RCL 2021-09-05-James
RCL 2020-08-29-James [1]
If you are judging another, you are judging Christ
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
| Jas 2:1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?
¢ § Is your faith real if you judge? Universal sin is self-deity. Only God can judge. |
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| Jas 2:2 For if a person with gold [1]rings [2] and in fine [3] clothes [4] comes into your assembly, and if a poor [5] person in dirty [6] clothes [7] also comes in,
¢ § If God and his beautiful works ...and Christ having been made to be sin comes in This is hyperbole. If you judged God the way you judge men, you would have missed the cross. |
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| Jas 2:3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat [1] here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand [2] there," or, "Sit at my feet [3],"
¢ § Though you worship God (falsely) you denigrate the work of Christ. |
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| Jas 2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves [1], and become judges with evil thoughts?
¢ § Dare you judge God? |
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| Jas 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
¢ § Didn't God choose Christ to inherit the earth which Christ promised to you? |
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| Jas 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?
¢ § But you dishonour Christ. Isn't it God that judged you? |
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| Jas 2:7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
¢ § Hasn't God made the name of Jesus common? |
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| Jas 2:8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law [1]according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
¢ The opposite of judging is love. When you love the poor (Christ) you also love the rich (God). |
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| Jas 2:9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
¢ § If you do not love Christ, you are still in sin |
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| Jas 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
¢ Why the shift to the law? God, represented by the rich, is the judge. If you wish fellowship with the rich, you must be rich, not dirty. A single spot on a garment makes the garment dirty. "Oh, but it is just a small mustard stain on my cummerbund" |
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| Jas 2:11 For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
¢ § If you would be a god, do not do this...or that |
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| Jas 2:12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty [1]
¢ § But since you cannot keep the whole of the law, evidenced by your previous sacrifices in the temple, then call upon his mercy In jubilee you are forgiven as you forgive. All property reverts to God. |
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| Jas 2:13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment [1] [2].
¢ The one who judges still thinks he is equal to God. |
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| Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? | ||
| Jas 2:15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, | ||
| Jas 2:16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? | ||
| Jas 2:17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
¢ § Dare you judge God? |
