it the center of their lives, and fail to use it to benefit others. The issue is not money but how we view it and use it. To such comes James' drastic command “come now” which means an insistent call to pay close and strict attention. Like the fools in 4:13 who planned their lives as if God didn’t exist; James addresses the rich fools who use their money as if God didn’t exist. He commands them to "weep”, which means to sob out loud or lament. It refers to the wailing that took place in ancient times when someone died. It’s the same weeping that Peter did as he repented of his sin following his denial of Christ. To intensify it James adds another word “howl”. This word olouzo, is only used here in the Greek New Testament. It means to be lamenting with the howls of misery; the kind of misery that cannot be contained and must be exploded through the lips. It is a sobering picture of sobbing lament punctuated with repeated howlings as they face the final judgment of God or as James puts it “the miseries coming upon them”. If they who live their lives in disregard to God could see what is coming this is how they would react! James is calling them to weep and wail now in repentance or to experience later the future weeping and wailing in eternal judgment and what will be done to them! Jesus said in Luke 6; 24-25, "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” We ought to let the horror of this seep into our hearts. This is God's Word! This is the end result of a life characterized by affluenza! Just as influenza will destroy your body, afflunza will destroy your soul! God says there is a price to be paid for the sin of valuing wealth over Him. When it replaces Him, on the Day of Judgment, their riches will be “evidence against them” (James 5:3) that they have let possessions displace God. Perhaps we have all had the experience of getting caught- or of being in danger of getting caught for doing what we shouldn’t be doing-particularly when we misbehaved as small children. Such as when you stuck your finger in the cookie batter and had forgot to wipe the chocolate from our mouths. Our parents knew that we were guilty because of the evidence of the convicting chocolate ring around your mouth. In an infinitely more serious way, on the Day of Judgment there will be no prospect of hiding the convicting evidence of loving wealth more than God. As Walter Martin used to say, “The mills of God grind ever slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.” Or as a black preacher once said, “there ain’t nobody that’s gonna get away with nothing no how!”

James says that their wealth is soul destroying! He uses the three great material values of the time, the three main indicators of wealth to point to the soul destroying power of their wealth and the temporary nature of each. You see how James even uses a past tense, actually the perfect tense, as he describes the disintegration of all the possessions of the wealthy man.

James says that the wealth they value is all going to spoil, be eaten away, and corroded. Unless they begin investing in eternal things, this is what their soul will look like! James wants us to face our vulnerability to the false security of money and possessions and our earthly lives. When we are tempted to see glamour, James sees garbage; where we see status, James sees depravity. The wealthy Laodacian church in Revelation 3:17 proudly boasted “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” Jesus warned them, “not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” What appears enviable and attractive is instead a deadly delusion that must be avoided. Jesus said in the parable of the sower that the deceit of wealth chokes one’s understanding of God’s word (Matthew 13:22) and turns the heart away from God. James warns in verse 3 that wealth can be a spiritual carcinogen; it “will eat your flesh like fire”. Afflunza ultimately destroys us. James agrees with the words of Jesus, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15).

II. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THOSE WHO SUFFER FROM AFFLUNZA? (verses 3b-6) James graphically reveals the evidence in his next few verses.

1. Hoarding (verse 3) The people whom James was addressing were hoarding their riches. The word for hoarding comes from the word thesaurizo which means to store away in a safe place. It’s where we get the English word thesaurus which basically means a collection. He is thinking about people who seem bent on hoarding together every penny they possibly can and yet seem to have an insatiable appetite to get more. That’s the problem when we love money, we hoard it because we love it and when we love it we are reluctant to use it. This is the opposite of why God gives us wealth which is to be used and employed for His glory. When Jesus told the parable of the rich fool he told it to illustrate such folly. In the prelude to the story he said, “Watch out! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Jesus shows that greed lies. It says that the quality of life is measured in stuff we acquire and own not in our soul. Secondly greed blinds us to what is really important. Then Jesus told the story, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'” (Luke 12:16-20). Pressing home the application of the parable Jesus added, “This is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God” (Luke 12:21). Notice the two words that reveal all-“FOR HIMSELF”. A hoarder collects and stores out of greed, simply to accumulate more for himself without regard for others.

