Perspective changes everything
These verses are hard to swallow, I mean how can someone be expected to boast about being poor. Now I can understand a rich person boasting about his accomplishments, but to boast because it will all eventually fade away...huh???
I think what makes all the difference here is not the circumstances themselves (rich or poor) but HOW we look at them, or more specifically, our perspective.
I think we struggle with understanding these verses because our perspective in viewing these circumstances in life is all wrong. Our view is very egocentric - it's all about us, our comfort, our happiness, or lack there of and we can't understand how we could be happy with anyone or anything messing with that. The problem is that as Christians our worldview shouldn't be egocentric but rather God-centric. Our resources, our time, our very lives are His, and when we can see everything around us through that lens - our perspective on life will change.
James can write these verses, expecting his readers to understand because they had the proper perspective on life. God-centricity was how they lived and thrived as a church in the 1st Century and we should live the same way.
Created over 1 year ago
