1:9-11 How can the rich rejoice by being humiliated?
1:9-11 How can the rich rejoice by being humiliated?
Being made low, which means having to undergo spiritual abasement or humiliation, leads the rich to perceive and lament their moral guilt. The same grace that exalts the lowly humbles the rich. Both are cause for rejoicing.
The rich can rejoice in new values because they realize that earthly riches are only temporary as opposed to the eternal benefits of the true riches of God's grace (CP Jer 9:23-24 with He 10:34). The rich no longer see themselves as being rich, but merely stewards of that which is God's (CP 1Chr 29:10-16; Ro 11:36).
The rich who cannot be made low will be destroyed. Fade away in Jas 1:11 refers to the certain destruction of those who are rich only in temporal things (CP Job 15:29-31; 20:28; 27:16-17; Psa 49:1-20 with Lu 6:20-25; 1Ti 6:9-10; Rev 3:15-18).
See also comments on Mt 6:24, 19:23-26, Lu 12:16-21, 12:33-34, 16:19-31, 1Cor 10:14-22, 2Cor 12:14, 1Ti 6:6-10.