James 2:5-7 – “Abased and Abounding”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen for Himself the very poor ones to the world [to be] rich ones in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to ones loving Him? ⁶But you, you have dishonored the very poor one. Are not the rich ones oppressing you and they, they are dragging you into court? ⁷They, are not they blaspheming the beautiful Name, the one by which you [are] called ones?

I’m still marveling at this matter of spiritual vision and how greatly we err without it. By depending on our own physical sight and darkened judgment we end up valuing the worthless and despising the good.

Again (and contrary to my earlier cursory impressions), while this whole matter of the unjust usher may seem trivial, James is exposing it as heinous. The underlying sins go far beyond the prejudiced seating of a man in church one morning. This valuing of things without spiritual judgment is precisely the sin that destroys the world -- the very sin that makes it hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. It is this sin that allows for oppression in our world and even leads to blasphemy. Not to “see things as they are” is obviously a very dangerous business.

Speaking of the Pharisees, Jesus said, “Everything they do is done for men to see” (Matt 23:5). Still to this day, even believers fall for their ruse when we allow our hearts to be impressed with outward appearances, rather than allowing the Lord to give us spiritual discernment. Congregations select leaders based on glitter rather than godliness, then suffer under their godless leadership.

God help us!  I would cry again with Bartimaeus, “Rabbi, I want to see!”

I think this business of values is the larger point of this entire passage, but, while I’m here and because the Lord does touch on the subject, I particularly want to think about this matter of rich and poor. Back in chapter 1 the Lord helped me to see how that wealth really is like a loaded gun – potentially a very useful tool but a very dangerous one at that.

Here we find this great enigma, that God “has chosen the poor to be rich in faith.” On the one hand, we certainly don’t think of the poor as being rich! Everyone buys a lottery ticket believing that somehow wealth will make them happy. But on the other hand, in our more sentimental moments, we do concede that there are advantages to being poor. Even in secular thinking, once in a while we have to acknowledge that poor people are spared a great deal of anxiety, that they live much “simpler” lives, that their homes may be filled with love, while the homes of the rich are filled with strife and bitterness, etc. We watch the rich and beautiful get richer and richer until they commit suicide, while the poor get up in the morning and go back to work … again.

I think what we’re seeing is just the tip of the spiritual iceberg (which remains largely out of our sight). God says the poor are the ones He has chosen to be “rich in faith, and as we would ponder the matter, it is, of course obvious why this is true. As F.B. Meyer said, “The rich man may trust Him; but the poor man must.”

As it says in Proverbs, “a rich man’s wealth is his fortified city,” … or at least that is what he thinks. Wealth projects the illusion of shelter. The rich man imagines in his heart he doesn’t need God. He can “take care of himself.” The poor man harbors no such illusions. The beautiful girl doesn’t think she needs God to find her a husband. The brilliant student doesn’t think he needs God to help him pass the test. The gifted athlete doesn’t think he needs God to help him win the race. Then there’s the rest of us. We learn early to pray hard! It’s not difficult to see how our “poverty” (whether it’s financial or otherwise) actually inclines our hearts toward faith.

Probably part of the problem is that there is an element of truth in the rich man’s delusions. Wealth can in many ways shield a person from discomfort and suffering.

Another way that “poverty” helps us arises from the very fact that we often can’t shelter ourselves from discomfort and suffering. There may be a lot of things we “need” but simply have to do without because we cannot afford them. We may suffer a great deal of discomfort and pain, knowing there is a “way out” but also knowing it is simply “out of our reach.” But knowing the pain of “doing without” actually makes us more compassionate to others who suffer. It is often the case that the sheltered rich come up sadly short of mercy. They don’t know how much it hurts to do without and they find no room in their hearts for pity. It has always been true that the most generous people in the world are usually the poorest. The “shelter” of wealth no doubts feeds the possibility of the wealthy’s heartless oppression.

