Measuring Up

"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, 'You sit here in a good place,' while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or, 'Sit down at my feet,' have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" - James 2:1-4

I apologize for not having written a post in a while. High-school to college has been quite the under-taking, but God's wisdom has guided me safely through this step in life. Let's continue our study in James.

It is important to recognize the correlation religious leaders of the day saw between financial success and holiness if we are to understand this passage. For example, think back to Job for a moment. Job was successful in almost every possible way, including financials. When God allowed the devil to remove his success from him, what do his friends do? Read one of their responses:

"Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed. Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you." - Job 22:5-11

They blame the tragedies occurring in Job's life on his own sin. They say that the poverty, the death, the illness, the meekness, is God's wrath being poured out upon Job because of his many sins. A quick glance at the beginning of the book of Job tells the reader this is not the case:

"And the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?'" Job 1:8

It wasn't only the Jews of Job's day who held to this strict idea that successful people were blessed by God and unsuccessfulness meant you were cursed by God, it was also the Jews of Jesus' day. This is why, as we read through the gospels, we see Jesus putting such a large emphasis on "blessed are the poor," or, "the poor shall inherit the kingdom of heaven." Financial success, to the Jews, was the equivalent of a salvation receipt; it meant you were actually saved.

We see, in this passage in James, James exhorting Christians to not distinguish between rich and poor, but to treat everyone with love. Many Jews would have thought this absurd; to treat someone "cursed by God" with love. Many Jews would have treated poor people exactly how James is telling them not to:

"while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or, 'Sit down at my feet.'"

Why did Jewish religious leaders treat poor people this way? Because if they tell them to sit down at their feat, that secures their own superiority. It's not so much just to be mean, or because the religious leaders thought that God looked at the poor as less (although they did), but it was more-so their belief that if they have someone sitting at their feet in submission to them, God must be looking at them proud of their position of superiority they have secured. It's not a problem of hate, it's a problem of pride.

And we struggle with it today.

Do you measure yourself up to other people? Do you look at others and say, "well, at least I'm better than them?" Do you feel most spiritual when others around you are less spiritual? These are all indicators that you are too focused on yourself, and not focused enough on Christ. The point is this:

Compare yourself to others and you'll forget you need a savior. Compare yourself to Christ and you won't lack the savior you need.