James
2: 1, 8, 9 and 13: My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious
Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. If you really keep the royal
law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as
lawbreakers. Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not
been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Be compassionate. That’s the first thing we need to do
in dealing with other people. James speaks of God’s royal law in verse 8. It is
the law to love your neighbour as yourself. James also tells us in verse 13
that mercy triumphs over judgment. What James is saying here is that love
and mercy are the godly ways in which we ought to treat people. Our
attitude ought to be one of compassion. It ought to be one of love. It ought to
be one of mercy. Our hearts ought to be soft towards other people.
Consider two things:
The first is to search our
hearts for attitudes that don’t belong there — attitudes of favouritism,
prejudice, of superiority or of bullying. If we find these attitudes, repent of
them. Ask God to take them out of your heart. Ask God to replace them with
attitudes of love, compassion and empathy.
The second is to search our
minds for people we have not treated right. Let’s ask God to show us who
those people are. God will reveal it to us. They may be people you
work with, or people you live with. They may be your neighbours, or some of
your friends, or some of your relatives or a family member, or even a spouse or
a child. We have to resolve to treat them with love, compassion,
forgiveness and respect in future.
We may even need to ask someone to forgive us for treating
them poorly, or cruelly, in the past. Resolve today to treat everyone with
practical love, as you would want to be treated yourself.
If we get our own hearts right and begin to treat
everyone else according to God’s royal law of neighbourly love, we will make
others feel loved. And everyone needs to feel loved!
May God help us to do just that.
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