James 5:3

NIV: 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.

The Message: Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.

I've just been reading in 1 Chronicles 9 about the people of Judah returning from exile when the writer of 1 Chronicles, Ezra, states in 9:1 that:

NIV: The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

The Message: They were exiled to Babylon because of their unbelieving and disobedient lives.

This is exactly what James is telling us here will happen to those who store up gold and silver, are ever seeking to get as many luxuries in life as they can - fine wines, designer clothes, new cars, a big house, a high powered and well paying job, seeking to gratify all those desires they have.  It’s not just about money and wealth, but it is about a lifestyle, about what is really important in our lives, the things we put first and foremost.  

The people of Israel and Judah were led away into captivity because of their unfaithfulness to God.  They had been warned time and time again through Moses, Solomon, the prophets about what would happen to them if they rejected God, so when it finally happened to them, it should not have been a surprise.  How can you continually expect God to save you if in your everyday life you ignore Him, you concentrate on gratifying your own desires, the desires of the flesh?  The people of Judah and Israel had turned to false gods, they worshipped at Asherah poles and in the high places, they sacrificed their children, made cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:17), poured out drink offerings to other gods .  They forgot the God who had rescued them from Egypt, the one who had brought them to Israel and saved them time after time.  Eventually, God rewarded them for their unbelief with the exile that had been foretold by Moses and others.

Here, James is warning each of us what will happen if we continually put money and wealth (and everything else that is not of God) first in our lives.  When we are seeking the pleasures of this world, the gratification of sex, drugs, drink, when we live for the next night out, the partying, the things we can buy with the money we earn, when we continually put ourselves first and others last, when we do everything in our power to get as much as we can for ourselves, piling up wealth, then we are really only piling up judgment for ourselves. 

Everyone is going to face the judgment seat of Christ, whether they are a believer or not.  Those who are believers, those who have their names written in the Lamb's book of life,  have already been forgiven for their sins, and will be facing Christ to give account of what they have done with their lives, with the gifts they have been given.  Those who are not believers, whose names are not written in the Book of Life, will be cast into the lake of eternal fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

Just as the people of Israel and Judah were warned  time and time again, so we are being warned even today through the words of the bible.