JAMES 2:1 - 13

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007

RICH MAN, POOR MAN. JAMES EXPLAINS IT. WHAT A RELIEF.

1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:1 - 13 (NKJV)

A NOTE FROM RON - Most of the time I choose--at random--passages from Scripture without a particular reason. There are times when I feel that God has led me to choose a passage needed by someone who might use these devotions. Occasionally, I like to do a series that covers every verse of a Book of the Bible so that the devotions can also be used as an aid in Bible Study. Recently I did such a series on the First Epistle of John. These can be found in the ARCHIVES of Prayer and Devotions. I like to choose Books of the Bible that are less often read and/or studied. This is the fifth devotion of a series on the Book of James. It is my hope that these words may be an instrument of God in helping you to draw nearer to Him.

The question of how we should relate to the rich man or the poor man is often troublesome. James speaks to this when he points out that is is wrong to show partiality and judge unfairly. As I understand this, the partiality that we show is when we judge according to the world instead of according to the way of God.

In this case, the rich man was the one who found ways to take away all that the poor man had and do it legally through the system of law. In addition, the rich man had much that the host hoped to gain by being gracious to the rich man. On the other hand, the poor man had nothing to offer because the rich man had taken it away, except for one thing.

That one thing is what the host should have based his judgment. That one thing is faith in God. That faith was offered, was accepted by the poor man, but rejected by the rich man. The rich man thought he had everything, and what he didn’t have, he had he power to take it away from someone else. Therefore the rich man did not need to be concerned about God or what God had to offer. On the other hand, the poor man had nothing except that faith, and James states that because he had that faith, he was the richer of the two men, and the host should have shown just as much hospitality to the poor man.

We must be careful here because today there are many people of wealth who are also people of faith. There are people of wealth who as a result of their faith bring hope and help to those who have great needs and do this not for their own glory but for the Glory of God. In other words, they follow the command of God to love their neighbor.

This is James explanation.

The rich man takes away from his neighbor and violates the command of God.

The poor man gives to his neighbor and keeps the command of God.

We must look beyond wealth or poverty, and look for faith or lack of faith, for where we see faith, we see the real rich man, and where we see no faith, we see the real poor man.

WE PRAY - LORD, help me to look beyond the things of the world so I can see the things of faith in others. At the same time, help me to live my life so that the first thing that others see when they look at me is the God that Loves me. AMEN

A SUGGESTION FOR LIVING THE DEVOTION

The next time You make a first impression judgment about some one, ask yourself: on what did you base that decision, and why?