Rich Man, Poor Man

There are many common sayings, often used in a business context, which border are nothing more than catchy clichés. One of those sayings goes something like this: "You can never make a second first impression." It is natural for each of us to draw conclusions, fairly or unfairly, based upon appearances. How a person is dressed or how a person speaks will cause us to make judgments. For a car salesman, there are practical reasons to make a good first impression on a prospective customer. Yet, the reality may be much different than the impression that has been promoted. The weakness of making judgments based upon an image is that it is, by definition, a shallow determination and it is not based upon what is really important. Nevertheless, we often fall prey to relying on these snap judgments and oftentimes it is to our detriment. The Apostle James deals with this tendency among Christians a number of times in his short letter to us. He strives to keep all of us centered and focused upon what is really important. He labors often to teach us that it is wrong for believers to favor the rich man over the poor man in the life of the church. In the text today, he lays the foundation for future doctrine regarding rich and poor. – Pastor Schlegel