{"id":5788,"date":"2014-11-05T02:31:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T02:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5788"},"modified":"2014-11-19T01:43:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:43:11","slug":"james-22-4-judging-with-evil-motives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5788","title":{"rendered":"James 2:2-4\u2014Judging with evil motives"},"content":{"rendered":"

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, \u201cYou sit here in a good place,\u201d and you say to the poor man, \u201cYou stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,\u201d have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?\u00a0 <\/em>James 2:2-4<\/p>\n

James warned against holding your faith in Jesus with an attitude of personal favoritism. He then illustrated his point with a familiar scenario.<\/p>\n

Two people walk into your meeting. One is well-dressed\u2014he demonstrates impeccable taste, class, and obvious wealth. The other is unkempt, outdated, and dirty. How do you treat the two?<\/p>\n

James asserts that if you make distinctions between them\u2014upgrading the seating for one and leading the other to a less desirable spot\u2014you are guilty of becoming a judge with evil motives.<\/p>\n

Most of us are not in charge of directing the seating arrangements in church, but James\u2019 admonishment surely extends beyond orchestrating preferential seating selections. Do you seek out the attention of the sharper, more presentable members while avoiding others who are less appealing? Do you have a secret checklist outlining qualifications for the individuals you allow into your circle\u2014this<\/em> type of person or better, but not that<\/em>? Does your behavior say to certain people, \u201cI\u2019ll \u201cminister\u201d to you, but don’t expect friendship<\/em>\u201d?<\/p>\n

You aren’t called to judge anyone else’s motives, but you are responsible to discern your own. When James warns against becoming a judge with evil motives, he is instructing you to honestly evaluate your own standards for assessing the worth of others. If you become aware of discrepancies in the way you treat people based on externals and self-promoting values, then ask God for mercy and grace to cleanse and reboot your thinking and motives.<\/p>\n

James wrote this message to the early church; his bold words are every bit as piercing in our time as the church draws from a highly stratified, diverse, and fractured culture. The faces, styles, and mannerisms may have changed, but the basic Christian need to accept and be accepted in the household of faith remains the same. This torch, carried in his time by James, has been passed down through the centuries. It\u2019s our torch now; may it burn brightly without being quenched, lighting the path, warming hearts, and bringing sweet Christian fellowship to all of us called by His name.<\/p>\n

May God help each of us to be more effective in communicating and demonstrating the value of one another.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.<\/em> Philippians 2:3<\/p>\n

By this all men will <\/em>know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.<\/em> John 13:35<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, \u201cYou sit here in a good place,\u201d and you say to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5789,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions\/5789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}