James 2. Partiality is sin
James 2
Henri J. M. Nouwen
"When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."
Sometimes too preaching can be empty if it is not without Christ and His Spirit, and I too can id with that one as the preacher now and then.
Source: Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
" If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice." ST John Chrysostom
James was writing to the Jews who had become Christians. 1:1 " to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion..." They were being treated terribly because of their new faith, & lost jobs, and now were poor . They were tempted to renounce their new Saviour.
1. Not with partiality, outward looking at people only, hold the faith of the Lord of glory. " respect of persons" " personal favoritism."
How about those in our community, in jail, using drugs, addicted to something such as ....you fill in the blank. If we were honest with ourselves and looked in the mirror that James talks about we would see we are not without sin in this issue. We have our circle and that is not too wide as we are basically judging without love here in many instances. I put myself in this group too, but all need Christ..and without Him there is no life...
In Deut 1:17 , " Ye shall not respect persons in judgment: ye shall hear the small and the great alike..."
Who is rich James asks? " those rich in faith" vs 5 God chose them he says .
"I sin — Grant that I may
never cease grieving because of it,
never be content with myself,
never think I can reach a point of perfection.
Kill my envy, command my tongue,
trample down self."
—Valley of Vision
2. Instead James says to observe the "royal law". That is the law of the King and that is to "love your neighbor as yourself."
Of course as we said last week without the Spirit and faith in Christ for trust and salvation alone we can never do anything worthy. Only as the 39 articles reminded us " works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ ....not being done as God has willed and commanded them to be done...but have the nature of sin." Article 13, " Works before Justification."
Does this not make sense? If someone is not obeying God in their thinking because they never yielded their souls to Christ, then I would guess their good deeds would be more their good deeds for themselves than others.
As I have repeated several times, the Gospel is not" do this and live, but live and do this." ( this is clearly taught in Galatians and Romans)
"Nothing can tend so much to humble us before the mercy and justice of God as the consideration of His benefits and our own sins. Let us, then, consider what He has done for us, and what we have done against Him; let us call to mind our sins in detail, and His gracious benefits in like manner, remembering that whatever there is of good in us is not ours, but His, and then we need not be afraid of vainglory or of taking complacency in ourselves... "
~ St. Francis de Sales
How sad it is that well-meaning people can not see this point about works, faith, and partiality. Some are not well-meaning as we know, and are what the Bible calls "wolves in sheeps clothing". Teaching doctrine is so important, and if we do not use the Bible as our standard but the feelings and opinions of men, we will fall short of preaching the grace of Christ which alone can save us.
But we should do well to heed that our faith if it is real should be visible not only in our words but in our actions. That is what James says and there is not a contradiction here with the rest of the Bible.
Live and do this ! Amen.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
"When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."
Sometimes too preaching can be empty if it is not without Christ and His Spirit, and I too can id with that one as the preacher now and then.
Source: Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
" If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice." ST John Chrysostom
James was writing to the Jews who had become Christians. 1:1 " to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion..." They were being treated terribly because of their new faith, & lost jobs, and now were poor . They were tempted to renounce their new Saviour.
1. Not with partiality, outward looking at people only, hold the faith of the Lord of glory. " respect of persons" " personal favoritism."
How about those in our community, in jail, using drugs, addicted to something such as ....you fill in the blank. If we were honest with ourselves and looked in the mirror that James talks about we would see we are not without sin in this issue. We have our circle and that is not too wide as we are basically judging without love here in many instances. I put myself in this group too, but all need Christ..and without Him there is no life...
In Deut 1:17 , " Ye shall not respect persons in judgment: ye shall hear the small and the great alike..."
Who is rich James asks? " those rich in faith" vs 5 God chose them he says .
"I sin — Grant that I may
never cease grieving because of it,
never be content with myself,
never think I can reach a point of perfection.
Kill my envy, command my tongue,
trample down self."
—Valley of Vision
2. Instead James says to observe the "royal law". That is the law of the King and that is to "love your neighbor as yourself."
Of course as we said last week without the Spirit and faith in Christ for trust and salvation alone we can never do anything worthy. Only as the 39 articles reminded us " works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ ....not being done as God has willed and commanded them to be done...but have the nature of sin." Article 13, " Works before Justification."
Does this not make sense? If someone is not obeying God in their thinking because they never yielded their souls to Christ, then I would guess their good deeds would be more their good deeds for themselves than others.
As I have repeated several times, the Gospel is not" do this and live, but live and do this." ( this is clearly taught in Galatians and Romans)
"Nothing can tend so much to humble us before the mercy and justice of God as the consideration of His benefits and our own sins. Let us, then, consider what He has done for us, and what we have done against Him; let us call to mind our sins in detail, and His gracious benefits in like manner, remembering that whatever there is of good in us is not ours, but His, and then we need not be afraid of vainglory or of taking complacency in ourselves... "
~ St. Francis de Sales
How sad it is that well-meaning people can not see this point about works, faith, and partiality. Some are not well-meaning as we know, and are what the Bible calls "wolves in sheeps clothing". Teaching doctrine is so important, and if we do not use the Bible as our standard but the feelings and opinions of men, we will fall short of preaching the grace of Christ which alone can save us.
But we should do well to heed that our faith if it is real should be visible not only in our words but in our actions. That is what James says and there is not a contradiction here with the rest of the Bible.
Live and do this ! Amen.
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