NT 260: Part OneSample

James says that one way of loving your neighbor as yourself is to not give preference to rich people. He also says something kind of scary by telling us if we violate any part of the law; we are guilty of all of it. People like to view certain sins as big and others as not so big. Of course there are bigger consequences for some sins, like prison or damage to your reputation, but God sees us as either sinful or righteous. Finally he tells us our behavior should be consistent with what we believe. If I truly believe God is in control and loves us unconditionally, I would never want to do anything He doesn’t like. If I have no problem with doing wrong things, it calls my faith into question.

Not showing preference for rich or powerful people is hard. We want to be viewed favorably by those who can benefit us. It’s not so much that we need to think less of rich people, but more of poor people. We benefit from respecting them by pleasing God. It’s one of the ways our behavior can be consistent with our faith.