Friday Morning Community - James 2, Psalm 2

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 (NASB95)

It's so difficult to treat everyone the same because of the way we view the world. How many of our relationships are bringing us some return? That is to say, how often are we thinking in terms of "what I can get" from the relationship rather than what I have to give. 90% of the relationship conflicts I work with people through boil down to expectations vs. reality in interpersonal relationship. Marriage is certainly that way... but I think that's what James is saying in this text. When you say to the wealthy person - "sit here in this comfortable chair" and the person without much - "sit here on the floor by my feet" we're recognizing, even at a sub-conscious level that there is more to gain from the one who has little than from the one who has much! James says that those are "evil motives."

If we spent more of our time asking the question, "How can I be responsible for someone else's success?" I think we would be generally happier. When we expect others to meet our needs and further our progress we're rarely, if ever, satisfied that they've done all they can do.

Perhaps we could spend more time working on the "royal law" which is to "love your neighbor as yourself." We can be self-absorbed (which may not always really be "loving ourselves") and forget that our call is to serve, to love, to give... not live in relationships waiting to get.