Show No Partiality

Let’s remember that this book is written to the dispersed church due to persecution they had faced, and still were facing. James has been telling them that this strength is available in the Word of God. More specifically, he has been urging them to both take it in and live it out. And he has not left them in doubt about what is involved in living out the Word of God. It will involve taming the tongue, caring for the needy and maintaining separation from the world.

Roger Ellsworth, Opening up James, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 75.

The part about caring for widows and orphans begins to be discussed in greater detail here in chapter 2. It will not sound like that is what we are talking about, but it is and I hope you will see why as we go through these verses.

James 2:1–13 ESV

1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 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,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 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? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 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. 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.

If we hope to care for those in need, if we hope to “Love our neighbor as ourselves”, then there is no place for partiality.

Partiality here is otherwise known as favoritism

Favoritism - the practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

Two visitors come to the church.

James 2:2 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,

Let’s call them “Mr. Goldfinger” and “Mr. Shabby”

Why does James use this example?

The poor are often the most enamored with Jesus and the grace of the Gospel.

They are not better, but they do understand just how totally reliant they are.

Remember the rich young ruler?

Luke 18:18–23 ESV

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Jesus was not impressed with his wealth or status. He was also trying to teach a very important lesson that we all need to learn.

Luke 18:24–30 ESV

24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

This reflects an attitude that we are to possess.

Be willing to give up the earthly for the heavenly.

So we avoid favoritism and partiality for three main reasons

1. Favoritism is inconsistent with God’s character.

Impartiality is an attribute of God. He is absolutely and totally impartial in dealing with people.

Deuteronomy 10:17 ESV

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Romans 2:11 ESV

11 For God shows no partiality.

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.

Acts 10:34 ESV

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

James 2:1 ESV

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

Showing favoritism is inconsistent with God’s character, antithetical to the gospel, and therefore incompatible with “faith in our glorious Jesus Christ”

2. Favoritism is contrary to God’s values.

James addressed a situation in which believers gave preferential treatment to the rich (2:2-3). What would motivate this kind of behavior? Is it not because these believers valued the rich more than they valued the poor? They would rather have the rich attend their church than the poor, and their treatment of the rich and of the poor reflected their values.

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?

James reminded his readers that their values were not God’s values: “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? Yet you have dishonored the poor” (2:5-6). They were acting in a way that was contrary to God’s values.

In a message on the evil of favoritism in the church,

John MacArthur said: “We tend to put everyone in some kind of stratified category, higher or lower than other people. It has to do with their looks. It has to do with their wardrobe. It has to do with the kind of car they drive, the kind of house they live in; sometimes it has to do with their race, sometimes with their social status, sometimes outward characteristics of personality. All of those things with God are non-issues. They are of no significance at all. They mean absolutely nothing to Him.” (gty.org)

3. Favoritism is sin.

James makes clear that favoritism is not simply disrespectful of people; it is sin against God. “If … you show favoritism, you commit sin” (Jas. 2:9). It is sin because it is contrary to the character and command of God. Because favoritism is sin, there is no place for it in the hearts of God’s people, and certainly no place for it in the church.

We show favoritism/partiality due to worldly measures, not godly ones.

In the account of the rich young ruler, Jesus exposes the issue.

If the man had loved God and other people more than he did his property, he would have been willing to give up his wealth to the service of God and man. But that was not the case.

James is doing something very similar here.

He is reminding the people us that we all stand on equal ground. We are either condemned equally for our sin or forgiven equally because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

As a church, there will always be a demographic we do better or worse at reaching, but the way we welcome people reveals a tremendous amount about our heart.

Matthew 25:34–46 ESV

34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Let us be characterized by love, not partiality.