Faith that Works: How the rich and poor live right-side up in an upside down world

The Upside Down is an alternate dimension in the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The Upside Down dimension parallels the human world except that the Upside Down is over run with vines and a misty fog that has dark spores floating everywhere. The parallel dimension appears lifeless, but in fact there is life present. It is just not the kind of life that flourishes. In fact, human life does not bode well in the Upside Down. Aside from the infested environment, there are humanoid creatures that hunt and devour humans. The Upside Down dimension looks like a world that once flourished with life but at some point became infested with a deadly disease that deforms life.

When God created the world everything was good. All of creation and his image bearer’s flourished in abundant life. Mankind was given dominion over all creation and was told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with God’s glory. Everything was good. Mankind and God lived in unity and valued the same things.

Then, the serpent came along and deceived Eve. Eve eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a tree God commanded them not to eat. Instead protecting Eve and defending the Garden, Adam follows Eve into sin. Now the world is turned upside down. Instead everything being good, now, the earth and mankind is thrown into an alternate dimension of sorts that on the one hand, parallels the world they once lived, but on the other hand, is now run over with sin and death. God’s image bearer’s are now sinners, who suffer separation, shame, and death, not only with God, but with each other. Sinners now live in the Upside Down world.

In the Upside down world, we value things differently than what God values. We place a higher degree of value on power, prestige, and pomp, everything that comes with wealth. Those who have wealth are loved and adored. The Upside Down world is ok with looking the other way when the rich exploit others to get more wealth. The poor are looked down upon. They are made to feel powerless and insignificant. The Upside Down world is ok with exploiting the poor because in its eyes they are worthless.

In the Upside Down world, instead of turning to God for who made us in His image for hope and deliverance, we turn to ourselves and make value distinctions based on the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. That is life for us in the Upside Down world. The apostle John warns the poor and the rich about the Upside Down world. He says,

1 John 2:16–17 (ESV)

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires...

James, by the the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has a good word for both the rich and the poor who are in Christ. He says,

Whether rich or poor, your significance is based on your identity in Jesus Christ.

You value, your worth, your significance in this world is not based on material things or worldly status. It is based on a person and your relationship to Him. Jesus has given you a new life with a new identity so to speak. Both the rich and the poor have been given new identities to walk in the Upside Down world. For their poor, they are coheirs to the Kingdom, and to the rich they are servants.

In Christ, the poor can walk in the Upside down world as heirs to His kingdom (James 1:9)

James’ readers were Christians who were forced to leave Jerusalem and establish new lives in Syria and Northern Palestine. Most of them brought very little with them which put them in a difficult financial spot. Being broke and a Jewish Christian, made them targets of ostracism. These are the “poor” James is referring to in verse 9.

The world has disdain for the poor. To many in the Upside Down world, the poor are weak and destitute who leech off of society. The poor have little significance in the world’ estimation and are ripe for oppression. God, however, has always seen the poor differently.

The Psalmist says,

Psalm 34:18 ESV

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

and that God will

Psalm 82:3 ESV

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Psalm 102:17 ESV

he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.

Psalm 138:6 ESV

For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.

God has a special place in his heart for the poor and promises one day he will bring about the great reversal. Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her “Magnificat” considers the day when God would turn the Upside Down world right side up. She sings,

Luke 1:52 ESV

he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

One day, God will reverse the fortunes of the rich and the poor. The rich will be humbled and the poor will be exalted. But until then, what are the poor to do? James says, boast in your exaltation.

The word “boast” in James 1:9, refers to “bragging” or “ to pride oneself” in something. This may seem odd that James is encouraging the poor to “take pride” in something. Usually you are told not to boast. Boating is arrogance. In many respects that is true, however, boasting is not always bad. It really depends on what you are boasting in, or taking pride in. To boast in your self is arrogance, but to boast in the Lord is worship. You get a sense of this from the prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah 9:23–24 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

The poor are to boast in their exaltation. The term “exaltation” refers to their “high position.” This word depicts a divine realm. For example, Jesus promised to send his Spirit to them from on high.

