James 5:4, commentary and pictures

The withheld pay itself cries out against those who kept it back by fraud, and the cries of the reapers who harvested their fields have entered the ears of the Lord of hosts. It is spoken to rich men who live in pleasure and heap treasure together for the last days, warning them to weep and howl for the miseries coming upon them. To keep back workers' wages in this way is oppression, extortion and actual robbery, unlawful gain that God marks as abhorred and will in no case tolerate. The Lord sees every unjust dealing, no cry of suffering goes unheard, the treatment of the oppressed is recorded in heaven, and the unpaid wages testify against their possessors to bring just retribution. Therefore employers, and with great force those enlightened by God, must settle promptly with full, fair and adequate value, never grinding workers down to the lowest price or using power to withhold what is due.

Wording and Setting

The withheld pay itself cries out against those who kept it back, and the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of hosts. The defrauded workers are heard by God, who holds their exploiters accountable for robbery and extortion. Their suffering cry comes before Him while fortunes are built by oppression.

The word is spoken to rich men who heap treasure together for the last days and live in pleasure on the earth, bidding them weep and howl for the miseries coming upon them because they have nourished their hearts as in a day of slaughter. Such rich men stand condemned for defrauding laborers while grasping all they can obtain, paying laborers the lowest wages while exacting the highest prices for what they sell. They lock up thousands of dollars where it is of no use to anyone, so that entrusted capital brings no increase, while living in continual worry lest they lose their treasure. This oppression of the poor is actual robbery, an abhorred practice God will in no case tolerate, condemned wherever schemes withhold money from those to whom it is due or deprive any man of his right, whoever the person and whatever the business, even though human courts punish it only in very extreme cases. Money so gained by wronging a neighbor, believer or unbeliever, is unlawful gain registered in heaven, and bringing it to God's treasury does not make it acceptable. When the judgment sits and the books are opened there will be a fearful account to settle.

The laborers are reapers who harvested the rich landowners' fields, and their fraudulently withheld wages cry out against the injustice. A Christian employer is one who hires laborers to gather in his harvest, who must pay their hard-earned money and not keep it back by fraud, buying and selling with unbending integrity, never taking advantage of weakness, incompetency or distress but helping and blessing his neighbor and accepting only a fair equivalent. The same warning reaches wealthy misusers of entrusted money who pay workers too little, and managers of sanitariums, colleges, publishing houses and missions who crowd down wages below worth or pay some three times as much as others who labor just as hard.

The verse belongs to a wider warning that hoarded wealth bears witness against its possessor in the day of God, together with unused talents and neglected opportunities, as a curse drawing the heart away from heavenly treasure. Those who hoard instead of faithfully using what is entrusted to them will answer to God for their conduct and for unfaithful use of entrusted goods. The remedy is to put money out to use and circulate it to benefit and bless others, so that by blessing it steadily increases and multiplies.

Fraud Exposed as Robbery

To hold back the pay of workers by fraud is oppression and extortion and nothing less than actual robbery, and money gotten in that way is unlawful gain registered in heaven. The warning reaches not only wealthy employers who refuse to pay servants but with force those enlightened by God who copy the same injustice by forcing workers down to the lowest possible pay. It belongs to the greed and exploitation prevailing before Christ's coming, when great fortunes are built by oppression and extortion while starving people cry out before God. The command for prompt and honest payment of hired servants and against oppressing the poor and needy was given by Christ from the pillar of cloud and repeated by Moses and written in a book so Israel would not depart from righteousness, and it remains binding so that keeping it fulfills God's law.

God marks such injustice as an abhorred practice He will in no case tolerate, and His disapproval rests on it wherever schemes withhold money from those to whom it is due or deprive any person of right, whoever the person and whatever the business. Human courts punish it only in very extreme cases, but God knows every selfish and covetous act and unjust gain brings a fearful account and its due reward. He marks every act of oppression, no cry of suffering goes unheard by Him, and He will not suffer this oppression of the poor forever but oppressors will in the last great day stand face to face with their deeds of oppression and injustice. Business practices that serve self-interest at another's expense are worldly and not the way of the Lord, and He will not support their iniquity but holds people accountable for such dealings.

