Saturday, September 21, 2013
James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them?
POOR EVANGELISM
Why do we give special treatment to one person and not another? I believe that many times the seed of such favoritism has to do with a self-serving goal. We want that person to pay attention to us or to return the same treatment to us. This is not the case all the time, but as a general statement it is true. The rich, the important, the famous, the good-looking all receive preferential treatment mainly because people want to be part of their world and to receive attention from them. Conversely, the poor and unimportant are often ignored because they have little to offer.
God's love reaches out to all. This is not saying that He loves the poor more. It is simply that He reaches down even to dregs of society to make sure that no one is shut out from His kingdom. As it turns out, the poor are often even more eager to cling to Jesus because they don't have material riches getting in the way of their view of heavenly riches. Their vision is not clouded.
The point that James makes is, "Why are you treating the poor with prejudice and the rich with favoritism? That's not how our Lord operates." What group are we excluding in our outreach work? Let's look in America and even more locally. Are there groups that we don't feel comfortable in reaching out to? How would you feel about going out to talk to crime-ridden neighborhoods in Milwaukee or Minneapolis or a large city in your region of the country? What about people in the community that you normally don't associate with?
Hold the faith of Jesus without partiality. Instead of building up barriers, tear them down and bring the message of an impartial Law and Gospel without man-made limits.
