Day 307 - Be Careful how you Look at Others?

Today's Reading: Ezek. 6-7 and James 2

Naturally, we tend to gravitate toward those who are well dressed, who are of good reputable status, and we naturally want to give them the honor ... but I am reminded in today's reading of James that God is not a respecter of persons. In fact, He tells us that He has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith.

Let's pray that God would help us see others as He sees them... for while we look at the outward appearance, He looks at the heart. And those that may not be that attractive by worldly standards are especially treasured in the sight of heaven.

Something else that really spoke to me from today's reading is the fact that faith, if it does not have works is dead. Faith without works is actually presumption.

If we profess to believe in God and believe His Word, then obedience and works will follow... not that we are saved by these actions, but these actions testify to our faith.

Ellen White writes:

The testimony of the word of God is against this ensnaring doctrine of faith without works. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions upon which mercy is to be granted, it is presumption; for genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures. 

Let none deceive themselves with the belief that they can become holy while willfully violating one of God’s requirements. The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” And “whosoever sinneth [transgresseth the law] hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” 1 John 3:6. Though John in his epistles dwells so fully upon love, yet he does not hesitate to reveal the true character of that class who claim to be sanctified while living in transgression of the law of God. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.” 1 John 2:4, 5. Here is the test of every man’s profession. We cannot accord holiness to any man without bringing him to the measurement of God’s only standard of holiness in heaven and in earth. If men feel no weight of the moral law, if they belittle and make light of God’s precepts, if they break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so, they shall be of no esteem in the sight of Heaven, and we may know that their claims are without foundation.

And the claim to be without sin is, in itself, evidence that he who makes this claim is far from holy. It is because he has no true conception of the infinite purity and holiness of God or of what they must become who shall be in harmony with His character; because he has no true conception of the purity and exalted loveliness of Jesus, and the malignity and evil of sin, that man can regard himself as holy. The greater the distance between himself and Christ, and the more inadequate his conceptions of the divine character and requirements, the more righteous he appears in his own eyes. (Great Controversy, p. 472-473)

Let's remember, the closer we are to Christ, the more clearly we will see our own sins and defects and the more gentle we will be with the sins and defects of others.

Tomorrow's Reading: Ezek. 8-9 and Ps. 119:121-144