James 2:1-13
You can be seated. Our passage tonight is James
chapter two, verses one to 13. So make your way there. One of
the things we want to think about as we make our way through James
is every passage we study is not isolated one from the other,
but part of the whole. Remember the epistle of James,
the letter of James would have been taken around the early church,
read in their Sunday gatherings, and it would have been considered
maybe a long sermon, maybe broken up, who knows, into a number
of parts. We’re taking it in bite-sized pieces, but they likely
heard it all at once. And so as we read chapter two,
verses one to 13, we have to connect this back to the section
where James said, don’t just be hearers of the word, be doers
of the word. So when we live life in the congregation
and we make evaluations of what’s church life like right now, one
good distinction is are we as a church being hearers of the
word or doers of the word? That’s an interesting way to
assess the life and health of the church. And he’s having to
speak into the life of the church where they’re not being doers
of the word, they’re showing partiality. And so as we read
chapter two, verses one to 13, we’ll see that very clearly.
So James, the brother of the Lord Jesus says this, my brothers
show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring
and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man
in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention
to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here
in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over
there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions
among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my
beloved brothers. Has not God chosen those who
are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom,
which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored
the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who
oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they
not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were
called? If you really fulfill the royal
law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. You are doing well, but if you show partiality, you
are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it. For he who said, do not commit
adultery also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery,
but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment
is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs
over judgment. I think of a particular time
in my life where partiality was rather painful. I grew up in
a Christian home. And for the first, I don’t know,
11 years of my life, I went to a Christian school where everybody
was sweet. Everybody was kind. There was maybe a little mess
here or there, but in general, the the ethos of the school,
the behavior of most people was very kind towards one another.
Well, my Christian school ended with the fifth grade. And so
off to turn time middle school, just down the street, probably
the sixth grade, one of the worst years of my life. And it was
because in that time, I don’t know what it’s like down the
road now. That was the school where all the wealthy kids went.
We were not a wealthy family. And I remember, this is something
I remember vividly. Buckskin shoes were a big deal. Buckskin shoes. This would have
been back in like 1987, 1988. So you got yourself a pair of
buckskin shoes. Well, my grandmother always took
us clothes shopping for school. And she shopped at Belk’s. So
we got our jeans and she would get us a pair of shoes for school. She was always kind that way.
Well, she bought me a pair of buckskin shoes that were the
Belk brand. And they didn’t have the little
green tag from Bass. And if you had the Bass ones,
you were in. So I had the fake ones. And I remember going to
school, just hunkering down. I don’t have the green Bass tag. I can’t color the thing on there.
But I remember just the internal struggle of, who am I? And is
who am I based on my shoes? and the tag that’s on them. That
was the value. That was the way people tagged
you. And I think about that very often
now as an adult and maybe more in a position to be kind to other
people. We’re very quick to size people up. And you know when
you’re being sized up, don’t you? You get the look and the
look and the look and the look and the look. And then a comment,
right? That can be very hard to endure,
but we get it all the time. We get sized up and then we get
placed in this category or that. And that’s exactly what James
is saying. Do not do. He says in chapter two, verse
one, show no partiality. And the idea behind not showing
partiality is don’t size people up. and then stick them in this
place or that place. And you get the vivid picture
here in our passage. A wealthy man comes in and a
poor man. The wealthy man gets walked right up to the front
row. You get the seat of honor. And the poor man, you stand over
there in the corner where nobody will see you or perhaps smell
you or where you won’t cause any sort of harm. consternation. I think about church. There’s
a little book out or a title of a work out called The Most
Segregated Hour. And I have a feeling it has to
do with maybe black and white and color and race. But I think
you could extend that idea, extend that metaphor. Church is probably
one of the most segregated hours in our nation. We go to the church
with the rich or we go with the poor, you know, birds of a feather
flock together. We go with the hipsters or the
non-hipsters. You know, we really class ourselves
off during the church hour. And it can even be that way among
color and other distinctions as well. And what James is saying
is that should not be so. We should not be making distinctions
in the kingdom of God. Now, what’s the situation here
in the life of the people he’s writing to? Well, he’s writing
to Jewish people, Christian people who are scattered all over Asia
Minor because of the persecution. And what has happened in the
early church is many Jews have come to faith in Jesus, but kept
their kept their habits, their social standing, their synagogue
practices. They kept their customs. And
then on the other hand, many people throughout the Roman Empire
who have become Christians and their socioeconomic standing
is not the same as their Jewish. brothers and sisters in faith
in Jesus. And so you remember what the
apostle Paul says, in Jesus Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek
slave nor free. And then you remember what he
also says in another place, I am not ashamed of the gospel for
it is the power of God unto salvation first for the Jew, then for the
Greek. And then he goes on to speak
of how the gospel is even for the barbarians. It’s for the
people who maybe don’t know as many English words as we do.
