James 5:1 says, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. I believe this refers to rich men who believe in their riches and not in God. They believe that their riches make them better than other people and that is all they are concerned with. If they do, one day when God's judgment comes, they will weep and howl in misery. I don't believe that being rich means a person cannot be saved, but if they put their riches above faith in Jesus Christ then one day they will be held accountable.
Verse two adds, Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. James said their riches were corrupted and their clothes were motheaten. Riches are corrupted when they are more important to someone than faith in God is, and no matter how fine one's garments may be, they will one day be nothing more than moth eaten rags. We cannot take our riches with us to heaven, so we shouldn't put our faith in them now.
Verse three continues, Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. James said that they had put their faith in things that would become corrupted and that one day they would eat their flesh as if it were fire. I don't believe that this means that rich people would literally eat their flesh in this lifetime, but that their flesh would be burned by the fire in hell.
Verse four continues, Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. James then said that those who had done the work and were cheated by the rich people, or their employers, would be heard by God, even if they weren't heard by their employers. As with the rich, I don't believe this means all poor people will be saved, but those who are will be heard by God when they cry out for justice.
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