Functional Faith + the Treatment of Others | James 1:26-2:13
Have any of you ever been hurt by people who call themselves Christians? Church hurt: There are many people who have been hurt by the church. I’ve told you that some of the meanest people I’ve ever met, are those who call themselves Christians. It has led many to deconstruct from Christianity all together. Mahatma Ghandi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” My first experience when hurt from people who call themselves Christians, when I was in middle school, I had a friend Woody that I had invited to church. It was a Fundamental Baptist church that my dad pastored in Okeechobee. His family didn’t go to church; he had never been to church in his life. We gave him a ride to church, and that day he wore shorts to church. Everything was going well, until a lady, stopped him in the hall and told him, “You can’t wear shorts at church. You need to go back home. This is a place of reverence. You can’t dress like that. Don’t come back until you change your clothes.” I stood there and watched her say that to him and I saw his face melt. He never came back with me to church ever again. How are we going to reach our community for Jesus if we mistreat people at church?
James 1:26-27 serves as a summary for where James is heading with the rest of the book. When James wrote the book there weren’t chapters, it is a continuation of what he just said about true religion. True Religion is not cold, dead orthodoxy but an external expression of living faith. If you have been infected with the gospel, you will have gospel-like symptom. His concern is the danger of pursuing an outward façade with no internal change. Being a “hearer” but not a “doer” of the Word. In James’ mind, an uncontrolled tongue, an uncaring heart and unclean life are symptomatic that no internal change has occurred. James is not saying we need to be “perfect,” but we should be making “progress.” Where there is no progress, there should be questions. James is teaching us that the proof that we have been transformed by the Gospel is seen in how we treat other people, especially people who are unlike us and people that we do not like.