The fraud takes the form of grasping all that can be obtained, paying laborers the lowest prices and wages while exacting the highest prices for what is sold, grinding down the hireling in wages, and taking advantage of individuals wherever possible. It piles up fortunes through oppression and extortion while laborers are paid too little to meet their needs, locks up thousands where they are of no use so entrusted capital brings no increase, and adds to a treasure that will eat flesh as fire. The same principle condemns Sabbath-keepers who take advantage even of poor or distressed brethren by exacting more than real worth, more than they would pay for the same things, when allowance and compassion are due and even full value should not be exacted from one embarrassed and distressed for want of means. Those clamorous for the earthly crown direct all thoughts and energies to getting earthly riches until they become insane on that point, trampling on the rights of others and oppressing the poor and the hireling in wages. If they can take advantage of those poorer and less shrewd than themselves to increase their own riches they will not hesitate a moment to oppress them, even seeing them brought to beggary.

Money gained by doing wrong to a neighbor, whether believer or unbeliever, remains unlawful gain, and bringing that money to God's treasury does not make it acceptable but only deceives the giver's own soul. Withholding fair pay remains an injustice God abhors even when the money is claimed for His cause, and workers' pay must not be forced down by appealing to their willingness to sacrifice, for the cause of God must deal with strict justice and equality.

Last Days Oppression Foretold

The verse portrays the greed, covetousness, and oppression that will prevail just before Christ's second coming. In those last days people build great fortunes through oppression, robbery and extortion, withholding by fraud the wages of laborers, while starving people cry out and their cries come before God. The Lord of hosts hears the wronged workers and holds their exploiters accountable for that injustice.

It describes the present world and the condition of the world today. That condition is seen in large cities, where the same disregard for the weak and helpless that marked the days before the Flood, when people disregarded the rights of others including property rights, now marks the age. Those controlled by covetousness love neither God nor man, grasp all they can obtain, pay laborers the lowest prices while exacting the highest prices for what they sell, and exploit workers and hoard wealth instead of using entrusted money to benefit others. The unpaid workers' cries stand as testimony against those who exploit them and oppose those who obey God's law.

It depicts rich men heaping treasure together by grasping all they can obtain, locking up thousands of dollars where it is of no use to anyone so entrusted capital brings no increase. The owners live in continual worry lest they lose their treasure, yet live in pleasure and luxury, selfishly spending on self what would provide homes for the homeless and food and clothing for the destitute, shutting their eyes to perishing fellow beings. That selfishness, avariciousness and covetousness is idolatry, connected with luxurious living and extravagant dress and costly display. Rich men in the last days rob the poor to add to their millions and put in operation schemes to obtain more and more money that mean starvation to the poor, while the cries of the starving are nothing to them.

Hoarded riches and costly structures gained by such oppression will be swept away in disasters as judgments against those who accumulated wealth through oppression of the poor. Wealth gained or held through robbery, theft, fraud, and means misused for self-glory will testify against those responsible and be brought to account with retributive justice in the judgment. The Lord marks every act of oppression and no cry of suffering goes unheard by Him, and He will not suffer this oppression forever. In the last great day oppressors will stand face to face with their deeds of oppression and injustice.

Its message depicting the misery of rich men who have done wickedly, concerning laborers' suffering and injustice, is to be repeated as a warning and appeal.

God Hears and Judges

The Lord marks every act of oppression and unjust dealing, even in marketplaces, no cry of suffering goes unheard by Him, and how the oppressed are treated is recorded in heaven. The cries of laborers defrauded of their hire reach Him, which establishes that those who labor are to receive an agreed, set sum rather than work uncertain of pay. The cries of those left in poverty also stand as a record against people of means who could have relieved them but spent entrusted wealth on selfish wants instead of relieving the hungry and needy and serving God's work. As in the days before the Flood, when disregard for the rights of others including property rights caused the cries of the oppressed to enter God's ears, so the same disregard for the weak and helpless marks large cities in the present age. Rich men hoard wealth where it does no good, rob the poor to add to millions, and operate schemes to get more money that mean starvation to the poor while the cries of the starving mean nothing to them, but God will not suffer this oppression forever and in the last great day its doers will stand face to face with their deeds of oppression and injustice. This same truth reaches enslaved people and their families, whose suffering and tears God witnesses so as to judge enslavers and oppressors, especially religious bodies that support or take part in slavery, and it reaches the poor and the robbery of widows and orphans, whose treatment is recorded in heaven and whose cries come to the righteous Judge who keeps account and brings judgment.