It’s for the people who don’t have as many dollars in their
wallet as we might. It’s for everyone, no matter
socioeconomic standing, educational abilities and earnings, it’s
for all. In fact, when we come to the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ, it ought to be the most diverse
place on the face of the earth, not the segregated hour. I don’t
know about you, but when we get to heaven, we’re probably gonna
be a minority there. That’s just a guess. It’s going
to be full of all kinds of people from all kinds of places who
look all kinds of different than we do. But nevertheless, Sunday
morning is often the most segregated hour. I was having lunch this
week with another pastor who was telling me about the history
of his church. And the church that he serves has had multiple
names. But the first name of the church
was Second Presbyterian. the people from First Presbyterian
Church decided they were the mill owners, and they didn’t
want the mill workers in church with them, so they created a
church for them, and they called it Second Presbyterian. Well,
all the people of Second Presbyterian said, we’re not second-class
Christians, and so they renamed their church. I think the second
name was maybe after the road or the street it was on, and
now it has maybe gone through a couple other renamings. But you know, you think about
how we do church. You know, sometimes the church
isn’t the extension of the country club. The church is simply for
business connections. It can be for all kinds of things,
all kinds of reasons, especially this time of year, it’s your
opportunity to show up wearing your fur coat because you’ve
got one and everybody needs to see it, right? And so we can,
we got to be very careful. I can remember when I was a kid,
we had a man in our church who was, he was what you would call
a Southern gentleman. It came from a wealthy family.
They were part of the Virginia Railroad and coal and tobacco
industry. They were very well off and they
lived on a horse farm. Had lots of acreage in the state
of Virginia or the Commonwealth of Virginia, I suppose we should
say. And this man, Bill, one time
was hosting a dinner at his home. You know, all the finery was
out. You know, all the forks you had to choose from and the
spoons and the, you know, the napkin rings and all the rest.
And one of the early services of food was a bowl of soup. And one of the house guests,
one of the guests at the table, did not know what the soup spoon
was and how to properly eat soup at a table set such as this. And so the man picked up his
bowl and began to drink his soup. Well, Bill, instead of becoming
upset or irate or making all kinds of noise, he simply picked
up his bowl and drank his soup in the same way, and made this
person feel at home. Oh, we have our customs, we have
our practices, and yes, we probably ought to show manners. That’s
a good thing, but sometimes distinctions cause us to show partiality. So what is Jesus saying here?
What is James saying to us? What is God saying to us? Don’t
be prejudiced towards others. Don’t show favoritism. Stop sizing
up. and categorizing people in different
ways. Stop making distinctions. Or
even he goes on to say, you’re judging with evil thoughts and
you are dishonoring this poor man. And then he goes on to give
a little reason why you should be careful. He says, it’s the
rich that oppress you. So in this church setting, you’ve
got poor people, and then you’ve got some wealthier people. And
what he’s saying to them, there’s people wealthier than you. And
not only have they oppressed you and do they oppress you,
they even haul you into courts. So put yourself in the poor man’s
shoes, for in fact, you’ve been there. and stop blaspheming,
stop tearing down the name of those made in God’s image. Well, there’s a second thing
that he says in addition to showing no partiality. In verse five,
he importantly says, has not God chosen those who are poor
in this world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom? I think of those middle school
days and how my dad would say, you know, well, son, we may not
be rich in money, but we’re rich in faith. We’re rich in family,
rich in all these things. And I’m like, yeah, but that
doesn’t fly when you get into the halls of the middle school.
And you have to suffer through these things to realize what
is really true, what really is right. And then maybe you can
become a friend to the friendless, a kind person to those who are
poor or have, less, you, you know what it may be like, but
God gives a wonderful theological, uh, help to us who maybe, maybe
our educational standards don’t measure up to the elite of this
world. Maybe our socioeconomic standards don’t measure up to
what others might think they ought to be. And other ways we
could say, we don’t measure up. We’re down here. Everybody else
is up here. God is going to say to you very quickly, he’s chosen
you who are poor in the world to be rich in faith. Money cannot
buy faith in Jesus. That is a free gift of God. And
there are some of the wealthiest people in the world. They have
every dollar imaginable, billions with a B possibly, but it will
not buy them righteousness. It will not buy them faith. It
will not buy them freedom from sins. I think of the rich man
and Lazarus. The rich man on this side of
the door feasted and Lazarus laid out on the other side of
the door in the street only to have the dogs lick his wounds.
And the Bible tells us Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom
where he sucked with Abraham in heaven and feasted with the
people of God. And then Lazarus was down in
hell looking up and said, please go and tell my brothers before
it is too late. Has not God chosen those who
are poor in the world to be rich in faith? But he goes on to say,
to be heirs of the kingdom. We just finished our study of
Joshua and Caleb leading the Israelites in the promised land.
