In our passage this week, James is addressing the dangers of wealth (not wealth itself). The greatest of these dangers is the pull wealth has to attempt to anchor us to this life — hence the title and theme of "Secular", or "this-worldly". James wants us, according to 1:26-27, to keep ourselves unstained by this world; one of the biggest ways we do this is by valuing the treasure of Jesus, and all the infinite treasures of the world to come, over the "treasures" of this world. The focus shift from Jesus to ourselves is not minor; it can not only be deathly in this life but also deathly for all of eternity.

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