James Ch2v1-13

Yeah, so this is the week that you can definitely judge me more than any other week,

so you can decide how happy or sad you'll be when I'm leaving next week,

based on how this week goes.

If you would like to open up your Bibles,

and I encourage you always, whenever we're looking at the Bible together,

to open up your Bibles, whether that be the Church Bibles or otherwise,

to James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

It is on page 1213 of the Church Bibles.

So that's James chapter 2, page 1213 of the Church Bibles here.

James 2 · chapter mention

So it reads,

My brothers and sisters,

believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ

must not show favoritism.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine robes,

and fine clothes,

and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.

If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes,

and say,

Here's a good seat for you,

but say to the poor man,

You stand there,

or sit on the floor by my feet.

Have you not discriminated among yourselves,

and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters,

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 to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor.

It's not the rich who are exploiting you.

Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

If you really keep the royal law found in scripture,

love your neighbor as yourself,

you are doing right.

But if you show favoritism,

you sin,

and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

For whoever keeps the whole law,

and yet stumbles at just one point,

is guilty of breaking all of it.

For he who said,

You shall not commit adultery,

also said,

You shall not murder.

If you do not commit adultery,

but do commit murder,

you have become a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,

because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

As we come to God's word this morning,

let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the fact that it speaks into so many different aspects of our lives.

We pray now that you will help us all to hear your word,

to receive it in our hearts,

and to let it change and transform us.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, favoritism.

I wonder what pictures the word favoritism conjures up for you.

It's not the most popular thing in the world, is it?

So, at home, it might be a son or daughter being treated better than another son or daughter.

And that might be something really trivial,

like it might be an extra scoop of ice cream,

or maybe the bigger half of a cookie that's been split in half.

Or maybe it may be something more serious than that.

It may be attention.

It may be love.

It may be care.

At school, it might be the bad behavior of a teacher's favorite being overlooked.

Or in work, a favorite member of staff being given more time,

more resources, more sympathy than others.

Or in government, or so many other areas of lives.

Jobs for the boys, lucrative contracts for friends.

So, I think it's fair to say that favoritism or partiality is not the most popular thing in the world.

But it's also, obviously, not a recent invention.

We see it here in a letter from nearly 2,000 years ago.

So, how does God respond to favoritism in his word?

Well, verse 1, no surprises.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,

must not show favoritism.

It's also what we want him to write, isn't it?

It's plain and simple.

If you are a follower of Christ, you must not show favoritism.

And it is really tempting for me to say,

Grant, Alex, if you want to come back up now, I'm ready to wrap up.

Because if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ,

then don't show favoritism is the core message of this passage.

It doesn't get any more complex than that in some way.

Do not show favoritism.

However, if we leave it at that,

then we miss out on answers to so many other questions,

which are also answered in this passage.

For example, why would James write this?

How could favoritism become a problem in the church in the first place?

Why is favoritism wrong or how is it bad?

How big an issue is all of this, really?

What does our showing favoritism show about our hearts?

And if we're not to show favoritism, then what should we show instead?

But before we think a bit about those questions,

there's one other question that's not specifically answered in this passage,

which is, what is the context here?

So if we go back to the first verse in the letter,

you'll find that James is writing this with specific groups of people in mind.

He's writing to people specifically from Jewish backgrounds

who have become Christians, who are following Jesus.

I'm not going to summarize the whole book here,

but one key theme throughout the book

is that we shouldn't be double-minded as we follow Christ.

And bringing out that theme,

James frequently puts two things alongside each other,

and he says these two don't match up.

They don't belong together.

So, for example, in James 1, verses 5 to 8,

James 1:5–8

you can read about a person who asks God for wisdom,

but who doesn't believe that he'll actually ultimately provide it.

If you go just to James 1, verse 26,

James 1:26

just before this passage,

we see a person who considers himself or herself religious,

but doesn't keep a tight rein on their tongue.

James 2, verses 15 to 18,

James 2:15–18

just after this passage,

you have a person who claims to have faith in Christ,

but who does nothing to help other people.

And in James chapter 3,

James 3 · chapter mention

we have a barrage of them in verses 9 to 12.

We have praising God and cursing human beings.

