“Let the brother in humble circumstances boast about his high position, but let the rich brother boast about his being humbled since, like a wildflower, he will pass away...”.
(James 1:9-10, Complete Jewish Bible)
Humility is a precious thing. It can be so flexible and function in so many ways: trait, posture, description, deficit, etc. It is very hard to assail, although very easy to mock. It is impossible to fake, but fairly easy to imitate. It can be false or True. It is only available — in it’s genuine form — via one relationship: human to Divine. It is one of the rarest commodities. It is very difficult to acquire and cannot be gained by any selfish means.
James amazes me. As probably the most Jewish author in the New Testament other than Rabbi Paul or maybe the Apostle John or the LORD’s brother, Jude, i find him consistently keeping with the culture of Abraham & Sarah. This makes him very valuable to me, since that is my culture, too.
In the Scriptural quote above, it may seem tilted in favor of one or the other to You. However, it is equally relevant to both sides in this regard: the intervention of Abba. If someone is from humble circumstances, then their reference point with regard to “humility” comes from their experiences. Yet, the important thing is that God has granted to them an advancement in the sense that they occupy a higher position than their circumstances reflect. To Him, they are important, despite whatever testimony their worldly circumstances might say.
To the person rich in terms of this world, their interaction with humility comes from loss and not from gain. Their experience comes from what they lose. This is not their fault. Often, Christians seem to me to be the most class-warfare minded people i know, and this should not be thus. God isn’t punishing rich people and rewarding poor people here or anywhere else. A person is rich or poor because God chooses them to be rich or poor and not because of any other reason. We misunderstand that. Especially in America, we think that we control whether or not we are rich or poor and that we are the masters of our own individual destinies. We couldn’t be more wrong about that….
James’ point here is that God knows whether or not we are rich or poor, because He put us in that position. He decided that the best course for us would be to either be rich & lose stuff or to be poor & gain stuff. Either predicament is no guarantee of godliness. i know poor people who became rich and also became ungodly in that process, but i also know poor people who became rich and gained godliness in that process. Similarly, i know formerly rich people who lost their wealth and also lost their faith & turned their backs on God, but i also know formerly rich people who lost their wealth & found God in that struggle. Of course, then there are the people who watch any of these scenarios and judge the people undergoing the experience, but they are a whole other matter altogether. The experience is something God set up for each of us in order to bring us closer to Him. Some people need to lose stuff to learn, while some need to gain stuff to learn….
The rich person should boast about losing stuff, because it shows that God cares about him and also that God cares about him at the same time that He doesn’t care about the man’s wealth. God doesn’t need us, and He doesn’t need anything we have or can contribute. However, He wants us and He wants us to be fulfilled by our contributions. This is the point of James’ assertion: that God is intervening in either case of deprivation by the poor or loss by the wealthy. In either scenario, God is actively at work to bring about maturity. Therefore, either case is an occasion for boasting…about God and His rescuing of us. Although the rich man will pass away just like everyone else, he doesn’t have to pass away without God rescuing him. Though poor people may suffer indignity and deprivation on the earth, they need not suffer anything hopelessly since God will rescue them. Regardless of the circumstances in which He placed us originally, God intervenes on our behalf to draw us close to Him as our Lives progress.
Today, remember that Your circumstances of wealth or poverty, of affluence or deficit, of popularity or obscurity, of influence or commonality…these are not circumstances of Your own making. No one is a “self-made” man or woman. You are not in control of Your circumstances, and any idea to the contrary is a lie to make You prideful about something regarding which You have no business having pride in the first place. That’s too easy. Don’t allow Your enemy to make You prideful when there’s not even a good reason for it. If You’re going to be prideful, at least do it over something over which You have some actual reason to be prideful….
Instead, remember that God ordains Your circumstances…not just for fun or by chance, but based on a plan He set in motion eons ago regarding You, specifically. And whatever Your circumstances, He ordained them to give You every chance to draw near to Him and come close to Him and to foster intimacy with Him. And nothing will beget True humility more than being in the presence of God….
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