What Love Looks Like
James 2:1-13
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faithand to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
What Love Looks Like
Message #7: What Love Looks Like
James 2:1-13
When you wake up in the morning what is the first question that comes to your mind?
For me, as passionate follower of Jesus, this question comes out of his greatest challenge to everyone who wanted a true relationship with him: How will I love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind today? And secondly, how will that overflow into loving my neighbors as myself?
This is the central idea of Jesus’ teaching. Love God first, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two primary rules for life (Matthew 22:40). In order to love our neighbors, we have to spend time with them and get to know them.
Because when we do that, mercy triumphs over judgment. Love wins over pride. Caring brings us to mutual freedom. When we favor each person we meet, and recognize that person as someone God loves so deeply, he’d become a human just to die for them, we become part of something beyond ourselves. We become part of the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to introduce. Showing God’s favor to each person we meet does something else, too. It builds our faith into a faith that really works. As our faith grows stronger, and our love for God grows deeper, we will find that favoring one person over another makes no sense anymore.
This Sunday we are reminded who are our neighbors both near and far and how we can make a difference in their lives.
One of neighbors here in Rochester...
Check out: https://www.thelandingmn.org
One of our neighbors in Ethiopia...
Check out: https://www.hopechest.org/carepoints/addis-ketema/
God has showered his favor on us so that we might share it with all, rich and poor, young and old, powerful and powerless. God has no favorites, for each of us is God’s own beloved child.