The Problem of Partiality

James 2:1–13 (ESV)

1 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.

The sin of partiality is fundamentally making a value judgment on another person based on unbiblical criteria.

Partiality means I decide how I will feel or think about you based upon a criteria that is unacceptable to God.

To be partial does not refer to the fact that you may have likes, or preferences that differ from another, we all have those.

It becomes a sin when you make a value judgment that affects how you think, relate to, or treat someone else because they are different from you.

When we use the worlds standards or some made up criteria based on someone’s: money, race, clothing, job, social status, appearance, relationships, etc. that is evil and it is a sin.

The point is being made to a people who are not suffering from doctrine insufficiency; it’s not that they don’t have the right information. They have the right information; but they are not living it out in a way that honors the Lord.

Notice verse 1 says he is the “Lord Jesus Christ,” they had the doctrine and would have felt at home with us here tonight.

They would have sang the songs, taken communion, enjoyed the fellowship, and appreciated the study of Scriptures.

Doctrine was not their problem; their problem was their walk did not match their talk.

They have a practice problem. Your attitude about others does not reflect you belief system.

Jesus did NOT treat people that way.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

Jesus did not use some pagan system to determine someone’s value.

In fact Jesus spent a great deal of time relating to the people who were cast off and rejected.

Remember the ‘widow’s mite’ Jesus gave a value judgment based on where her heart was.

Mark 12:41–44 (ESV)

41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Externally she was nothing; she was a poor woman that was not worth anything. The money that she was putting in the plate was worthless… But to Jesus this woman and her act of faith was truly incredible.

Jesus related to people out of their potential not based on where they were currently.

That is why he could call Peter a rock even when he was acting a fool, Jesus saw his potential.

Peter was constantly making big mistakes.

Peter spoke when he should have listened; Peter was arrogant and prideful. We would look to Peter and see a gruff ole fisherman, but Jesus say Peter and saw the ROCK.

Jesus would talk to a Samaritan Woman in whom no one else would be caught dead speaking to because they were a half breed.

John 4

She was despised and rejected, on a good day she would have been considered an adulterous woman, others would have seen her as a town prostitute or harlot… yet she became one of the greatest evangelists in the New Testament.

Who could have predicted something like this?

Most of us would say “I aint sitting next to a woman like her!”

Jesus saw her potential, not just what she currently was.

A sinner is a potential saint; unless we have forgotten.

We could stay here for quite some time and talk about the ‘nobodies’ that Christ chose to be ‘somebodies’ in his Kingdom and in His Kingdom Work.

Jesus was called a “Friend of sinners.”

While He could not rub shoulders with sin, he could rub shoulders with sinners as long as the sin did not rub off on Him.

Jesus related to people as long as it would not compromise His Holiness.

The Bible says that if we would have seen Jesus we would see no beauty inside of him that we would have desired.

Isaiah 53:2 (ESV)

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

If he walked in today, he would look like an ordinary Joe.

He would not be glowing; Jesus did not walk around town with a light from the Heavens shining upon Him; he was just an ordinary fellow.

He was a blue-collar kind of man. He worked with his hands using tools and wood.

You would see nothing special when you saw Him walking down the street.

In fact He was often despised and rejected, and He came from a town that was despised and rejected.

You might give him a polite ‘good evening’ but that is about it.

He was somebody, but I guess when you are somebody you don’t have to flaunt it.

Our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, why does he make this comparison before he gets in the illustration?

Now that we understand that he has risen from the dead, now that he occupies a glorified body, now that we see he has paid for our sins, now that we know he is seated at the right hand in Heaven, now that we know one day he will break through the clouds and set up his kingdom, now that we know we will spend eternity singing his praises.

Now that we know who He really is, we understand that the best of us have nothing to brag about.

Those with the highest ranking must bow down when He shows up.

He is the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, and when he shows up everything else in minimalized.

Partiality comes from the initial belief that you are better than someone else; and so from the beginning let’s just look to Christ and we realize that ain’t a one of us anything.

Two Men

James 2:2 (ESV)

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,

A man comes in and he is GQ, he has the look going on!

He is a man with a tailored suit, and cuffs. He has rings on his fingers. He looks like a man of influence. He looks like a man of wealth.

By looking at him; statusand wealth just walked through the door.

You are struck by him, you whisper, ‘who is that.’