Wages fraudulently kept back from reapers cry out against those who kept them, and the laborers' cries enter the ears of the Lord of hosts. Such hoarded wealth bears witness against its possessor in the day of God, alongside unused talents and neglected opportunities, as a curse drawing the heart from heavenly treasure. God has seen the unjust dealings and the hoarding of wealth and produce while the poor starve, and the exploitation will be exposed and charged in the judgment even when the wrongdoers belong to the church, with injustice over entrusted goods used by deceit and refused for relief of need to be answered before God. Withholding workers' wages by fraud brings just retribution, for God is not in all riches that are obtained and Satan often has more to do with acquiring property than God, since much is obtained by oppressing the hireling in wages, grinding down the hireling and taking advantage wherever possible, thereby adding to a treasure that will eat flesh as fire. Many Sabbath-keepers are at fault here by not taking a strictly honest, honorable course, exacting from even poor brethren more than real worth and more than they would pay for the same things while those brethren are embarrassed and distressed for want of means, and God knows all these things so that every selfish act and covetous extortion brings its reward and a fearful account stands against them. Where a brother is distressed or poor yet doing his best, allowance should be made and not even full value exacted, but bowels of compassion shown, which God will approve and reward.

By selfishness in using God's gifts for self-gratification, oppressors crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame, and God will avenge His death. This belongs to His controversy with those who grasp all they can obtain, pay laborers the lowest prices while exacting the highest prices for what they sell, selfishly spend on self what would house the homeless and feed and clothe the destitute, shut their eyes to perishing fellow beings, and lock up thousands of dollars where they are of no use so His capital brings Him no increase, for whom a fearful account to settle remains when the judgment sits and the books are opened.

Those who profess Christ are tested as stewards when they come into possession of property, and if they use for self-gratification and selfish pleasure what should feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the cries of God's children dying in want and distress for the necessaries of life enter the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. The Lord hears them and will call the selfish rich to strict account for neglecting His needy ones, asking what they did with the money given to use for Him, and will hold guilty and condemn in judgment those who squander wealth on luxury while people suffer in hunger and nakedness, sending those who withheld help away into everlasting punishment. Resources were entrusted to honor God by blessing the world, so hoarding His gifts while leaving the poor hungry, ignorant, and in distress, or hoarding wealth instead of wisely helping the destitute lacking food and shelter, makes the holders unfaithful stewards held accountable for that neglect.

The same image of cries entering the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, which means the Lord of hosts, also shows God's nearness to believers, for He hears every struggling cry and every effort against the adversary of the soul. Believers are to trust the Saviour with special personal trust and trust the heavenly Father as a child trusts earthly parents, believing He works for good in all things, and He will send help every time it is needed and give help over every temptation to those who call on Him in faith. Only the prayer of the humble enters His ears, humility being lowly, contrite, and trembling at God's word, and He hears earnest prayer, guiding those who depend on Him and directing workers in service. The praise of God's children likewise enters His ears, because the separation of earth from heaven and of man from God caused by the sin of the first parents is taken away so no barrier keeps men from approaching God, but men may draw near through Jesus Christ, in whom they are accepted in the Beloved through God's gift of His only begotten Son. Christ as surety and substitute opens heaven with gates ajar so light comes to men, and with His long human arm encircling the race and His divine arm grasping the throne of the Infinite He unites earth with heaven as the ladder Jacob saw, its base on earth and its top in highest heaven, the connection between God and man and heaven and earth with angels ascending and descending on it and God above it. By that same hearing, Israel's murmurings and complaints on the journey to the promised land also came to God's ears.

Paying Workers Justly

The warning reaches beyond rich landowners who refuse to pay their servants, and falls with special force on those enlightened by God's Spirit who hire workers and grind them down to the lowest possible price. It is generally applied to wealthy employers, but it means more than this, covering just as criminally those who know the truth and still force laborers, even gospel laborers and ministers, to accept small remuneration. To plead that the treasury lacks money and leave honest debts unsettled does not excuse it, for defrauding just dues in God's work is as criminal in His sight as keeping back wages in any other regular business and displeases Him. Where this is done, ministers who ought to be encouraged in the field are left without inducement and cannot live on what is allowed them.

