YEAR 1, WEEK 37, Day 4, Thursday, 12 September 2024

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 12 September 2024:

James 2:1 — My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

Partiality is a sin because it involves viewing others from your selfish perspective rather than from God’s perspective. It is the first form of judging others wrongly.

James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Only by seeing lawlessness from God’s perspective can we get a true sense of how terrible sin is before a Holy God and our total dependence on grace. Only by understanding how guilty we are and how hopeless our condition as sinners do we truly appreciate the Cross of Christ and the mercy that we have received. Only then are we inspired by grateful love to truly obey from the heart and to show grace and mercy to other sinners.

James 2:12, 13 — So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Many ‘Christians’ act like grace is freedom from the consequences of sin rather than acting like grace is the freedom not to sin. It is a much graver thing to be judged under the law of liberty rather than to be judged under the written law. What is left to be said of the person who accepts the sacrifice of the Son of God for their sins and then turns around and sins unremorsefully? The unsaved cannot help but sin and haven’t the power of the Spirit and of love, but the saved who live by faith also live by love which by default hates the sin that God hates. No one should be more horrified by sin than the Christian.

James 2:13 — For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

God will treat you the way you treat others. Do you rely on mercy from God for your transgressions while demanding justice be imposed on those who have offended you?

• Matthew 6:12 — …and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
• Matthew 7:2 — For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
• Luke 6:37-38 — “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

James 2:19, 20 — You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Many who claim to be Christian don’t even have a demon-level of faith — they don’t even shudder. Believing in Jesus isn’t the same as having a saving faith in Jesus, humbly trusting, following, and loving Jesus. The Great Commission does not call us to go into the world and make “believers;” it calls us to make “disciples,” disciplined, followers of Christ who are motivated by love to obey Him – “Go therefore and make disciples… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Obedience is not the path to salvation but rather the evidence of salvation. “Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.” (Proverbs 20:11) “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” (1 John 2:3, 4)

• Psalm 96:9 — Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
• Psalm 99:1 — The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
• Luke 6:46 — Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
• Matthew 7:21 — “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
• 1 John 2:6 — …whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
• 1 John 3:24 — Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
• 2 John 1:9 — Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
• 1 John 5:3 — For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

James 2:26 – Faith apart from works is dead.

True faith is revealed by its fruit. We are saved by faith, not by works; but a faith without works is no faith at all. We are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 12 September 2024: Today, pray for a perspective of the Gospel which will compel you in love and appreciation to obey God with joy, cleansing yourself from defilement and laying aside the weight of sin which has being weighing you down — “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1, 2)