The last lesson followed by this one hit me deeply. I’ll explain more fully at the end.
Lessons Learned from the prior study:
- Regarding Self-Deception #1, your sin comes from you being lured by your evil desires and you biting the bait. When you do this, sin eventually happens, and death is the end result.
- Regarding Self-Deception #2, God saves you through the Word as it is applied to your life. God will bless the things you do if you continually look intently into the Word and then apply the things you learn to your life.
- Regarding Self-Deception #3, if you want God to accept your religion you must have control over your tongue, take care of people who are facing trials, and refuse to be polluted by the world.
I have to admit that when I began studying Chapter 2 of James for TruthSeekers, I prayed something like the following: “
God, I’m not so sure this text really has much that I or any of us in TruthSeekers can really apply to our lives. I don’t think it addresses an issue we grapple with. If I’m wrong, please show us.”
Well, God answered that prayer and I was wrong.
James was writing to a church that openly treated rich people and poor people differently. Rich people were given in prominent places chairs to sit on; poor people were told to either stand or sit on the floor by the rich people’s feet.
No way would we do that in 21st century western churches! We have a certain level of cultural sensitivity built into us, a certain level of etiquette, and for that matter a certain fear of lawsuits! Even the snobbiest American knows that you can’t openly treat someone differently to the extreme this church was doing based on socioeconomic status.
The truth is, I and probably none of us truly think “rich people are greater, poor people are lesser.” Heck, most of us - myself included - wouldn’t think of ourselves as rich at all. I’d rank myself closer to the “poor” end of the spectrum, not the “rich” end.
Furthermore, I am associated with a pretty large church is a pretty small town where many of the highest-profile and many of the poorest people sit together on Sunday.
So does James have a message for me and us in 2:1-13?
Oh yes.
Before we go on, I’d like to make an observation about chapter 1, which we just finished studying.
Chapter 1 briefly discussed the following topics:
- Asking God and lacking nothing (1:4-8)
- Wisdom from God (1:5)
- Faith (1:6)
- Wealth, poverty, and financial trials (1:9-10, 27)
- Temptation and Sin (1:12-15)
- Anger and other sins of the tongue (1:19-21, 26)
- Worldliness (1:27)
Those are the topics that the rest of the letter will discuss in more depth with chapter 1 sort of serving as an outline or introduction to the rest of James’ letter.
2:1
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
James is concerned about believers showing favoritism. Notice the reason he gives for his concern: It comes from our identity. Because we “hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” we must not play favorites.
Equal treatment of people shouldn’t be in response to society’s norms, fear of lawsuits, or concern for backlash. It should well up in us from the new spiritual creations God is growing inside of us – the ones who are continually being made more like Christ.
We should treat others equally, realizing that the things of this world are insignificant and that people’s souls - all of which are either lost or saved – are all that matter.
We rejoice with the saved and we cry tears of compassion for the lost as we introduce them to our Lord who loves them.
With that perspective, how could anything earthly – wealth, power, a winning smile, pleasant personality, good looks, or anything else – affect the way we treat others?
If we took this as seriously as we ought, we would weep and be on constant mission to save the world.
2:2-4
2 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, 3 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,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
The situation here is plain. Two people walk into your worship service. One is flashy and looks rich. The other is shabby and not particularly pleasant to be around … maybe like the Rich Man and Lazarus. You give the rich guy a nice chair to sit in. The poor guy has to either stand or sit on the floor. By treating them differently, James says, you’ve done two other things (v. 4):
- Discriminated amongst yourselves
- Become judges with evil thoughts
Discriminating amongst ourselves means labeling people differently than Jesus does – based on their worldly condition rather than their spiritual condition. We have appointed ourselves judges because we’ve judged one person who is lost without His grace to be more important than another person who is lost without His grace. James calls these evil thoughts.
In short, our motives for doing so are selfish. They serve us (who like being around people we find pleasant) rather than serving Christ (who sees all people as a sinful children of Adam, damned on their own, but equally worth saving).
Side Note: You’ll recognize the word translated “assembly” in verse2: “synagōgē”. It simply means the place you gather for worship. Remember that James was writing this letter to Messianic Jews, “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” In the early days of the church there wasn’t such a sharp distinction between Christian and Jew. Christians were Jews with new teachings, and they often met in synagogues with the rest of the Jews.