Laborers in God's cause are owed fair, honest, and adequate support, sufficient to provide food and clothing for their families. They should receive an agreed, set sum rather than be expected to work while uncertain about their pay, and ministers who faithfully give their time to accepted work are entitled to their wages just as other workers are. Churches, conferences, and their leaders are responsible for providing that support, and neglecting it displeases God and hinders the work. Those in charge of sanitariums, colleges, publishing houses, and missions must keep strict integrity for no bribe or money consideration. They must not crowd down the wages of poor workers dependent on their earnings for bread below what their labor is worth, nor pay some three times as much as others who labor just as hard and faithfully, nor urge or allow workers to ruin physical and mental powers by overwork while extorting all the value of brain, bone, and muscle for the least wages with a sharp, grasping spirit.

Such grasping injustice is a species of slavery that heaven abhors and will call to account. It lays a stumbling block before souls receiving training for their lifework, tells directly against the institution by weakening its influence for good and preventing financial prosperity, and causes managers to be written as unfaithful stewards of the bodies and souls valued at the price paid for them. By contrast, straightforward, just, unselfish management is commended by heaven as good and faithful and brings heavenly angels to the managers' side, while managers who do injustice and are cried against to the Lord will surely lose every dollar wrongfully withheld. Wages earned by workmen belong to them, not to the employer, and keeping them back by fraud brings woe. Employers must therefore settle promptly with workmen and give full value for services, never using power over them to withhold what is due.

Even when embarrassed for means, the employer must bear every inconvenience himself rather than put workmen to inconvenience, anxiety, and fear by retaining their pay. Every person employed, saint or sinner, is purchased with Christ's blood, so every business dealing must be of the strictest integrity, prompt and upon Christian principles. Workers must not be regarded as beneath the employer or as mere human machinery to be turned to profitable account, but helped to realize accountability to God, with no exacting, critical, overbearing treatment and no lordly indifference, coldness, or unkindness. The master must allow no unfairness in exactions of labor or in payment of wages, must never oppress the hireling in wages or keep him long waiting for what is his own, must speak every word in kindness, must pray more in the press of business, and must remember that One is Master and that God judges and weighs actions, accepting only staunch Christian principle. God is concerned in every bargain and payment where the rights of His people are involved, for He is the guardian of justice whose hand is spread as a shield over His creatures so that no one can wound another's rights without smiting that hand, and that hand holds the sword of justice.

A Christian who employs laborers to gather in his harvest must pay their hard-earned money with unbending integrity shining like pure gold, trustworthy in word, with nothing to conceal under the eye of God, never taking advantage of a neighbor's weakness, incompetency, or distress but helping and blessing him and accepting only a fair equivalent. A steady, undeviating course of such integrity keeps the name free from stain in the heavenly records, brings God's hand over the business for good and success, and leads at last to the Master's approval. God cannot prosper a business built on fraud, for every daily transaction is registered in heaven in a much more accurate account than earthly books, requiring industry, faithfulness, firm adherence to right, trust in God, and pure principles of truth carried into buying, selling, and all transactions. A brother who has labored disinterestedly for the cause and has become enfeebled belongs to God's family where all are brethren, and must not be dismissed to get along as best he can but must be given wages sufficient to support him.

When those in responsible positions employ a man who does his best yet fails and falls into decay so that his wife and children suffer, and they judge him unsuccessful and leave his need unmet, the cry of that brother and his family comes up against them into the ears of God. No excuse for neglecting the Word just as it reads will stand, for as they judge they will be judged and as they measure it will be measured to them again, and they may be brought over the very same ground where their brother fell. Their brother is of just as much value in God's sight as they are, for there is no respect of persons with Him, who strips off tinsel and show and sees true character, and He allows those who boast themselves to pass through strait places where others fell to be tested where others failed, that they may know what it is to be regarded with indifference, contempt, and scorn after they turned from the failing in heart and disregarded their situation instead of helping, strengthening, and blessing them. Workers' pay must not be forced down by appealing to their willingness to sacrifice, for the cause of God must deal with strict justice and equality, and withholding fair wages even when the money is claimed for His cause is an injustice He abhors. Paying workers as little as circumstances allow despite their having earned more is unjust oppression that He sees and condemns, and any gain so kept will ultimately be lost through adversity and affliction.

