Playing Favorites

Tiny Tim sat watching one day, as the people came into church to pray. One man came in, in a nice suit and tie, washed and clean, and looking bright-eyed. People welcomed him in, asking “how do you do?” They swarmed him and praised him, and made a big to do.

Then another came in. He was old and gray. He was unkempt and ugly, and smelled of old hay! Tim watched in silence, thinking “what kind of man was this?” as no one bothered to give him a wave or a flick of the wrist. Quiet and slow, the old man came in, and move down to sit, on the second row in. He sat there in silence, alone in the pew, leaving Tim wondering, what he should do?

He looked at the people gathered ‘round the rich man. They were laughing and talking; clearly taken with him.

Tiny Tim looked again, at the old gray-headed Gus. Alone in the pew, away from the fuss. Jesus’ words came to mind, “blessed are the poor” and Tim knew that he needed to head to the door. He crossed the threshold, and went into the sanctuary, and sat down next to the man, who was poor and shabby. Taking his hand, Tim whispered “welcome to church! You looked a bit lonely, on this quiet perch. I’ll sit here beside you, and keep you company, they might not have noticed you, but me and Jesus see.” Taking Tim’s hand, the old man smiled, and together they waited, the poor man and the child.

Series Intro

James 2:1–13 ESV

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 whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of 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 one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Throughout the next few chapters, James is going to apply the concept of “doing” the Word to a variety of topics. His first topic is partiality, or favoritism.

Big Idea: Favoritism has no place in God’s kingdom.

We are going to look at two pillars for why there’s no room for favoritism in God’s kingdom.

1-7 - Favoritism Opposes Faith

The first pillar for why James sees no place for favoritism in the Kingdom of God is simple: It violates our faith.

We jump into this text and as usual, James get down to it quick:

James 2:1 ESV

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

Or as the NLT puts it:

James 2:1 NLT

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

This is like his thesis statement for the next few verses. James is essentially saying “Listen! Faith and favoritism cannot live side by side!” Notice something. He continues to say “my brothers.” This Greek term also means brothers and sisters. Lest we ever think these letters are only for the male half of the church, James writes to men and women, encouraging, rebuking, exhorting, etc.

So James gives us His “big idea” if we will, and then launches into a practical example of what this could look like:

James 2:2–4 ESV

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?

This is an illustration, it is possible it did happen, but also possible it did not. Either way, it could have happened and makes for a potent image of what favoritism in the church looks like.

This image should infuriate us. James uses an image of a church literally assigning status and honor based on what kind of clothes you wear and and your apparent status in society. Those who are rich in appearance are given the best seats in the house. Probably in their meetings closer to the front, sitting and comfortable. The word for “good place” is well. This means a place of honor - one of the better seats in the house. Meanwhile, if you show up in rags you’re relegated either to the back to stand, or else at someone’s feet. You’re not worthy to enjoy proper seating!

This is such a worldly way of doing things! Carry this over into our modern context for a minute:

Suppose someone comes to church here on a Sunday. Let’s say it’s a guy about mid-50s. He shows up in brand new Porsche. He steps out in a nice suit, and comes in looking like money. Imagine if the greeters immediately dropped everything they were doing to shake this person’s hand, lead them into the sanctuary, and seat them right towards the front. Prominently located for all to see.

Then someone else shows up. It’s a single mom, with three young kids. Her giving potential and her “influence” if you will are not near as high as the 50-something man with the Porsche. She shows up in a mini-van with more rust than metal. Her hair is messy, and she’s struggling to coral three crazy kids. Imagine if, instead of welcoming her and offering to help her get in and settled, we were wary of her! We looked at her and said, “oh, well if you want you can sit in the nursery, or otherwise the balcony is always open.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the balcony, but hopefully you get my point. Can you imagine if we assigned seating and attention based on someone’s outward appearance?! I think any of us would agree that this would be completely out of line. This is what James is getting at. Clearly, these sort of distinctions have no place within the body of Christ.

In fact, he says those who would operate this way have “become judges with evil thoughts.” What does this mean?

Essentially, this is telling us that prejudice or favoritism of any kind within the church is wrong. When we exercise this, it is allowing evil to grow.

Romans 2:11 shows us the truth:

Romans 2:11 ESV

For God shows no partiality.

