BIBLE STUDY WITH ME | James 2

hello guys and welcome back to my channel in today's video we are going to be continuing with our Bible study series going through the book of James and we'll be doing chapter 2 in this video so if you haven't already make sure you go back and watch my James 1 video because we do cover a lot of context in that video and really just set the foundation for a lot of what we'll be studying not only today but also in chapters three four and five so check that out if you haven't already and then if you have already watched that and if you are going through this series with me in real time comment below a star emoji so I know where you're at typically when I film these Bible study with me videos I will read through the chapter that I'm going to be filming the entire week leading up to filming it just to familiarize myself with it I find that the more you read through a passage the more you start to notice different things about it and so that's a little tip for you is to read through something multiple times even if you are going through this with me and reading this chapter as we're studying it together I encourage you to keep reading through it even after this video and so anyhow as I was reading through it this week I did rely pretty heavily on a commentary because I think this is a chapter that at first glance can seem pretty complex and so I am gonna be reading from my study Bible today instead of the typical journaling Bible you see me read from just because I want to be able to point out some of the different things from the commentary that were helpful for me as I was reading it and I also wanted to tell you that if you ever have questions about the Bible that I use whether it's the Study Bible or the journaling Bible I typically use I always have all of my study resources linked in the description so my study Bible journaling Bible highlighters the journal I use everything is linked below and that is the case always with these Bible study videos so if you ever have a question about that be sure to check that out below side note I had a salad for lunch right before filming this and right before I turned on the camera I just so happened to look in the mirror and a good thing I did because I had a giant piece of spinach stuck in my tooth and if you did watch the James Bond video you will appreciate the irony of that so with that being said without further ado let's go ahead and read James chapter number 2 verse 1 my brother's show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory for if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man you stand over there or sit down at my feet have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts this here is giving the example of showing partiality to somebody who is rich and that that is clear through the way that they're dressing versus the way that you're treating somebody who is poor and so it's talking about giving the rich person who is dressed well that seat of Honor in the assembly versus telling the person who is poor to sit down at my feet which there's a note here that says that's where servants would have sat and so it's giving somebody a place of honor versus not a place of honor of course my neighbor just started hedge trimming nothing better to do in quarantine right I'm sorry if you can hear that we'll just we'll just push through again this is an example of somebody being rich versus not rich but I really think from studying this that what it's getting at is how we are treating somebody who maybe we perceive as being able to do something for us or somebody who can benefit us in some way and so that could be somebody who is maybe a rich or has some sort of status or power and we are treating them in a good way because we know that they can do something for us in return versus the way we're treating somebody who maybe can't do anything for us and so that is sort of the distinction that he's making and he's saying that in doing so when we show that partiality that we are making ourselves the judge that we are making judgments about those people and making distinctions between those people when we shouldn't be doing that we shouldn't be showing partiality because all people are equal in God's eyes also it makes me think of something that people say a lot when it comes to dating advice so a lot of times you'll hear people say to pay attention to how that person treats the waiter verse five listen my beloved brothers has not got it chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him but you have dishonored the poor man are not the rich ones who oppress you and the ones who drive you into court are they not the ones who blaspheme the Honorable name by which you were called and so verse five that first part where it's saying has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that makes me think of when Jesus said I'm not sure exactly where he'll when he says that the last shall be first and the first shall be last there's this inverting of those who we see is poor in the world that truly they are rich in faith versus those who are rich and I don't think that this is saying that being rich is bad but what it's getting at here and this is where I did have to look into the commentary a little bit it was clarifying that this is not referring to simply being rich but this was specifically referring to the rich unbelievers and how in the context of the time when this was written frequently those who are wealthy would use the court system to steal from the poor and so that's what this was getting at not that being rich in and of itself is bad but it was basically kind of calling attention to the people in this time and saying here you are trying to impress and sort of schmooze these rich people but they're not actually treating you well and really richness isn't determined by your status or by your money or any of that but it is determined by your faith and your inheritance and the kingdom of God because that is truly what is valuable verse eight if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you are doing well but if you show partiality you are committing sin and convicted by the law as transgressors so not only is he telling us to not show partiality he is telling us that to do so is sin verse 10 