Household employers must pay domestic workers fairly, and wages withheld through injustice must be restored, for the unpaid wages and cries for justice of those whose labor brings in the harvest reach the Lord who hears them. Riches often have much more to do with Satan than with God in their acquiring, for much is obtained by oppressing the hireling in wages, grinding him down, and taking advantage wherever possible to add to a treasure that will eat the flesh as fire. Sabbath-keepers are at fault when they take advantage even of poor brethren by exacting more than the real worth of things, more than they would pay for the same things, while these brethren are embarrassed and distressed for want of means. It is cruel and unjust to have no consideration for a brother's situation, and if he is distressed or poor yet doing his best, allowance should be made for him and even full value should not be exacted, but compassion shown, which God will approve and reward. Every selfish act and covetous extortion is known to God and will bring its reward, and a fearful account stands against such close dealing.

Using Wealth for Good

Hoarded wealth bears witness against its possessor in the day of God, standing alongside unused talents and neglected opportunities, for wages fraudulently withheld cry out and the laborers' cries reach the Lord of hosts. Such hoarding is a curse that draws the heart away from heavenly treasure, and those who hoard instead of faithfully using what God entrusted to them will answer to God for their conduct. Locking up thousands of dollars where it is of no use to anyone defeats God's design, so His entrusted capital brings Him no increase, while the owners live in continual worry lest they lose their treasure. Withheld wages testify against those who hoard wealth and use entrusted means selfishly instead of relieving suffering and helping save souls.

Resources entrusted to the wealthy were given to honor God by blessing the world, and neglect of the poor while using means for selfish pleasure makes them unfaithful stewards. The remedy is to put money out to use and circulate it to benefit and bless others so that by God's blessing it steadily increases and multiplies. Unselfish works in that circulation increase intelligence and knowledge of God. Grasping, avarice, and covetousness lead people to exploit workers by paying as little as possible while seeking the highest prices for themselves, instead of using entrusted money to benefit others, and wealthy accumulators who misuse God's entrusted money while paying workers too little are answerable to God.

Spending entrusted wealth on selfish wants keeps it from relieving the hungry and needy and from serving God's work, and the cries of people left in poverty are heard by God and stand as a record against those with means who could have helped them. Those with means should deny themselves and help workers enduring privation to carry the truth and meet their need for food, for costly homes and extravagant buildings testify against people who ignore such want. Spending excessively on oneself while others lack food and basic necessities is selfish use of God's goods, it robs both fellow human beings and God, and those responsible will have to answer for it.

The warning applies to those who profit by exploiting vulnerable people, keeping what belongs to them, and living in luxury while they suffer, including those who help lead a drunkard to ruin and build their own wealth from his property while the poor live in poverty and degradation. It applies also beyond withheld wages to those who use God's gifts, including the fruit of the vine, to make intoxicating drink that robs people of their senses, destroys health, and brings suffering and crime, whose harmed cries reach the Lord of Sabaoth who hears them and will repay the wrong according to the misery it causes. Those responsible for shepherding God's people face His displeasure when they ignore the oppressed and take money that should provide food for their hungry families, for the cries of oppressed people reach the Lord of Sabaoth, who answers them.

Links to Other Scripture

The demand for prompt and honest payment to hired servants and the ban on oppressing the poor and needy was given by Christ from the pillar of cloud and repeated by Moses and written in a book so that Israel would not depart from righteousness, and it remains binding so that keeping it fulfills the law of God. To keep back the wages of laborers by fraud is a sin that cries to the Lord of Sabaoth. This includes a brother who has labored disinterestedly for the cause of God and has become enfeebled, who must not be dismissed to get along as best he can but must be given wages sufficient to support him, because he belongs to God's family and all are brethren. In the days before the Flood people disregarded the rights of others, including property rights, and the cries of the oppressed entered the ears of God and reached the Lord of hosts. That same disregard for the weak and helpless marks large cities in the present age.

The chapter describes in the present world the condition of those who disregard God's law and oppose people who obey it, with the cries of unpaid workers standing as testimony against those who exploit them. The truth that cries over fraud and injustice reach God and are recorded in heaven applies to enslaved people, whose suffering and whose families' tears are witnessed by God, who will judge those who enslave and oppress them. That judgment falls especially against religious bodies that support or take part in slavery. It applies likewise to persecuted reformers and preachers whose cries in suffering are poured into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth, who hears those suffering injustice. They were hunted and tortured and forced to preach in hiding, yet their cries reached God in the same way.

The warning about withholding what is owed applies to the oppression of the poor and the robbery of widows and orphans. Their treatment is recorded in heaven, and their cries reach the righteous Judge. He keeps account of how they are treated and brings judgment.