Consuming Worship

Blogger Small Group: James 2

This is a Blogger Small Group entry in partnership with Run’n Like a Vagabond.

So, I was completely anti-social last week. Too bad that my felt need to temporarily pull away from blogging coincided with the launch of the small group. Needless to say, I was a bad boy and didn’t comment on anyone else’s blog in the group (but for one that really impacted me). I did, however, read them all.

Thanks to those who came around last week and commented. I’ll try to be more active this time around, though I may not get around to doing full comments on everyone’s posts until later in the week. Here’s my entry for James 2. May the Lord bless your reading of His Word.

James 2:1 = James rocks our worlds by communicating truth through a question. Before you go on and read the rest of the chapter, stop and truly answer the question for yourself. Try it out in the conversational tone of the NLT, “How can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?” This covers everything, race, creed, culture, economic status, holiness, piety, smell, allure, you name it. Harsh!

2:2-4 = What a perfectly relevant example for our churches today. How many times do we do the exact same sort of thing when visitors come through our door at church? Are we more likely to go up and introduce ourselves to the sharp dress visitor than the poorly dressed one? Let’s not even go that far, but think solely about just the members and regular attenders of our churches. How’s our relationship with the poor or ugly or foul tempered or otherwise unlovely people in our congregation? Have I made more effort to get to know the “good looking” than others?

James also doesn’t pull any punches when he says what this behavior really is when he asks another question, “Doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?”

2:5-7 = More and more questions are thrown our way. We fawn at the feet of the rich and power, and desire so much to be like them, and yet they are the ones who won’t bat an eyelash at turning around and abusing that same power and influce. When’s the last time you were dragged into court and railroaded falsely by a poor person? (Unfortunately, in today’s class-action, litigious society, this IS actually becoming a reality. BUT, it is usually some rich and high-powered law firm in the background that truly profits, not the poor people they represent.)

Basically, James asks us, “Why do you honor and desire to be like the very ones who are slandering the Name with which you identify yourselves?” We call ourselves “Christians,” wearing His name proudly as a mark of identification, and yet we find ourselves awestruck and starstruck by the actors, singers, sports stars, novelists, millionaires/billionaires, etc. who want nothing to do with Jesus. Even if they claim to be a Christian, their lives do not show the fruit one would expect to find in His followers.

When we spend more time wanting to be like the rich people James describes, and less like the poor, we end up looking less and less like the Jesus we say we follow.

2:8-11 = James is a hard read for anyone who would like to use “we’re not under the OT Law but under NT Grace” as an excuse to not see that the OT Law is still the Law of God. What I mean is, we should never forget that, even though Christ came and fulfilled the Law, and we are living under the grace of Christ, the God of the NT is still the God of the OT. Do you think God’s standards have changed? Do you think all the stuff He said about how His people should live is no longer valid?

I can’t count myself as “arrived” at holiness just because I’v succeeded at keeping some of His commandments, and them flippantly say to myself, “the blood of Jesus comvers all the rest.” Where is my heart of humbleness and submission with that kind of attitude?

2:12-13 = The same law that set me free is the same law with which I will be judged. Go back to James question from earlier. How did I treat the poor and unlovely? That is the same standard by which I will be held accountable.

2:14-25 = I’ll re-write this (poorly) as a modern day parable: Imagine a person who talks about a product all the time. They tell you how good it is, how well it works, and can even tell you all the technical details of said product. Every time you see them (once or twice a week on the same days at about the same time) they have a sample of the product in hand. It looks great, all shiny and impressive, so impressive in fact, you and everyone around you at these particular gatherings either own one, or are there because they are interesting in hearing more about the product.

You go over to some of the houses of people from these gatherings, and you see the same product in action, and are always amazed at its efficacy. Some of the people from this gathering even carry their product with them everywhere they go, and use it at every opportunity. You really look up to these people and their ingenuity and brand loyalty, but at the same time you think they’re a little weird.

Why? Because, though you own the product and even go to some of the weekly meetings about said product, you rarely open it up and try it our for yourself. You enjoy the security of owning the product, and the status involved with ownership, but most of the time, it just sits on the counter at home gathering dust, and only gets used when absolutely necessary. You’re real good about getting the product out and showing it off whenever another product owner comes over for dinner, but most of the time it just sits there, neglected and unused. And if a non-owner comes over, you make sure to hide in a drawer where they can’t see it.

Maybe you should have saved your money and bought something else instead. What’s the point of owning it if you don’t use it as advertised? You rationalize your non-use of the product by telling yourself, “Well, some people are user/owners, and some of us are collectors.” The problem is, one of the company’s representatives was heard to say in a speech, “How can you say you’re a conscientious owner of our product if you don’t use it? I’ll show you I’m a good owner by showing you how I’ve properly used the product.”

There’s part of you that balks at this and says, “Well, even just ownership makes me a better person than people who use the competitor’s product.” But, then you begin to hear stories of how even those people own the same product, so they can make the same claim as you. This rubs you the wrong way, but you continue on with life as usual.

Then, you remember hearing the story of Abe. He was this really old guy that the maker called up one day and issued a challenge. “Abe,” he said, “I want you to take the thing you love the most that you’ve built using my product and throw it away.” You also remember how the story ended, how the maker ended up stopping Abe at the last moment and was so moved by the old guy’s loyalty that he made him a full partner in the company, and promised all his descendant would have lifetime supplies of the product.

Then there was the story you heard on the news about that prostitute chick who hid some of the product’s salesmen when they came by her house. You see, her house was right next to the factory of the competitor, and if they had been found at here place, they would have probably been beaten up and all their product destroyed. Because of her action, they got away safely, and she showed herself to be a loyal user of the product.

OK. That parable I just wrote was pretty stupid, and now I’m not really sure it even makes any sense. But, there it is, and so it shall remain.

2:26 = Here’s why we don’t like reading James, because he lays the smackdown on our paltry christian-lite lifestyles. Read it carefully. Just like a body is a corpse without breath, so too is faith without works. It’s kind of like a horror film. There are all these zombies walking around claiming to be alive, and they even look alive until you get close and investigate. Then, you find out they’re walking dead.

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