Perspective

 Have you ever had someone you considered of marginal intelligence say something so profound that it stopped you in your tracks? It’s not that you considered the individual unintelligent or incapable of deep thought, but rather the heights to which they soared with the handful of words they put together were so resounding and wise that it was uncharacteristic to the utmost.

Paul, I get. He was raised from early youth to be a Pharisee. He studied under Gamaliel, arguably the greatest legal teacher of his time, so when something brimming with wisdom leaps off the page, you take it for granted. To a certain extent, it’s even expected.

James, however, was not raised among the scholarly and, given his father’s profession, spent most of his adolescence among sawdust and wood chips. I’m sure he knew how to use a plane and swing a mallet, but as far as swimming in profundity is concerned, I don’t think it was a regular occurrence.

I’ll type out the passage I’m referring to, then tell me if you get it.

James 1:9-10, “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation because as a flower of the field he will pass away.”

The interplay and juxtaposition are something worth pondering because the simple profundity of these two verses is astounding. What James is saying is that if you are lowly, if you are poor, if you feel like life’s knocked out your teeth and kicked sand in your eye, you should take a breath, dust yourself off, and glory in your exaltation. The world threw its worst at you and you’re still standing. The storm battered you and tossed you about, but while others sank into the deep, your head is still above water.

Don’t let the poverty define you, but rather your resilience. Don’t let the need define you, but rather His comfort, peace, and provision in the midst of your trial.

At the same time and in the same breath, James focuses on the rich, reminding them that though they may have amassed fortunes, they are still mortal. They will wither and pass away like a flower of the field, and no amount of money, power, or influence will be able to delay that reality. It’s your time when it’s your time, and what you do with your time until it’s your time determines the rest of time.

James doesn’t hate the one and love the other or despise the one while embracing the other. He is trying to bring perspective to both and reveals the roadmap that can bring both rich and poor to a baseline and even keel. The poor he wants to raise up out of the dirt; the rich, he wants to bring down out of the clouds because, in the end, we all end up in a box in the ground. Sure, some boxes might be prettier than others, but it’s still a box covered with dirt, waiting patiently to be invaded by worms.

Another noteworthy aside that many seem to gloss over is that James instructs both the poor and the rich to glory, but for different reasons. While the lowly brother is instructed to glory in his exaltation, the rich are instructed to glory in his humiliation. It’s one thing to have never had more than a handful of dirt and a mortgage; it’s another to have had the world and lost it all.

For some, the test is how they cling to God in their lack, in their need, in their poverty, and their lowliness. For others, the test is how they cling to God when all that they amassed disappears in a puff of smoke, and everything they thought would carry them through life is gone in an instant.

Job was rich; Job loved God; Job lost everything; Job still loved God. It wasn’t the wealth that was keeping Job close to God; it was his love for God that was keeping Job close to God.

There are poor people who fail the test, and there are rich people who fail the test. It’s not about the dollar value; it’s about the state of men’s hearts. You can be poor and bitter, stingy, selfish, and self-obsessed, and you can be rich and kind and generous and sympathetic to the plight of others.

It’s not the possessions that make it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God; it’s the attitude some of them allow to creep into their hearts, wherein they need nothing more than what they have. It’s not easy to humble oneself in the sight of the Lord when, up until that point, everyone else has been bowing and scraping to you.

I’ve known predatory poor people who preyed on other poor people, and I’ve known fair and honest rich people who paid you an honest wage for a hard day’s work. If you’ve ever been an immigrant, I’m sure you have stories of your own, but it wasn’t rich people who stiffed my dad for six months of his wages when we first arrived in America; it was poor Romanians who saw an opportunity to take advantage of my dad’s naiveté.

Ecclesiastes 5:19, As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor – this is a gift of God.”

The world is not divided between rich and poor or black and white; it’s not divided between cat people and dog people or vegetarians and carnivores, although, you know. It’s split between saved and unsaved. It’s the only metric that counts. It’s the only metric that matters. It’s the only metric that has eternal consequences and ramifications.

Whether you are rich or poor doesn’t matter. Whether you are saved or not does.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.