We have fresh water and salt water flowing together.

We have fig trees bearing olives.

We have grapefines bearing figs.

One of the key comparisons James makes

is in James chapter 1, verses 22 to 24.

James 1:22–24

And it says,

Do not merely listen to the word,

and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word,

but does not do what it says,

is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror,

and after looking at himself,

goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Why would someone look in a mirror?

Well, if you're as vain as me,

it's because you're looking to see if there's anything wrong.

Is my hair out of place?

100%.

It always is.

Am I caked in dirt or sweat, though?

Do I look okay?

Am I passable?

But the looking isn't really the most important part there, is it?

Because it would be really strange,

sheer madness,

if I looked in the mirror,

saw that I was absolutely caked and covered in dirt,

and then sort of shrugged my shoulders,

walked away,

and didn't do anything about it.

I've identified the problem,

but I haven't actually fixed it in any way.

And it's kind of the same as we're looking at God's word.

What we're doing here this morning

is looking at and listening to the word.

But we need to look at ourselves in the mirror

at the same time, so to speak.

And then, once we've looked at ourselves in the mirror

and identified where the gaps are between us and God's word,

we need to actually do something to fill those gaps,

to clean off the dirt, as it were.

So if we're looking at our passage this morning,

James chapter 2, verses 1 to 13,

James 2:1–13

verse 1 is the core.

Don't show favoritism.

And we're going to look at the passage

to see some of the answers to the other questions

we looked at earlier.

But let's keep in mind, as we do,

the imperative, the command of this passage

is that we do not show favoritism.

And so if we walk out of here

having a great academic knowledge

of what favoritism is,

how to define it,

what it looks like,

what the steps should be

in order to get rid of it in our lives

or anything like that,

and we don't actually put any of that into practice,

then we've completely missed the point of the passage.

To take James' words,

we'd be just deceiving ourselves.

So with all that context in mind,

let's look at verse 1.

My brothers and sisters,

believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ

must not show favoritism.

And James goes on, verses 2 to 4,

to give a specific example, doesn't he?

He mentions a man who comes into,

well, two men who come into a meeting of the church.

One is very rich,

one is fine clothes, a gold ring,

another is poor, he's dressed in dirty rags.

And he says that these men are treated differently

in this hypothetical example.

One is told, oh, here's a fine seat for you.

But the other one is told, oh, go over there.

I'm still at the floor by my feet.

And he says in verse 4

that this is a sign of evil thoughts and judgment.

So you can possibly imagine that kind of scene.

It's very visual.

But let's take a step back for a second

and ask us, well, why would that arise?

Why could that arise in a church setting?

Also, incidentally,

is this just for the people who welcome people

as they come in the door and say,

yeah, the seats are down here?

Or is this for everyone?

Spoiler alert, it's for everyone.

Maybe, maybe the reason

why they treated these people differently

is because they hoped to gain something

from the rich man.

They might easily think,

well, here's a man who could help us.

Here's a man who could be useful to us.

See, favoritism gets very unpopular

unless we stand to gain from it ourselves.

I have a friend who keeps an out-of-context quote book.

And for people who don't know

what that concept is or what it means,

it means he takes down things

that his friends say jokingly or sarcastically.

Or ironically, completely out of context.

And then he'll bring them up in six months' time.

And without the context around them,

the quotes sound outrageous.

There's one example I have on him.

I was chatting with him about someone in his church.

And he responded,

well, you know, there's only so much I can do.

I'm already being nice to her,

so she helps out.

Now, I do need to stress

that he was joking when he said that.

But at the same time,

is that very different from how we act ourselves?

Not necessarily just in church,

though, altogether,

if there are people here

who are involved in choosing church rotas

and all that sort of stuff,

are we liable to that ourselves?

But are there people who we generally talk with,

do favors for,

that we don't do for others?

At least partially because we might be able

to gain something from them.

We might want something from them someday.

Perhaps relatedly,

are there people in our lives

who we only talk with

when we want something from them,

when we think they might be useful to us?

So maybe the people in verses 2 to 4

show favoritism to the rich man

because they think he might be useful to them.

But either way,

in our own lives,

we need to be wary of that

because,

verse 1 again,

believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ

must not show favoritism.

