Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How are we all doing?

Are we feeling beat up from this series in James yet?

If not, go grab some podcasts from the previous weeks, a cup of coffee and prepare to be repeatedly soul-punched by the brother of Jesus.

I hope you’ve also come to see over the past several weeks that the purpose of our study in James isn’t just to beat you up, or make you feel inadequate as a believer.

The goal of our study in James is to help take us past a shell of a religion that simply keeps us occupied for an hour plus on a Sunday morning and to take us to a faith that actually works - that actually means something to our daily lives and make a difference in our communities.

More than just

One of the main problems Christianity faces today is the problem of irrelevance.

Christianity and the church no longer have an automatic place in people’s lives as the number of people rises who claim no affiliation to any faith.

If you truly want to advance the mission of God in a culture where Christianity is relegated (at best) to one worldview among many, than we need to live lives that show a faith that works.

*You cannot show the world a faith that works if you are not living out a faith that is working.

I love James because he is writing to groups of believers who are living in a society where they are marginalized at best, and section after section of his letter is used to smoke out old vestiges of dead religion and, with words that echo his brother Jesus, call the church to live out the faith they claim to believe.

This section is actually a followup to last week in calling us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

It is also a lead into the central theme of the book which we will see next week - the idea that faith in your life, if it does not have any fruit, is no faith at all.

ILLUSTR - crazy prejudice of Eagles fans.

If you walk into Lincoln Financial Field wearing a Dallas shirt on gameday, you may be a very nice person on the outside, but I guarantee you Philly fans will make a prejudiced, external distinction about you.

Meaning, you’ll be lucky to leave alive.

These are the fans that beat up mascots, throw snowballs at Santa, shoot flares across the stadium, and, at one point, actually had a jail cell in the stadium.

Let me put it in a language you’ll understand: Notre Dame and Purdue.

Some of y’all are angry that I just touched the sacred - we’re going to smash some idols up in here today!

If you have a Bible. . .

**Pray**

Right out of the gate James throws a soul punch and states the point of this next section of the letter.

‘Show no partiality’ (favoritism)

How many of you showed “partiality” this past week?

How many of you used the word ‘partiality’ this past week?

I don’t want us to fall into the trap of ‘Christianese’ = words, thoughts, and ideas that we hear at church or religious circles that we really can’t see how they connect to daily life.

break down the work means to ‘bring or set before your face.’

‘Partiality’ = moving your face toward or away from someone based on an external assessment of their lack of worth or perceived value to you.

Par

= prejudice

'The sin of partiality is one of the most subtle of all sins.

Partiality reveals a non-Christian sense of values.

God shows no favoritism () and neither can His followers.’

To judge someone to be worth less than you based on external circumstances (how they look, dress, smell - their race, their gender, their struggle with identifying their gender) or any external factor is completely inconsistent with a Christian character because it is completely inconsistent with God’s character:

In writing about the ju

“it is whether we put the Lord’s glory first in our scale of values or whether, all the time or from time to time, we allow ourselves rather to be led by the standards of this world as to what is worthy and worth-while.

James Adamson catches the needs of the passage exactly when he says that the verb ‘indicates their “facing both ways” … nominally to Christ and actually to worldly snobbery”

Essentially, if we boiled down

True faith is expressed through real unfiltered love.

Three implications that flow from the command to ‘show no partiality:’

We cannot look down on others while we are looking up to Jesus.

(1)

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

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

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Be aware of the gap between you and the Lord of glory.

‘glory’ is used more than 300 times throughout Bible.

At it’s most basic understanding it has the idea of weightiness - not like too much Chick-fil-A, but a seriousness that leaves you with a weight.

We’re talking about Jesus:

col 1:15-

How can I possibly judge a perceived gap in value and worth if I realize the REAL gap in value and worth between myself and the Lord of glory.

(The right perspective brings humility)

    Be grateful that the Lord of glory bridged the gap.

This Lord of glory modeled for us a mercy so strong and love so fierce that it crossed the boundaries of time and space - of holy and sinful.

Jesus looked down on you because of his position, and came down to you because of his love.

Different than the example James gives us here - Jesus didn’t simply allow us in our dirty rags to enter his presence and thereby model for us mercy and a lack of prejudice - he left his place, put on the dirty rags, entered my world, and invited me to his.

Catch the irony here - we claim a faith that follows THAT Jesus - the only reason which we are following is because Jesus took no account of the gap between us -

and then turn around and scoff at the idea of bridging the gap of someone who is different from us.

Jesus crossed every external barrier to set us before his face - to bring man to God - what right could we possibly think of to allow any external difference between a man and man to allow us to judge another’s value as less than our own.

The more you look to Jesus, the more you see the difference between you and Jesus, the more you understand the beauty of the gospel that bridged the gap between you and Jesus.

(Bigger view of God, greater understanding of our sin, deeper appreciation of the gospel)

(We cannot look down on others while we are looking up to Jesus.)

We cannot be a community formed by God’s mercy and yet show no mercy.

(2-7)

James now gives a practical example showing partiality that some commentators believe may have been an actual issue in some of the churches to whom James is writing.

I love how James points out how this all happens at church, right?

‘assembly’ - could be church, Life Group, small gathering of believers.

Likely visitors - so all the church has to judge by is external values.

The point of the example was (I believe) to do more than deal with a particular issue at a particular church.

I think it can ring true with all of us in order to:

Let Jesus expose your prejudice.

What type of people do you avoid?

Who are the ‘they’ that you keep from 'setting before your face?’

Who do you prefer?

Who do you purposefully try to be around, participate with because they can benefit you in some way (where others cannot)?

The improper “division” being made between rich and poor reflects the improper “divisions” harbored in the minds of the believers.

Consistently Christian conduct comes only from a consistently Christian heart and mind

**There cannot not be a category of persons that we would shy away from welcoming into our church, group, or home.

age

gender

gender confusion

economic status

ethnicity

sexual identity

ILLUST - we have had to wrestle with these thoughts during the foster care and adoption process.

- Peter and Cornelius

As we said earlier, prejudice is a subtly invasive sin born from the whiffs of pride in our life.

Just because we’ve been Christians for a long time does not make us immune.

Gal 2:11-

Prejudice within the church

our individual hearts toward others

Prejudice of the church

I wonder in what ways we, the church as a whole, make judges of ourselves as we turn our faces on our own needs and comforts such that we spend a crazy amount of money, time, and energy into satisfying those who might attend the church rather than meeting the needs of those who NEED the church.

Do we have our face set toward our rich culture - expecting things for our comfort and ease while neglecting the church around the world.

Let us express God’s love.

Contrast this with:

Uncommon generosity born from an uncommon love

Prejudice within the church

If we, as the church, truly are a community formed be God’s mercy, then we must set the pace for correcting the sin of prejudice and favoritism.

Prejudice of the church

One practical way to do this is to set before our face those that others have turned away from (James’ example of the poor)