All About Me
James 2:3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
Don’t you love how James says one little thing, then holds a mirror up to your face, and then smashes your face into the mirror? Uh . . . oh. . . is that just me he does that to? 😉
1 Chronicles 21 has a powerful story illustrating James’ admonition here. I almost hate to condense it but it’s the story of When Satan put it on David’s heart to number his troops, putting his faith in the flesh instead of in YHWH.
YHWH’s disciplinary action was to make David choose his punishment. David chose a plague because he knew YHWH is merciful.
After YHWH called off the plague, He told David to offer a sacrifice. Ornan offered David his threshing floor and oxen for the sacrifice but David had learned his lesson: His sacrifice had to cost him, personally.
When David numbered his troops, he was, in effect, indenturing them to war. Those troops were working men with families who, ordinarily would have responded voluntarily when YHWH called them up. By insisting that Ornan sell him the oxen, David acknowledged that it wasn’t the troops that he owned. Instead, he took ownership of his sin, his failures, and he turned them over to YHWH.
Read again, how James refers to the rich. He’s not talking about people that YHWH has blessed with abundance. He’s talking about people whose wealth comes at the expense of their fellow sojourners.
Father, Abba, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121