2. Corruption (verse 4) James was denouncing wealthy landowners that were cheating their laborers out of their hard-earned wages. Whether they were not paying them the full amount promised or cheating them on the pretext that they had not fulfilled their quotas or whatever, we don’t know. But it was a common enough problem to be mentioned several times in the Bible. Leviticus 19:13 states, “You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.” (See also, Deut. 24:14-15; Jer. 22:13; Mal. 3:5.) Often in that economy, day laborers got by on that day’s pay. To withhold it on some false pretenses would literally rob the worker and his family of their daily bread. These rich landowners were not paying what was owed. Thou shall not steal is not one of the ten suggestions, it is one of the Ten Commandments! It is still the law of God and it is a law that He will enforce. James says that the cries of those who had their wages withheld has gone up to the Lord of Hosts, a term used to denote the Sovereignty of God. When you have cheated others and you think you will get away with it that is pure deception. Ultimately the sovereign Lord will reward the righteous and punish the wicked. As Christians it is important to be faithful to pay our bills. As a Pastor I find it uncomfortable when I hear about brothers or Christians who owe money and apparently have no intention of paying. It is always wrong to cheat others for our own financial gain.

3. Careless self-indulgence (verse 5). James identifies another area. he specifically condemns selfish extravagance in our use of wealth. What he's attacking is a life focused on using money to increase earthly pleasures instead of a life focused upon finding pleasure in God. C.S. Lewis says, “We are halfhearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us…we are far too easily pleased.” They close their eyes to the needs of others and the work of God, solely to gratify their sinful, selfish desires. James’ indictment of fattening their hearts in a day of slaughter (5:5) points to the imminence of the Day of Judgment. Like unreasoning cattle, they just go on fattening themselves every day with no thought of others. But their selfish lifestyles only incur greater guilt. Blind to heaven, deaf to the warnings of hell, insensitive to the impending day of slaughter and judgment, the unrepentant selfish indulgent rich stumble blindly to their own doom.

4. Hurting innocent people for the sake of our profit (verse 6) James mentions another area; a specific condemnation of a use of wealth in such a way that it harms others. The language is strong here; it's the language of wrongful judicial murder. It speaks of the betrayal of a willing victim. You notice how stories from Jesus' life and parables of Jesus are behind almost all of James' illustrations here? Do you remember what that one is from? There was once a man named Judas, who all the gospels tell us, and the book of Acts as well, betrayed Jesus for money. He was a greedy man. He put to death a righteous man because of his love of money. In other words, James is speaking in general here about taking advantage of someone who doesn't resist us or fight back, perhaps because they can't. And James is condemning this kind of grasp for, and use of, wealth.

James has been so painfully explicit with his pounding indictments of those who suffer from afflunza. Though this is a characterization of the world without Christ, we must never imagine ourselves to be immune. We must each ask ourselves do we suffer from affluenza? Let's face it. We live in a world, yes, in a nation, yes, in a community where affluenza has reached epidemic proportions. But thank God that he has provided a cure. If we do, what’s the cure?

III. WHAT’S THE CURE FOR AFFLUNZA?

1. FIND YOUR RICHES IN A LIFE WITH GOD. Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

2. STORE UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

3. LEARN TO HOLD IT LOOSE AND LET GO 1 Timothy 6:17-18, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,” Matthew 10:8b "... Freely you have received, freely give." George Mueller said it well, “Give, give, give and you will live. He who does not give does not live.”

CLOSING THOUGHTS In Cairo Egypt lays the bodies of two men. One lies in a weed infested overgrown graveyard for American missionaries. His name is William Boyden, a Yale graduate and heir to great wealth, who rejected a life of comfort, security, and ease in order to bring the gospel to the Muslims. Boyden chose to live a simple life and believed that God had prospered him not to increase his standard of living but to increase his standard of giving. He gave away most of his wealth not to benefit himself, but to invest in eternity and spread God’s kingdom. After only four months of zealous ministry in Egypt, he contacted spinal meningitis and died at the age of 25. Then there is another body in the Egyptian National Museum; that of King Tutankhamen, the boy king who was only 17 when he died. He was buried with solid gold chariots and thousands of gold artifacts. His gold coffin was found within gold tombs within gold tombs within gold tombs. The burial site was filed with tons of gold. The Egyptians believed in an afterlife where one could take all of your accumulated treasures. But all the treasures intended for King Tut’s eternal pleasure stayed right where they were until discovered in 1922. Two men, two graves; one obscure, overgrown with weeds, and hidden off the back alley of a street lined with trash. The other glittering with unimaginable wealth. Yet where are the two men now? One who suffered from afflunza and lived in opulence and called himself king, is in the misery of a Christless eternity. The other, who lived a modest life on this earth in service of the one true king, is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of his Lord. Which one are you?

As Alcorn says, “You can’t take it with you but you can send it ahead.” It is not what you take up but what you give up that makes you rich!