James 2

James 2:1

If you knew that in ten minutes you would have a half-hour meeting with Donald Trump, would you comb your hair, brush your teeth, think about what you would say? What if you knew that in ten minutes you would meet with a homeless man? Would you expend the same kind of energy? This is what James is getting at. We’re all vulnerable; we’re all guilty of treating people differently, depending on how we view them outwardly. But almost without exception, the irony is that the people we try to impress the most are those who care about us the leastwhile the people who really would be open to receiving from us are those for whom we think we don’t have time. On the high-school campus, so often the goal is to see the quarterback or the head cheerleader saved. The real key, however, is to go for the kid who sits in the back of the cafeteria all alone, for he’s the one who is most often the one ready to listen. The same holds true where you work. We tend to get all excited about the people we highly esteem financially or professionally, economically or intellectually. But it’s the poor people who will be most responsive to the gospel and most welcoming of us. Because we so often waste our time trying to impress people who are impressed with themselves, we need to change our perspective. That is what James is championing. “Why is it,” he asks, “that when someone comes into your congregation who is dressed in fine clothes, who has a name, or who is esteemed highly, you give him the best seat in the house?” Oh, how we need to be aware of our own fleshly tendencies.

James 2:5

It would seem as though whenever certain wealthy people who weren’t part of the body made a guest appearance at church, they were ushered to the front and given the best seats. James, however, was not impressed.

James 2:10

James goes on to say it’s not only how we view others externally, but how we think about ourselves internally that matters. “Don’t you realize,” he asks, “that because the law is a single unit, if you say you’ve never committed adultery, yet you’ve murdered someone, you’re guilty of adultery, too?” It’s like the space shuttle. The space shuttle is designed to go up into the heavenlies. But if any one part of it is not functioning properly or is flawed in any way, it won’t lift off. So, too, you may not have killed anyone or committed adultery. But if you’ve lied, your shuttle is grounded.

James 2:12

Luk_6:38 is a verse often used in relation to the giving of tithes and offerings. But from the context, we know that when Jesus said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye measure it shall be measured to you again,” He was speaking not of money but of mercy. In other words, if you are merciful to others, if you are forgiving toward others, if you are kind and compassionate with others, then when you need mercy and grace and kindnessand you willit will be given to you. But if you have been harsh and judgmental, if you have been fault-finding and sin-sniffing, when you need mercy from others, there will be none for you.

James 2:14

Arguing that faith without works is dead, the Book of James so incensed Martin Luther that the reformer called it “a veritable straw Epistle that should be thrown into the Rhine River.” Yet James proves that faith without works is dead by pointing to the example of Abraham. It’s not that Abraham was saved by taking Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him in obedience to God. No, James says the work that saved Abraham took place years before that when he simply believed in God (verse Jas_2:23). When was Abraham declared righteous? As James quotes Gen_15:6, we understand that Abraham was declared righteous when he simply believed God would do what He said He would do when He told Abraham He would make his descendants more numerable than the sand on the seashore. Interestingly, Paul would also point to Abraham as proof that man is justified by faith apart from works (Rom_4:3). James and Paul are in full agreement because they both maintain that the moment Abraham simply believed God was the moment God imputed righteousness unto him. It is not faith and works that saves a man. It is not faith or works. It is faith that works. All Abraham was doing on Mount Moriah was showing the reality of what had taken place in his life years earlier when he simply believed God. If your faith is real, it will show itself. How? By obeying the Word of God and following the leading of the Lord, even though you may not understand where it will lead. At the time, Abraham could not have understood the significance of what he had done on Mount Moriah. But this side of Calvary, we see it was a perfect picture of what God the Father would do in sending His Son to that same mountain to die for the sins of the world. You know you’re truly born again when you find yourself obeying God. We’re not saved by obedience. But our obedience proves we’re saved, for true faith works.