An Amputee?

James 2:1-4 (NIV)
My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 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," 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

I was amazed at a news story of an ‘amputee’, a man who had lost his arm while doing journalism work in Iraq. As I began to think of the ‘Body of Christ’ this illustration hit home powerfully. The word ‘amputate’ means ‘to cut off’, and its synonyms amplify it strongly. Think about some of your relationships with others in the chuch with some of these words: “stop, discontinue, bring to an end, finish, disconnect, interrupt, cut short, sever, isolate, separate, keep apart, strand”.

Paul noticed that the apostle Peter preferred one group to another, and in Galatians 2:11 we hear that Paul called Peter on it. He was showing favoritism, becoming a human judge and a discriminator. In a way, he had effectively ‘amputated’ a part of the body of Christ and isolated it from the rest. How easy it is for pillars of faith and awesome examples to also be subject to this!

The apostle James, in the passage above, reminds us as brothers and as believers to not show favoritism. He gives a great illustration that strikes home even 2000 years later: how we treat someone at church based on their appearance. If the same situation were posed to us today (which it is every week!), how would we respond? Do we prefer someone based on their race, social status, dress, net worth, automobile choice, or political influence? Or, more directly, do we discriminate someone based on those same qualities? Do we alienate those with children or those who are single or those who are widowed or those who are still young in their faith or those who seem to be so different from us?

I think of many who, because of our contentions and unwillingness to be like-minded and have the same love, have been ‘cut off’ from the body of Christ. Paul reminds us in Philippians that we should, “in humility consider others better than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Jesus told the Pharisees that, “you shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to…” (Matthew 23:13). When you lay your gift of worship at the altar this Sunday, and you remember there that a brother has something against you (and not the other way around) perhaps it is time to humble yourself and be reconciled.
Consider that person with whom you have argued and judged better than yourself, and have the humility to restore, to graft back in, that dear brother or sister into the fold. Don’t become a Judge with your thoughts, be a Witness with your words and your actions!

Pilgrim