On June 1, 1976, in a television interview with Reverend Adrian Rogers, then president of the Southern Baptist Convention and George Otis, director of High Adventure Ministries, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States spoke these words. “I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t call upon God, and hopefully thank Him as often as I called upon Him. And, yes, in my own experience there came a time when there developed a new relationship with God and it grew out of a need. So, yes, I have had an experience that could be described as “born again.” ¹ Knowing where your faith and confidence lies is vitally important in these ‘darker days’ in which we live. This knowledge should not lie just in a ‘one time’ experience with God but in a day to day, situation by situation lifestyle. The believers James writes to, in his epistle, had their faith somewhere else. It’s helpful to be reminded of his counsel.

James 2:1 (KJV)
¹ My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

The Great Contrast between The Crucified Lord and the Glorified Lord

• The phrase ‘Lord of Glory’ occurs here and in 1 Corinthians 2:8.
• Paul calls on believers to remember the crucified Lord of Glory.
• What a contrast.
• The Lord of Creation, the Commander of the Light Realm, darkened as a moonless night.
• Who understands such a thought?
• The rulers of this age, the lords of the black realm, thought they did.
• Yet on the third day, their impure thinking rose to the surface like the scum of dead boiling chicken.
• God raised Jesus from the dead.
• He snatched him right out of hell’s clutches.
• When he did so, he arose as a new man.
• A resurrected born again man.
• The first model off the new creation assembly line.

Romans 8:29 (KJV)
²⁹ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

• He didn’t emerge empty-handed either.
• Jesus was glorified by God’s own presence.

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John 17:5 (KJV)
⁵ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

• He ascended with a new title.
• The Resurrected Lord of Glory.
• Consider the wisdom of walking in the murkiness of favoritism knowing this Jesus event.

James Warning about Misplaced Faith

• The words ‘have not’ in the phrase ‘have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is a Greek imperative performing as a commandment.
• Commandments are orders from God.
• They are not Sunday school suggestions.
• The behavior of the saints towards the poor draws this corrective word from James.
• By leeching onto the rich, these sucking saints cast the poor man aside.
• James grew up in the same household as Jesus.
• He heard his ‘older brother’ teach many times on the subject of money.
• One day he heard Jesus say, “Possessions are not to possess you” (Luke 12:15).
• “You can’t serve God and gold” (Matt 6:24).
• Trading Jesus for George Washington’s won’t get you down the runway.
• Principles propel you.
• Character is king.
• James jacks this sin straight-up.
• Prejudice is dancing with the world’s way of thinking.
• Have you noticed how much of the corrective teaching in the Bible centers on rebuilding your thinking?
• You have thought in the way of selfishness rather than God’s love.
• You’ve thought justice in place of mercy. Outward body image in lieu of Christ’s image.
• Who we are in society in preference to who we are in Him.
• Spiritual growth only comes  as we turn loose our philosophies of life.
• Allow your thinking to shift into the way heaven thinks.

Operating in Favoritism Shows Where Your Faith Lies

• The pandering saints James addresses showed where their faith rested.
• It wasn’t in El-Shaddai, the more than enough God.
• Their confidence focused on their puny ability to jostle for advantage.
• Maybe they confused one for the other?
• How often we think God needs maneuvering help.
• The Bible says the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, Heb. 10:38).
• What you live by, you exist by.
• It upholds you.
• You should move in faith, looking to God as your source.
• If the Spirit of God arranges a financial hook-up, you are on solid ground.
• If you try to do it, righteous principles may take the smack down.
• On the other side of the street, faith and love are marriage partners (Galatians 5:6).
• Since, prejudice violates the royal law, it’s also a desecration of the life of dependence.
• You cannot have vibrant trust in God and engage in the sin of prejudice.

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Call to Action:

The problem with playing favorites for advantage is the lack of dependence on the Spirit of God. It’s a faith issue or a matter of reliance. Looking and leaning to God is the standard by which Christian life reaches success.

Question: What did you do to adjust yourself in such a way that you became more dependent on God in your everyday life?

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