Learning To Give Respect To All In Our Churches

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord

Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect

of persons. For if there come unto your assembly 

a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and

there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

and ye have respect to him that weareth the

gay clothing, an say to the poor, Stand thou

there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye

 not then partial in yourselves, and are become

judges of evil thoughts?  

James 2:1-4

     How often has this been done in our Churches were one person is given preference over another and often due to their dress, or even their appearance. Too often a poor person will sit in the back of the Church because he or she is afraid of what others will think or say. How often is it that a person who can speak well with good English be given more preference to their words than to a person with a low education, or one who has trouble with words or speech? Yes, it is good that a person who leads the Church be able to speak well and should dress with respect as he would if he was to go before the President of the United States. Everyone who comes into the Church is not to be judged by dress or speech but rather by his heart, his actions, and what he may say in regards to doctrine. There is no special place in the Church for people who are poor and people who are rich. There is to be no partiality in the Church. Yes, we must have leaders who are educated in the Scriptures and should speak well, fluently so that the word of God is heard and understood by all. 

     James gives us this: "Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them" (James 2:5). No one gets a special place or seat in heaven! All those who are the bride of Jesus Christ are the bride of Jesus Christ with no respect to income, or ability to speak, or to what they wear. 

     Often rich people bring to court poor people or in the least oppress them so for a Christian to despise or look down on a poor man is wrong before man, and especially before God: "But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not the blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called" (James 2:7)?

      The Law, that is, the Ten Commandments is still in force. This Law of God is our foundation and responsibility as Authentic Christians. We are to keep it faithfully. The Law, even if you keep it faithfully will not save you. But by your faith and conversion to Jesus Christ the Law will give impetus to live according to the Law. Works are derived from the law and our love for our Savior Jesus Christ. James gives this admonition: "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:8-10). 

     God is good for He has given to us His will for us and how to please Him in all that we do and say. We are sanctified by God but we are, however, entirely not to be passive in the process. we are to cooperated with God in the work of sanctification by diligent use of the means which God has placed at our disposal. Our sanctification is complete in Jesus Christ but we have a process, even a lengthy process in this life even though we will not reach perfection in this life in this process our sanctification is complete in Jesus Christ. But, and this is important: we are not to be apathetic and passive waiting for our death or the return of Jesus Christ. We have been given a command to go forth to the world and bring the Gospel to the world. We bring to everyone, no matter their status in their life the Gospel. We do not give respect over one person to another. We were given the Gospel and our faith in the condition we were in when this occurred so this will be true of others. 

    Yes, we are to dress as respectfully as we can, and if we can we aid others to dress with respect, even to aid them to buy clothes that are called respectful clothing, giving to them a hand up and raising the bar of respect so that they too will not only feel good about themselves, they will be demonstrating a higher respect to God that the world will see: both the giver and the receiver play a part in this spreading of the Gospel and our love for Jesus Christ.

Commit they way into the LORD; 

     trust also in Him; and He shall

bring it to pass.

                  Psalm 37:5

Sit next to someone new Sunday

Richard L. Crumb