Seeing Others The Way Jesus Does

May 05, 2015 | By Chuck

"Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"(Jas.2:2-4) James gets right to the heart of the problem and calls out any brother or sister that shows favoritism. Do we gravitate towards those who dress like us, look like us and live like us? What about those who are different from us? Do we give them equal consideration and time? I truly believe these are relevant questions for our day and time. In our modern culture today where tattoos and piercings are the norm, we better be able to look past the exterior of an individual. Jesus never seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the exterior of a person. Jesus" focus was always on the individual's heart. No matter what they look like, how they dress or where they work, if they work, the focus should be on the inside of the person. Jesus saw people totally different than we do. Jesus dealt with people that we may be a little suspect of but He looked at the heart of a person and not the exterior. What a different place this would be if we could simply see people the way that Jesus does. I'm sure you've heard the old cliché, don't judge a book by its cover. Yet, that's exactly what so many people do today when they decide how to treat someone based on the way they look. It's not about this temporary outer shell of a body and exterior appearance. Brothers and sisters it's about the heart! "My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism."(Jas.2:1) Let us not be so juvenile and shallow that we judge a person by the way he or she looks. Let's strive to be more like our Lord and see others the way that Jesus does.