Welcome to this daily PBJ devotional. Read Exodus 11 1 through 12 21, Job 29, and James 2 today. This devotional is about James chapter 2 verses 12 and 13. My brothers, as you hold out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, Here is a seat of honor, but say to the poor man, You must stand or sit at my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called? If you really fulfill the royal law stated in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Whoever keeps the whole law, but stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. for judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, go in peace, stay warm and well fed, but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? So too faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, and I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. If you believe that God is one, good for you. Even the demons believe that, and shudder. O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless? Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. and he was called a friend of God. As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds, and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions, when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. This is God's Word. This passage is about the sin of favoritism, as we saw in verse 1. Favoritism is a recurring problem that every church, meaning most Christians, will battle in our minds and our hearts. Maybe we're less overt than the people described in verses two and three, but we all tend to gravitate toward people who look like us or seem like us. And we all tend to be wary of people who look or seem different. At the end of this paragraph on favoritism, James commands us to, and these are the words of the NIV in verse 12, he says, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. Again, that's verse 12 in the NIV. This verse reminds us that we will all give account to God for our lives. If we have been truly saved by Jesus, we will not be condemned to experience God's wrath on the Day of Judgment. But, as Christians, we will give account to the Lord for how we've lived. James tells us to keep that in mind when he says, and again, this is verse 12a, speak and act like those who are going to be judged. That means we will answer to the Lord for our generosity or lack of it toward the poor. We will answer to him for any racist words or prejudiced actions toward other people. And those are just two examples of favoritism, but they're examples that are relatively common in our culture. God's law is our guide in these and in every area of Christian obedience. James already referenced the royal law, love your neighbor as yourself, in verse 8. Here in verse 12, he says that the law gives freedom. That's not usually the way that we think about the law. Laws, as we think of them, restrict our freedom. And that's the way they act and feel to us before we become followers of Christ. But once Christ comes into our lives, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God go to work on our minds and our hearts. God uses his Word to turn us from hating God's law to seeing it as our pathway to holy living. David experienced this and sang about it throughout Psalm 119. Verses 97 and 98 of Psalm 119 give us just one example of this. And it says, these are the words of the NIV from verses 97 and 98 of Psalm 119, but it says this, Oh, how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. Do you love God's word, even the parts we call the law? Do you read these passages every day, looking for insight about how to change your life to conform to God's ways? When you have a moral choice to make or you're talking to another person, do you think about the fact that you will have to answer to God for the choice you make or how you treat that person that you're talking to or dealing with? Let God's law be your guide to holiness. Remember, you and I will give an account to the Lord for how we live. So speak and act like it, as verse 12 here in James reminds us. And ask the Lord to help you do that more and more by his Holy Spirit as you grow in your faith and your knowledge of his word. And if you found this devotional helpful, please go to my website, dailypbj.com slash subscribe, and enter your email address, and then every day for free, these devotionals will show up in your inbox, and that will cue you to be in God's word every single day. Please consider becoming part of my financial support network so we can keep making video content like this and more. Go to dailypbj.com support if you're interested in being part of that mission. Please share this with someone who might be helped to grow in their faith by it, and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.