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Post by Tanner on Apr 2, 2016 1:11:43 GMT
In James 2 they they talk about how you can not show favoritism. If you do nice things for the rich and and are mean to the poor. You then are breaking the law in 8, "Love your neighbor as your self." If you break just one law then you are guilty of breaking all of the laws. If someone does wrong to you, don't judge them because if you have ever broken a law then you are just as bad as they are.
Another topic they bring up is having faith without action. If you believe in God that's good but as it says in 19, "Even demons believe in God and fear him." We need to show our faith in God by deeds. Like how Abraham showed his faith through offering Isaac at the altar. A person is not righteous for their belief in God but also their deeds. In the same way you can't have deeds without faith.
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Post by Aaron on Apr 2, 2016 4:00:50 GMT
These are two great points.
I remember a couple weeks ago i was at the prison with Pastor Ken and when in there was praying and how I was no different that them. They had the heart for God that made a mistake and to the world it was a bigger one or they just got caught but to God all are the same. We are no better than them or anyone- we are all guilty and fall short of the Glory of God but he redeemed us and set us free.
I think for all of you guys showing favoritism and prejudice is huge in schools. Need to treat all equal no matter what the circumstance is.
Faith and deeds have to go hand and hand. Some people can go around doing deeds, others just have faith. Have to put them together to actually be of value. You separate these things and are worthless.
Why did you like Chapter 2 more? easier to read? had more that you could take from it? or just the topics it talked about?
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Post by Tanner on Apr 2, 2016 14:13:41 GMT
I liked James 2 because I thought that showing favoritism is something. We really struggle with just to comprehend that we are equal to all sinners. Also having faith and deeds at the same time can be difficult sometimes.
not to say that James 1 was not important too. So I probably like it more because of the topics it talks about.
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Post by Aaron on Apr 2, 2016 16:58:33 GMT
Its always amazing how different passages can speak to different people and what they take away from it. There are even different times in our lives that we can read the same things and take something different away form it just based on what we are going through
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Post by Tanner on Apr 8, 2016 16:37:38 GMT
Today I was doing math and was dividing decimals by 10. This is so easy to do but I noticed that when I was doing large problems I was using long division wasting time. I don't know why but this reminded me of fath without deeds. We know exactly what to do but are not putting it into practice.
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Post by Aaron on Apr 9, 2016 4:04:53 GMT
Well I'm glad that you had that that view. I don't know if i would have ever came up with it  but yes sometimes when things are easy things go well- and when we ar eon those highs its looks so easy and we can do anything then all the sudden something happens and changes and even though its the exact same thing. Can look a lot tougher |
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Post by Brooke on Apr 9, 2016 16:34:52 GMT
In verse 1 it says don't show favoritism because there's a God up in heaven who dwells in so much glory. There's a distinction between God and man. In verses 2- 4 it talks about showing special attention to the rich and then discriminating the poor. We might pay special attention to those who possess more and discriminate to those who are less fortunate. These days we might show special attention to the famous, beautiful, and rich people. If anything we should be clamoring to care for those who get less attention. The rich are the ones who dragging us into sin. (v. 5-7) Favortism should not be treated lightly. Favortism to you might seem like a small sin but it's a huge sin. (v. 8-11) In verse 12 it says to speak and act as if one day we'll stand before the Lord and get judged for our actions. God came down to the earth to die for all of us nasty sinners. God chose to give mercy to everyone not just pick and choose the ones he wanted to give mercy. That's my call for you today to show mercy to everyone even to the one's who usually get rejected.
The first verse basically sums up the whole passage it says if a man just professes he's a Christian but has no deeds can that faith save him, and the obvious answer is no! In verses 15-17 he says suppose you see someone on the side of the road without clothes and starving to the death. If you just go by him and say keep warm and be filled without giving him clothes or food what good is that, and in the same way if a person just professes his faith and has no action that faith is dead. In verses 18-19 he says what if someone says to someone else, "You have faith; I have deeds." Then someone says, show me your faith without action and I will show you my faith with action. The person without faith is compared to the demons because they believe there's a God but refuse to transform their lives. Faith demands action. In verses 20- 25 he gives Abraham as an example as considered righteous for what he did when offering Isaac on the altar because his faith and actions were made complete by what he did. Rahab was also considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in the other direction. When you die your spirit is dead same is a faith without deeds.
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Post by Aaron on Apr 9, 2016 22:36:21 GMT
Yeah if we should favoritism it just lets us lead into all sorts of discriminating and that most of it uncalled for. We most of the time look at outward appearance and that things that we can see and judge by but its the inside that counts. These things don't do us any good and are really just a waste of time. How often do we spend a lot of time looking at a person and making all these assessments about someone and really they are just guesses because we don't know them enough. We we spend all this time and it is just a waste of time. Then even once we know they person we still take a look at the other stuff around them because we have developed and assessment of them.
Faith and Deeds must go hand in hand. I would bet you can take a close look at your school and see some people have faith and some have deeds. They mean nothing when not together; these people aren't making a difference have to have both to do so.
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