Day 302: Jesus Doesn't Care About Status

James 2:1-9

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

THe scripture above is pretty self explanatory, but it shows the difference between how we as humans think and how God thinks. It shows how we as humans see people versus how God sees His children. The goal is to see people the way God sees them, to see them through a filter of love as opposed to judging them with our eyes. How many times have we judged someone based on their appearance or statue? How many times have we treated someone different because they looked different than us, or came from a different background? Let’s be honest, I am guilty of it, and when I think about I think of how wrong that was. God does not show partiality, He treats us all the same. He loves us all the same, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, it doesn’t matter where you came from, what color your skin is, you are still a child of God. He does not care about our status. Do you think Jesus was thinking about status when He died for us, He died for all of us. HE died for every human being so that we all may have life. He didn’t come for just you or just me, He came for all of us. Every single one of us, that means we are all equal in His eyes, He did not care about our status or our background, He cares about us, His people.

I know many of us have judged people but also many of us have been judged by people and I can tell you it doesn’t feel good to be treated differently because you're not rich enough, you didn’t come from the right neighborhood or your skin isn’t the right color. God made us all equal and He doesn’t love us because of what we have, where we come from, or the color of our skin, He loves us because we are His children, He loves us because He is God and God is love. God’s love is unconditional, and that is how we must learn to love people.

The bible tells us time and time again to love our neighbor as ourselves, but if we are showing partiality, how are we loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we are passing judgements on people based on how they look how are we loving our neighbors like ourselves? We cannot dishonor God’s people and say that we love them at the same time. We do not get to decide if someone is worthy of our love, if we are walking this earth like Christ, everyone is worthy of our love. Everyone deserves to be loved. Loving people is not about us, it is about the other person, people need to know that they are loved. They need to know that beyond their looks, beyond their condition or situation, beyond their past, they are loved. Sometimes we make love selfish, love is the most selfless action their is. Can you imagine how that poor man must have felt when He was treated less important because he wasn’t wearing gold or nice garments? The honest truth is we have been all three people in the story. People make assumptions of who we are based on what they see and we have done the same thing. Let’s stop things cycle and start to walk, live, and love like Christ. When we are full of the Holy Spirit there is no room for anything that is unlike Christ.  

All this to say, if God is not judging anyone, what gives us the right to judge people. Show no partiality.

Reflection

1. Recall a time when you have been the person who was judgemental or the person being judged.
2. Looking back how do you feel about that?

Prayer Time

Take the time to ask God to search your heart and remove anything that is unlike Him. If you feel the need to repent by all means do so. Then take the time to pray for God’s people, pray that we will be a people that loves beyond what the eyes can see, that we will not judge people but love them.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 303!

Day 230: You Decide

Romans 14:22-23

You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Yesterday we talked about not passing judgement on someone because they choose to live differently than we do. Today we are going to dive into some of those choices a bit and explore what it means to choose the lifestyle we want to live as  a follower of Christ.

There are certain things or acts within the Christian community that are deemed sinful or looked down upon. However, many of these things are not sins. We simply get the choice, we choose whether we want to or not. I think two of the biggest subjects I can think of to address this is, drinking, alcohol, and celebrating Halloween. Many Christians believe that drinking alcohol is a sin, while others think is fine to go out and have a cocktail, or stay in in and have some champagne or wine. Now the bible constantly condemns drunkenness, because of what it can lead to. There should be nothing that alters the state of our mind. However it never said that we could not drink, in fact Jesus Himself was at the reception turning water into wine for the people. I understand both sides as being drunk can lead us to act in a way that is not pleasing to God. It’s the same for celebrating holidays like halloween, or going to parties and nightclubs or bars. I think it is less about what you do or where you go but how you do it, and what you do when there. We label things a sin that doesn’t have a church involved, or a Christian name in it. In every moment we are Christians, we don’t get to set our faith aside in order to do things we deem sinful, but we must remember that just because it doesn’t involve us going to church or a Hillsong concert does not mean it’s a sin. We must conduct ourselves as  Christians at all times, now that doesn’t mean you go to a party for the sake of proving that we are down with Jesus or saving every soul the place. No it means, enjoy yourself and having a good time. God wants us to enjoy our life. We put too much weight on what it means to have fun, everything isn’t that deep. Sometimes we are meant just to have a good time. We as Christians have to lighten up a bit.  Choose to live live life to the fullest without feeling like it can’t be done without sinning.  Which leads me to my next point, When you decide that something is right, don’t feel guilty for it and don’t allow anyone make you feel guilty for it.

Let not one make you feel bad for your choices. Follow your convictions, but also if you have to ask if something is right, or try to convince yourself that it is, it probably isn’t. I think many times we as Christians try to explain why we choose to do certain things to other Christians who have chosen not to do them in order to prove our devotion to Jesus. The choices we make are between ourselves and God, we don’t owe an explanation to anyone else. When we learn this simple logic we will live much happier and joyful lives. I believe that many of these reservations and traditions we practice have a lot more to do with how people will view us than they do with how it will affect us spiritually. We are not living for other people, at some points in our lives we have to enjoy it for ourselves, not worrying about what anyone else thinks. At the end of the day, we answer to God and no one else.  

We have to trust ourselves and know that God trusts us as well. I think many times we kind of set up boundaries to keep ourselves from sinning. We live these compact lives in these boxes of comfort that will keep us out of harm's way, keep us from temptation and sin. We are so concerned with not sinning that we forget to live. We live with the fear that we will be a sinful person or are a sinful person for doing certain things. First of all, we’ll never be perfect. Second we cannot cut ourselves off from life because we don’t trust ourselves enough not to sin. We have the Holy Spirit within us, we have to trust those convictions. This is why self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit. Now there is a difference in doing what we know is wrong and having religious reservations. If we know that something is a sin and we ignore every conviction and do said thing anyway than we are sinning.

All this to say, you make the choice on the life you want to live and don’t allow yourself to be guilted for it. Live your best life and enjoy it, you only get one.

Reflection

1. What choices have you made that have been looked down upon by other Christians?
2. Have you prayed about it?
3. Do you allow yourself to be guilted by others or even yourself behind the choices you have made regarding your life?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about you choices and have a conversation with Him. Pray for discernment and conviction.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 231!