There is one more way I’d like to note that poverty emerges to our advantage. Wealth in many ways provides an opportunity for wickedness. Someone once said, “Many have the will, but lack the power.” Poverty in any form will put various wickednesses out of our reach. I’ve said for years it was a great advantage to me as a young man to always have to be careful with my money. There were a lot of things I never did, never tried, mainly because I simply didn’t want to spend the money! We probably don’t realize how gracious the Lord is for keeping a great deal of temptation simply out of our reach. If we could have it, we might just take it. But it is actually a mercy that I simply cannot. Once again, wealth opens the door. That is of course why so many celebrities self-destruct. It’s because they can. It’s probably why it is almost impossible for a child-star to grow up and not completely self-destruct. They do because they can. It’s been said by the wise we should thank the Lord both for what He gives and what He withholds!

Having said all of this, of course we all know that poverty doesn’t guarantee faith. But it is equally true that wealth does hinder it. Spiritual vision would allow us to see that much of what this world calls wealth is not nearly as important as we think. In fact, we need to learn to value the more important things, love, joy, and peace, and then let the Lord teach us to be content “whether we are abased or abound.”

What greater wealth could there be than to be chosen by God, made heirs of His kingdom, and to be numbered among those who love Him? Those are the riches of faith. We certainly need to thank the Lord not only for what He provides but also what He withholds. I’m so glad He is wise. And I’m glad He is teaching me to be content in His wisdom. May He find me a willing student.

James 2:5-7 – “Seeing”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen for Himself the very poor ones to the world [to be] rich ones in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to ones loving Him? ⁶But you, you have dishonored the very poor one. Are not the rich ones oppressing you and they, they are dragging you into court? ⁷They, are not they blaspheming the beautiful Name, the one by which you [are] called ones?

Verse 5 brings us particularly back to 1:9-11 and the subject of rich and poor. Even back there, the problem was that “things are not as they appear.” We were told that the poor man should make much of his high position, while the rich man should make much of his low position, both of which fly completely contrary to our natural thinking. He just accosted us for being judges with evil thoughts, which I considered in my last post as being a problem of spiritual myopia – judging by appearances rather than seeing the world through God’s eyes.

One of the things Jesus reproved the Laodiceans for was “You do not realize you are blind” (Rev 3:17). He of course often, quoting from the Old Testament, reproved the Pharisees and the Jewish people for this very problem, “Blind guides! … You will be ever seeing but never perceiving … This people have closed their eyes … Do you have eyes but fail to see?” We can lament the Jewish people’s blindness but, alas, this passage in James would call each of us to examine our own hearts.

With the unjust usher, we conclude that the rich man is “better” than the poor man, seeing the “gold rings” and the “magnificent robe,” and comparing them to the “filthy garments.” But things are not as they appear. James calls us to see with God’s eyes, not ours. What does God see? He sees the poor as most often those 1. Whom God has chosen for Himself, 2. Who are rich in faith, 3. Who are heirs of the Kingdom, and 4. Who are “those loving Him.” The man with the gold rings and magnificent clothes is most often one oppressing others, dragging people into court, and blaspheming the Lord.

Because we don’t “see” what God sees, we end up honoring the man who blasphemes God and dishonoring the one who was “rich in faith.” Yikes! And in church at that!!

I guess what my own heart is marveling over is our need to see with God’s eyes, no matter what we’re doing. Because of our lustful hearts, we are easily moved to value the worthless and despise the best. Wealth, beauty, position, power all easily incline themselves to the spirit of this world. But that same spirit is at enmity with God! Here is one of those places where we need to learn to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Cor 4:18).

We need so much to see with God’s eyes, not ours. That is another way of seeing the unjust usher’s problem – he is trying to do God’s work without God’s eyes. Even involved in a church ministry, this man ends up honoring those God dishonors and dishonoring those God honors! And that all because he’s seeing the world through the eyes of his own twisted heart, rather than letting Jesus give him spiritual eyes to see what really matters.

I can’t be too hard on the man because I know him too well. I fear too, too much of my life I’ve been seeing with my eyes, not God’s. I’ve tried to do His work without His eyes.

I want to ponder more this whole matter of rich/poor but for now I just want to acknowledge that I think this is the most important point to take from this passage – to see with God’s eyes. I have been sincerely trying to learn to stay “God-connected” in everything I do. This is just one more way of seeing the task – keeping His values in front of me so I see things His way.

