Is the church guilty of hoarding the Gospel? James tells his readers in James 5:2-3, "Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days." I realize that James was speaking here to rich, unbelievers. However, if you take that passage and apply it strictly to the church, notice the similarity to the 21st century church. Without a doubt the church is "rich" with the Gospel! We have His Word. We have the truth that leads to salvation. Our lives are being enriched with God's love, grace, and mercy more and more each day. If we equated our salvation and the Gospel in our lives with "wealth and riches", I really do not believe it would be too much of a stretch to apply this passage to the 21st century church. We have manipulated and watered down the Gospel and molded it into OUR Gospel instead the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, we have taken the true life out of the Gospel and it has "rotted". The new clothes of Christ's righteousness that He clothed us with has been eaten by the "moths" of sin in the church. And we have taken the treasure of God's saving grace and buried it in the midst of our "holy huddles" for so long; that corrosion has set in. And as a result the church has lost its vision for the lost in our world. I believe a very viable argument could be made that the 21st century church is guilty of hoarding its wealth (The Gospel).
Be aware Church; "The Judge is standing at the door!" - (James 5:9)
