QUESTION: What would you do if a dirty, stinky man walked into your church or class this Sunday? How about if it was the town’s wealthy known well-dressed womanizer? How about the high school’s football all star?
The way we answer these questions says something about us. It is actually in today’s society seen as the proper thing to help those down and out. It is the battle cry of a new generation to reach out to the poor and destitute. However, how do you treat that womanizer or football all-star?
Many people use the passage in James, we are studying today to ask the same questions stated above. Yet, I want us to look at this passage in the context of what we have been studying in James Chapter 1.
Remember the people James is writing to is a group of people who have been in on-going difficulty and persecution. With this thought in mind, let’s reexamine James Chapter 2:1-7.
In verse 1, James call Jesus “the one and only Lord of Glory.” He did this because the readers (including US) need to be brought back to the right place to receive help in times of trouble. Glance back in Chapter 1 at verse 5 and 17, that we learned it is God who “gives to us generously and gives us every good and perfect gift.”
At times when we are having on-going difficulty we have a tendency to look at those who have what the world considers “success” to get us out of our trouble. This is exactly what is happening in James. James is telling his readers, “Don’t look to the one who has the wealth for your answers.” He furthers says roughly translated, “Hello, aren’t these people the ones dragging you into court and oppressing you. Why are you looking to them for the answers.”
We need to make sure we are looking to God always for the answers, not man or the world’s view of success.
We will continue on with James Chapter 2 on Sunday, March 6th. Have a blessed day! 
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