Why? because

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So then within the church

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If God does not show partiality, neither can we! Otherwise, we really are those who judge with evil thoughts and intent.

In vv 5-7 James asks a set of rhetorical questions related to the problem of favoring the rich over the poor. Each question expects a “yes” response:

James 2:5 ESV

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?

James 2:6 ESV

But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?

James 2:7 ESV

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

First up is a question that pulls us back into chapter one, where James had said,

James 1:9–10 ESV

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

God’s economy is so different from that of the world. Here, James reminds us of our need to rely on God, something the poor are much more used to doing! Yet do you see: those who may be poor here are in fact quite rich not only in their faith in Christ, but also inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven! Wow! This is not to say that the rich will not be saved, but it is a call for us as a church to see the honored status of those who are poor, for God has made them rich in Him and rich in the Kingdom of Heaven.

James (3) The Discrimination of God (2:5–7)

Poor believers are not the only ones who will be saved, but they, above all, demonstrate God’s gracious saving work

And yet, James says that they have dishonored the poor man. This statement shows us that favoritism was a problem then as much as it is now. Yet this is counterintuitive, because it was the rich who oppressed the poor. In a Roman society such as this, it was based on client-patron system that favored the rich (Cornerstone, p. 49.) Most likely, the rich were dragging the poor not even into a Christian court, but just the secular courts. Logically-speaking, James asks why they would want to favor the very people who persecute you and slander the name of Jesus Christ with their actions?

Their opposition of God’s people actually served to mock Christ! These “rich” who dragged them into court - who they were trying to favor - were in direct rebellion towards God, much like we find the beasts and the dragon in Revelation 13:6 (Cornerstone, p. 51).

How then should the church act with regard to favoritism? God’s people should be leading the charge through the gospel in loving people correctly.

James, 1 - 2 Peter, Jude & Revelation Commentary

To consider any person superior on the basis of skin color, ethnic origin, gender, or economic status is to partake of the world’s “evil” nature

Racism, or unfair gender bias, or partiality based on wealth, or anything like these should be found no where in the church.

Why?

These violate the love God has poured out on us. This love that we see demonstrated for all on the cross.

So the first pillar of how favoritism has no place in God’s kingdom is that it violates our faith. It causes us to treat people in the exact opposite was of the kingdom. We cannot be called Christians and actively play favorites because someone is the right color, gender, or status. In fact, if we are to play favorites, it should look distinctly opposite that of the world. We should honor the poor, rather than the rich, for they are rich in Christ.

Now for the second pillar:

8-13 - Favoritism is Sin

Have you ever heard someone make a racist joke, or a derogatory comment to someone else and laugh it off as nothing? I know I am guilty of that. We laugh it off as a joke. If it’s a sin, it’s a small one, right?

Somehow, we’ve gotten it in our heads over time that some sins break God’s moral law waaay more than others. We only broke God’s law a little bit, right? I mean, it’s not like we murdered someone, or slept with another person’s spouse or something. Those are big sins. So we’re not really that guilty, right? Don’t be so hard-nosed God!

Apparently Jame’s audience had a similar understanding:

James 2:8–11 ESV

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 whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of 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.

“If you really fulfill” could also be translated “when you fulfill.” In other words, when you follow this law - a royal law - to love your neighbour, you are doing well. James calls God’s law the “royal” law because it is the law of the Kingdom we belong to - the Kingdom of heaven. It’s royal law comes from the ultimate King, and we do well to follow it! Here we’re talking about the laws in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ teaching in the New. Jame’s quote comes from Lev 19 18

Leviticus 19:18 ESV

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

This same law was repeated by Jesus when asked what the greatest of the commandments was:

Mark 12:30–31 ESV

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

To love your neighbour as yourself means to have sacrificial love for others. This is the same love Christ showed us, and now we must show others.

So if we love others as ourselves, we are keeping God’s royal, good law of liberty as we have heard it called earlier in 1:25.

Yet, James confronts partiality for what it is: A breaking of God’s law and therefore sin. It breaks this law of loving others as yourself. It is not sacrificial love. It is not doing the Word. So it is sin and we are convicted by the law as sinners because of it.

This is where James confronts our heart posture that likes to place sin on different levels, brushing off the small while hyper-focusing on the big. He starts with this: If you break the law - even at one point - you are still a sinner.

