{"id":7216,"date":"2020-10-12T06:55:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T11:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=7216"},"modified":"2020-10-12T06:55:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T11:55:57","slug":"james-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=7216","title":{"rendered":"James 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2\u00a0<\/strong>My brothers,show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0(B<\/a>)<\/sup>the Lord of glory.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glorious\u00a0faith\u00a0we have, the\u00a0faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, should never be associated\u00a0with partiality(discrimination).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>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,\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, \u201cYou sit here in a good place,\u201d\u00a0while you say to the poor man, \u201cYou stand over there,\u201d or, \u201cSit down at my feet,\u201d\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become\u00a0judges with evil thoughts?\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>Listen, my beloved brothers,\u00a0has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be\u00a0)<\/sup>rich in faith and heirs of\u00a0the kingdom,\u00a0which he has promised to those who love him?\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>But you\u00a0have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who\u00a0drag you\u00a0into court?\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup>Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable\u00a0name by which you were called?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we choose people by what we can see on the surface, we miss the mind of God. Remember that Judas\u00a0appeared\u00a0to be much better leadership material than Peter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8\u00a0<\/sup>If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture,\u00a0(M<\/a>)<\/sup>\u201cYou shall love your neighbor as yourself,\u201d you are doing well.\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>But if you\u00a0(N<\/a>)<\/sup>show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.10\u00a0<\/sup>For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point\u00a0(O<\/a>)<\/sup>has become guilty of all of it.11\u00a0<\/sup>For he who said,\u00a0(P<\/a>)<\/sup>\u201cDo not commit adultery,\u201d also said,\u00a0Do not murder.\u201d If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under\u00a0the law of liberty.\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup>For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James here guards us against a selective obedience, the sort that will pick and choose which commands of God should be obeyed and which can be safely disregarded<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith Without Works Is Dead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

14\u00a0<\/sup>What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith\u00a0(T<\/a>)<\/sup>but does not have works? Can that faith save him?\u00a015\u00a0(U<\/a>)<\/sup>If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,\u00a016\u00a0(V<\/a>)<\/sup>and one of you says to them, \u201cGo in peace, be warmed and filled,\u201d without giving them the things needed for the body, what good[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0is that?\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say this means you know that the person in front of you\u00a0needs<\/em>\u00a0clothing and food. You know their need well, but offer nothing to help them except a few religious words.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

18\u00a0<\/sup>But someone will say, \u201cYou have faith and I have works.\u201d Show me your faith\u00a0apart from your works, and I will show you my faith\u00a0by my works.\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup>You believe that God is one; you do well. Even\u00a0the demons believe\u2014and shudder!\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup>Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeal of James is clear and logical. We can\u2019t \u201csee\u201d someone\u2019s faith, but we\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0see their works. You can\u2019t see faith\u00a0withoutworks, but you can demonstrate the reality of faith\u00a0by\u00a0works.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

21\u00a0<\/sup>Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?\u00a022\u00a0<\/sup>You see that\u00a0(AB<\/a>)<\/sup>faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed\u00a0by his works;\u00a023\u00a0<\/sup>and the Scripture was fulfilled that says,\u00a0(<\/sup>\u201cAbraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness\u201d\u2014and he was called a\u00a0(AE<\/a>)<\/sup>friend of God.\u00a024\u00a0<\/sup>You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.\u00a025\u00a0<\/sup>And in the same way was not also\u00a0(AF<\/a>)<\/sup>Rahab the prostitute justified by works\u00a0(AG<\/a>)<\/sup>when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?\u00a026\u00a0<\/sup>For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lesson from Abraham is clear: if we believe in God, we will do what He tells us to do. The lesson from Rahab is also clear: if we believe in God, we will help His people, even when it costs us something.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7217,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7216\/revisions\/7217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}