Does this passage mean anything to you? Is there a situation when James might be speaking to you? No? Let me rephrase some of it for you. Are you ready?
Hey my mate how your going. Don’t worry what your school or college mates think, you have got to do the things that Jesus would. If a rich kid with the current iPod and Play Station comes into your youth club at the same time as a smelly kid wearing hand-me-downs what do you say to them? Do you say to the posh kid, hey come and join in our pool game over here, and ignore the smelly bloke? Do you think God loves these guys any different? Listen mate, can’t you see that God would act differently? He would speak to the smelly kid, clean him up and invite around for a party and a meal. God promises heaven to anyone who loves God, and here you are being horrible to one of the people God loves. More often then not, it’s those who think they have all the iPods and clothes that are horrible to people like you. You would be better off remembering that Jesus said treat others with love in the same way you want to be treated with love.
Hey I’m not getting at you the same is true of me. I would rather speak to people that are like me, that would be the easy thing for me to do. But as we often say, when we asked Jesus to be our mate we didn’t sign up for the easy life. So next time this happens to you, say a quick prayer and do the Jesus thing not the easy thing.