Luke 24:49 ESV

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus also ascended into this realm (Eph 4:8). James is speaking of heaven. The Christians who are the “poor” that James is referring too, are to boast in their position in heaven, who they are in Christ Jesus. The poor are to look beyond the Upside down world and look to heaven, to how God sees them. How does God see them in Christ? He sees them as sons and daughters, heirs to His Kingdom.

Paul says of every Christian,

Galatians 3:26 (ESV)

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

And then Paul explains your faith wrought inheritance further in

Galatians 4:4–7 (ESV)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

And as an heir, you have the full rights of sons and daughters of God, the same rights as the firstborn son (Hebrews 12:22-23). As an heir Jesus promised that you would inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). As an heir, you will inherit the kingdom (Matthew 25:34). As an heir, you will inherit all things (Luke 15:31; 1 Cor 3:21-22; Rev 21:7). Jesus himself will be your portion (Psalm 73:26) and you can say with the Psalmist,

Psalm 16:6 (ESV)

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

And lest you think the rich will come and take it away from you, Peter says of your inheritance that it is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded though faith (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Speaking of our inheritance, Charles Spurgeon says,

“Talk of princes, and kings, and potentates: Their inheritance is but a pitiful foot of land, across which the bird’s wing can soon direct its flight; but the broad acres of the Christian cannot be measured by eternity. He is rich, without a limit to his wealth; he is blessed, without a boundary to his bliss.” Charles Spurgeon

For those in Christ who are poor in this world, through faith in Jesus as their Christ, they have been adopted as sons and daughters, coheirs of the kingdom of God.

I’m reminded of a story of adoption in Reader’s Digest. A contributor told of an Aunt Ruby and Uncle Arnie who had adopted a baby boy after five years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive. To their surprise, a short time after the adoption, Aunt Ruby discovered she was pregnant, and she later gave birth to a boy.

One day when the two boys were eight and nine years old, the teller of the story was visiting Aunt Ruby, and a woman in the neighborhood came to visit.

Observing the children at play, the woman asked, “Which boy is yours, Ruby?”

“Both of them,” Aunt Ruby replied.

The lady persisted. “But I mean, which one is adopted?”

Aunt Ruby did not hesitate. She looked straight at her guest and replied, “I’ve forgotten.”

Although the Upside Down world will make a distinction between between the rich and the poor, God makes them equally significant, valued, and loved based their identity in Jesus. The poor have every reason to boast in their exaltation because Jesus has made them sons and daughters, heirs to His kingdom.

If the poor are to boast in their exaltation, what are the rich to boast in? In the Upside Down world we live, they would be told to boast in their exaltation, in their high position on earth. They have the power and prestige because they have the wealth. But in God’s kingdom the rich boast in their humiliation, says James. In other words, to the rich he says,

In Christ, the rich walk in the Upside Down world as servants in His kingdom (James 1:10)

James 1:10 ESV

and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

It is not hard to see the great reversal. In the Upside down world, the poor are humiliated and the rich are exalted. In God’s kingdom, the poor are exalted and the rich are humbled.

Some take James to be saying that the rich are not saved for a couple of reasons. First off, the language in James seems to imply that the rich are headed for judgement. He uses the wilting flower metaphor to describe them in verse 10-11. He also come downs pretty hard on the rich in James 5:1-6, especially James 5:3

James 5:3 (ESV)

Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

Secondly, the Bible as a whole does not portray the rich in in good light. The prominent theme int he book of Amos is a condemnation of the rich for exploiting the poor. Jesus pronounces woe on the rich in Lukes gospel (Luke 6:24). Consider the contrast in Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The poor man finds blessing in the afterlife while the rich man suffers condemnation (Luke 16:19-31).

But then you have people like Job who was a wealthy righteous man. In the New Testament, Jesus saves wealthy people like Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector, and Lydia, the woman who sold purple clothing. So, clearly, God’s kingdom involves wealthy people.

The verb James uses in verse eleven “passing away” is never used in the NT to convey judgment. The idea behind the word typically is “cease to exist.” In the context of the letter, especially it being written to believers, James is speaking to wealthy Christians in the church. Rich Christians who have been redeemed and are loved by God.

“Being rich is not evil, but boasting in your wealth is.”