And in this case,

James actually has some specific reasons

in verses 6 and 7

for why they shouldn't be showing favoritism

to the rich of his day in particular.

So in verses 6 and 7,

he talks about their exploitation,

their abuse,

their abuse of the legal system,

their blasphemy.

He shows essentially,

these are people who,

if you're choosing to play favorites,

these are the worst people

to play favorites for.

But interestingly,

he doesn't lead with that argument.

Look at verse 5.

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters,

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 to those who love him?

So before pointing out

the earthly problems with favoritism,

before pointing out

the particular situation,

he points us heavenward.

In effect, he asks,

well, what does God think about this?

And what's the answer?

Well, God has chosen those

who are poor in the eyes of the world

to be rich in faith

and to inherit the kingdom.

In a sense,

James is saying here,

okay, I see the rich and poor man

and how you treat them.

There is a wealth that matters,

but it's not physical wealth

because it's better to be rich

in faith than in gold.

And the apostle Peter

actually makes this point

quite explicitly

in 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

He says that his readers' faith

is of more worth than gold,

which even though

it is refined by fire,

still ultimately perishes.

Meanwhile,

the inheritance of God's children,

he says,

will never perish,

spoil, or fade.

So the primary reason

not to show favoritism

is not earthly

or self-interested.

It points towards God's choice,

towards his children,

those whom he loves

and those who love him.

But as we hear the word love,

we might need to be a bit careful

around that as well.

So when we think of favoritism,

we might be tempted to think,

oh, you know,

I don't show favoritism

to this person.

When I'm doing favors

for that person

or helping them out

or becoming friends with them,

that's not favoritism.

That's just me showing them

God's love.

And James preempts us in that.

Look at verse 8.

If you really keep the royal law

found in scripture,

love your neighbor as yourself,

you are doing right.

Well, so far so good.

But, verses 9 and 10,

if you show favoritism,

you sin

and are convicted by the law

as lawbreakers.

For whoever keeps the whole law

and yet stumbles

at just one point

is guilty of breaking

all of it.

So it's like James is saying here

that favoritism

and showing God's love

towards someone

can look very similar.

In a sense,

James isn't saying here,

oh, the way you said

to that man

here's a fine seat for you,

that's absolutely wrong.

Now what he's pointed to

is the contrast

between the two.

He's saying the way

that you treated the man

saying, oh, you know,

sit here, this is great,

like, I want to treat you

really well.

That's fine.

But it's the contrast

then with what they treat,

how they treat the poor man

in terms of the,

no, you stand over there,

you sit at the floor

by my feet.

That's the distinction

between what love is

and what favoritism

looks like.

And we need to examine

our motives properly.

So if there are some people

to whom we find it much easier

to show God's love

than others,

we need to understand

why is that?

In the context of God's love

for the poor,

the weak,

the outcast,

in the context of the church

specifically,

if he invites people

into his family,

how can we insult

or dishonor them?

As verse 6 puts it,

you have dishonored

the poor.

If we do treat people

differently in that way,

then it might show

something important

about our hearts.

So verse 1 starts out

by talking about believers

in our glorious

Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, hopefully,

no big surprises here.

James expects his readers

to love Jesus.

He expects us to love him.

He expects us to really

love his glory

and who he is

as a person

and what he has done.

We're supposed to love

his glory.

But there are different

kinds of love

and different kinds

of glory,

aren't there?

There's sort of

loving a good burger

or a good meal

of any sort.

There's loving your parents,

loving your children,

loving a significant other.

They're all very different.

And then there's a difference

between glory of God

and the glory of man.

And this is something

that I think Alex

was mentioning earlier.

himself.

He says,

it's so easy

for our eyes

to get distracted,

but we want to fix

our eyes on Jesus.

It's oh so easy

as well

for our hearts

to get turned

and twisted

so that we focus

on the glory of man.

And that could be,

in this case,

like the glory of wealth

as it is in this passage.

Man's gold ring,

fine clothes.

Maybe for us today

it would be

a car,

a house,

a salary.

It could be

the glory of celebrity

being thought of

as really important.

It could be

the glory of charisma,

so being instantly

liked by everyone,

the glory of intelligence.

