James 2:2-4

New American Standard Version

2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          Here is an example of what I mean – what if a person were to come into one of your worship services wearing expensive clothing and fine jewelry and, at the same time, another person were to come in dressed shabbily and poorly groomed. If you were to rush to greet the wealthy individual and say, “Please, come down to the front.  We have a choice seat just for you,” and you were to say to the destitute person, “If you want to stay, you can either stand here in the back or sit there on the floor,” wouldn’t that show that you care about money and not people? Wouldn’t that mean that you are judging people motivated by sinful ambitions?

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          Buying a used car is a challenging task.  There are many automobiles that look great on the outside – the paint is shiny, the tires have plenty of tread left, and the upholstery has no tears or holes.  Overall, the vehicle looks like a good buy.  I bought such a used car once.  As a father of four little children at the time and living on the limited income    of a young minister, I had only so much money to spend on a car but I needed transportation.  This car looked really nice.  The one who sold it to me assured me it was in good shape.  On the brief test drive, it seemed to run smoothly enough.  Everything looked fine and so I handed over my hard earned cash and drove away.

          Shortly thereafter, I began to notice an unpleasant odor – like something was burning.  I soon observed a growing cloud of smoke following behind me as I drove.  The farther I went, the thicker the cloud grew.  I felt a little like the children of Israel following the cloud but in reverse.  To make a sad and long story somewhat shorter – the car that looked so good on the outside had all kinds of mechanical problems on the inside.  It was what is commonly referred to as a “lemon”.  With used cars, looks can certainly be deceiving.

          The same thing is true with people.  There are some who, on the surface, look as if they have everything together.  They polish up really well and shine on the outside.  They say the right words and put forth the right image but on the inside, there are a host of spiritual and emotional problems that are not right.  Like my old car, no matter how many coats of wax you put on the outside and how hard you work to make it all shiny, that doesn’t fix what is wrong on the inside.

          Exactly the opposite is also true.  Through the years, there have been a host of people that I have met that, on the outside, do not give the first impression of “having it all together spiritually”.  They don’t look like the stereotypical image that you might have of what a Christian ought to look like.  They just look on the outside a little different than your typical “Sunday-go-to-meetin’” Baptist.  However, when you talk with them and hear what is really in their heart, you soon discover that on the inside lives a follower of Christ who loves Him with all their heart.  Time and again, these folks have astounded me with spiritual wisdom and insight that you wouldn’t have expected if you had judged them by their appearance.

          The old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” certainly applies to God’s people.  We come in every shape, color, background, and appearance.  What we look like on the outside really doesn’t matter at all.  What is really important is having a heart in love with Jesus on the inside.

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Ask the Lord to help you to always have spiritual discernment that would help you look past outward appearances and value what is in a person’s heart.  Pray that you would never treat anyone differently because of what color they are, how they look, or what they have or don’t have.  Ask the Lord to give the love that He has for all people because you want to both live and love more like Him.

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