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Not surprisingly, James fires out more questions for believers here in Chapter 2. Among them are several targeting unfair treatment based on stereotypes.
Though poor and oppressed, God chose Israel as His nation. The poor became rich in faith when God delivered them time and time again, such as in Exodus when they escaped Egypt. Jesus targeted the poor when He came with power, authority, and a message of Good News. He associated with those whom no one else wanted to be around. His mission involved ministering to the marginalized of society. The poor became rich in faith when they accepted His Message and believed in His saving power as Messiah.
I don’t believe that James argues that wealthy people cannot see God or receive Salvation. However, we do know that those who are poor in spirit posture themselves to receive a greater work. Jesus went to the needy because the proud and the arrogant rejected Him. This was Jesus’ beef with the church at Laodicea. They thought they had everything they needed but they had only filled their life with material pleasures. Naturally, the poor and needy had no way to put material pleasures ahead of God’s Kingdom because they couldn’t afford them!
This is the core principle we see illustrated when we fast. We deny ourselves the comfort of eating (which poor people deal with daily), in order to focus intently on the Lord and His Kingdom purposes. We fast and pray for a greater revelation of the Lord while giving up what is taking our attention away from Him. This concept becomes crystal clear in the first part of this chapter.
James then follows up this teaching with the famous verse regarding faith without works. Simply put, it is impossible to please God without faith and James defines what the Christian faith should look like. It’s an active faith. It’s a serving faith. It is a loving faith. We know our faith is genuine when we, just like the believers who came before us, exercise that faith by actually doing something.
With all that said, James is concerned with those who think they only need Jesus once in a while, as well as those who profess Jesus but do not act. Both were a problem in the early church and both continue to plague the modern church.