v1
'My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality'
It made us think of Acts 10:34,35:
'In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.'
Because if God doesn't show partiality to us - accepting us no matter what we are or where we come from, so long as we really believe in Him and are trying our best to follow Him - then who are we to discriminate between people because of the way they look or their background?! God and Jesus are the only two who can see someone's heart, and that's surely more important than good clothes.
Whilst looking at this, we agreed that if the shabby guy came to a lecture and then started kicking up a fuss and we had to ask him to leave, then that's obviously not discrimination, it's rational (so long as we would behave the same way towards the rich guy too).
v6,7
'Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?'
Our instinctive reaction is 'well, it's not only the rich!' But really, it kinda is (remembering that, as always, there are exceptions to the 'rule'). In our country not many people want to know about God, our campaigns often seem to fall flat, or there's few responses. But at the Intercity we were looking at the CBM work in Africa, and the response they are getting there is immense! Their problem before (like in the olden days, they were known as the 'heathens' by Christian countries) was that they hadn't had the opportunity to hear the Truth.
The beatitudes, in Matt 5, seem also to be aimed at people in poorer situations (though there are deeper meanings too, if you keep digging for them).
'Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled...'
Also if look at James 1:9,10,
'Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.'
A rich person has to realise that in the grand scheme of things, his riches are worthless, and they can't save him from death or any other thing. God is his only hope.
Proverbs 16:19
'Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.'
That kind of roughly equates rich with proud, poor with humble - which in reality is the natural progression of both - that's the way temptation leads us to.
We wandered off briefly onto how God has put everyone into a situation they are able to cope with (1 Cor 10:13, look it up =D ) so WOW for all the people we've been hearing about recently - Africa, Russia, etc...
v19
'You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!'
So who are the demons?
Strong's word is 'devil or god' and the same word as all the 'demons' Jesus cast out of people to heal them, during his ministry. But Exodus 4:11
'So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?'
So it's God who causes/controls illnesses - not little mystical floaty demon things that live inside people. But it still says demon. So we looked at a few things.
- We took a peek at Harry Whittaker's 'The Very Devil', and to try and quickly summarise the two chapters he dedicated to demons, he reckons they're angels of evil (like the angel of death at the Passover - a messenger God uses to bring about bad things, not something that is actually evil in itself). Jesus spoke and had authority of the demons in his ministry, telling them to leave ill people, and they obeyed! So if the messengers of God obeyed Jesus, how much more should we?!
- Remember Felix? How he heard what Paul had to say, trembled, and then sent Paul out from his presence and forgot. (Acts 24:25). Perhaps James' point is that just believing isn't enough - we can't just hear, get a bit scared and believe, then do nothing to change yourself - we have to act on that belief. Which fits into the context of the verses around: '24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.'
Which brings us nicely onto that section about faith without works being dead - pointless, worthless and not faith. Romans 4 talks sort of the same subject (go read it for yourself) but doesn't talk so much about works. So why? Wouldn't it be a contradiction if one said all you need is faith and the other said you HAVE to have works? Well... no, because the whole point of what James is saying is that it isn't actually real faith if it doesn't drive you to doing something. So if we read the Bible, and believe it's true, that's not the whole story. BECAUSE you believe it's true, you should be reading all it says and thinking 'oo, that means I should be making changes to my life, and putting effort into doing the sorts of things that God wants me to do'. If you believe in God, the real God, then you know that He is the one with authority to not let you into the Kingdom, He's the one who says in the Bible all that He wants you to do with your life. And that doesn't involve sitting around doing nowt. We also have to remember at the same time, that it isn't ticky boxes - it's not ONLY the works God wants to see. You need to have the correct motive for doing the right things.
This took our wee thought train to 1 Corinthians 3, where it talks about all the different things 'built' by believers. And we reckon it ISN'T that the gold is better than the straw, but that we all have different levels of ability, and that what's important is that these 'buildings' are our best efforts. AND they're ALL built on the foundation of Christ, which is the most important thing of all.
There you go =) I'm not sure if I explained it all as well as I could've, so if there are confusing bits let me know in a comment =)
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