Love Trumps Discrimination

MLK Video

That speech was given on Easter in 1963 and today, 59 years later, our society is still fighting racism.

But it’s more that just black and white.

It’s ethnicity of every kind

It’s culture versus culture.

It’s rich versus poor, the haves and have nots.

It’s conservative versus progressive.

And I could go on and on.

Discrimination of some kind has been around for thousands of years and we are stilling trying to cope with it.

Trying to finds ways to overcome it.

In a way, it is systemic in our society.

Systemic discrimination has been around at least since the days of the early church.

Today as we look at James 2, we see instructions for the church to overcome it.

Before we read our passage for today, we need to go back to the last verse of the previous chapter we discussed last week.

There seems to be a link between verse 27 and the following verses.

James is encouraging us to be “unstained from the world.”

When he uses the word “world” he is referring to the fallen world system that goes against God’s ways.

He urges us to be holy that goes against the grain of the world.

We should not live according to the world’s system, but God’s as we are part of the world.

James 2:1–13 CSB

1 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you? 8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

The Sin of Favoritism

James applies the truth of being pure and undefiled by looking at favoritism.

Which was a common way for the church (then and now) to slide into worldliness.

It seems that the world love to honor the rich and neglect the poor.

James is saying that the church, if it isn’t careful, will do the same.

Even today, those with resources, means or money tend to get special treatment.

Story of man gave $1 million to church, fawned all over him, checked bounced.

Story of Allan G. previous pastor needed anything took him out to lunch and ask for the money.

It happens still today, though I try myself not to get caught up in it, it is hard not to do.

That seems to be the way of the world.

The rich are seemed to be catered to rather than the poor.

UBC poor couple from benevolence ministry came, pastor encouraged me to suggest that they might feel more comfortable with a church that wasn’t as affluent as the one we belonged.

Showing favoritism is ingrained in us.

It’s so natural for us to want to attract those who will most benefit us.

James gives us five reminders to aid us in being impartial in our ways.

Discrimination Rebuked Verse 1 - 4

Look at how James describes Jesus.

Our glorious Lord or a better translation is “our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory”

The title Glory is used to represent the full presentation of God’s presence and majesty.

Jesus is the glorious God and He is the object of our faith.

As we see Christ’s supremacy over all, including the wealthy, then we should not show favoritism.

Do not show favoritism in Greek indicates and action that is already happening.

In other words they were showing favoritism and he says, “Stop It.”

Beginning in verse 2, James gives an illustration.

In a Christian service a rich man and a poor man attend.

The meeting could have taken place in the home of a Christian.

The rich man wore a gold ring and fine clothes.

The word describing the ring of the rich man indicated that he was “gold-fingered.”

He may have worn gold rings on several fingers.

He had all the bling.

I’m reminded of Elvis with rings on all his fingers.

That seems to have been a sign of wealth then.

The poor man appeared in shabby clothes.

Shabby, used to describe the poor man’s clothing, pictured clothing which was dirty or filthy.

The man may have come from work, his clothing stained with the evidence of his labor.

The rich man was special treatment based on his looks.

While the poor man, again based on his looks, was treated poorly.

The people gave the rich man a prominent place to sit and poor man was told to sit on the floor in an undesirable place.

Verse 4 accuses the readers of their sinful actions with a question that expected an affirmative answer.

They had discriminated among themselves.

This created divisions in their midst despite the fact that there were to be no class distinctions.

Secondly, they acted wrongly as prejudiced judges.

That type of discrimination was inconsistent with their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who died for all people, rich and poor.

We can apply this warning in our relationships with different races, social classes, or economic groups.

Results of Partiality Verses 5-7

Partiality goes against God’s ways and results are against our best interests.

God exalted the poor is just opposite of the way they were being treated by James’ readers.

As Christians we need to adopt God’s outlook for the poor.

In verse 5, We are told that God chose the poor.

They were chosen to receive spiritual blessings God has reserved for the poor.

God chose the poor to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him.

The world, including us, may look at those living in poverty as insignificant and worthless.

God sees them abounding in riches of faith.

Their faith allows them to be rich according to God’s economy, salvation and all its blessings.

Now this doesn’t suggest all the poor are converted, nor does it mean God practices a bias against those who are not poor.

The poor God blesses are those whose poverty is primarily to be “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3).

Often those who are economically poor are better placed than the wealthy to understand God’s purposes.

They are more likely than the rich to be prospects for conversion.

God loves the poor more than their treatment by many Christians indicates.

The actions of discrimination does not help the Christians as they were pursuing a path of folly.

The rich were charged first, they were exploiting the poor by social and economic mistreatment.

Second, the rich hauled believers into court and practiced judicial prejudice.

Lastly, they belittled the Lord Jesus by insulting His person and rejecting His claims.

Of the wealthy that showed up were not Christians but wealthy, Christ rejecting Jews.

By catering to the rich, they readers really dishonoring the Jesus’ name.

Live By God’s Law Verse 8-13

In verse 8, James names the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” which is from Lev. 19:18 as royal law.

He does this because in Matt. 22:30 Jesus set it out as the 2nd greatest command.

A neighbor is defined by Jesus as anyone in need.

We are to show our love by responding to needs.

Apparently some of James’ readers were being obedient to this command and James commend them for it.

This is an impossible standard to live by without the power of Christ living in us.

Whenever Christians have applied this standard, it has remade communities, societies, and homes.

If we follow this life of service, we will be commended at the final judgement in the final great judgment.

However, if his readers were practicing favoritism, they committed sin and stood convicted as lawbreakers.

The Leviticus passage warned against showing of favoritism, against either the poor or the rich.

It appealed for fair treatment of our neighbors.

Lawbreakers were those who had stepped over a line or a limit.

They had stepped over God’s boundaries and performed a forbidden practice.

Verse 10 points out that showing favoritism means you are guilty, even if you obey all the rest.

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.

I saw a great illustration of this.

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.

This means violating this single commandment made a person a lawbreaker.

We should apply the statement of verse 10 in other areas where we are tempted to praise ourselves for obedience at one point while neglecting to consider the points where we grievously disobey God’s teachings.

The Bible does not say all sins are equal.

Stealing a candy bar is not the same as committing adultery.

Thinking about murder is not as bad as committing the act.

Every sin does bring guilt.

It takes only a single sin to make a person a sinner.

No act of obedience can compensate for acts of disobedience.

Verse 11 shows the unity of the Law lies in its origin in God.

The commandments prohibiting both adultery and murder originated with God.

To resist one requirement of the Law is to resist God, the authority behind its requirements.

James closes this passage with an appeal to obey the royal law in speech and actions.

Most of us who judge others never think about the judgment we will face in the end.

The coming judgment should motivate us to be obedient in our words and deeds.

If we want mercy, we need to show mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment every time.

So?

So, this brings us back to the idea we began with, namely that authentic religion, or faith, must be evident in our actions.

If we do not keep a tight rein on our tongue we learned last week, then our religion is worthless (1:26).

If our words and works do not reflect the mercy of God, then we show that we do not have faith in Christ (2:12–13).

Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (1:27).

If we fail to do these things, then we show that we have not really been transformed by the life-giving mercy of Christ, and our religion is not acceptable before God.

Christ produces mercy in His people, which changes the way they act and speak before others.

That’s the point of this text, for faith always expresses itself through love.

Let’s Pray!