Monday after the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 3, 2022 by under
Scripture: James 2:2-12 (NKJV)
2:2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Devotion
St. James encourages us to endure temptation with patience. What does patience look like? Patience means doing your duty as though nothing had changed. The commandments, “honor your father and your mother” and “you shall not steal,” do not change because of trials. When trials are hard, the temptation is to find an excuse to get out of doing our duty. Ironically, it is harder to do nothing than to sin. It is easier to sin than to keep suffering. Patience means choosing to suffer instead of sin, and that out of obedience to God.
Remember the example of our Lord Jesus when He fasted forty days in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11). The devil tempted Him to turn stones into bread, but He would not. Christ had come “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15), and this required Him to be righteous where we would fail. His vocation, at that time, was to complete His fast, even though hunger and the devil tempted Him to impatience.
True patience is impossible for us. Therefore St. James offers this encouragement: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally.” We must learn to pray that God would help us fulfill our duties. And God, who is rich in mercy, will comfort us in Christ, who manifested perfect patience for our righteousness.
Prayer: Lord, we pray Thee, that Thy grace may always go before and follow after us, and make us continually given to all good works; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
