The Perils of Partiality

Let’s take to silence to celebrate the Bengals.

Take your Bibles. Lift them high and repeat after me.

This is my Bible. It is word of God. I will hind its words in my heart, that I might not sin against God.

James 2:1–13 NIV

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”  you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”  also said, “You shall not murder.”  If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Lets review. Two weeks ago we began a study of the book of James. I suggested three qualifications that James had that gave him the authority to speak into our lives. Do you remember one of those qualifications?

Jesus half-brother

Leader in the early church

Servant or slave of God.

Great. Then in chapter one he said there are three things to remember when going through trials and temptations.

Be Steadfast

Be Wise

Be Generous

Last week we continued in chapter one and discovered how to treat others. What were the three suggestions James made for dealing with others.

Listen Up

Shut Up

Slow Down

Fantastic.

Now James continues talking about relating to others and this time he address favoritism.

Favoritism or partiality hides behind many different masks. The masks used are Prejudice, discrimination, racism, bigotry, and xenophobia (don’t let that word scare you it comes from Xeno the Greek meaning nations, and Phobia or fear. So it is the fear of other nations.) to name a few. What do they all have in common, they make a judgement that one person is better than someone else.

Although partiality is a problem in our society, it should not be in the church. (Amen)

As NT Wright points out in his book:

Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John and Judah (James 2:1–13: No Favourites!)

In every society, unless it takes scrupulous care, the rich can operate the ‘justice’ system to their own advantage. They can hire the best lawyers; they can, perhaps, even bribe the judges. They can get their way, and the poor have to put up with it.

But I suggest that should not be true in the church.

That is the problem that James is dealing with here in our text.

It was a problem I faced head on.

I was sent by the Bishop to pastor a church in this area. I was invited to the local ministerial association meeting. It was meeting in the building that also housed a food pantry.

An man pulled up on a Harley Davidson just before the meeting was to start. He was dressed in old blue jeans, long hair, long bread almost to his waist, black leather jacket, and biker billfold, complete in chain. He was just standing there, so I asked the host pastor if they could take care of his needs before we began.

Here is what he said to me, “We have trying to take care of him for years, let me introduce you to Father Steve, the catholic priest. Father Steve had taken a vow to God to not cut his hair or his beard.

James tells us there are three traps of partiality, and I had fallen into all three.

Two people have come to worship that morning, a man dripping with wealth and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes. We were told how both were recieved. The rich man, who from his dress and rings may have been a politician, was ushered to the finest seat, while tbe poor man was told to set on the floor out of the way. The usher fell into three traps.

Trap of putting yourself in the Place of GOD

James 2:4 NIV

have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:4 The Living Bible

judging a man by his wealth shows that you are guided by wrong motives.

When we begin to judge people, we put ourselves in the place of God. When you decide that someone is less than you, you are saying, “God, you make a mistake concerning the person. You should have given them blond hair, or a thin body, or a lighter skin color. God you got the melanin wrong on this one.”

But you are not just saying you got it wrong God. You are saying, I don’t have time to get to know this person, make in your image God, so I am going to put them in a box. You see Partiality in all its forms is laziness. Let me repeat that partiality, prejudice, in all its forms and under all its masks is pure laziness. We are too lazy to do the hard work of getting to know people, it is easier to shut them anyway in a box and forget about them.

So society has the black box, and Jew box, and white box, and Chinese box, and on and on it goes. We just keep stacking boxes upon boxes, so we never have to learn and about and deal with real people with real issues.

We put ourselves in the place of God and decide who is, “in,” and who is, “out.” It makes our lives so much easier. But what does God say about this.

Acts 10:34–35 NIV

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

How did this work its way out in the early church.

In some parts of the early church they had a rule that if a regular member of the congregation came into church the usher would look after them, but that if a stranger came in, particularly a poor stranger, the bishop himself would leave his chair and go to the door to welcome the newcomer. I have often wished I had the courage to do that.

We judge people according to their race, their nationality, their ethnic background. I heard about a black man who went to a church in the south and was trying to get in. It was full of bigots and they wouldn't let him in. He went to the pastor and told him. The pastor said, "You just need to pray about it." About three weeks later the pastor saw him and asked, "Did you talk to the Lord about it?" The man said, "Yes, and God said, `Don't worry, I've been trying to get in that church 20 years and I still can't get in.'

The first trap is the trap that will we put oursleves in the place of God. The second trap is just as bad.

Trap of working against GOD

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?

When we show partiality we not only put ourselves in God’s place but we can find ourselves working against God.

There is nothing that can hurt the Kingdom of Christ and the work of our Lord more than snobbishness in a church

Let me repeat that: There is nothing that can hurt the Kingdom of Christ and the work of our Lord more than snobbishness in a church

Remember Christ came into our world not in a palace, but a stable. He did not set at the table with Kings, but with 12 ordinary men. He did not live a life of wealth and power, but of obedience and prayer.

But everything he did was working with God.

How many opportunities has the church lost over the years because we had place someone in box.

Bill Graham began as a son of a dirty farmer.

DL Moody was a lowly shoe salesman.

Four of the disciples were smelly fishermen.

One disciple was a hated tax-collector.

But Jesus saw something in each of them. Just as he saw something in each of you. My excitement is who will Jesus bring through our doors next. It may be a rich man, or it may be a poor man. How will we response like he might be the next Billy Graham? He could be, you know.

Or maybe the next Joyce Meyers is hear now, listening to this message. Will we work with God to nurture them, or against God and push them away.

God has no hands but your hands. What will you do.

The first trap is the trap of placing ourselves in the place of God. The second trap is working against God.

Trap of dishonoring GOD.

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?

Billy Graham arrive for the Mississippi crusade in 1952 he looking over the venue. He noticed a section that was roped off. He asked what is that for. They explained that was for the black folk who might want to come to the meeting. Billy said, NO.

He himself went down and removed the red rope of prejudice, and said at his crusades Black and White would worship together.

He did the unthinkable at the 1952 Jackson, Mississippi crusade; he removed the red segregation rope that separated black and white worshippers. Because as he put it, “There is a cure for racism, it is the cross of Jesus Christ.”

Friends, there is a cure for racism, for sexism, for ageism, and for any other ...ism.

We are all equal at the foot of the cross. I long for the day when 1 Corinthians 13 is our guide.

1 Corinthians 13 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Remember these simple rules for harmony from Joyce Meyers.

1. All persons have a common origin: God.

2. All persons have a common need: God.

3. All persons have a common purpose: God’s Will

Take always

Amen.