This week I pushed further through the amazing accounts of the apostles in Acts, and began to read Paul’s letters as we start to see him embark on the missionary work that the Lord prophesied would entail suffering (Acts 9:15-16).  But, reading this past week through Acts 9 – 16, James 1 – 5, and Galatians 1 – 6, I was reminded how much I love James’s book.  It blows me away that he was the Lord’s brother (one of Mary’s and Joseph’s additional children after the immaculate conception of Jesus), and yet that he didn’t believe in Jesus most of their lives together until Jesus’s crucifixion.  Anyhow, one of my favorite parts of James’s book is found in James 2:1 – 9 …

My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others.  Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes.  You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor.  That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.  My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him.  You mistreat the poor. But isn’t it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court?  Aren’t they the ones who make fun of your Lord?  You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves.  But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned.

How often is it that we tend to sum someone up visually long before we engage with them personally!  Not only that, but just as James warns against, we go well beyond drawing conclusions about them and treat them wholly differently.  Think about homeless folks, or folks with multiple piercings, tattoos, unconventional hair, different ethnicity, unusual wardrobe, accents, etc.  No doubt many of us not only think about them differently, assume things about them that may or may not be warranted (most times not) … but do we go even beyond that and treat them differently.  Do we neglect reaching out to them to shake their hand when we encounter them?  Do we walk the other way when we see them so as not to risk having to engage with them?  Worse yet, do we avoid praying for them, praying with them, looking to share the gospel with them, putting our arm around them if / when they’re hurting, etc.?

James was using an example of economically-different people in the context of the temple, but I think his broader point is most poignant.  He says, “God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world.  He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him.”  In effect, James is saying … God loves the poor (and different) just as much as he loves the rich (and not different, as if there were such a thing).  In fact, I think James’s main point was that we are all the same in God’s eyes.  We are all on equal footing in the ways that matter most.  Hence, we should treat others in that same equal way.

We have a guy at our church who looks sloppy, dresses sloppy … even talks a little sloppy.  He looks pretty dirty, and I am pretty sure that he lives in a homeless shelter.  What’s amazing is that he happens to be a championship MMA fighter.  I took the opportunity to chat with him about six months ago and found him to be really interesting and smart.  In fact, he was just about to head out to Poland for a match … and ultimately he won.  Yeah, he’s probably got some coping or social issues that have resulted in him living in a homeless shelter even while he’s a successful fighter and probably makes really good money doing it.  But, he was no less faithful to the Lord, no less loving, no less (and no more) deserving of God’s grace than the rest of us knuckleheads.  Let’s face it, we’re all odd, flawed, sinful, unconventional, unusual … and so many other things.  And yet … “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”  (Romans 5:8, NLT)

Talking to this guy, Matt, reminded me that appearances or supposed social status has nothing to do with the enormity of God’s grace and love, which know no bounds.  The question is, as His followers … considering we’re charged with the responsibility to share His grace and love … do we impose bounds where He doesn’t and won’t?  While perhaps we’re not all equal from an eternal destiny perspective, we are from a creation perspective.  And besides, perhaps our interaction (the way we treat others that don’t seem, look, act, speak, and live like us) can lead to a change in someone else’s eternal destiny.  I think that’s how God envisioned it to begin with.

Let’s prayerfully ask the Lord to search our hearts and to remove any inaccurate and inappropriate assumptions about others.  Let’s ask Him to allow us a heart like His for all people … just as He died for all, just as He wants ALL to come to repentance … let’s ask Him to similarly instill in us a love for ALL His people, no matter what we assume or think about them.

All glory to God!

Have a blessed week!

MR