for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder if you do not commit adultery but do murder you have become a transgressor of the law we as humans or at least I know me for sure we have the tendency to sort of think like oh well those aren't sins that I struggle with and we pride ourselves in the things that aren't a struggle for us and we feel good about ourselves because of that and maybe look at people who do struggle with those specific sins and think oh yeah well that's not really like a struggle for me but he's saying that there's no distinction between us so there might be one area that's not really a struggle for you but surely there are areas of struggle and sin in your life and in my life and in everybody's life and when we fail at even one point of it then we are guilty of all of it we are transgressors of the law really it is saying that we shouldn't be taking this posture of judgment and judging the sin in somebody else's life because we all have sin in our lives it might look different from other peoples but when we transgress the law in one area no matter which area of the law it is we are still transgressors of the law and that is why we need Jesus all of us have fallen short and none of us are perfect we all have sin in our lives verse twelve so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of Liberty for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy mercy triumphs over judgment whoa so basically he is telling us that when we are tempted to judge other people that we need to perceive whatever it is that they're doing that we feel the need to judge we need to perceive that through the lens of the mercy that we ourselves have received that we have fallen short of the glory of God that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I have received this great and tremendous mercy and so I need to keep that in my mind when I am tempted to judge the sin in somebody else's life and that makes me think of I believe it was a parable that Jesus shared that the takeaway point was basically that he who knows he has been forgiven much will also forgive much and so when we recognize the gravity and the weight of what we ourselves have been forgiven for then that should change the way that we are viewing other people and the things going on in their lives and we should err on the side of mercy and recognize that God is the only right judge that it is not our job or our responsibility to judge what is going on in their lives and so this is literally telling us that we are to speak and we are to act as those who are to be judged under the law of Liberty and just a quick note on that the law of Liberty we were talking about this in James 1 that when God sets out rules and tells us how to live ultimately that is leading us into the best way we can live in the most freedom and there's a note here in my commentary that says that true freedom is freedom to obey God and to do what pleases him and ultimately that's going to be for our good - and so freedom isn't doing whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it like it's sort of portrayed in our culture but really freedom is being freed from having to write because a lot of times our sinful desires rule us and this is a really silly example but just think about how growing up you would always want to you know have extra candy or eat cookies or have sugar or maybe you didn't but I for sure dit because I am a sugar fiend but my parents have certain rules in place that they had to limit the amount of sugar I had right or I'd have to have my dinner before I had a cookie or dessert or whatever and as an adult I can make those choices on my own and so there's nobody telling me to stop eating cookies but sometimes when I'm ruled by those desires and I just keep eating cookies I end up with a stomach ache and so true freedom isn't you know freedom to eat all the cookies I want to eat but true freedom is being freed from being ruled by the desires that will drive me to buy those desires that will make me want to eat 10 cookies and then end up with a stomach ache and so true freedom is freedom to obey God in the rules and the parameters that he has set in place verse 14 what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go and peace be warmed and be filled without giving them the things needed for the body what good is that so also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead we know from Scripture that we are saved by grace through faith so faith is the channel through which we receive salvation and these couple verses are talking about the necessity of works that will accompany our faith and that is not to say that works themselves save us because that is not what is saying we know that we are not saved by our works but rather this is saying that works will be an indication of genuine faith and so if you think about it like a plant if you plant let's just say an apple tree into the ground and that starts to take root into the ground then after it's taken root you're going to start to see fruit on the branches you're going to start to see apples from the different branches right so is that fruit what made those roots take root no that's not what made that happen but it is an indication that those roots have taken ruin to the ground and so our works are not what save us but this passage is telling us that if we have faith without works then do we really have faith and it's saying no it's saying that our faith is dead and so if we have a true faith then this passage is telling us that is going to express itself in works he gives this example here of if somebody is telling you that they have these physical needs and you just say okay well I'm gonna be praying for you and you have the capacity and the opportunity to actually meet those physical needs then that's not really faith and so faith needs to be accompanied by works and when it is a company if I works that is an indication that it is genuine verse 18 but somebody will say you have faith and I have works show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works you believe that God is one you do well even the demons believe and shudder dang do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar you see that his faith was active along with his works and his