Living without Partiality

We are studying the book of James this morning. We’ll be in the second chapter of James. If you need a Bible, there are some in the back of the pew in front of you - you can turn to page 1387 to follow along. Stand with me as we read from the word of God. Read with me in James 2:1. This is God’s Word, and if you will let it, it will change your life.

James 2:1 ESV

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

Pray

James is interested in getting these scattered Christians to live their faith - not just believe in their heads but to live according to what they profess. And he begins in the area of how we treat others.

God Does Not Have Partiality, So Neither Should We

The Greek word for partiality in verse one is prosopolempsiais. For those wondering, that’s a sixteen letter word. It gives the idea of receiving someone to your face - i.e. showing them favor. But it also has the idea of refusing to show everyone that same favor. This is where we get the idea of partiality. In fact, the Greek text says something like “do not have the faith of our Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ, with partiality.” We think of partiality as something we do - an action, but they thought of partiality as something you have - an attitude. So James’ command to believers is not to have faith within a position of or tainted by partiality. Simple enough, right?

If you look up the word for partiality, you find three other scriptures in which it’s used - all three are written by Paul:

Romans 2:11 ESV

11 For God shows no partiality.

In Romans 2, Paul is showing how God judges each person by their works, whether they are Jews or Greeks. He says that whoever does evil will be in tribulation and distress (2:9) and whoever does good will receive glory and honor and peace (2:10). Then comes verse 11: God does not have partiality. Two more times, Paul uses the word for partiality - both in the context of relationships:

Ephesians 6:9 ESV

9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Bondservants, urges Paul, are to be obedient to their masters; in return, masters are to treat their servants well because they too have a Master in heaven who does not have partiality.

Colossians 3:25 ESV

25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Paul has just called the church to do everything “heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” because “you are serving the Lord Christ.” Then comes the statement that God does not have partiality when it comes to punishing the wrongdoer.

All of these show us that God does not have partiality: he does not treat one group of people with “kid gloves” and another harshly. He is just in all his ways. If there is no other reason to not be partial ourselves, just following God’s lead should be good enough for us.

But we tend to be partial - we tend to treat others differently for a host of reasons. If we like them, we give them more leeway to make mistakes or “have an off day.” If we don’t like them, everything they do is magnified and scrutinized as we hunt for clues of malice or ill-will.

James is hitting on this when he gives a hypothetical situation (which sounds more like a description of experience than a fabricated story):

James 2:2–3 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, 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,”

He contrasts the entrance of two men: one in a three-piece Armani suit and fine jewelry, and the other in tattered, dirty rags of a shirt. The rich man is escorted through the door to the place of prominence, while the other is shirked off to the corner or to sit by someone’s feet.

Now imagine you are the rich fellow. You are brought to sit at the place of honor. People fawn over you, treating you with every bit of courtesy. Your whims are anticipated and cared for as quickly as you can wish them. Life is pretty good, right?

Now imagine you’re the poor man and you’re told to go “stand over there” or “sit at my feet.” You are being excluded: you are an outcast. That’s what partiality looks like.

And James points out how wrong this is:

James 2:4 ESV

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

He’s pointing to a crucial truth:

Partiality Makes Us Evil Judges

When we are partial toward someone and against another, we are misjudging the value of those individuals. We see this play out in two ways:

We Reject Whom God Chooses

James 2:5–6 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? 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?

God chooses to make the poor and lowly to be rich in faith and gives them access to him. Does that mean that everybody who is poor is good? No, but often the ones that follow God are poor and oppressed. They do not have anything else to rely on but God, so they look to him for their salvation. That faith produces a righteousness that endures their trials with perseverance, like what James talks about in 1:2-4.

But the ones God chooses, the poor, are the very ones we reject in partiality toward others. We misjudge the value of those individuals who are poor, assessing people based on what they can do for us instead of what God thinks of them. We are bad judges. But we also make the opposite mistake:

We Choose Whom God Rejects

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?

God had commanded against this oppression of the poor in Leviticus 19:15:

Leviticus 19:15 ESV

15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

Instead of living by this standard, the rich intentionally oppressed the poor. They would drag the poor into court, where high costs would cause great hardship on those poor. Paul would be both the perpetrator (see Acts 8) and the victim of this strategy (see Acts 18). Not only that, the rich would charge exorbitant interest rates, then “foreclose” when payment could not be made. They would force the poor into slavery to repay debts far greater than they would ever be able to repay otherwise.

Then came the slander - the word used here is blaspheme. The rich were “spitting in God’s face” as it were when then dishonored his name among his people. Whatever the rich did to the poor, God says they were doing to him.

Partiality Makes Us Law-Breakers

We Are Commanded to Love our Neighbors

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.

When We Break a Law, We Break the Whole Law

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.

Instead of Partiality, We Should Have Mercy

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.