James 2:1
“My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.”
You will never be used greatly by the LORD until you learn how to treat others properly. You can be the most talented person, but your talent will be wasted if you don’t treat others properly.
You can have intellect and know how to do something better than others, but your intellect will go to waste if you don’t know how to treat others. You can have all of God’s Word memorized and have the ability to quote Scripture to combat any false doctrine, but your knowledge of the Scriptures will never impact others if your treat others badly. The ability to get along with others is based on your ability to treat others properly. In James 2, God gives several guidelines on how to treat others.
First, keep your faith in mind with your treatment of others. You must always remember that you represent Jesus Christ. Wherever you go, you are Christ’s representative. Because you are His representative, you should treat others like He would treat them. It doesn’t matter how others treat you; it only matters that you treat others the same way that Christ would treat them. Always ask yourself how Christ would treat the person you are dealing with; this will keep you under control and help you to treat others properly.
Second, treat everyone the same. God commands us in the verse above not to treat people “with respect of persons.” Be careful about putting people into classifications. You want to treat everyone with the mindset of how you would treat Christ. Matthew 25:40 reminds us that how we treat the “least” is how we treat Christ. If you treat everyone the same, you will have no difficulty in properly treating the least of society.
Third, don’t treat others with a judgment of the past in mind. God warns us in verse 4 not to “become judges of evil thoughts”. If you are going to treat others right, you are going to have to let the past be the past. You cannot allow how someone lived in the past be your measurement of how you treat them. You cannot allow how someone treated you in the past be the basis for your present treatment of them. You are going to have to have a short memory of past treatment if you are going to treat others in a Christ-like manner. Let the past be the past, and treat others according to how Christ would treat them today.
Fourth, don’t let selfish gain influence your treatment of others. God warned in these verses that you cannot let someone’s financial status influence your treatment of them. Don’t be that person who tends to gravitate towards the wealthy. Be the type of Christian who treats everyone the same. An individual’s financial status should never be the basis of your treatment of them.
My friend, it truly comes down to being selfish in your treatment. Yes, I know this sounds wrong, but that is how God says to treat others. God says in verse 8, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:” In other words, treat others the same way you would want them to treat you. If you become selfish in your treatment, you will treat everyone according to how you desire to be treated. You will find that you will be able to treat anyone properly if you start treating everyone by how you want to be treated. Simply put, be good to everyone; how others will treat you depends on it.