faith was completed by his works and so again if you're familiar with that story of Abraham and Isaac him offering up Isaac to be sacrificed wasn't in and of itself what saved him but it was an indication of the faith that was in his heart so it was something that was visible that was an indication of something that is not visible right so our faith itself isn't something that we can see but our works are going to be that visible or that tangible expression of something that we cannot see which is the faith inside of us it's like that apple tree analogy right we can't see those roots but that fruit is going to be an indication that they are in the ground that they've taken root and that that tree is alive and active verse 23 and the scripture was fulfilled that says abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God I want to read a note from the commentary on this one so it's talking about how this act of medians it was an expression of his faith that because of that he was called a friend of God and this is in contrast to those who have no acts of obedience to prove their claims to faith and are therefore seen to be friends of this world and so again the works are going to be an expression of our faith and without them really were no different than this world you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone and in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way for as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead so really James is just continuing to drive this point home if you're not familiar with the story of Rahab that is a story from the Old Testament and it is another example of an action she took that was an indication of the faith that she had and that faith expressed itself in the works that she did and so that is James - as for deeper study I'm thinking that I want to dig more into verse three and four and really a particular freeze in there standing out to me so I'll go ahead and grab my journal and we'll dig in alright so I went ahead and wrote out this verse and I'll read it out loud it says and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man you stand over there or sit down at my feet have you not made distinctions among them and become judges with evil thoughts and so the first thing that stands out to me from that is that the issue is to be making distinctions between people and then we also see that making these distinctions is then associated with becoming judges with evil thoughts I'm just going to make a note of that here and then I want to read what the commentary says about this verse because that's actually the reason I pulled it it really kind of stopped me in my tracks let me read it to you it says that Christians are not to judge each other and to do so can only mean that one's mind is consumed with evil thoughts and so now not only is the issue here of judging or making these distinctions but it's actually an indication of a heart issue as well and so when we are or when we are tempted to be casting judgments on other people then this is saying that that's actually an indication that we have allowed our mind to be consumed with evil thoughts and here in the commentary as well it says that the Greek of that was this word dial legitimist dialog is I'm not going to try but it means opinions reasoning or conclusions and so that means that our minds have been filled with opinions reasoning and conclusions and not that those in themselves are wrong but that means that our mind has been filled with evil opinions evil reasoning or evil conclusions and evil is a pretty intense word and so I'm actually gonna write out the definition to that and then also just write out some of those thoughts I just shared so I wrote out not only is judgment and issue it is also an indication that our mind has been filled with evil thoughts so I'm going to highlight that and then again I want to look up the definition of evil so I looked it up and it says embodying or associated with forces of the devil harmful or tending to harm extremely unpleasant profound immorality and wickedness and so I'm just gonna write down kind of a little bit of all of that cuz they honestly think that all of it applies so I wrote out those definitions and in writing it out what comes to mind is why if our mind is being filled with these things that are evil then why is it that way and the question I would ask myself is what have I then been filling it with if I find that my mind is filled with evil thoughts what have I been filling it with it's sort of the opposite of what we talked about in the Philippians Bible study series when it commands us in Philippians 4:8 to think about whatever is true whatever is lovely whatever is pure whatever is noble and that's sort of the opposite of this mind that has been filled with evil thoughts and it poses the question that if we find that we are constantly making judgments about other people which this verse then tells us is an indication that our mind is filled with evil thoughts then what have we been filling our minds with to produce that and so those are some questions I'm just going to think through and pray through in my own life one is where do I see myself making judgments about other people or being tempted to do so and to in those what am i filling my mind with that is producing that all right so that is all for James chapter two please comment below letting me know which first stood out to most and why that is probably one of my favorite parts about doing these Bible study videos is just seeing the different things that we're all learning and so please comment below if you haven't already please be sure to hit the subscribe button as well again I do a lot of different faiths and lifestyle videos I've been doing more with this Quarantine I have a little bit more time to do that and so if you have any video ideas or things you'd like to see for me also feel free to leave that in a comment below I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please be sure to give it a thumbs up thank you so much for watching and I will see you right back here next week for James chapter 3 thanks [Music]

Channel: Kaci Nicole

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Id: szFLs7L5fe0

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020