A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation (3)

A Daily Devotional – James, the Epistle – Personal Meditation

Comment: As in all geographical areas of our nation, we have places of affluence and places of poverty. Some years ago, I remember a family who did not have much; a small home with many children who lived in one of the impoverished areas of South Eastern CT., they needed a larger home. The family was always in need, then one day the father announced to the church that they were moving Jamestown, an affluent Island in Rhode Island, a larger house was given to them. I believe someone asked him. “How can this be?” His reply was that they were trusting God to provide; these folks had little income. One of the ways to get to Newport, RI is to go through Jamestown Island, via the Jamestown Bridge. When I would go that way to Newport, I would look for the street these where these folks were living and I learned this; “there is poverty in Jamestown as well as the rich and affluent!”

Devotional: Mankind’s observation of human good and evil is mixed with distortion. One of the many ways to observe this distortion is by considering the poor and the rich together. The child of God, along with the Spirit of God abiding in them has the supernatural ability to discern the difference between good and evil. If there is a problem with discernment, it is because the child of God fails to live with the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit; remember, double-mindedness is wavering faith.

The thought that crosses my mind is this! Is James observing the lifestyles of the poor and the rich of some people whom he knows; or, how the poor and the rich who are in Christ live? We have the poor and the rich with us always; what we sometimes fail in, is the gospel, see Matthew 26:6-13. I believe that James is using these two opposites to prove that most of God’s people walk with a double mind, rather than the Truth of the gospel in many areas of life, not just the rich and the poor whom he uses as examples.

The poor and the rich who are the children of God by faith in Christ are living stones on the same foundation, which is Christ our Cornerstone; 1 Peter 2:8, see the context of 1 Peter 2:1-12. The poor are positionally low and the rich are made low. It is not the words ‘exaltation’ in verse 9 and ‘humiliation’ in verse 10 where our focus divides these two, the Greek words used that reveal the level ground of being in Christ, both are equal in the LORD.