Tom Lowe
1/19/2021
Text – James 1:9 (KJV)
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
INTRODUCTION
As James talks about the poor (9) and rich Christians (10), he has his mind set on more than current positions, wealth, and actions. He knows that God will be inspecting our lives not as they are now but as a completed work made up of millions of decisions. Each choice that we make guides our future profoundly. When we make a decision in one part of our lives, it eventually shapes the whole mass of it. If we do not make in-tentional decisions, we may have to agree with a decision made by someone else, one that we would never have made.
Some of us may feel that God has given us complicated lives to work with. Maybe you feel like God has flooded you with too many gifts and responsibilities, and you will never be able to grow them all. You may have been born into a poor family, or you may have a natural tendency towards drunkenness, promiscuity, or gluttony. James is saying that no matter what situation we were born into or have gotten ourselves into, we must substitute His wealth and value for our wealth and value.
COMMENTARY
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: James 1:9 (KJV)
Here James is addressing “poor” people who are also Christians. Unfortunately, there are too many of them living in America but have you noticed that they are different from the poor in other countries. They may possess a car, a television, etc., and may receive free medical care, education, job training, and so forth. Such benefits are out of the reach of the poor in other countries.
Don’t you think it is odd that the apostle recommends the poor to “rejoice in that he is exalted?” It is strange because the poor are probably working their fingers to the bone just for their daily food. However, we must remember that James is writing this from an eternal perspective. If our lives, filled with difficulty though they are, are only a fraction of our entire existence, the rest of our existence must matter the most, right? If we take that thought into the context of the fact of poor Christians here on earth, we can say, “weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 40:5b). While outwardly impoverished, they are inwardly blessed and wealthy both presently and eternally. James doesn’t say anything like, “Everything is horrible nor but it will be better once you go to heaven!” He gives the poor Christian a directive to boast now in the current exalted position that they have in Christ.
Again, James does not speak of natural exultation in various situations, such as when a person discovers that they bought a winning lottery ticket. There are undoubtedly natural blessings that often come with a belief and trust in Christ. These should be earnestly prayed for and sought after as they glorify God and bring His life into us in numerous ways. Nevertheless, James is primarily speaking of lasting wealth that ena-bles even the poor to say that they had been exalted and brought into the place of tre-mendous wealth because of Christ Jesus.
All who have accepted Christ can turn their eyes from our taxing natural surround-ings to our priceless spiritual paradise. This comforting benediction from Paul says it all: “May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have re-demption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:11-14). The “inheritance of the saints of light” sounds like an incredible windfall.
It has been said of Christianity that it brings to every individual what he or she needs. Christianity brings to the poor a new sense of their value.
1) They learn that they matter in the Church. In the early Church, there were no class distinctions. It could happen that the slave was the minister of the con-gregation, preaching and dispensing the sacrament, while the master was no more than a humble member. In the Church, the world’s social distinctions are obliterated, and no individual matters more than another.
2) They learn that they matter in the world. It is the teaching of Christianity that everyone in the world has a task to do. Everyone is of use to God – and, even if someone is confined to a bed of pain, the power of that person’s prayers can still act on the world.
3) They learn that they matter to God. It was said long ago: “Call no man worthless for whom Christ died. Trials make all believers equally dependent on God and bring them to the same level with each other by keeping them from being pre-occupied with earthly things. Poor Christians and wealthy ones alike can re-joice that God is no respecter of persons and that they both have the privilege of being identified with Christ.
James seemed to realize that a person’s attitude toward material things is a useful in-dex of his spiritual condition. He also realized that this is one area of life where most believers have problems. How easy it is for individuals to get caught up in the rat race of life and lose sight of the things of God that matter. Each of us would have to admit to the appeal of materialism in today’s culture. The Christian must be careful to avoid this pitfall.
There are indications in the New Testament that humble circumstances were a com-mon trial among Christians. In the first place, the explicit appeal to the poor in Christ’s preaching likely attracted numerous poor people among the earliest converts (Luke 4:18). Also, some Christians became poor because of deliberate persecution against them. Some may have lived in self-imposed poverty for ethical reasons, as they refused to participate in corrupt economic enterprises. We have examples in Acts 16:19 and Acts 19:23-29 of the gospel’s economic effects, forcing Christians to separate from immoral economic pursuits and resulting in a backlash of persecution. Christians suffered economically for their faith. James understood this trial to be a common cir-cumstance among his readers. If this is a deliberate point of application by James and not just another topic in a loose train of thought, then the spiritual dynamics of trials should be evident in the illustration. Exposition should bring out how this trial would become testing to develop perseverance toward maturity.
