The Law of Love - sermon excerpts.
James 2:1-13
In Song of Songs 8:7 we read, “Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
I want to start off by saying that “God created all humanity in His image; all are equal in His sight.” We could learn a lot from the kids Sunday school song that said, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” I think we’ve convinced ourselves over the years, “Jesus loves the little children, but I don’t have to lift a finger for anyone...because Jesus loves them – isn’t that great – good job Jesus.” Unfortunately, “in our worldly perspective, we see the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the good looking and the not-so-good looking, the educated and the illiterate.” In this second chapter, James sees favoritism as a critical problem in the Christian community of his day – I don’t see it being any less of a problem in ours. James struggled with the preferential treatment of the rich at the expense of the poor. Ultimately what James sees is that favoritism among God’s people is a violation of God’s command to love our neighbor.
Basically – take whatever group of people or person offends you, whatever types of people you don’t like, whatever kinds of people who have vi
Much like the culture of our day, the J
Jesus through His ministry life and example proves over and over again that He is not impressed with social status. The widow who gave all she had was greater in the eyes of Jesus than the Pharisee who made a large donation. Since Jesus looked at the heart of a man – He saw and sees the potential in even the “vilest offender.” Just look at His disciples – In Simon Peter, Jesus saw a Rock. In Matth
You and I tend to judge people based solely on their past rather than looking at the potential of their future. Even worse, we judge and make assumptions based solely on appearance. Jesus was accused of being a “friend of sinners” – an accusation that He never refuted.
Jesus was despised and rejected – essentially He was the poor man – rejected by self-righteous individuals. I wonder if we had seen Jesus while He was ministering on earth, if there would have been anything physically or materially attractive about Him? Yet "He is the very Glory of God revealed to us in human skin." How can you and I practice the Deity of Christ in our human relationships? By seeing everyone through the eyes of Jesus. “It is Christ who is the link between us and others – He is the link of love.”
Much of what James is teaching us to do in the first part of this chapter parallels what Jesus teaches in Matth
James' teaching in these 13 verses can summarized in verse 8 – “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right.” He goes so far as to say in verse 10 that if we stumble on this single point, we are guilty of breaking the law in its entirety. Wow. Is it really that important to love?
The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is spurred by a single question from an “expert in the law.” The question that spurs this parable is when the expert in the law asks, “And who is my neighbor?” The “expert” in the law asked the wrong question. When we know who our neighbor is...then conversely, we know who our neighbor ISN’T – when we know who our neighbor ISN’T – we can point out those we really don’t need to love. We can pick favorites. James says, “If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right.” You see, we don’t go around asking – who is my neighbor – who can I choose to show love to – who deserves it – we are to be a neighbor to everyone.
In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. L
“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”
I have to close with another quote from C. S. L
Today if you need to set aside some bitterness, some hatred, a judgmental attitude - or if you need to take another step toward extending forgiveness to someone who has wronged you in some way, can I just invite you to allow yourself to be swallowed up in the love of Christ? Bitterness, hatred, jeers and accusations from judgmental people were all things that He experienced as He walked the road to
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