Hello friends, I've again come up with the continuation of my previous post.....hope you'd have gone through the first chapter of James and contemplated on the underlying spiritual meaning of the facts given in it. Today, let me give a short outline of the second chapter of James and bring out the hidden spiritual fruits of Christian life stated in this chapter.
LOVE ALL PEOPLE (James 2:1-13)
Basically, what does the word 'love' mean? What do we think love is? According to my opinion, we, humans, view love as the affection and attachment or even attraction (at the young age) upon a person of our family (may be our parents or siblings) or else, on the other side of the coin, the feeling which comes upon a person whom we establish a liking at a starting point (mainly due to the attraction aroused in our minds due to their physical appearance, gestures or due to their effective flattering speech) which then develops into our hearts as a so-called feeling 'love'. But....friends.....is this really love all about? Is this the kind of love that our God Almighty and the Son of God, Jesus Christ also had upon the people? No...Its not!
What the Scripture says, especially in this passage of James is the unconditional love or the compassion or in other words, the unprejudiced affection and concern that we ought to have upon our fellow human beings, regardless of their race, status, creed, colour, physical appearance or any other such earthly attributes. Yes....it clearly pictures a scenario in the church service...how we treat a poor man in contrary to a rich man with a rich look. If we really look deeply into our hearts and self-analyse ourselves, tis is the reality folks....This is how we really are...... But the Word of God clearly and strictly warns that if we continue to be like these kind of human beings without a single trace of real love in our heart, we aren't going to inherit His kingdom, for sure! ((James 2:2-7)
James also quotes the main law found in our Scriptures from the Old Testament, "Love your neighbour, as you love yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), saying that, if we just obey this law, we are doing right or we're living a right kind of Christian living in this world. Basically, what He tries to emphasise into our minds is that, when we treat one person important than the other for no reason, we're truly sinning and are made guilty of obeying God's Law. Most importantly, the Ten Commandments or the Laws that our Father had taught us MUST be followed for us to be made free under His law. Its not that following all of them but leaving only one for granted.. So, as Christians, we are bound to show mercy upon others so that Our God will show His mercy upon us on the Judgement day....Tats it!!
Beloved in Christ, these are the two main virtues that are being focussed by James in his second chapter regarding the journey of our life as Christians on this earth. Just what we have to do is, have a look into ourselves and examine our conscience how we are really to the core..... Do we have the real love and compassion that Jesus pursued in His life or the worldly fake ones? Do our faith really accompany with good works or only by fashionable words? Come on frnz....let us transform us into worthy Christians before God's sight. I'll come up with the spiritual jewels of third Chapter of James soon.....!
LOVE ALL PEOPLE (James 2:1-13)
Basically, what does the word 'love' mean? What do we think love is? According to my opinion, we, humans, view love as the affection and attachment or even attraction (at the young age) upon a person of our family (may be our parents or siblings) or else, on the other side of the coin, the feeling which comes upon a person whom we establish a liking at a starting point (mainly due to the attraction aroused in our minds due to their physical appearance, gestures or due to their effective flattering speech) which then develops into our hearts as a so-called feeling 'love'. But....friends.....is this really love all about? Is this the kind of love that our God Almighty and the Son of God, Jesus Christ also had upon the people? No...Its not!
What the Scripture says, especially in this passage of James is the unconditional love or the compassion or in other words, the unprejudiced affection and concern that we ought to have upon our fellow human beings, regardless of their race, status, creed, colour, physical appearance or any other such earthly attributes. Yes....it clearly pictures a scenario in the church service...how we treat a poor man in contrary to a rich man with a rich look. If we really look deeply into our hearts and self-analyse ourselves, tis is the reality folks....This is how we really are...... But the Word of God clearly and strictly warns that if we continue to be like these kind of human beings without a single trace of real love in our heart, we aren't going to inherit His kingdom, for sure! ((James 2:2-7)
James also quotes the main law found in our Scriptures from the Old Testament, "Love your neighbour, as you love yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), saying that, if we just obey this law, we are doing right or we're living a right kind of Christian living in this world. Basically, what He tries to emphasise into our minds is that, when we treat one person important than the other for no reason, we're truly sinning and are made guilty of obeying God's Law. Most importantly, the Ten Commandments or the Laws that our Father had taught us MUST be followed for us to be made free under His law. Its not that following all of them but leaving only one for granted.. So, as Christians, we are bound to show mercy upon others so that Our God will show His mercy upon us on the Judgement day....Tats it!!
FAITH AND GOOD WORKS (James 2:14-26)
Already we came across 'faith' in James Chapter 1. But now, I would like to raise a question to you....... Is it enough that we sit still having lot of faith and doing nothing? is it ok? will we be rewarded by God for that? No frnzzz...... if there is real faith stirring up within our hearts, it will surely be manifested by our deeds.... I mean...our good works and actions in our lives that makes us right with our God. What James states is, having faith without doing anything is worth nothing...nothing! He says a beautiful example for this about a person without any food or clothes coming to us stating his/her problem. At this juncture, if we say plainly, "God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat" without offering him his needs, what is that faith useful for? its just a dead one! (James 2:15-17)
Everyone have belief and faith....but showing it in deeds is the true way of living in faith on God. At this point, James ridicules us to be a foolish person having faith alone, doing nothing. The best person who's been taken as best example for living by faith is Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, having complete extraordinary faith in the Almighty. If you read James 2:23, it clearly refers the Scripture about the faith of Abraham from Genesis 15:6, and so he was called God's friend (2Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8)
So, the simple point that we ought to notice here is that, just as a body without spirit is dead, so is faith without doing anything!(James 2:26)
Beloved in Christ, these are the two main virtues that are being focussed by James in his second chapter regarding the journey of our life as Christians on this earth. Just what we have to do is, have a look into ourselves and examine our conscience how we are really to the core..... Do we have the real love and compassion that Jesus pursued in His life or the worldly fake ones? Do our faith really accompany with good works or only by fashionable words? Come on frnz....let us transform us into worthy Christians before God's sight. I'll come up with the spiritual jewels of third Chapter of James soon.....!
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