James 1:11
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
The verse teaches that the rich man's life, prosperity, wealth, ambition, status, standing, and plans are temporary, fading away in the very course of his pursuits like grass withered by the scorching sun when it rises with burning heat and like its fallen flower whose beauty and flourishing perish. This withering is what it means for the rich man to be brought low. The same fading overtakes worldly, ambitious statesmen, whose position and success do not last.
In contrast to such ambition for self, business ability can instead be devoted to God, as shown by Daniel's faithful service. The verse exposes mere outward and worldly glory as worthless because it fades and perishes like the flower of the grass. Babylon is the great illustration of this, for with power and magnificence never since equaled that looked stable and enduring to people of that day, it has completely passed away, showing that all that does not have God for its foundation perishes.
Only what is grounded in God's enduring truth can endure and have lasting value, for only that which is bound up with His purpose and expresses His character lasts, since His principles are the only steadfast things the world knows. The verse therefore teaches old and young to estimate seen and unseen things at their true value and to learn life's true aim. Viewed in the light of eternity, temporal things are to be put to their truest and noblest use by learning here the principles of God's kingdom and becoming its subjects and citizens in preparation to enter into its possession at His coming.