Seems to me James is being a bit of a hypocrite here.

Seems to me James is being a bit hypocritical here.  Read the verses and then I will explain why I see it that way.

James 2:1-9(NKJV)

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 

and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 

have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 

But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”  you do well; 

but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 

James makes assumptions that people will automatically favor the poor over the rich.  James goes on to use stereotypes to describe the poor as being rich in faith and being heirs of the Kingdom and the rich as oppressors. 

So in other words James is showing partiality to the poor.

Verse one says not to show partiality; period!!!

Let's take James' words about the poor.  They are Scriptural but there is a qualifier there. 

"Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? "

Notice that not all poor will be heirs, only those who love (accept) Jesus.  Likewise only the rich who love Jesus will be heirs as well.  So there will be some rich people who are heirs while there will be some poor people who will not be heirs. 

Which brings me to my final point.
 

"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." 

I think that maybe James was talking specifically about witnessing.  Go out and freely share your faith with the poor and rich alike.  Because there is one thing that we do know.  In the end Jesus will be showing partiality.  Only those who have accepted Him will be saved.   

Love this turn of phrase

There are many in the world today who think that man and all of the other animals are equal.  That animals have rights just like men do. 

I would disagree.  I believe the Bible makes clear that man is above the animals.  In fact there is Scripture that tells us that we have dominion over the animals, birds, and fish.  Now that doesn't mean we should be mean, abusive, or wasteful with the birds, animals, and fish.  But I do believe that it does mean those resources are there for our use.

Well I ran across a verse today that I think uses a nice turn of phrase to make this point.

James 1:16-18(NKJV)

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 

Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

We are God's first fruits of all His creatures.  I like the sound of that!

"Let your conduct be without covetousness…."

I try not to get too political on this blog but these verses really spoke to me. 

Hebrews 13:5-6(NKJV)

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  

So we may boldly say:      “The Lord is my helper;     I will not fear.     What can man do to me?” 

Unfortunately most of what I see coming from Red Letter Christians is based almost exclusively on covetousness. 

"This group of people over here have X and you don't have X.  It's not fair!"

I don't see much "be content" there.