He drove up in his $100,000 vehicle, it is obvious that he is not the average guy, he has made a name for himself and it is visible.

When he walks in this man deserves attention.

But another man comes in: “and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in”

It is obvious that this man has not gone very far in life, maybe he is a drop out with a low status job.

He doesn’t even have good clothes to get into before coming to church, maybe he didn’t have time to change because he came straight from work.

The man is just poor, the best that he has is ‘shabby.’

This man is the opposite from the first man that was mentioned.

· The first man was rich; this man is poor.

· The first man had influence; this man has none.

· The first man has the nicest clothes; this man has shabby clothes.

THE SIN 3

James 2:3–4 (ESV)

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?

All of a sudden the ushers get involved and began to direct who can sit here and who can sit there.

The rich man you bring over and say please have a good seat, but the poor man you sit on the floor.

The rich man: “Please come and meet our Pastor” Or maybe you make a special trip to the pastors office… Bro. Charles this influential rich man from our community is here, can you imagine the benefits if he joins our church. Bro. Charles come and meet him; what an opportunity!

The Poor man: “Sir please do not bother our Pastor.” Bro. Charles we need to be careful because if we get too many people ‘like that’ coming here it’s going to be detrimental to our church.

You have made a distinction based on some external criteria.

You don’t know the guy, you have never talked to him.

All you know is that those diamonds look real and that suit looks nice.

Notice, the condemnation is not to the rich man because he is rich. The rich is not condemned, and at the same time the poor is not condemned.

At the foot of the cross there is room for both.

The rich man should not apologize because he is wealthy, and the poor man should not apologize because he is poor; the principle we are dealing with here tonight is how everyone else responds to these two men.

How does the membership of the church related to the man who offers them nothing.

The sin is found in verse 4:

James 2:4 (ESV)

4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

The sin is the distinction that has been made, and your motives or your thoughts have led you to make this distinction.

The rich man can offer you something that the poor man cannot; and based on that motivation you make that distinction.

The motivation is evil. What you did was make a value judgment on who is worthy and who is not.

Racial

Status

Finances

Personality

This is real and it is evil; and it happens every day in churches all across this nation.

The stupidity of partiality 23

James 2:5 (ESV)

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?

He says don’t you know that God is doing his best work among the poor.

God choose the poor of this world to be ‘rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.’

God is hanging out among the Christian poor.

One day the tables will be turned, and the ones who rise to the top will be the nobodies of this world.

He has chosen the poor, not because there is something spiritual about being poor, but God uses the poverty to give them richness spiritually.

Rich are often too busy being rich to make time for God, but the poor seem to always have time for God.

The one thing that the poor often have that the rich often do not is ‘time for God.’

The more successful we become the more self-reliant we become.

Before we became successful we were always in the things of God, but give us a little wealth in all of a sudden ‘I don’t know if I have time for God today.”

The poor need God, and so they grow in faith. The rich are self-reliant and many times move away from God.

Matthew 19:24 (ESV)

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

At judgment you will be judged based on your commitment to God, not based on how much stuff you have accumulated.

At judgment your money, and your wealth does not make a hill of beans; but if you spend your life to honor God that will matter a great deal.

If your success or education has created spiritual insignificance and insensitivity, or arrogance then my dear friends on that day you will see who the real heirs of God actually are.

If what you are striving for to make you somebody in the world actually makes you a nobody in the next world then your blessings are actually a curse!

Money, Success, and Wealth are tools that satan has used in great success in our culture.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Woodland Hills when is the last time that you prayed that?

No. we have todays bread, next weeks bread, and next month’s bread.

There are many around the world even as we sit here tonight, who every day they go to the Lord and say, “Lord if I am to feed my family today it is only going to be through you…” And so they are rich in faith!

They must be rich in faith, because they are dependent upon the Lord.

God says those with a strong faith they are the wealthy folks.

There is nothing wrong with having good stuff, but there is something wrong with measuring your Spiritual life by your success.

And there are too many in this day who tie prosperity with theology and that is wrong.

Prosperity Preachers preach that wealth comes from God and poverty is a sign that you are being punished. That belief is contrary to the Word of God.

Some of God’s choicest servants in the Bible had nothing, and yet they are honored.

So He says I am making them my heirs, so how can you discriminate against them.

Now he is not saying treat the rich badly; he is saying treat them both as equals.