2:5-7
5 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? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
James asks in v. 5, “
Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”
Does v.5 mean that we have to be “worldly poor” if we want to inherit the kingdom?
Remember in Luke’s version the Beatitudes, Jesus said: “
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied… But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort” (
Luke 6:20-21, 24).
Neither Jesus nor James say you must be worldly poor to inherit the kingdom. But both say that God has chosen poor people to inherit it along with the rest. After all, Jesus Himself was “worldly poor.”
James only offers one prerequisite for being an heir of the kingdom: It is for “those who love Him” (v.5). James’ message, again, is that wealth is irrelevant.
But James goes even further. In
vv. 6-7, he points out how ridiculous it was to treat the rich people better. After all, he says, those are the very sort of people who were exploiting these Christians, dragging them into court, and slandering God.
Now what in the world would cause these Christians to treat someone like that better?
You know the answer very well, don’t you? Politics and personal gain.
If someone with power is causing you trouble, it’s very tempting to butter them up, stroke their egos, and do whatever is necessary to get on their good sides. Sometimes that might mean losing your integrity. Sometimes, if you want to get rid of the pain others inflict on you, if there seems to be no other way, you are tempted to compromise your values.
That’s what these Christians were doing. They forgot that the power of wealthy people is no match for the power of the One who created those wealthy people from scratch. These Christians’ own focus had become worldly.
Believe it or not, churches struggle with this very frequently. Modern churches need money to operate, money comes from the collection plate, and wealthier citizens can give more than others. Some churches lose their integrity by pandering to the wealthy citizens of the community in a lopsided fashion.
Don’t get me wrong, rich people need Jesus just like everyone else! I had a friend in seminary who said after graduation that God had called him to be a “minister to the wealthy.” We teased him about that. But you know what? I knew much about this guy’s heart. He was sincere. All joking with him aside, I can believe God called him to that.
Just realize the struggle that the average church goes through here. And pray for your church leaders, wherever you are.
2:8
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
A “Royal Law” in their day was a law from the King that trumped all other laws and ordinances. If the King said “Yes” when your local law said “No,” the “Yes” would win.
The Royal Law James is referring to — “
Love your neighbor as yourself” — is from the very highest of all authorities, the King of all Kings! Jesus said that the good Samaritan obeyed this law when he helped a desperate person in
Luke 10:27.
Paul applied this law to how we should treat a weaker brother in
Galatians 5:14.
Paul also applied this same law to everything in
Romans 13:9-10:
"
The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."Those verses in Romans are essentially repeated here in James. James says that showing favoritism means you broke the Royal Law and thus you’ve broken the whole law.
2:9-10
9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
The point in context is that these Christians were favoring the rich over the poor. In so doing, they broke the royal law of loving everyone as they loved themselves. And by breaking that one law, they broke every law.
2:12-13
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Finally, James exhorts these Christians to “speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,” that is, live as if God will to judge you based on whether you loved your neighbor ass you love yourself.In fact, James says, that is exactly the standard God will use: “Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful" (v. 13).”He adds the exclamation point by saying “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
That law of mercy trumps all others!
In closing, you may wonder how I discovered that these verses applied to me. Well, you see, I came to realize that there are people in my church who simply don’t “appeal” to me — they may smell funny, they may have overbearing personalities, they may have annoying ways of communicating, etc. I became embarrassed with myself when I realized that I avoid them more than I realized.
Don’t misunderstand. My ministry has often carried me into prisons, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and the downtown streets of large cities. I have ministered to people in just about every conceivable situation. I’ve fed, hugged, and truly loved them all. My “favoritism” hasn’t been a lack of concern or compassion. It hasn’t been an unwillingness to serve them.
But it has been a lack of willingness to make them an integral part of my life.
It’s one thing to go to other people to serve them and then go back home.
It’s another thing altogether to bring them to you and live out life with them.
I’m just being transparent here — not an easy thing to do when leading a Bible study, and even more difficult on the Internet.
What are your prejudices? Where is your favoritism? What part of your life is God trying to touch and change through this message in James?