Why is it that Joshua and Caleb got to go in, but nobody else
from their generation? It’s because when they spied
out the land, they looked at the grapes and they looked at
the figs and the opportunities, brought that back to the people
and said, this is our new hope, our new heritage. And they tasted
the grapes, they tasted the figs, they saw the beauty of the land,
and they lived by faith saying, God will grant this to us as
our inheritance. And that’s how we must live now.
I’m like most of you, I’m a thousandaire. Might be a hundredaire, I’m not
sure. I’m definitely not a millionaire and probably never will be. But
I’ll take a hundredaire, a thousandaire. Y’all know what that is, right?
Okay. Yeah, you’re supposed to chuckle at that. But I have things
money will not buy. I have been given faith in Jesus. And I know that as a free gift
of God, I was not looking for it, it found me. I have children
who walk with the Lord and what a wonderful thing that is. It
doesn’t matter how many millions or even billions or maybe someday
soon trillions is gonna be the new millionaire. It won’t buy
salvation. It won’t buy faith. It won’t
buy righteousness. And so we have to see not only
this command not to show partiality, stop sizing people up and putting
them into categories, but we also need to see who we are in
Christ. We are chosen. We have been given faith, we’re
rich in faith, but we’re also heirs of the kingdom. We have
seen into the promised land and we are looking for that wonderful
heavenly city. Well, there’s another little
command that pops up in this passage. You find it in verse
eight. He says simply this, fulfill the royal law according to the
scriptures. And what is the royal law? He
gives an example of, it’s love your neighbor as yourself. You know, we live in this day
of self-care. I sort of despise that term. But also know it’s something
we radically need. I decided last night, or my body
did, I’m gonna go to bed early. I think I fell asleep at 8.30.
I finally got up and turned my light off about 9.30. And I slept
so well, I woke up before the alarm this morning. And I slept
so well that this afternoon when I took my normal Sunday nap,
I didn’t need the whole thing. Usually when I wake up from my
Sunday nap, I regret ever going to sleep because it was just
tough, right? So I got a little rest, a little
self-care. Who doesn’t take care of themselves?
We should take care of others. We should seek others’ betterment,
others’ help, others’ need. Today, one member of the congregation
told me of a struggle they’re going through. And my mind, if
it was hardened, would have said, well, I work hard, you should
work hard. Maybe you could work harder and
God would take care of you. But no, my mind said, you know
what? These are hard economic times. This is a person that
may need the encouragement of the rest of the congregation
in a certain matter. and it would be our pleasure,
our great benefit and joy to help them. So he says, fulfill
the royal law by loving your neighbor as yourself. Don’t show
partiality. Stop committing sin. This is
a transgression of the law of God. In everything we do, we
should please God and not please others. Show no partiality. Stop dishonoring others. And then he goes on to give one
other command, chapter two, verse 12. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged under the law. Isn’t it interesting? He
says, look, you’re sizing people up. You’re placing them here
or there. There’s gonna be a day where
you’re gonna be sized up. That’s scary, isn’t it? And you’re
gonna be placed over here with the wicked. or perhaps over here
with the righteous. And so be very careful, be very
mindful of how you’re living before Almighty God. And then one last thing he advises,
he challenges, he says in verse 13, judgment is without mercy
to one who has shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. So how do we live in the kingdom?
How do we live in the church? Well, we live with God’s economy.
How does he see people? They’re chosen by God, they are
rich in faith, and they are heirs of the promise. And so as we
make our way through this Christian life within the Christian church,
we need to go ahead and get it in our minds and hearts that
God has chosen, he has selected, he has brought in all kinds of
people from all kinds of backgrounds, and we ought to rejoice in the
differences. Sometimes a church can become
so homogenous, right? So, so the same that it’s boring,
right? It’s just plain. It’s just a
bunch of people, the same old people, same old birds flocking
together. Everybody’s got the same old
colors of feathers. And I think there’s such a rich
beauty when the church is full of people with all kinds of gifts,
all kinds of graces, all kinds of abilities. For Jesus’ blood
has been shed for all sorts. and his church ought to be made
up of all sorts of people. I love how he ends this passage,
mercy triumphs over judgment. And aren’t we glad? Aren’t we
glad for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let’s do pray together. Lord, bless us with hearts that
beat for your kingdom values, hearts that look at others and
see them for what they are in Christ Jesus, and lives, minds,
judgments that make your kinds of selections, embrace all sorts
of people, and make the kingdom of God on earth a rich place,
a beautiful place, a sweet place. Help us, Lord, to love each other
and to serve each other without partiality. This we ask in the
name of Christ, amen.