Oh, that person

seems to know everything.

And as we start

looking towards

those people,

as we start

turning our hearts

towards that type

of glory,

we find ourselves

turning away

from the glory

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at the end

of chapter 1 with me,

right before the start

of this passage.

So James chapter 1,

James 1:27

verse 27.

Religion

that God our Father

accepts as pure

and faultless

is this,

to look after

orphans and widows

in their distress

and to keep oneself

from being polluted

by the world.

What God considers

as pure and faultless,

looking after orphans

and widows

in their distress.

Orphans and widows,

shorthand

for the very types

of people

who can give us

nothing.

Who have nothing

to give us.

Who have no glory

to show,

as it were.

And in our passage,

that's the poor man.

What about in our lives?

I need to ask myself,

when was the last time

someone received

my love,

my care,

who seemed utterly

unrewarding

in every way?

And as I ask myself that,

I'll pass on the question

to you as well.

When was the last time

someone received

your love

who seemed utterly

unrewarding

in every way?

This chat about

favoritism

is no small thing.

You can kind of tell

that from how we're

covering the passage

in general.

But also look at

verses 11 and 12.

He who said

you shall not

commit adultery

also said

you shall not

murder.

If you do

not commit adultery

but do commit murder,

you have become

a lawbreaker.

Sorry,

I meant to say

verse 11.

Verse 12

we'll come on to

a little bit later.

But adultery

and murder,

okay,

well,

those are things

we see as pretty

serious crimes,

right?

Possibly two of the

most serious

offenses possible.

If you even go back

to the Ten Commandments

in the Old Testament,

you have commandment

number six

and commandment

number seven there,

do not kill,

do not commit adultery.

They're on that list.

So why does James

bring those up here?

Well,

in part it might be

to emphasize the

seriousness of

favoritism,

right?

When two things

he brings up

for comparison

with it

are two of the

most serious

offenses possible,

then we can get

the idea that

favoritism is actually

a serious matter too.

Believers in our

glorious Lord Jesus Christ

must not murder,

grand we know that,

must not commit adultery,

we know that,

and verse one,

must not show

favoritism.

It's that serious

a crime against God.

But it's also a crime

against the unfavored.

So if we take

two people here,

and I'll try not

to start them

with the same letter

so they won't get

mixed up,

let's take Adam

and let's take Joe.

Apologies if your name

is Adam or Joe,

by the way.

So suppose Adam

murdered Joe,

but he didn't decide

to try to get

with Joe's wife.

Would we say

that Adam is guiltless?

Obviously not.

If Adam decided instead,

you know,

I'm not going to murder Joe,

but I'm going to commit

adultery with Joe's wife,

we wouldn't call him

guiltless again

just because he's

avoided murder

this time,

would we?

In the same way,

if we avoid both

of those,

but we still show

favoritism,

then the end of verse 11

applies to us too.

You have become

a lawbreaker.

And as verse 10 says,

whoever keeps

the whole law

and yet stumbles

at just one point

is guilty

of breaking

all of it.

Now,

this is a verse,

we're just coming out

of our summer camp season.

This is one of the verses

that I tend to use

when talking about

the gospel with children,

sort of eight to twelve

year olds

or thereabouts,

as part of explaining

what the gospel is.

Because in order to get

the good news of the gospel,

you need to understand

where we start off.

We start off

in a bad relationship

with God

because of the sin

in our lives.

So I will say to them,

for example,

Romans chapter 6,

Romans 6:23

verse 23,

the wages of sin

is death.

James chapter 2,

James 2:10

verse 10,

as we have in this passage here,

if you keep the whole law

and yet stumble

at just one point,

you are guilty

of breaking all of it.

Or Romans chapter 3,

Romans 3:23

verse 23,

all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

But one question

I got at a camp recently

was,

what is the glory of God?

What's glory,

what's the glory like?

What does it look like?

As verse 1 tells us,

we see it

in our glorious

Lord Jesus Christ.

If we think about

what Jesus did,

what did he do?

Did he show favoritism?

Did he effectively say,

oh, you know,

these people are useful to me,

I'll pick these people out,

those people are not,

we'll send those people away.

