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? 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. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:1-13 ESV
https://my.bible.com/bible/59/JAS.2.1-13

What do you like about this passage?

“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?” God does not see rich or poor, black or white, male or female, Jew or Gentile, He has extended relationship to everyone.

This passage does state that the rich are the ones that oppress people. James was talking about some of the wealthy but not all, there were many wealthy people of that time that had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour without oppressing the poor. They would have to follow God’s Law as any other believer, they could not judge, oppress, wrongly take others to court, whatever was required by God’s Law.

Every follower of Jesus has to “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. In Luke 10:25-37 a teacher of the Law asked “who is my neighbor” Jesus then told the parable of the good samaritan which is a story of an injured Israelite and how other Israelites passed by him and a foreigner came by and clean him up and paid to have him taken care of. Jesus showed the foreigner was a neighbor, everyone is our neighbor.

What is difficult about this passage?

“But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” We all have areas in our lives where we make prejudgements of others without loving them as ourselves first. We have to fight against that, sometimes it is more difficult than others. If you were wounded by a thirty-some-year-old, male, it is harder to look at all thirty-some-year-olds as a neighbor. As a follower of Jesus, you can not use that as an excuse forever. Once you have had some healing, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, from Jesus. You should be able to look at other males as a neighbor, but you can still have boundaries for the one that hurt you.

In high school, I would not talk with others because I had a preconceived idea of how they were. Thirty-nine years later I see some of them on social media and how they are loving and serving God, I wonder if I would have talked with them back in school would things be different. Today I have to fight my fear of rejection and preconceived thoughts but I will still walk up to almost anyone and being to talk with them as I would my neighbor.

What does this passage tell me about God?

God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to restore our relationship with God, and it does not matter who we are or our social status.

What does the passage tell us about People?

We have a tendency to gather in our own groups and it is hard to break out of those clicks.

What are you going to do with this passage / your personal revelation?

I need to repent for the time I have not looked at others as my neighbor and self-examine my own actions daily to flee for the sin. If I have sin be quick to repent (turn the other way). If I am still near that person to break the cycle of sin and reach out to them as a neighbor.