God deliver us from our awful blindness. Help us to know Your heart, to see our world and especially the people in it through Your eyes.

Reminds me of poor blind Bartimaeus, sitting by the road, crying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man replied, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Rabbi, I want to see.

James 2:1-4 – “Deeper”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹My brothers, do not with favoritisms have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²For if a man having rings of gold on his fingers should come into your synagogue in a magnificent robe and a very poor one should also come in a filthy robe ³and you should look upon the one wearing the magnificent robe and say, “You sit here excellently,” and say to the very poor one, “You stand there or sit under my footstool,” ⁴are you not distinguishing among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Okay, I have noted that this entire passage is set in the contrast to the glory of Christ and also that we should remember that whatever is said is part of James’ larger admonition to “keep ourselves unspotted by the world.”  So now I want to ponder what it is he’s saying.

The problem before us is presented as being a “respecter of persons” or “playing favorites” or “showing partialities.” As I noted before, such behavior is completely logically inconsistent with an awareness of the glory of Christ. The illustration we’re given is the unjust usher who gives a good seat to the rich man then makes the poor man sit on the floor. We’re told that doing so makes us “judges with evil thoughts.”

So what exactly is the problem here? First of all, I think we need to ponder what it is not. It is clearly not a problem that we should never show respect to people or “make distinctions” based on their position or statures of any kind. In the larger picture of life, that is exactly something we should do!

“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the king” (I Peter 2:17).

“Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:7).

“Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:32).

“Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Eph 5:33).

Clearly, the problem with being a “respecter of persons” is not a problem of showing respect to persons! And it is not a problem of “making distinctions.” That is exactly what wisdom allows us to do. Jesus Himself warned us not “to cast our pearls before swine,” which admonition presumes we figure out who the swine are! Clearly in the passages above, we do distinguish who is the king, who are the elderly, who is our spouse, and we are to “show proper respect to everyone.”

So what is the problem then? I would suggest we find it in the words, “Are you not become judges with evil thoughts?” The whole point of a judge has always been to make distinctions, to sort out who is and who isn’t, who’s right and who’s wrong, and then to render judgments based on those distinctions. When does he become an evil judge? When he makes decisions not properly based on those distinctions. If a judge rules in a man’s favor simply because he’s rich, we say that is unfair. It’s wrong. If another judge rules in favor of a poor man simply out of sympathy for his poverty, that is equally wrong. If a boss grants special favors to a girl in the office just because she’s pretty, we all know that’s wrong. If someone votes for a man simply because he’s handsome, we’re all disgusted. If a City awards a contract to a company just because they’re their buddies, we call that corrupt.

But what do every one of these examples have in common? In every case, we’re making distinctions, making decisions based on something other than the pertinent facts. If the rich man is guilty, he should be convicted. If the pretty girl doesn’t work hard, she has no right to favors. If the man is a crook, no one should vote for him even if he looks like Cary Grant. And contracts should be awarded to people who really do good work. In every case, the “judge” is basing their decision on “evil thoughts,” on standards that are not appropriate.

Such is the case in James’ example. The usher makes decisions on where to seat people totally on their outward appearance. I will take this one step further and note that these thoughts are not just inappropriate, they’re evil. God doesn’t just call them inappropriate. He calls them evil. Back in Lev 19:15, the Lord told us, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” And Jesus admonished us, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24).

Why do we do this? Why are we humans so prone to “judge by mere appearances?” Once again, I think we have to go deep. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, … All these evil things come from within” (Mark 7:21-23). The problem goes back to the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of life – our love of pleasures, possessions, and applause. Peter told us God gave us His great and precious promises “that we may escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (II Peter 1:4). When we don’t allow the Lord to guide our hearts, we surrender ourselves to be controlled by our twisted “wanter.” We’re drawn to that which appeals to us, perhaps not even realizing our “wanter” is broken. Even when it values good things, it will value them for the wrong reasons. And the end result will be poor judgment. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer 17:9).

