Friendliness part 5

 January 29, 2021 devotional

Here we are at the end of another week.  We've spent about a month going through a lengthy discipleship resource called The Disciple's Journal.  If you still want to participate in this process, you can download this resource here.

This week we have been examining the characteristic of friendliness.  Now, if I were to ask just about every Christian if they were friendly, I suspect most would say yes.  But the scripture for today really throws a wrench into that assessment.  And it comes from the great wrench thrower himself, James, the half-brother of Jesus.

In James 2:8-9, the pastor of the Jerusalem Church draws a distinction between Christian love and favoritism.

James suggests that a person may have true Christian agape love toward others - even their enemies - but still fall short of the Lord's command.  We do this when we show partiality... or "favoritism."

What does favoritism look like?

Imagine that you invite 10 folks over to your home for a lovely Ladies Tea.  Out of love you include the new convert who just started attending your church.  She has just barely begun her walk; she was ransomed out of a life of darkness.  Sure, from the outside she resembles the world but on the inside she is a new creation.  At the tea everyone is cordial and kind, but this new believer is still kept at arms length.  There's still a little too much of the world in her and the group just isn't sure how to react.  She is present but not treated with the same degree of honor you express to your long-time friends.  James says this is showing partiality (not being friendly).

Jesus says this group of women have failed to fulfill the Law; they did not "Love others as themselves" (Matthew 22:39).

Do you recall the story about a woman who happened to attend a meal at Simon the Pharisee's house?  This woman had recently been cleansed by Jesus.  Hearing that the Lord would be present, she brings an Alabaster Jar of perfume and stands behind Jesus and anoints His feet (Luke 7:36-48).  There are two things in this story that really drive home the lesson from James

1. Although its obvious this woman had a deep love for Jesus (He had apparently reached out to her prior to this event), Simon still saw her as a sinner (Luke 7:39).  He could not get past her past and, consequently, did not want that sort of woman near the seats of honor.
2. The Lord's rebuke in Luke 7:47 isn't that Simon had little love for Jesus but that Simon found it difficult to demonstrate love toward anyone!

Scholars suggest she was an uninvited guest.  But if that is true then why didn't Simon simply have her removed from the premises?  Yet he doesn't.  And we are left to wonder why not.  Anyway, rather than kick her out, he merely shows disgust over her public display of affection.  It was appalling.  The unfriendliness in Simon's heart caused him to show favoritism.  It seemed okay that she was there, as long as she stood in the back.  

What caused Simon to turn a cold shoulder toward this woman and, presumably, toward anyone on the outside.  Jesus says it was because he had been forgiven little.

It's not that Simon lived a really good life while the woman had a great number of sins piled against her but that Simon simply did not seen his fallen human nature.  When compared to the life of this woman, Simon felt the scales tipped in his favor.

Simon suffered from a common disease called self-justification; he measured his life against those who were in the world.  Compared to this sinful woman, Simon felt he was a saint.  Consequently, he showed disgust and revulsion toward someone who was not as holy as he.

This is the sin James addresses.

When a Christian recognizes that "all have sinned and fallen short of God's holy standard" (Romans 3:23), it is unlikely they will struggle with favoritism.  They will see the person of the world as an equal; the life-long Christian recognizes they too are just as guilty as the person who has lived a good part of their life apart from God.