Lessons From James Chapter 2

Introduction

Good morning!

I want to do something a little bit different this morning, so we will see how it goes.

This morning I want us to examine a chapter of the Bible instead of a typical “topic” driven sermon.

The youth can attest to the fact that this is my favorite style of teaching. So this is not really different for me, but it is different for me to do that in the format of a sermon in front of the church as a whole.

There is something about reading the Word and letting it speak for itself that just seems....right. I know thats shocking.

Now…before you jump on me though, just know that topical sermons are great and are biblical! I think that Jesus own Sermon on the Mount was topical, I’m not knocking that at all.

What I AM saying is that I have always loved chapter by chapter and verse by verse teaching. In fact, I have always thought that it would be so amazing to lead a teaching of this nature through the entire Bible....we probably won’t get that done today though.

Today I want to take your through one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, James chapter 2.

Many of you know that James is my favorite book of the Bible.

Within the book of James, my favorite chapter is chapter 2.

There are a lot of reasons that this is my favorite chapter but the biggest is that it is a call to action!

I’ve been struggling the last couple of weeks to figure out what this sermon should be about

Truthfully, the last couple of weeks, the world that we are living in has just kind of been getting to me

I know that many of you can relate to that

It just seems to me that there are so many things that are just kind of falling apart at the seems, just deteriorating right before my eyes.

The last couple of weeks are not necessarily special because of any “big event” or anything like that

it has been hitting me just right the last couple of weeks and its been really getting under my skin more than it usually does.

All of this kind of naturally got me thinking about what we can do about it.

You see, I spent a lot of years being very involved on a local and even a county level basis.

During that time, the big conclusion that I came away with is that there is no change coming from the voting booth.

Republican or Democrat, right or left, conservative or liberal. Everyone seems to be in it for themselves and not for the good of our society.

Now, I want to be clear…this is not some “don’t go vote” speech. If God is leading you to go vote and you have prayerfully considered who you are voting for then you better go do it.

No, this is just a little bit of background on the feeling that I had been dealing with for a little while now.

The feeling that I’m talking about could only be described as a kind of hopelessness for this place that we all call home.

Not a general hopelessness because my hope is in nothing but Christ!

But just a hopelessness that the society we live in will never be what it once was (even though that itself was not always great).

The conclusion that I believe God has impressed on my heart is that we are a nation and a society that is absolutely full of words and descriptions of what should happen, what should be done, but we are a society that is woefully short of actual ACTION to do the things that God has called his people to do.

Now if you find this in the Bible I am absolutely open to be corrected but here are some things that we call “action” in todays society that are no where to be found in the Bible.

In todays world we like to call ourselves men and women of “action” if we:

Go vote or become politically involved

No where in the Bible does it command you to go forth into the world and vote in a Godly society.

It is not there

Your vote may or may not matter but what you can know with certainty is that the person that God wants in power will be in power no matter how early and ofter we vote.

Daniel 2:21 (ESV) He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

God may do these things and your vote may be used to do them but rest assured…the person God wants in power will be there whether you are part of the process or not.

Voting is not wrong, its just not something God has commanded you to do.

NO - the action that God commands of us is not to vote or fundraise or get politically involved.

Post on social media!

How many of us feel better when we blast something out on social media for all the world to see about how screwed up everything is? I know I’m guilty of that sometimes!

Maybe I’m just doing it wrong but I have yet to solve any problem on Facebook!

2 Timothy 2:23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

It’s almost like God looked into the future and saw social media and warned us!

Again, speaking out on these platforms are not inherently bad in and of themselves BUT

They are not the action God commands of us.

I could go on and on at length about the things we are NOT called to do. In fact, many if not most of the things that the majority of people do would fall under the category of things that God never commanded of us.

What we - as the body of Christ - need to know is what does God expect from us? What types of actions does He command and what types of actions honor Him?

This is what we are going to look at today in James chapter 2!

Who was James?

To truly understand this book we need to look at exactly who wrote it!

James was the half brother of Christ.

I believe we many times gloss over this and I think that is a true error!

Imagine the things and the conversations that James was witness to and even a part of!

His entire life he was walking next to the God of the universe. This is a man that knew Jesus on the most personal level and who - after knowing him so personally - STILL ATTESTED TO THE FACT THAT HE WAS THE SON OF GOD AND THE MESSIAH!

That is astounding! That is who James was!

James is, surprisingly, considered to be the writer of the book of James.

I want to state this somewhat obvious fact because it is believed that James died somewhere between the year 62 and 69.

This means that this book is one of the earlier books of the New Testament to be written, many believe it was written between 40-50 AD.

Lastly, James was martyred by the Jews in Jerusalem somewhere between the year 62 and 69 AD as I mentioned. Several writers of ancient history record similar stories of how he was killed

It is widely recorded that he was taken to the highest pinnacle of the temple and thrown off. When this did not kill James, the Jews proceeded to stone him, which also did not end James. At this, James began to pray for the men that had wronged him and a member of the Sanhedrin finally struck him in the head with a club. James was one tough guy and obviously the Holy Spirit was with him!

Through all of this he never renounced Christ, never changed his story on who he was.

You see, he watched this man Jesus grow up. He was intimately aware of the reality of Christ.

This is a man that we can absolutely trust! He was a first hand witness to Christ through almost all of Christs life on earth and never changed his story all the way through the bitter end.

THIS is who James was!

Lessons from James

The chapter that we will look at today is broken up into two fairly distinct parts.

One thing I want us all to remember however is that in the original letter that James wrote it is highly unlikely that there were “topic breaks” or headings.

