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.