February 3 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 34—James 2:1–7

¹ 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?

Devotional:

"Birds of a feather flock together." That's natural. Accordingly, many "church growth experts" urge that churches do demographic studies and that they seek to reach "homogeneous" (all the same kind of) people. And what do you know? It works! By following this philosophy, some congregations have grown not only into the hundreds, but into the thousands, even the tens of thousands. (Never mind that these members generally come from other local churches, a phenomenon that one friend calls "the circulation of the saints.") These congregations tend to be affluent. But what if "a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in"? Will the poor believer, the "heterogeneous" (different) believer, be welcomed as warmly as the rich believer? God says, "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,' have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? "

But doesn't this cut both ways? Why do believers leave one church to go to another? Perhaps they have good reasons—such as the Lord has moved them to a new location, or the church is becoming more and more unfaithful to the Lord, or they and their family are spiritually starving. But often they have bad reasons—such as they feel that they are better than the people in that church, and so they look down on them and they don't want to work on their relationships with these unworthies. They don't want the demands of loving their heterogeneous brothers and sisters as Christ loved them.

And what if the Lord does put you in circumstances where you need to find a church home? How do you choose a congregation to attend? The Reformers had to face this question. People were being converted from apostasy. Where do you encourage them to go to truly worship and truly be fed? They agreed that, because Christ gathers and builds his church by his Spirit working through his Word, therefore a true church is one where the Word of Christ is proclaimed, where it is sealed in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, where it is obeyed in pastoral care and discipline. These traits may be more strong, or less strong, but they are "marks of a true church." Go there because the Lord Jesus Christ himself is there to care for and feed you. Go there because the Lord Jesus Christ himself has given you gifts that he can use to help care for and feed his redeemed people. But what if they are different? What if they are "poor" in this way or that, they don't have enough young people, or children, or whatever. Is it a true church? Is it possible that the Lord intends for you to help turn the tide? Is he calling you to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" and promising that if you do, "all these things will be added to you" (Mt. 6:33)?

Click here for background on the author of Are You For Real?: Meditations in the Epistle of James for Secret or Family Worship.