Well, if he had,

we'd all be doomed,

wouldn't we?

There would be no gospel,

there would be no good news

because all have sinned

and fall short

of his glory.

Jesus could not benefit

from showing us mercy.

In fact,

that mercy came

at a great cost

to him on the cross.

So if he were solely

interested in this

dispassionate kind of justice,

then he could have judged us

without mercy.

He could have judged us

under the law

that brings death.

The law which says,

you know,

here's your life's work,

here's your sin,

and the salary

that you deserve for this.

The salary you receive

at the end of the month,

in this case,

at the end of your life,

is death.

He could have discarded us,

he could have thrown us away.

Or,

he could have said,

you know what,

clean yourselves up.

Make yourselves rich in faith.

Make yourself useful to me.

Then I'll do something for you.

Then I might show favor to you.

Instead,

the very hands

that could discard us

are pierced with nails,

driven into the crossbeam

for his crucifixion.

And what impact does that have

on how our passage ends?

Well,

from verse 12 onwards,

we're to speak and act

as those who are going to be judged

by the law

that gives freedom.

Not justice,

not punishment,

but freedom.

But reading on,

judgment without mercy

will be shown to anyone

who has not been merciful.

Well,

what is mercy?

Not showing compassion

or forgiveness

to someone

whom it's within your power

to harm.

To harm through favoritism

or in any other number of ways.

And that idea

of judgment without mercy

will be shown to anyone

who has not been merciful.

That can annoy us sometimes.

That can make us go,

oh,

that seems off somehow.

But if we even think about

the Lord's Prayer

and what's said in that,

forgive us our sins

as we forgive those

who sin against us.

So if we're praying that prayer

and we are not forgiving others,

if we are not showing mercy

to others,

we are asking God

not to show mercy to us.

That's the literal way

what we're saying.

Similarly,

there's a parable

Jesus gives

of a man

who owes a massive debt

to a ruler

and he begs the ruler

for that debt

to be cancelled

and it is cancelled.

And then that same man

goes out into the street

and says,

oh,

you owe me

a small amount of money.

I'm going to put you

in prison over that.

And what happens?

Well,

ultimately,

word of that reaches

the ruler

and he says,

no,

you cannot do that.

You are not going to benefit.

You will be judged

without mercy.

You have not shown

the same mercy

that has been shown to you.

And yet,

at the end here,

we have that mercy

triumphs over judgment.

And we can see that

most clearly on the cross

where we,

the undeserving,

can find compassion,

forgiveness,

and freedom

from the sin

that enslaved us.

Now,

when we go to meet

our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,

either when we die

or when this world

comes to an end,

we will not be

shouting at him,

clamoring towards him

and saying,

give us justice,

give us justice,

give us judgment.

We'll be crying out to him

for love

and for mercy.

His mercy

triumphs over judgment

and we are to show

that same love

and mercy to others.

As I close,

I want to read to you

two verses of the song

that we're going to sing

in a couple of minutes together,

which I think sums up

quite a lot of this,

quite poetically.

Starting by talking

about our own situation,

individually,

before the cross.

It says,

Beneath the cross of Jesus,

I find a place to stand

and wonder at such mercy

that calls me as I am.

For hands that should discard me

hold wounds which tell me,

come beneath the cross of Jesus,

my unworthy soul is one.

And then following on

from that in response,

we have,

well, beneath the cross of Jesus,

his family is my own.

Once strangers chasing

selfish dreams,

now one through grace alone.

How could I now dishonor

the ones that you have loved?

Beneath the cross of Jesus,

see the children called by God.

Let's pray together

and then we'll sing.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you for your word.

We thank you for how it speaks

into our lives.

We thank you that Jesus,

even though we could not give him

anything of value,

came to die for us.

We thank you for that sacrifice.

We thank you that through that

we can receive mercy

instead of judgment.

I pray that you will help us

through our lives today

and throughout the coming weeks,

months and years.

We pray that you will help us

to live in such a way

that reflects the mercy

we've been shown,

to show compassion to others,

not to show favoritism.

In Jesus' precious name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

As I said,

we're going to sing together now

a song that you've heard

two verses of.

There's another verse out.