We could just read all of this legalistically and say, “Oh. Favoritism is bad. I shouldn’t do it.” I would suggest it would help us far more to say to ourselves, if I catch myself playing favorites, showing partiality, making unjust judgments, it reveals the truth that I am not allowing the Lord to control my heart. Again, His Word is given in part specifically to help me “escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.” If I’m not escaping, I’m not letting the Word, His Spirit guide my heart. And I can say on my own, “That’s bad!” I don’t want to be living by my broken wanter. I want the Lord to guide my heart so I live a life of love and walk according to truth. An instance of “favoritism” alerts me I need to draw back to the Lord, cry out for His help, and by His Spirit, rise above who I am.

Such is what the Lord has shown me so far in James 2. As I said when I started on this passage, I’ve always found it “boring” because it seemed so petty and obvious. As always studying the Bible, when I slow down to study, what I find is that it all goes way, way deeper than I could have realized. I also find it way more helpful than I could have realized. A cursory reading simply gives a rule, “Don’t play favorites.” But the truth of the passage is way more helpful than that. It’s giving me one more way to “guard my heart,” one more red flag to help me see when I’ve gotten off track.

I love the Word. “And when you know the truth, the truth shall make you free. … For the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, … and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart!”

James 2:1-4 – “Frying Fish”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹My brothers, do not with favoritisms have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²For if a man having rings of gold on his fingers should come into your synagogue in a magnificent robe and a very poor one should also come in a filthy robe ³and you should look upon the one wearing the magnificent robe and say, “You sit here excellently,” and say to the very poor one, “You stand there or sit under my footstool,” ⁴are you not distinguishing among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

It’s interesting to me, again, that James launches this discussion in view of the glory of Christ. And right beside it, another thing I think worthy of exegetical note is that this discussion follows immediately after his admonition that we should concern ourselves with true religion and “keep ourselves unspotted by the world” (1:27).

If you heard that admonition from a pulpit, “Keep yourself unspotted by the world!” what would you immediately think of? Would you immediately say, “Oh my, I really need to watch that I’m not playing favorites with people!” Would your mind immediately go to the glory of Christ and how that affects your attitudes toward other people?

Yeah, me neither. It is so easy to take “unspotted by the world” and run with the million petty rules we’ve erected in our hearts and called them “religion.” “I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t run with girls that do.” But the two great commands are to love God and love people. I would suggest when we hear “unspotted by the world,” that is where our minds should go first – am I loving God (seeing my world in the glory of Christ) and loving people? To be “spotted by the world” isn’t first a problem of whether I “break the rules.” It is in whatever way allowing the lust of my flesh, or the lust of my eyes, or my love of applause draw my gaze away from Christ and move me to do anything less than love the people God puts around me.

It never ceases to amaze me how seeing the world through God’s eyes means dealing with issues so much deeper, so much more profound, and so much more significant than what my fallen heart naturally wants to be concerned with. It is so much easier to make up our own rules and concern ourselves with issues like how many times a week I go to church, whether or not I drink alcohol or use tobacco, which Bible translation I carry, which political issue I’m fussing about this week, etc. Those all so easily become issues of monumental importance while the Lord sits on His throne off to the side and says, “That’s all well and good, but do you love Me? Do you love people?”

I would suggest that one thing this passage should teach us, if we have eyes to see it, is that the Lord has far bigger fish to fry than we naturally think. I think this passage itself should teach us we need His eyes to see what is important in this world, that we need Him to lift up our eyes and see the real issues, that without Him, we are doomed to spend our hearts gathering straws in a life surrounded with gold. May the glory of Christ and living His love to people be the gold we prize.

James 2:1-4 – “Glorious”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹My brothers, do not with favoritisms have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²For if a man having rings of gold on his fingers should come into your synagogue in a magnificent robe and a very poor one should also come in a filthy robe ³and you should look upon the one wearing the magnificent robe and say, “You sit here excellently,” and say to the very poor one, “You stand there or sit under my footstool,” ⁴are you not distinguishing among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Well, I’m back. Took a break for a while to do some OT study in the book of Ruth. Will study a chapter or two of James and then go back to Ruth, Lord willing. Studying the Bible is like buying several hundred acres of land to mine for gold, then discovering it doesn’t matter where you dig – there’s gold everywhere!

