Wise Mercy
Opening Prayer
Father, open my eyes to see with Your eyes today as I study Your heart and character.
Read James 2:1–13
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
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 faith and 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.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How do you measure success? Are you attracted to successful people?In today’s world, it’s easy to judge others as successful by the clothes they wear, their big houses or their expensive cars. In James’s day things were no different. This passage is really a short essay where James further develops an idea introduced in chapter 1 about the dangers of letting someone’s wealth define their status (3,4).
Good works are a proof of new birth for a believer, and a refusal to show mercy to others shows a lack of understanding about the mercy God has shown us. James says that showing partiality to those who enjoy a higher status in society is, at its heart, a failure to love (8–10). He refers to what he calls “the royal law,” a key command from Leviticus 19:18b that Jesus considered central to Christian living: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (8; Mark 12:28–31).
By breaking this royal law of love we break God’s commands (9,10), but James reminds us that we are to behave as those who will be judged according to “the law that gives freedom” (1:25).
Apply
Is there someone you need to reach out to today that you have previously ignored?
Closing prayer
God, forgive me for seeing and treating others differently based on perception or judgments. Help me to see others as You do.
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