It is stupid to treat someone superior based on some absurd cultural external feature.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (ESV)

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

God is going to want to know; what did you do with the least of these? What are you going to do with the nobodies?

Enjoy what the Lord has blessed you with, praise the Lord for that… But don’t look down on someone else because they have not been blessed in the same ways that you have.

If you are in trouble and need prayer; find you a poor person that loves God.

They may not know the word omnipotence… but they’ll say there aint nothing that God can’t do.

They may not know omniscience… but they’ll say there aint nothing God don’t know.

They may not know about sovereignty; but they know that God moves in mysterious ways.

If you have been blessed; if you are wealthy… We are not blessed because you are here.

We are not privileged because you are here; you are privileged because you are one that God called.

Don’t feel like because you are someone out there automatically you are someone in here.

That ain’t going to fly!

Church family we must see people the way that God see’s people!

James 2:6–7 (ESV)

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?

It is the rich who are trying to take advantage of you.

It is the rich who blaspheme the name of God.

Who are the ones wanting to take God out of school? It is often the well to do.

The solution to partiality

Job 34:19 (ESV)

19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?

God doesn’t show partiality because he created them all.

Acts 10:34 (ESV)

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

There are differences, differences are different then partiality.

· You’re black so I cannot find value in you.

· You’re poor so I cannot find value in you.

· You have long hair so I cannot find value in you.

· You live in a different neighborhood then I do so I cannot find value in you.

· You have a different job type so I cannot find value in you.

· Your intellectual level is different from mine so you are not worth my time.

Most of us without realizing it do this every single day.

We judge the book by the cover, and we have done so for the majority of our lives!

The solution in v. 8 is a powerful one.

James 2:8 (ESV)

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

The “Royal Law”, or the “Kingly Law”- The more complete statement is seen in Matthew 22:

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

One question was asked but he received two answers. The Royal law has 2 sides to it.

One vertical and one horizontal, and it must have both.

Because how can you have love toward God if you do not have love toward your fellow brothers and sisters whom you see every day.

Why is it called ‘royal?’

· It is the law that moves all of the others.

Romans 13:10 of the law.

Romans 13:10 (ESV)

10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

It is called the ‘Royal Law” because if you have love toward others you wouldn’t need any of the other laws.

The only reason we need law is because of the lack of love.

If you operate this law then you have covered the other laws.

This law in place allows you to enjoy the Christian life.

Many Christians seem weighted down because you can’t do this and you can’t do this.

So God says; ‘ok, let me give you one law: Love God and Love others.”

“Treat your neighbor as yourself.” What if we operated that way?

Love means that you can treat someone right even though you may be fighting some internal prejudices that you have been taught.

It may take you a little while to get over a built in prejudice, but act in love any way.

When you act in Biblical love God will respond and reward you with.

James 2:9–11 (ESV)

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.

Illustration: You honor I just want you to know that I have not committed adultery.

In other words not committing one sin does not cancel out what you did do.

In the Old Testament both murder and adultery were punishable by death.

If you are a racist, a classist, or a culturalist, God says you will not be able to tell him what you didn’t do because he is putting the sin of partiality on the same line as the others.

So you can’t pretend like it’s not a big deal. James says; the same one who told you not to kill or commit adultery also told you not to be partial.

You are offending God either way.

Illustration: Holding on to a chain off the cliff… Link 5 broke.. You dead… Let’s say link 5 was good but link 4 broke.. You dead… They are all connected so if you break one the result is the same.

God is saying treat partiality as you treat murder.

It seems as though we minimize this in our churches like it is not a big deal; but I want us to see tonight that this is a big deal to the Lord.

James 2:12–13 (ESV)

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.

Look at the picture: One day you will stand before God for your own spot of evaluation. Your life will be judged based upon the life that you lived.

Christians will be rewarded based on their works.

We aren’t talking about gaining Heaven we are already going to heaven but we are talking about Kingdom privileges.

At the end of our tape many of us are going to cry out for mercy. Then God is going to say, let me show you every place that you showed mercy.

Mercy will triumph over judgment.

· There was a nobody that you did something great for.

· There is a poor person that you helped.

Then God is going to deduct mercy from judgment.

Mercy will overcome judgment.

So if you are worried about the judgment seat, that you would be ashamed for the mess you have created. Go find and create opportunities for mercy.

God would rather reward you for mercy than forgive you for judgment.