A Glaring Lack of Love

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Chapter 1

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

THE ROYAL RULE OF LOVE

1–4  2 My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?

5–7  Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name—“Christian”—used in your baptisms?

8–11  You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: “Love others as you love yourself.” But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. The same God who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” If you don’t commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you’re a murderer, period.

12–13  Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

FAITH IN ACTION

14–17  Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

A Gross Show of Oppression.

Economic Oppression

Lending was not uncommon or even frowned upon in the OT…actually, generosity was considered a mark of true piety

God’s law even had built in provisions to care for the poor…think of refusing to harvest the edges of the field.

Further, a system was in place to ensure a family’s inheritance when they had to become debt-slaves — 7 year Sabbath and the Year of Jubilee

See also passages like Lv.25:39-46 and Ex.21:2-11.

Lending to make a profit through interest

Deut.23:19-20 ““You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.”

Ex.22:25 ““If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.”

Taking advantage of a desperate situation to exploit others

Families were separated and “You can’t eat walls!” (v.2-3)

Seems a lot like how a loan shark operates…I’ll lend you this, but you have to repay me with interest, and when you can’t, well I’ve got a solution — you’re now my slave.

Nehemiah's Judgment

God’s honor is at stake, and even Nehemiah, though it seems in context is not guilty of extracting interest, has been participating in loaning money and grain.

What they are doing is morally not good (v.9)

The nations pay attention to Israel who should be set apart and different in order to taunt the Lord when they are unholy

Legal ability is trumped by moral responsibility!!! In church talk, we would say freedom is superceded by concern for others and the refusal to be a stumbling block.

The people should fear God…involves living in reverential awe, showing kindness to others and acting with integrity. This is how to keep God’s name from being taunted by pagans…atheists…etc. It reminds me of a quote by Brennan Manning: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

The People's Response

An oath to return and a show of the seriousness of the quote…the people respond with “Amen!” or “Let it be so!” The go out and do as they promised.

An amen with a response is an empty promise. Solomon says of these empty promises, Eccl.5:1-7 “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.”

Jesus reminds us, too, Matt.5:37 “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

A Gracious Show of Generosity

Nehemiah refuses what he rightfully could take…taxes from the land of Judah. His position in the Persian government required him to entertain constantly…he even tells the cost: Neh.5:17-18 “Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people.”

Nehemiah doesn’t call for something he’s not willing to live out: sacrificial generosity. Suffice it to say, feeding that many people with that much food extracts an enormous toll on the bank account. Yet, he refused to place a burden on the people.

It makes you think…the position of the hand often mimics the position of the heart. When we are tight-fisted, selfishly clinging to the worldly goods God has given us, our hearts mirror that posture and we fail to live lovingly towards others.

Others are a means to our ends…we use people to further ourselves.

We become clique-ish and begin showing preferential treatment, just like we saw in James (My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?)

Yes, the position of the hand often mimics and influences the position of the heart.

A couple of things to make note of before we close:

Generosity is always motivated by God…either the God of self (we give to make ourselves feel good) or God changes the heart and we turn from selfishness to surrender. SHARE THE GOSPEL

The past few chapters have seemed like a glowing endorsement for Nehemiah and the Jews…just bear in mind, we’re not at the end just yet, and every story…every hero of the faith is simply a person that has been a gross recipient of the grace of God.

Let us pray.

Genuine love is expressed through a generous heart, and God’s word is clear about how He feels concerning our generosity. He is passionate about our care for the down-and-out, for brothers and sisters who are having a hard go of it at the moment, and He more than amply warns us against the dangers of hoarding up our own wealth and how money is the root of all sorts of evils. We can confidently trust that God is honored when we are generous, trusting that so long as we seek first His kingdom, He’s going to take care of everything else.