Discernment Dash

The letter of James is all about living the Christian life. James is writing to a smattering of churches in his letter, and addresses things we all have experienced in our journey with Christ. One of these "moments" that James touches on,  is that of judging another person. You know, when you look at someone and assume you know who they are by what they look like, or how their hair is styled, or even the car they pulled up in. We all have done it before, and will be guilty of "judging the book by it's cover" again. It is something that plagues our sinful humanity.

However, James challenges us. He states that we should not show favoritism or judge a book by it's cover (2: 1-5). In fact he tells us that if, and when we do judge others we are not only guilty of breaking the law (otherwise known as sinning), we become filled with evil intentions and discrimination (v.4). Those words might feel a bit harsh. I instinctively push back against them. After all, I'm not that bad of a guy. But James meant every ounce of weight in his pont. In fact to stress his point here, James switches from a general tense to a specific and personal tense of the word, "you". He doesn't mean "you" in the corporate sense, it is "you" personally. The you that stares back in the mirror; not some other ambiguous you . It is at this point that I begin to wonder, "Well what do I do, that is so bad when I judge?"

James again doesn't let us off the hook. He launches into a discussion about how we actually oppress those whom we judge. Now most likely we are not physically oppressing by with holding of goods or physical needs in our churches today. But are we guilty of oppressing spiritually? Are we saying, "You are not good enough or welcome to worship with us here... you're not cut out to worship our God..." We oppress spiritually because we assign a certain value and worth to that person. This is tragic to their spiritual condition and to ours. It is not our job to assign value; it's Gods. Before the creation of the world God chose each and everyone of us, and predestined us to become son's and daughters of the King, and this gave him great joy (Eph. 1:2ff). Our value and meaning comes from an unchanging and all powerful God who was, and is, and will forever be (Rev. 1:18).

So, if God gives us value and we are not supposed to judge, then what do we do? James tells us in v.8 that we are to keep the royal law of loving our neighbor as ourselves. There are two things God is most concerned about: first, loving Him (God) with everything we are; and second, loving others as ourselves. Jesus said it (Mk. 12:28-29). We are not called to judge or to assign worth. We are called to love others and to find the worth God has put in them. This is not an easy task all the time. Yet James started off by telling us we need to persevere (1:2ff). Being able to love takes discernment and we must develop discernment. We have to be able to remind ourselves to love when it is not easy, and to discern how to love and what to love. God surely loves me, but he does not love my sin. We are called to love the child of God not their sin. And so, the sin does not give us license to with hold our love! God never said, "I'll love you if you would just stop..." He loved us before we were a twinkling in our parents eyes. And he knew all we would do before he created us. We are not in this alone. James reminds us to ask our generous God and he will supply (1:5). God is in our corner and wants to help us love others! James concludes by reminding us that those who show mercy shall be given mercy (v.13). I pray that we would, live in peace with God, show mercy with out bounds, and love all that we meet.

Thoughts for the Journey:

1. How do we love someone with out supporting/ endorsing/ or loving their sin? What does this look like?

2. Do I ever put conditions (even small ones) on my love for my child? 

3. How can we show love to someone in our community (church and local)?

4. Will I try to find something valuable about someone who is really hard to love this week?

                        -Will I Do What Jesus Would Do?....DWJWD