Sometimes we figure it’s not a big deal to break God’s law a little bit. Because, after all, it’s only a little bit. What’s the harm in that?

James uses an example: Both murdering and adultery are outlawed in God’s law. However, if one zealously keeps the law to not murder, while sleeping with another person’s spouse, does that make them innocent of sin? Of course not! They have still broken the law and are just as guilty of breaking it as the person who murdered.

In the same way, favoritism is not unlike these other sins. Often murder in particular is linked with discrimination. James calls those who lived for money and power adulterers in 5:6. What we see here is the link between them. Don’t downplay this as a small sin - it’s not. It is serious, it is a breach of God’s law. It should be taken seriously.

How then should we live? As doers of the Word:

James 2:12 ESV

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

James 2:13 ESV

For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:13 NLT

There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Our God is a God of mercy:

Exodus 34:6 ESV

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

James is talking about the gospel, friends! And we must so speak and so live as those who are under the gospel. In Jesus, the law in the Old Testament was fulfilled. It pointed to Christ. It shows us our need for a Saviour because there is no way we could ever be right with God on our own. So we see here God’s justice and mercy. God must deal with sin, yet in Jesus he took the punishment for our sin and so satisfies justice.

We must live as those under this new law of faith in Jesus. We are saved because of God’s great love for us! We must show that same love to others! As people who have been shown great mercy from our God, we must demonstrate God’ love and mercy to others. Yet, if we choose not to show mercy to others, we place ourselves under God’s direct judgment. If you cannot show mercy, you clearly have not accepted God’s mercy and so place yourself under the condemnation of the whole law. However, when we show mercy - demonstrating God’s mercy to others - we demonstrate ourselves to have received God’s mercy in our lives.

James (3) The Freedom-Giving Law (2:12–13)

The importance of mercy in human relationships is so essential because mercy is a direct indicator of repentance toward God.

James shows that instead of allowing the sin of favoritism crop up, let the mercy of God in your life conquer over the natural human tendency for prejudice and favoritism.

Favoritism has no place in God’s kingdom because it is sin. Instead God’s mercy and grace should shine through us to others. When this happens we demonstrate the reality that everyone is equal at the foot of the cross. Each in need of a Saviour, and each loved by Him equally.

Conclusion

Big Idea: Favoritism has no place in God’s kingdom.

We saw two pillars of this argument in today’s text:

Favoritism violates our faith

Favoritism is sin.

So what? This is one of those times where we can quickly get lost in “good word James!” and then think about it again. We might think it doesn’t apply to us because we think we don’t have a noticeable problem with favoritism or prejudice. So what? How does this get lived out practically?

If there is one place where we are all truly equal - it is at the foot of the cross. There, each one of us, old, young, big, small, rich poor, black, white, is equal as we come to God asking for salvation. We leave from this place as a family, united together by God’s Spirit.

So… we cannot let our current temptations of prejudice into the church. Instead, we need to show our world - that is viciously fighting back against prejudice and favoritism in some forms - the real way to defeat this: Through mercy from God, and through God’s Word.

From any angle we look at it, if we are going to be people who “do” the Word we cannot show partiality, exercise prejudice in race, gender, or socio-economic status, or play favorites. For James’s audience, favoritism took the shape of catering to the rich and shaming the poor. For us today, how does favoritism show up?

It can be in the rich vs. poor scenario. It can also show up in allowing prejudice into our hearts towards each other. Sometimes the prejudice in this world around race and ethnicity can effect the church. If there is one place where different races should be able to work in harmony, it should be in the people of God. But sometimes this does not happen. May it not be so! May this church even be a place where healing between the races can occur!

The bottom line is this: The Word calls us to sacrificially love others as we love ourselves. Friends, we cannot make distinctions, this is what James says. James’ audience needed the reminder, I think so do we. Going back to the story of tiny Tim in the beginning: Who was more like Jesus in the church? All those people, all that “Christian maturity” but they were showed up by the little child who had a heart like Jesus’s.

Hold your Christian faith in such a way that when it comes to others, you treat each one as you would treat Jesus. With respect, with dignity, and with welcome to the family of God. All of us are equal before the cross, and so all of us are welcome at the Lord’s table.