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Today, we look at a passage from the Book of James. I apply it to our practice of impartial love and loving. Then, at the end, I offer a short Scripture for meditation or lectio divina and some questions for reflection and prayer. Doing the exercises is important, as they provide opportunity to exercise spiritual capacities, embodying the message in the writing.
One day the mystic jester Mulla Nasrudin went to a Turkish bath. He was dressed very poorly. The two attendants, therefore, did not pay much attention to him. They gave him only a scrap of soap, a rag for a loincloth, and an old towel. Upon leaving, Mulla, to the attendant’s surprise, gave each of them a gold coin. He, likewise, did not complain of their poor service. They wondered had they treated him better whether he would have given even a larger tip. The next week, Mulla arrived again to bathe. The two attendants treated him like royalty, including giving him embroidered towels and a loincloth of silk. They massaged and perfumed him. Upon leaving, Mulla handed each attendant the smallest copper coin possible. "This," spoke Mulla, "is for the last visit. The gold coins are for today."
James, possibly the brother of Jesus’, more likely someone writing under the name of James of Jerusalem, one of the original twelve disciples and head of the Jerusalem Church, provides a wisdom letter using diatribe. In his argumentation he implores the church to a right assessment of the good works in the Christian life, for it seems that inertia had set in through a reading of faith that minimized the importance of good works. Likewise, a symptom of this inertia was a lack of love within the church, which evidenced in partiality:
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1My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won't treat some people better than others. 2Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. 3You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor. 4That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge. 5My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him. 6You mistreat the poor. But isn't it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court? 7Aren't they the ones who make fun of your Lord? 8You will do all right, if you obey the most important law (lit. “royal law”) in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. 9But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned. 10If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all. 11The same God who told us to be faithful in marriage also told us not to murder. So even if you are faithful in marriage, but murder someone, you still have broken God's Law. 12Speak and act like people who will be judged by the law that sets us free. 13Do this, because on the day of judgment there will be no pity for those who have not had pity on others. But even in judgment, God is merciful! (James 2, CEV)
The writer begins adelfoi mou, “my friends (lit. my brothers, implying both genders),” which, as noted by John Wesley, is the ground of this address. For the word implies the equality of Christians (John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible). Again, in verse 5 we read “my dear friends,” adelfoi mou agaphtoi, “my dearly loved brothers,” appealing to kinship in Spirit. However, we need to note that nowhere does the writer exclude from the adelfoi mou those not espousing the Christian faith. He is, like other letters in the New Testament, being contextual, addressing Christians.
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