Q: What is the irony which James points out?Ī: The earthly poor are “ rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” whereas the earthly rich are poor in both respects their positions are reversed spiritually. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. Q: What is the greater principle that James is trying to convey?Ī: Man may fixate on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.īut the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart.”
Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 7Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? Read verses 5-7 Q: Why do you suppose that James defines making such distinctions as evidence of “evil motives”?Ī: It reveals judgment as coming from someone whose heart is still fixed on the things of this world.Īpplication: Biblical faithfulness is characterized by a heart which no longer makes evaluations according to the world’s standards.ĥListen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6But you have dishonored the poor man. Christ’s standard of qualification is “ the poor in spirit”. Q: When such distinctions are made, what does it reveal about our personal spiritual condition?Ī: We become judges in God’s place, establishing a false standard by which we are deciding who is “in” or “out”. Although the difference between the earthly rich and poor is visibly distinguishable, the underlying spiritual reality could be exactly opposite. Q: What does James’ illustration reveal about the definition of personal favoritism?Ī: It is based on making the same kind of distinctions the world makes as to external appearances and physical attributes rather than seeing things on a spiritual level. Q: How does James provide his own personal example of defusing personal favoritism?Ī: He addresses them all as “ my brethren”, a reflection that we are all one family, equal children of the Father. Q: So what can threaten the quality of our faith?Ī: “… an attitude of personal favoritism”. James is speaking about the practical application of our Christianity in everyday life.
Q: What exactly does “do not hold your faith” mean?Ī: It means “do not practice”. 2For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Read verses 1-4 There is a scriptural tension we must keep in place between our obedience to the Law through the proper application of love.ġMy brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. In scriptural terms, faith cannot be intellectually isolated as a set of beliefs it must be proved from the heart by putting “the royal law” into practice. James establishes that our doctrine and theology – our notion of God’s Law – is proved by our personal application of Christ’s greatest commandment to love others. When we ask someone how they can prove the authenticity of their Christian faith, we are often met with theological definitions or doctrinal viewpoints. What James is often speaking to is our “faithfulness” or our faith as in our “Christianity” or spiritual walk. Whenever we see the word “faith” in Scripture, whether it is derived from the Hebrew or Greek, to properly understand the whole meaning we can always substitute the word “faithfulness”. Please read James 2:1-13 completely before beginning. This study comes from week 107 of the Reading Plan, James 1-2.