You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:6)
In the 1700s and 1800s in America, children as young as five were employed to work in textile factories, mines, and other unsafe places. They sometimes worked sixteen hours a day. The pay was low, the jobs often dangerous. The United States passed the first laws regulating child labor in 1916. Today, some countries still have no child labor laws and millions of boys and girls, exploited by greedy people, work long days and cannot attend school.
In this Scripture, James addresses the problem of the rich taking advantage of the innocent person who offers no resistance. It may be a child or anyone unable to defend themselves. This practice is unacceptable to God.
There is a better way. God offers a brand new heart to all who accept His Son, Jesus. Greed then goes. Unkind acts are done away with as Jesus fills the new convert’s heart with God’s love. A Christian chooses to treat people fairly, regardless of their status. The new birth is God’s answer for a warped, lopsided world.
Will injustice be entirely done away with? Perhaps not, but as people give their lives to Christ and live by Bible standards, evil practices will decrease. Then the world will become a safer, fairer place for defenseless persons. And the day is coming when God will set things right for all the poor and oppressed.
Pray that people who prey upon the weak will come to Christ.
Jewell Johnson is a Bible teacher, a wife, and mother of six children, grandmother to nine. She enjoys walking, reading and, quilting.
© 2018 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
