9th. February. 2022. Daily Devotion.

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? James 2:2-4.

James sets forth an important principle in that believers should not make judgments on the basis of outward appearances. “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favouritism.” In the Greek, “personal favouritism” is a compound of the words “face, outward, surface” and “receive.” Those who have placed their trust in Christ should not receive others on the basis of externals; they should look beyond the surface to the level of inward character.

James illustrates this principle with the natural tendency to look with greater favor upon those who appear to be wealthy:

Such distinctions in the assembly of believers destroys the unity which Christ made possible. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). These distinctions also reveal the impure motives of judging others in terms of their social status and their ability to provide financial assistance. This stands in stark contrast to the “pure and undefiled religion” of James 1:26-27 which seeks to minister to others without expecting something in return.  K. Boa.

Glory to God

Glory to You, Lord God, bringing from the depth of the earth an endless variety of colours, tastes and scents.
Glory to You for the warmth and tenderness of the world of nature.
Glory to You for the numberless creatures around us.
Glory to You for the depths of Your wisdom, the whole world a living sign of it.
Glory to You: on my knees, I kiss the traces of Your unseen hand.
Glory to You, enlightening us with the clearness of eternal life.
Glory to You for the hope of the unutterable, imperishable beauty of immortality.
Glory to You, O God, from age to age. Amen.

For Those in Distress
I pray to you, Master, be our helper and defender. Rescue those of our number in distress; raise up the fallen; assist the needy; heal the sick; turn back those of your people who stray; feed the hungry; release our captives; revive the weak; encourage those who lose heart. Let all the nations realize that you are the only God, that Jesus Christ is your Child, and that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture.
Amen.

 We praise you, God, who came to us in your word, for the richness of language, dialect and idiom. Thank you for the ability to learn and use language – both mother-tongue and others – and for how living a new language leads to deeper understanding of ourselves, others and you. Above all, we rejoice in the language of your love, beyond words. Amen.