Heavenly wisdom is that uncommon quality that makes smart people good and good people easier to get along with. See also below: The Inner Ring, by C.S. Lewis, an essay that connects well with this passage.
Winston Churchill was reportedly a master at insults and had famously difficult interactions with the equally sharp-tongued Nancy Astor, the first woman MP. On one occasion, she found the Prime Minister drunk in a hotel elevator. Condescendingly she remarked, “Sir Winston, you are drunk!” to which Churchill replied, “M’Lady, you are ugly. Tomorrow, I will be sober.” In our passage today, James elaborates on the dangers of the tongue, which we might call “the body part from hell.”
We all know the type. “Sure I’m a Christian,” they say. And we look at their lives thinking, “Oh Really? I never would have guessed.” James knew the type also – and he attacks them in this passage. He gives us all a reminder that: Our good works are the only part of our faith that anyone will ever see.
James 2.14-26.mp3 (somewhat defective recording)
Judging people by their appearance has no place in the church. James especially wants us to focus on loving and befriending the poor, tying it in with loving our neighbor as ourself – “The Royal Law.”
Central Reflections 