Attitudes Shaped by Grace | Day 39

“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 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,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4, NIV)

The Lord’s peace to you this morning, friends. Most of us know the feeling of standing at the edge of a crowded room with a plate in our hands. It might be a church potluck, a wedding reception, or a graduation party, and every table seems full. We look for a face we know, an empty chair, someone who will glance up and wave us over. When someone slides over and says, “Sit here,” we remember it. This morning James asks us to look at that room from the other side, from the chair where we are already seated.

The Seat We Offer Without Thinking

James sets the scene of our key verse in a place we know well, a gathering of believers. Two men walk in. One wears a gold ring and fine clothes, and the other wears filthy old clothes. One is shown to a good seat, and the other is told to stand or to sit on the floor. James does not describe a church that hated the poor man. He describes a church that made a quick decision about who mattered more, and he calls that decision what it is: becoming judges with evil thoughts.

The decision rarely feels like judgment when we make it. We size people up by what we can see: clothes, car, title, last name, how well they fit in. The world has trained us to do this since childhood. It hands out the good seats to the attractive, the successful, the well connected, and the useful, and it quietly teaches everyone else to find their own way to the back. Sorting does not only run toward the impressive. We can also rank people by whose hurt we find more sympathetic, whose side they are on, or how much they remind us of ourselves. Whether the scale is status or grievance, we have taken the seating chart into our own hands.

James names it plainly. “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” (James 2:8-9, NIV) The royal law, the law of the King, makes no room for a neighbor we decided was worth less. Our seating charts reveal something deeper. We have often measured people by what they can add to us rather than by the price Jesus Christ has already paid for them.

The standard was never ours to set. Moses reminded Israel what kind of God they served. “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-18, NIV) The God who rules over every throne cannot be impressed by a gold ring, and he cannot be bought. His care reaches the very people the world seats last.

The One Who Took the Lowest Place

Jesus once told a parable to people who had drawn up their own seating chart before God, and Luke tells us exactly who they were. “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’” (Luke 18:9-14, NIV)

The Pharisee had given himself the best seat in his own chart, and his prayer was mostly a list of the people he was glad not to be. Luke tells us where that list came from. He was confident of his own righteousness, and looking down on everyone else grew out of that confidence. The tax collector brought no list at all. He stood at a distance, asked for mercy, and went home justified. His humility did not earn that verdict. God gave it freely to a man who had nothing to bring. The way we seat other people reveals where we think we are seated before God.

Paul shows us who gave up the best seat of all. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9, NIV) The Son of God had every right to the highest place in heaven and on earth. He was laid in a manger because there was no room for his family, and he spent his ministry eating with tax collectors and sinners. Then he went lower still. He was counted among criminals and crucified outside the city. Jesus became poor in our place, and he did it for every person who has ever lived: the one in fine clothes and the one in filthy rags, the one who did the sorting and the one who was sent to the floor. Through his poverty the whole world has been declared righteous before God, and all who trust in him receive those riches as their own. The Holy Spirit creates that trust in us through his Word.

A person who knows where Christ has seated them no longer needs to guard a seating chart. The Holy Spirit works through this good news to give us new eyes in every room we walk into. The man with the gold ring and the man in the filthy clothes become what they were all along, two people for whom Christ became poor. So the Spirit moves us to be the one who looks up from the table. We notice the visitor standing alone at the back of church and learn his name. We save a chair at the next potluck for the person no one seems to know. We ask the quiet coworker to lunch. None of this buys anything from God. He has already given us everything, and love simply wants to share the table. That is what grace does with a heart that used to decide who belongs.

Every chair we offer points back to Jesus Christ. He took the lowest place so that we could be welcomed into his Father’s family, and he made room for us when we had nothing to bring but our sin. The next time we stand at the edge of a crowded room, plate in hand, we can remember that our place has already been prepared by him. And the next time someone else is standing there, we get to be the one who waves them over.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I confess that I have sized people up by what I could see and decided too quickly who mattered. I have given the good seat to the impressive and the familiar, and I have let others stand at the edge of the room. Thank you that you did not treat me that way. Though you were rich, you became poor for me, and through your poverty you have made me rich with forgiveness and a place in your Father’s family.

Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who works through your Word to give me new eyes. Help me to see every person I meet today as someone you died for and rose for. Make me quick to notice the one standing alone, glad to slide over and make room, and free from the need to rank anyone. Bless the visitors who will walk into churches this week, and let them find a welcome that points them to you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Thank you for reading this morning. Wherever you sit down today, at a desk, a kitchen table, or a pew, the Lord is glad to have you there. The next devotion turns to church membership and asks what the gate into a congregation was built to guard.

To God be the glory.

Pray, praise, and give thanks, for God is good and His mercy endures forever.

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