Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Chapter 1 concluded with an appeal for us to practice pure religion.
Chapter 2 presents two requirements of pure religion.
First, show no partiality.
Cater to the poor and spiritually hungry rather than to the powerful.
Live by the royal law and experience the law that gives freedom.
Second, produce obedient deeds, for true faith is obedient.
Look to Abraham and Rahab for examples.
“He that prizeth the person of Christ prizeth all his relatives.”
Puritan scholar Thomas Manton
“He that prizeth the person of Christ prizeth all his relatives.”
Puritan scholar Thomas Manton
Chapter 1 concluded with an appeal for us to practice pure religion.
Chapter 2 presents two requirements of pure religion.
Show no partiality.
Show evidence of faith by your deeds.
Read the Memorandum Illustration
I. Prejudice is Un-Christlike (2:1)
It is contrary to His person.
The basic principle is succinctly stated in verse 1, indicating that having genuine faith in the gospel of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ while holding an attitude of personal favoritism is contradictory and incompatible.
The two cannot coincide or coexist.
Being partial is in total conflict with our salvation and with what Scripture teaches
It is contrary to His practice.
How does God operate personally?
Look at the offer of salvation...
The gospel is a great leveler, available with absolute equality to everyone who believes in the Savior it proclaims.
Jesus’ promise to those who trust in Him is:
Tragically, many otherwise biblical and faithful churches today do not treat all their members the same.
Frequently, those who are of a different ethnic background, race, or financial standing are not fully welcomed into fellowship.
That ought not to be.
It not only is a transgression of God’s divine law but is a mockery of His divine character.
II.
Prejudice is Ugly (2:2-4)
II.
Prejudice is Ugly (2:2-4)
It decides based on the external.
These verses illustrate the discrimination.
Rich man wore a gold ring and fine clothes.
The word used means “Gold fingered”.
Shops would rent gold rings to those who wanted to look more important and wealthy.
Poor man wore shabby clothes.
Possibly work clothes, not necessarily homeless.
The greeter gave special acknowledgement to the “rich” man and ignored the poor man.
It reveals evil motives.
Verse 4 uses a question to accuse the readers of a pair of evil actions.
First, they discriminated among themselves.
They were guilty of creating divisions in their midst.
Second, they acted like evil-minded judges, regulating their conduct by blatantly false principles.
III.
Prejudice is Unreasonable (2:5-7)
III.
Prejudice is Unreasonable (2:5-7)
We dishonor those who God blesses.
Partiality is contrary to God’s plan and threatening to the best interests of believers.
James contrasted God’s exaltation of the poor with their abuse by his readers.
Their practice of discrimination against the poor was contrary to the way God had purposed to treat them.
Verse 5 shows how God views the poor.
Verse 6a presents the contrasting practices of his readers.
It is clear: Christians need to adopt God’s outlook for the poor.
We honor those who blaspheme God.
The poor may appear insignificant in this world, but they have the glorious hope of inheriting the kingdom with Jesus
God loves the poor more than their treatment by Christians indicates.
Verse 6a outlines the church’s treatment of the poor.
They had insulted the poor by asking them to stand in some uncomfortable location or to sit on the floor as the Christians gathered for worship.
Such shabby treatment could convince the poor that Christianity was not for them.
IV.
Prejudice is Unloving (2:8-9)
IV.
Prejudice is Unloving (2:8-9)
Loving others honors our Lord.
James calls the command to love your neighbor as yourself as a royal law.
Why?
Quite possibly he used the term royal because Christ, the true King, set the law in place in .
The command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves is an impossible standard without the power of the living Christ.
Whenever Christians have applied this standard, it has remade communities, societies, and homes.
Whoever follows this life of service will receive the Lord’s commendation at the final judgment ().
Loving others honors the law.
Loving others would eliminate most if not all other laws.
Loving others
Some Jews saw God’s law as containing many detached requirements forbidding such actions as murder, adultery, and robbery.
They failed to see its unity.
They may have felt that strict obedience at one point would compensate for disobedience elsewhere.
V. Prejudice is Unlawful (2:10-11)
V. Prejudice is Unlawful (2:10-11)
The law of God is whole.
Some Jews saw God’s law as containing many detached requirements forbidding such actions as murder, adultery, and robbery.
They failed to see its unity.
They may have felt that strict obedience at one point would compensate for disobedience elsewhere.
God’s Law is not like a setup of ten bowling pins which we knock down one at a time.
It more resembles a pane of glass in which a break at one point means that the entire pane is broken.
God’s Law is not like a setup of ten bowling pins which we knock down one at a time.
It more resembles a pane of glass in which a break at one point means that the entire pane is broken.
The Jews tended to regard the law as a series of detached commands.
To keep one of those commands was to gain credit.
To break one was to incur debt.
Therefore, a man could add up the ones he kept and subtract the ones he broke and, as it were, emerge with a moral credit or debit balance.
That philosophy, of course, is common to every works-righteousness system of religion.
The idea is that acceptance or rejection by God depends essentially on the moral standing of the person himself.
If he does more good than bad, he is accepted by God.
If the scale tilts the other way, he is rejected.
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