My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim that you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people more than others? ~ James 2:1 (NLT, 1st Edition)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here is the fuller context...
My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ~ James 2:1-4 (NLT, 2nd Edition)
I struggle with judging others. I mean, in my heart, I desire to love all people, to treat them fairly, to not judge others by outward appearances...but I do it -- all the time. My eye sees, and my heart judges...what people wear, how they do their hair, if they are overweight or even underweight, what their cars or yards look like, how their kids behave, and on and on it goes. It comes on in an instant, and if I'm not savvy as to what's going on within me, before I can blink an eye, I've judged them and belittled them in my heart! As Paul says in Romans 7:23-24..."What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
But James takes judgment one step further to the sin of showing favoritism. That's like double the trouble, putting one person down and heaping that insult on them by showing to favoritism to someone else, right in front of them!
You know, the "beautiful people" of the world are shown favor all the time. It's really a sad thing to me, but it's everywhere, and I can't say I'm immune to it. I never see a homely, slovenly sales person come into my job. No, they're attractive, well-dressed and charming! People naturally gravitate to those who are handsome, chic, "presentable". Those with bad grooming habits, shabby clothes, and poor grammar, don't go very far in the business world, or most any other world we circle in. We disregard them, and focus our attention on those who "have it all together". Oh Lord, forgive us...
James goes on to say this...
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
~ James 2:5-7 (NLT, 2nd Edition)
Sometimes people show favoritism to the rich and the beautiful because they just want to schmooze with them to make themselves feel important. Sometimes it's because they want to "get in good" with those who can give them something they don't have. Either way, God says that will most likely backfire on you, and you'll be the one that's taken advantage of!
Faith, or finances...which do we favor? Don't think you or others in your church body have a problem with this? Hmm. I wonder what you might think if you just stood back and observed your church lobby on a Sunday morning before services. Watch how people treat the well-dressed versus the not-so-well-dressed, the Suit versus the Shabby. Or how about the Affluent versus the Alternative? We see the package and we make our judgments. And then we often behave in a manner that says we like one better than the other. We'll shake the hand and smile at the "chosen one", while ignoring the "shunned one". Oh Lord, forgive us...
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. ~ 1 Samuel 16:7b
"All that glitters is not gold", so the saying goes. We can be hypnotized by the sparkle, but it can leave us grasping after fool's gold. I pray that we would be willing to allow God to strike from our spirits the sin of judgment and favoritism, to give us eyes to see people the way God sees them, and to honor faith and love for God over all the glitz and glam of this world.
Love,
Joelene
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Joelene,
We pulled into McDonalds last week, my kids said, "Dad, look - those guys look like gangsters"
I looked, and sure enough, oversized clothes, hats on sideways. For some reason I said, "Things aren't always what they seem"
Both my kids heads snapped around.
"What?"
"Appearances can be deceiving, don't judge a book by it's cover."
"What does that mean?"
"Just because they dress that way doesn't mean that is what they are, look them in the eye and say hello if you make eye contact."
I don't know why I did this. I could have just as easily said, "You are right they do look like gangsters, you wouldn't dress like that would you?" But it struck me wrong that they had made that judgement.
We try to teach it is the content of character or what is in your heart that is important.
Thank you for the lesson.
Thanks, Dave, for sharing your story! You may not know why you said what you did, but I do. That was God speaking His heart and His truth to your kids through you. I'm so glad you listened to God's voice -- what a great teaching moment, not only for your kids, but you and all you share the story with!
Post a Comment