James makes it clear in verse 11, that boasting in your wealth is evil because your wealth is transitory, meaning it is here today and gone tomorrow. Your wealth is as much as a vapor in the Upside Down world as your life is a vapor. it would be foolish to boast in such a thing. That is why James uses the metaphor of the wilting flower.

James 1:11 ESV

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

James is drawing from a long tradition of Biblical wisdom that says, “Do not put your hope in the Upside down world and its wealth. It is as fleeting as the flowers of the seasons. The prophet Isaiah says,

Isaiah 40:6–8 (ESV)

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Psalmist says,

Psalm 103:15–16 ESV

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

James is warning wealthy Christians about their life and their hope in their wealth. The rich will pass away like a wildflower in a field that is here today and gone tomorrow. In the Upside Down world, you may be in the biggest deal of your life, about to make millions of dollars, even becoming the wealthiest person on earth, and drop dead just as you finish the paperwork.

Keep in mind wealthy Christian, the Bible and experience proves you cannot take one dime of your wealth and prestige with you when you die. The psalmist says,

Psalm 49:16–17 ESV

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.

So, James says to the rich, don’t boast in your higher status in this world. Don’t take pride in how much the world loves and values you. Boast in your humiliation. Take pride in the reality that Jesus has made you a servant in his kingdom.

The humiliation James speaks of is a “lowering of ones self.” He uses the same word here as he did to describe the poor in verse 9. The rich are to take on the poverty of Spirit Jesus speaks of in His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The rich, then, are to boast, take pride in, find their significance in being a servant. They are to embrace Christ’s servant heart toward the poor. Jesus’s mission was to serve his people,

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Paul says that Jesus did not cling to his wealth or his status, but instead,

2 Corinthians 8:9 (ESV)

though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Jesus humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant, even dying in a cross, so he could bring sinners to salvation, to make the poor in this world heirs to his kingdom and the rich servants, like himself.

Embracing your identity in Christ, finding your significance in him is a kind of wisdom James speaks of in verse 5. The trial for the poor is to endure poverty and the disdain of the Upside down world. They need to see beyond the material things of this world and keep their eyes fixed on their citizenship in heaven.

The rich on the other hand have to strive to fight the temptation of putting all their eggs in their wealth status basket. They have to see the poor as co-heirs to the kingdom. The rich have to have the mind of Jesus and use their wealth and status not to be served but to serve and live their life as a servant for the joy of others. They have to do as John Calvin says,

“ to glory in their lowliness, their smallness, to restrain those lofty motives that swell out of prosperity.” John Calvin

If the rich and the poor will do this, James says both will endure until the end and will be are blessed in verse 12;

James 1:12 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Right now we live in the Upside Down world where the grey lifelessness of death lurks everywhere, and the vines and spores of sin latch onto our hearts and seep into our relationships. Living in the Upside down world means we are prone to find our worth and value in the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. We are prone to exploit each other for wealth and boast in our power and prestige. We make ungodly distinctions between human beings made in Gods’ image and show disdain for the people God loves. That is life for us since the world was turned upside down in the Garden of Eden.

But James reminds us there is a day coming where the rich and poor in Christ will receive the crown of life. It is a day when the Upside Down world will be turned right side up.

When Jesus came to the Upside down world, the world rejected him and nailed him to a cross thinking that the world will always remain upside down. But friends, I tell you the truth. When Jesus died on that cross for your sin and was raised three days later, for the first time in a long time, the world got a glimpse of life lived right side up. And when Jesus ascended into heaven and sent his spirit to live in all of those who believe in him, who live out their faith in him, the Upside Down world has a vivid testimony of living right-side up. For now the Upside Down world sees the poor and the rich in Christ realizing their significance in their identity Christ, living in unity and harmony together, even flourishing together. Furthermore, the rich and the poor keep their eyes focused on the day when Jesus will come back and restore all of creation. He will turn the Upside Down world, right side up. And both the rich and the poor will equally live as heirs and servants of the most High King.

Until then, brothers and sisters, heirs and servants, our faith works to count it all joy as we endure with one another. Our faith works to keep our eyes on the prize of Jesus, and walk as citizens of heaven who, whether poor or rich, find significance in your identity in Jesus. In others words, let your faith work this week to walk right side up as you live in an upside down world. Amen

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