It is worth noting that the original letters of the Bible were written much as we would write a letter today, without headings or titles. Most of the headings and titles that we find in the Bible are mans attempt to break apart and understand things.

This is not inherently bad, we simply must remember that just because there is a page break and a header after verse 13 that does NOT automatically mean that the two different sections of scripture in James 2 have nothing to do with each other.

That being said, the two different parts in most of your Bibles will be broken up in the first 13 verses dealing with partiality and the rest of the chapter dealing with how our faith and our works are married together.

James 2:1-13 says:

 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 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? 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? 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of 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 murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 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.

This is what I love about the book of James! James just comes right out and says what he means.

This first section of scripture is plainly telling us that in the family of God there is exactly ZERO room for favoritism or partiality based on any type of worldly measures. It also makes a very forceful statement regarding the role that mercy must play in the family of believers.

There is no room for favoritism based on money, power, material possession and things like that

According to scripture, we are to look inwardly rather that outwardly. This means that specifically within our congregation and the church in general (remember in verse 2 James talks about people coming into your assembly - these are instructions for the church) we are to disregard material possessions and wealth as they pertain to the role that people play within the body of Christ.

If God has blessed you with vast financial resources then praise God! But this does not mean that you get any more say than anyone else or any different or better treatment than anyone else.

In fact, you better guard against that type of thing!

In todays world we know that money, power, and material possessions are what almost everyone looks to as a measure of success and it is commonly believed that people who have gathered large amounts of these things should be held up as the model to all and should be given high status and respect.

God says the opposite.

To be blunt, God doesn’t care one bit for your money - He doesn’t need it and it doesn’t impress Him

He gave it to you and He can take it away - You better work hard to honor God with what you have been given!

James goes so far as to say that those that are poor in the world are rich in faith. In this case, sign me up to be poor!

James also says that Judgement is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.

I don’t know about you but this terrifies me.

I have been guilty too many times of being long on judgement and short on mercy.

This, again, is opposite of what God is looking for.

Be merciful when someone is wrong.

By all means we must point out truth and must correct things that are wrong, but when a believer turns from a sin do not hold that over their heads!

Show mercy to the repentant and show mercy to those that turn to God and follow Him!

James 2:14-26 says

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

This is singlehandedly my favorite passage in the Bible

I love it because it is plain direction as to how we should live our lives.

I don’t know about you but sometimes I need God to come right out and give me directions and this is what He does in this section!

So many things jump out at me from this passage that I think I could talk about it for hours but I’ll do you a favor and just hit the highlights

Just like God doesn’t care about your money…God doesn’t care about your words if they are just words!

God values what you do versus what you say. Your words don’t do anything for anyone unless you back them up with action.

Anyone ever met someone that says “oh yeah! I’m a christian” but you take one look at their life and the actions in it and know that they are indeed most assuredly NOT a christian?

Do not be this person!

Here is the call to action!

Your faith must be something that PRODUCES tangible things! If not, James calls this faith dead.

Your faith is shown to be true by the works that it leads to.

What types of things is God looking for when he commands our faith to produce works? I will give you some practical and biblical actions that God commands. I’ll list these off pretty quickly so write this down:

Love - 1 John 3:11 “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

Love each other, love others. Do the things that show love.

Meet Physical Needs - James 2:15-16 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

Control Your Tongue - James 1:26 “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”

Visit & Care For Widows & Orphans - James 1:27A “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction

Keep Yourself Clean - James 1:27 B “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

There are many more, men…act like men (lead your homes and families in Christ), make disciples, be bold in your speech and stop thinking you can’t offend anyone (the Gospel is OFFENSIVE!), I could go on and on!

These are just a few real world actions that God commands of us.

These are things that physically show and prove the faith that we claim to have.

James goes so far as to say that if the faith that your words claim does not produce these things then your faith is worse than fake…it is dead! A faith that is dead is no faith at all, it certainly is not a saving faith.

If you hear these things and think “Man, thats not me…I don’t meet physical needs, I don’t show mercy or love, I don’t control my words, the world has control of my life”. If that is you and you have been claiming Christ then you absolutely need to examine your faith, what you will find is that it is not alive. You need to come to Christ and let Him create something NEW in you. Something alive that really makes an impact in this evil world.

The whole intro when I went off on the state of the world and what we are not called to do was not without a purpose.

Imagine if every person that claimed Christ actually had real living faith that produced work for the kingdom!

Imagine what our society would look like!

We would not live in fear, we would be bold!

There would not be kids left in the lurch with no one to show them love when deadbeat parents cast them aside.

There would be strong brave Christian men to step into the gap when women and children were in danger or not cared for

There would be basic morality and common sense, we would not see transvestites and homosexuals taking over schools and government

We would see a lot less coddling and babying and we would see a lot more TRUTH!

We will end on that note. I hope you have these takeaways:

Your wealth doesn’t matter and no one should get special treatment from it.

Practice mercy, because you need it!

Love each other

Meet physical needs

get a hold of your language and words

Pay special care to widows and orphans

Keep yourself out of the evil of the world

Actually BE the change that needs to be made. We all recognize what our world needs, lets be bold enough to stop talking and start doing. If we won’t do that then we cannot claim to have faith in Christ

I’ll ask the band to come while I pray

These alters are open for anyone that needs to come. If you need to be active, come ask God to work in your life. If you don’t know Christ then come and we will pray with you and talk with you about how you can know him. If you have any other needs please come and someone will be here to pray for you.