Is it Just Wealth?

“Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” –James 1:2-4

During my last ministry, I had a family come into my office who had just started coming back to church. On the surface, they appeared to be very unchurched. Their language wasn’t the best, they didn’t seem to know what was coming next in church, and they were pretty biblically illiterate. Not only that, but they had led a very rough life.

As we chatted, the husband told me that his family had started going to church when he was about 10. They had a salvation experience and everything seemed to be going fine. However, about 6 weeks after they were baptized, one of the church leaders came to his father and said “If you guys want to keep going here, we need your family to start wearing suits and dresses.” His family was poor, so he chose to stop going to church. I can’t say I blame him.

James writes mainly concerning wealth, but are there other ways besides wealth that we show favoritism today? I suppose that we also show favoritism when it comes to talents, popularity, and appearances. But I’d like to throw out one more idea that is especially applicable in a smaller community such as Lincoln. That is reputation. Once a person burns a bridge in a church or in a community, it seems like they can never break out of that mold. But if we are going to see our church turned inside-out, it is essential that we learn to give people a second chance. Sometimes this is with people with whom we have had previous run ins. Maybe it is old classmates or former neighbors. Other times it is people whom we have ‘heard about.’ In either case, the way we respond may make a difference in whether they keep coming and growing in the Lord, or whether they walk away from the church, and maybe from God altogether.

I have heard a lot of very positive compliments from people who have been greeted very warmly by people from JSCC. However, we must always stretch ourselves in this area. Here’s a challenge for you this week: Pray that God would put at least one person in your path that is often looked down upon by church folk. When you see someone, make a point to go and greet them and converse with them. It may happen in the grocery store, or it might be in church. Either way, they need God’s love, and they need to see it through us.