James 2:1-7...What more do we learn about God?...sermon post


James is giving us a lesson about how we are to respond by showing us what God is like.  

Previously we looked at the command for the Christian not to say when tempted, "I am being tempted by God" (1.13).  As a Christian we cannot say this because God cannot be tempted with evil because He is holy and secondly, because God tempts no one, rather He provides the way of escape from temptation.

James addresses another issue this week about what the Christian is not to do.  The Christian cannot hold in one hand the practice of showing partiality toward others while holding in the other hand a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (2.1).  Why not?  The answer provided by James is another look at our God.

God is impartial when it comes to salvation - Jew or Greek.

God is impartial when it comes to judgment - you reap what you sow.

God is impartial when it comes to social standing - rich or poor.

God is impartial when it comes to discipline - no loophole for sin.

Since God is impartial, we who are His children are to be impartial.  James heightens the command with an illustration that takes us to our "home turf," the assembly of the church body.  What is going on when different people, rich or poor, enter our assembly?  Do we treat them differently (partiality) because of their outward appearance?  The odd man out in James' illustration is the poor man in shabby clothing.  Hence we learn another thing about our God.

Christ (God) loves His bride whether physically rich or physically poor and He has made provisions for the physically poor through the actions of His children.  An action of the Christian is to see the poor (physically or otherwise) around themselves and reach out to them appropriately.

Jesus offers the rich young ruler to follow Him and instructs him to give what he has to the poor.  Zacchaeus, down from the sycamore tree and following Jesus, offers half of what he has to the poor.  Judas Iscariot criticizes the use of the oil poured on Jesus' feet because it could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  This last example gives you a little glimpse of what did happen with the money in Jesus' ministry purse even though we learn that Judas Iscariot was embezzling off the top.  

This sermon bleeds into the next one but it amazes me how straightforward James is as he speaks through this letter, read as a sermon, to the 1st century Christians who were mainly Jewish.  This type of partiality is wrong.  In this section he calls it "dishonoring" the one being looked down upon and in the next section he calls it "sin."

I finish with the questions of:  What do I see? or Who do I see?  If it is "What do I see?" then I am looking at the other with my physical eyes.  If it is "Who do I see?" then I am looking at the other with my spiritual eyes.  I am afraid we make judgments on what we see and therefore not get to know who God has brought before us.  It is more than just a "you lose" mentality because you allowed your judgment of the outward appearance to hinder the opportunity to see what God might do through the interaction (I have always found the benefit goes both ways).  James says this type of action of the Christian and church body is flat out wrong.  (And to think he is only in the bull pen getting warmed up!)

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more