God’s Word utterly amazes me. For nearly 35 years, I have been reading it from cover to cover and studying one book or passage after another. There isn’t a nook or cranny anywhere with which I’m not familiar. Yet when I slow down to study any particular book or passage, the Lord just floors me with truths that rock my world. He promised that when I knew the truth, the truth would set me free. And so it does. Week after week after week He shows me truth that explains life, why things are the way they are, what is truly good and best. Again and again, His truth dispels some aspect of the fog of confusion I live in and reveals to me my petty selfishnesses that ruin my life. But He doesn’t do any of it in a way that like “beats me down.” It’s always in a way that totally lifts me up. He’s so awesome.

“More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.

More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus …”

Such is the case before me. This is another passage that I would have said is not one of my “favorites.” It’s James 2 and the whole thing about being “respecters of persons.” I don’t know why but way down deep in my heart I always found the passage kind of boring. It’s the story of the usher who’s impressed with the rich man and gives him a good seat, then despises the poor man and makes him sit on the floor. I don’t know if it’s the pettiness that bothered me or maybe it’s just so obviously wrong, it didn’t even seem to need explaining? I don’t know. But, here I sit, again, having been studying down through verse 4 for a couple of weeks, and I’m just floored. What a treasure chest – of course! I will try to enumerate some of the treasures I’ve found.

The greatest treasure of all, of course, is Jesus Himself, and we meet Him right away in verse 1. Even the Greek itself is a little unusual and causes one to pause and ponder. It calls Him “our Lord Jesus Christ” then adds something like “of the glory” or simply “the Glory” or perhaps “the glorious One.” So it might be translated, “our Lord Jesus Christ of the glory,” or “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory,” or perhaps “our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious One.” I chose to translate it, “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the point, I think, however one translates it – He is glorious!

But then note what the Lord has done here. He sets this glorious Christ in direct contrast to the problem of favoritism. “Have not the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism.” His point is that, in the light of the glory of Christ, it doesn’t even make sense to be playing favorites with people. In the light of His face we are all in the same boat. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Like the old saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” Rich and poor meet alike at the foot of His Cross. But then it isn’t even just in our sinfulness that we are all the same in His eyes. We all have been made in the image of God. In the light of His glory all human beings have dignity and deserve to be treated with respect. All believers are counted His children, all are loved.

In the light of His glory, who could say to a poor man, “You sit here on the floor?” It just doesn’t make sense.

For myself, I would suggest that therein lies our problem: “In the light of His glory.” What that means is that we must be seeing the world “in the light of His glory.” It is a choice we must make to be living in His presence, aware of His presence, aware of that glory, seeing the world through His eyes. It is a choice we must make. And for me it is something I easily forget. When we are not living in the light of His face, we are left to measure others by whatever standards our minds may concoct, and those fabricated standards invariably lead us into a very faulty view of others. We are then too much like our father the devil, murderers from the beginning, and too prone to value our world through the lens of the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes, and our love of applause. That is precisely why we would offer the rich man “the best seat” and make the poor man sit on the floor – without the glory of Christ, we live driven by our lusts, by what appeals to our twisted desires.

The only escape – and a glorious one at that – is to live in the light of that Glory.

I am finding in my life that “doing right” is not so much something I must focus on any more. Instead, I must stay “God-connected,” I must “practice His presence,” and constantly strive to see the world through His eyes as I live in His presence. If I can keep myself mentally in His presence, then I find the “doing right” is much easier, much more natural, and hopefully I can practice it in ways that bring Him glory, whether I realize it or not.

Back to verse 1, I think that is exactly James’ point, that favoritism is simply and logically inconsistent with having the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus. It is quite possible to be a person of faith and yet live inconsistently. But the answer, I would suggest, is not so much to say to ourselves, “I must quit playing favorites,” but rather, “I must live more in the awareness of the glory of Christ.”

Isn’t it interesting that here in one simple little verse James would remind us that the foundation of true religion is “the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” – that to be enamored with Jesus is the foundation of true religion?

“Let us run with endurance

the race that is marked out for us,

having our gaze fixed upon

Jesus,

the Author and Finisher of our faith, …”

(Heb 12:1,2).