Week 51: James, Day 4

READ
James 4:1 – 5:6
Psalm 104

REFLECT 

Qualities in Relationships
 Virtually everyone has at least two sets of relationships to deal with on a daily basis: persons, and things. James is not timid about weighing in on dysfunction in relationships that erupt into “quarrels and conflicts.” Right to the point, he fingers our tendency to slip into the pleasure-driven life, where “what I want, when I want it,” is the basis of our action plan. When “our way” is the driving force, we tend to set people against each other, and to crave things that clutter our lives with needless baggage. Not only that, the craving of pleasure can shut the door on our conversations with the Master, Jesus.
 It’s really quite simple. Our God is a jealous God, who requires fidelity in our relationship with Him. It is He who gives grace in abundance. It is He who seeks to welcome us, coming with our hands clean, and our hearts pure. It is He who longs for us to come to terms with an undivided allegiance to Him. We cannot serve two masters. My son has played the lead role in a French farce, Servant to Two Masters. While it is a hilarious comedy, there is an underlying tragedy conveyed by the absolute impossibility and overpowering frustration in trying to keep both masters served and happy. If the playwright can capture the truth, why can’t we learn to choose absolutely our Master Jesus, and live for Him truly?
 More specifically, James counsels us, not only to hold “things” lightly, but to treat our brothers and sisters fairly, especially with reference to matters of the common law of the land. In many ways, this counsel is an extension of the issue of selfish indulgence noted above. James in effect says, “Clean it up,” in your manner of relating to others, and cut out the judgmentalism.
 Then there is the issue of social justice. With James, “richness” does not cut it. He points out that no matter the quality of one’s wardrobe, the extent of one’s wealth, or the size of one’s properties, you can’t avoid the obligation to pay the laborer a fair wage. It all will decay anyway, some day – although James didn’t account for the fact that gold and silver don’t rust, they just tarnish. Nowhere in the Scriptures can it be found that a man can be in right relationship with God if he is acting unjustly toward his fellows.
 Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) wrote a valuable instruction: “I know that God has given us the use of goods, but only as far as is necessary. . . . It is absurd and disgraceful for one to live magnificently and luxuriously when so many are hungry.” I believe my mother had read this quote. I got the message.
 This part of the Christian’s life can, in our generally affluent national environment, provide challenges to our self-satisfying tendencies. After all, can we withstand the onslaught of glitzy advertising? We had better be very careful in our responses.

RESPOND
This is the Advent/Christmas season, a time when our “wants” are highlighted by the gifting we embrace so readily. Then there are the “wants” that appear on the gift lists from spouses, children, grandchildren (especially), and get caught up in the frenzy of it all. Perhaps this is the year when we put into perspective the multiple areas of counsel we find in the Epistle of James, and commit to a careful, while fully loving, expression of our primary allegiance to the Christ Child, and give gifts out of spiritual sensitivity.

PRAY
My loving Lord, who continues to be the giver of all good things, “Let me sing to God all my life long, sing hymns to my God as long as I live!” (Psalm 104:33 TM).

- D.E.E.