1 My brothers, as you hold out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism.

2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called?

REFLECTIONS

Written by Tim Mitry

This passage shows me that God does not measure people by worldly standards, like wealth, status, reputation or respectability. So then, why do we measure people by worldly standards?

I’m reminded that God regularly undermines people’s expectations. There are so many examples from the Bible, such as how God chose Israel to be his Holy, special people despite them being the smallest nation (Deuteronomy 7:7), or the humble birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul also talks about how God chooses to bring many people to faith who are of lowly and ordinary circumstances (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

This is a type of ‘upside-down’-ness in God’s kingdom that baffles the world. James reminds us in verse 5 that God chose the “the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him”. Now I’m not sure that we are guilty of doing what James says quite so blatantly in our church services – telling poor people they can’t sit down and giving rich people a special chair. But what goes on in our hearts when we see people who look respectable or unrespectable? If I didn’t share Jesus’ good news with people because of their appearance or social status, or if I only welcomed some types of people to church, I am convicted that I would be a “judge with evil thoughts” (verse 4).

Praise God that he is not like that with us! And pray that he will make our hearts more like his.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim is one of our Ministry Apprentices.