Day 8 - James 1:9-10

James 1:9-10

The Message

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer!

New American Standard

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.

Here’s what I think this is saying, and remember when James wrote this there were a lot more poor people in the church than rich, So he says if you're poor, you're socially humiliated, you're economically humiliated. Accept that humiliation because poverty is a short-lived trial, it's just for this life. And those who are poor and in Christ have the hope of eternal riches. In other words, don't look to draw joy out of this world, and you'll never be disappointed. If you're looking for your joy in the circumstances of life, you're never going to have true joy. If you attach joy to any earthly possession, any earthly economic status, you miss the point. Accept your humiliation, it's good for you, it keeps your focus where it ought to be and it makes the spiritual realities and the eternal riches all the more precious.

The rich man, he's got a different problem. Verse 10, "And the rich man glory or rejoice in his humiliation." Most rich people are very concerned that they might lose their riches. But let the rich brother rejoice when he's made low. Let the rich boast when the stock market crashes. Let him rejoice when he loses everything because he shouldn't have any pride in his possessions anyway, shouldn't have any hope in his position. Let him rejoice when he's humbled because humility is good for the spiritual life.

There were a few wealthy people in the early church. Those who were wealthy had to bear a certain stigma. You know, wealthy people kind of like to hang around wealthy people, have you noticed? They're not really comfortable with the riff-raff, the rest of us. But you know, the church just breaks down all that. And if you're in Christ you're stuck with the not many noble, the not many mighty, the base things of the world, the common things, just us plain folks. There's a certain amount of humiliation in that. The rich are therefore blended together in common life with the poor.

And faith does an equally blessed thing for the rich brother. It fills him with the Spirit of Christ. It pushes him together with the lowly and the humble and gives to him a spirit of lowliness and humility. So as the poor brother forgets all his earthly poverty, so the rich brother forgets all his earthly riches and the two realize they're equal in Christ. True humility accepts the poor and the rich. Either way, don't attach yourself too tightly to what you have and don't live your life trying to get what you can't.

Hard lesson for those of us in the business world and especially hard for those of us who are in sales.  Within our job the measure of the world’s success is how much you’ve sold.  It’s very easy to let that become out God, our idol as it were.  Unfortunately a lot of people get their self worth from their sales reports rather than from the love of Christ and who we are in Him.  

I pray today that all of us heed the words of James and be humble no matter what our circumstances and realize that if you’ve accepted Him to be the Lord of your life, the real riches will be when we’re in eternity with Him.