sensitive to other people…

we are looking in the book of james in the new testament in the bible at what is a mature person. it says that a mature person is sensitive to people.  are you sensitive to people?

james 2.8 (niv), if you really keep the royal law found in scripture, “love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.

a mature person is sensitive to people.  he doesn’t just see his own needs but he sees other people’s needs.  he understands their hurts.  he’s not just interested in himself.

kids when they’re immature, only see themselves, “i want this, i want that, i don’t care about anybody else.”  GOD says that love, being interested in others is a mark of maturity.

now james gets very specific. james 2.1-6, don’t show favoritism, don’t be a snob, don’t look down on people, don’t judge by appearance, don’t insult people, don’t exploit people.  so this test of maturity is love: how do you treat people.

the apostle paul in the new testament said, “i may win all kinds of people to the LORD, i may build great church buildings, i may be on television [well maybe he didn’t say that but you get the idea], i may give my money to the poor, but if i have not love, i’m as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; it just doesn’t amount to much.

matthew 25, JESUS says, “at the judgment they will stand before the LORD and HE’ll say, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and in prison and you visited me.’  we’ll say, ‘when LORD, when did we do that?  when were you sick and we visited you?  when were you in prison and when were you thirsty and we gave you drink?’ 

verse 45 (msg), HE will answer them, “I’m telling the solemn truth: whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.”

now it is interesting to note that in the matthew 25 judgment the one thing we’ll be judged for is how we treated other people.  not how many bible verses we knew, how many times we were in church, not what great a reputation we had as CHRISTian leaders, but how we treated other people.

just a thought from the front porch…