Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. …
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Character Check Do I have regular contact with people who have less than I do?
In Business Terms Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene wrote a column explaining why he spends so much time reporting the stories of abused children. One day he was going back to his hotel after listening to court testimony of how a Wisconsin couple had locked their 7-year-old daughter in a dog cage night after night and how their 11-year-old son had walked barefoot and in tears to a police station in November to beg someone to help his sister.
When Greene returned to his hotel room and turned on the television, he saw a live press conference with Latrell Sprewell, the NBA player charged with allegedly choking his coach. Sprewell was holding a press conference to voice his objections to being thrown off his team.
Greene writes, “From what I could tell, there were more than a hundred reporters and broadcast technicians in the room. … If a well-known person like Sprewell can summon so many reporters to come listen to him just by announcing that he wishes to speak-that underlines the need for the most voiceless and powerless among us to have their stories reported. When they’re children, they can’t ask for anyone to listen; especially for a child locked in a dark basement in a dog cage, if we who report the news don’t decide on our own to come pay witness, no one will ever know the difference.”
To come pay witness to the downtrodden and broken is part of the job description of those who claim Christ as Lord.
—David L. Goetz
Something to Think About If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. – Bob Hope
