Bible Passage: James 2

One of my favourite books in the bible is the book of James. I find the words of Elder James’ words simple and yet loaded with meaning. Let’s take a closer look at the chapter today.

The first lesson we learn is not to practise favouritism. My childhood comes to mind with memories of my mother letting my older sister have the chicken drumstick while I get the less appetizing part of the chicken. I am sure some of us feel that our parents favour our siblings more than us. Let us also examine ourselves if we are also biased towards the people we like.

I believe teachers prefer students who are more attentive, answers questions in class readily and acheive good grades. The quieter, weaker ones tend to get neglected, or disliked, in the case of naughty students. In my JC days I belonged to the neglected group. But being an adult now I think I would also favour good and receptive students.

How about us as RE teachers? Do we tend to neglect the quiet ones? Are we easily irritated and biased against the naughtier students? The role of an RE teacher is crucial to the spiritual growth of a student, even for nursery/kindergarten children. Kids of a very young age are perceptive enough to feel if an adult loves him or her less. It is not easy to treat everyone equally, and I pray that God grants all the TJC teachers patience to deal with the less obedient children, and wisdom to guide and love all the students.

The second lesson we can learn from this chapter is the famous “faith without works is dead”.

Abraham, the Father of faith and Rahab were both mentioned in this chapter, as their actions proclaimed their faiths in God.

Similarly for us today, we may proclaim to have faith in God and are His people, but are our words complemented by our actions? Do we immediately murmur against the Lord when things don’t go our way? Do we praise God and give all glory to Him when things go our way?

Verse 26 tells us that faith without works is just like a body without the spirit. An empty shell of a body is limp and lifeless. Without works, faith is but an empty shell, meaningless and hollow.

May the Lord guide us to lead a life pleasing to Him.