Digging Deeper James 2:1-7

Points to Ponder

James 2:1-7 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

Points to ponder:
Show no partiality. As I think about the 21st century version of this it might not be a poor man/rich man. It might be a youth vs. older person. Imagine into your church on Sunday morning walks a young couple with two small children. Each is dressed very nicely with clean cut haircuts, and modest attire. They are pleasant and their children are well behaved. Shortly after them comes in a couple of young people dressed in jeans (complete with holes), tee shirts with skull and crossbones, flip flops, long hair or shaved heads, gauges in their ears, and tattoos on their arms. What is your immediate inward response?

Don't we have a natural inclination toward the people "more like us"? When I go to the mall on Friday evenings, there are dozens of kids dressed in all kinds of 'different' attire - A person can't help but notice.

Do we treat people differently because of where they come from, what family they belong to, how much money they have, how they dress, what church they are affiliated with, what kind of music they like... etc? How do we make distinctions between people and become judges of others? We need to be ever so mindful that God doesn't make those distinctions. We tend to judge by what we see on the outside and maybe because of that never get to know the person on the inside.

My son went through the black hair stage when he was in high school several years ago. That may not be that big of a deal to some people but my son was a redhead with freckles and fair skin. Black hair was just such a stark contrast. Every morning when he came downstairs before school, I had to brace myself to hold my tongue. He would say as he pointed to his chest, "It's still me in here, Mom" Going through that taught me a lot about judging people by their outward appearance as I'm sure others were doing to my own son. I haven't arrived, by any means, but I'm growing in that direction.

1 Samuel 16:7 For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

In reality, isn't judging others for their financial status, dress, ideas, etc., arrogance on our parts? We think we know what is best. Our way is the best way. That arrogance is a stench in the nostrils of God. I have heard and probably been guilty myself of criticism in the name of "what's right" but in reality it is just self righteousness; righteousness that is based on anything other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

O Lord, show me it in myself.

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is the Director of Addiction Recovery and Development at America's KESWICK. In addition to her Keswick responsibilities which keep her busy, she loves to read, write and teach, travel and laugh with her grandchildren. Diane has been married to her husband John over 26 years. She has 2 children, 3 grandchildren, 3 step-children, and 7 step-grandchildren.

UPCOMING EVENT
May is fast approaching and we will be hosting our 3rd annual Family Freedom Walk on Saturday, May 7th. You can help in two ways. 1. walk - call guest services to obtain a walk package, solicit sponsors and come to the walk. 2. (this is a fun one) Sponsor Victory Call for the walk. We are having a friendly competition between the 2 groups of devotional readers (Freedom Fighters and Victory Call). Our goal is to raise more funds by the Victory Call team than the men raise for the Freedom Fighter's team. Last year Victory Call subscribers raised $760.00 and Freedom Fighter’s subscribers raised $725.00. Victory Call WON! In reality, the Addiction Recovery ministries won because together we raised $48,968.65.

If you would like to join the fun, simply go to this link on our website https://01.secure.elexio.com/donations.aspx?id=366346&websiteurl=http://www.americaskeswick.org&siteid=2184 fill out the information and indicate in the "DESIGNATION" area : Family Freedom Walk: Victory Call or if you prefer make your check out to America's KESWICK and put in the memo line: FFW/Victory Call and mail to : America's KESWICK 601 Route 530 Whiting, NJ 08759. ALL DONATIONS MUST ARRIVE NO LATER THAN SATURDAY, MAY 7th at 2 PM in order to be counted for our TEAM. Come on ladies, we can do it!!!