Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week, James honed in on our temptation to discriminate, particularly to favor the rich over the poor.

We learned that,

We are tempted to show partiality to rich because of our lust for influence and affluence, which divides our heart-that is, divides our love for Jesus.

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James will admonished his readers, and us, to not discriminate against people who find there way into the fellowship of believers at FBCL based sinful distinctions, but to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus in the way we love our neighbor and delight in the diversity of the kingdom of God.

Or in other words, to form it in an admonishment, James said to us,

Christian, do not show partiality in the church because it contradicts God’s love for the poor and violates his command to love your neighbor.

Showing partiality toward the rich contradicts God’s heart for the poor (James 2:5-6).

If God has chosen to save some of the poor and give them his kingdom, why would anyone who says they love Jesus discriminate against these poor brothers and sisters?

That is not the way God treated you.

Both the rich and the poor of this world are spiritually bankrupt.

God looked upon your impoverished soul, and through the abundant riches of His grace, made you alive in Jesus, giving you a magnificent inheritance you do not deserve.

The same way God looked at your poverty of soul is the same way you should be looking at the poor in your church, with mercy and compassion and not evil judgment.

Dr. Robert Plummer summed up this point well when he said,

“Although the world looks down on the poor, God has a special concern and care for them.

A poor person’s continual state of need can lead them, under the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, to look to God for their daily provision in a way that truly honors their Creator.

The person is poor in the eyes of the world but is rich in faith.

How wrong, then, for God’s people to disparage those with whom God is pleased!”

Dr. Robert Plummer

We ended last Sunday with the truth that,

Jesus suffered poverty to grant you a rich eternity.

Jesus who was rich became poor for your sake so that you can be rich in him.

Jesus was born into poverty, lived in poverty, and died in poverty, so that he can remove your spiritual poverty and give you eternal life in his kingdom.

You must repent of your sin, confessing it to him, and ask for forgiveness.

You must ask him to come into your heart to live and rule as your Lord.

You must believe that God raised him from the dead and that his work of atonement is sufficient to remove God’s wrath from you.

For everyone who rejects Jesus will suffer his wrath in hell for all eternity.

But to everyone, either rich or poor, who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

The second reason why you should not show partiality to the rich, or make any other sinful distinctions for that matter, is

Showing partiality toward the rich contradicts God’s command to love your neighbor (James 2:8-11)

In verse 8, James speaks of the Royal Law and then using an appositional phrase, he defines what he means by royal law.

James modifies that the word “law” with the word royal.

The word ‘royal” conveys the idea of belonging to the king.

By using this word, he is likely referring to the kingdom of God.

The royal law, is the same as the perfect law as he says in James 1:25 that gives freedom.

Or as Douglas Moo notes, James’s way of referring to the sum total of demands that God, through Jesus, imposes on believers: “the whole law as interpreted and handed over to the church in the teaching of Jesus [and fulfilled in Jesus.]”

And at the heart of the royal law is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus says all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments:

Jesus draws the heart of the law, to love your neighbor as yourself, from Leviticus 19.

It would be helpful for us to gaze at Leviticus 19:9-18, for a few moments to get the context of what Jesus means to love your neighbor.

Leviticus is God’s instructions for how his redeemed people will be able to live in his presence in their newly acquired land.

In chapter 19, God gives them instruction on living a lifestyle of holiness.

In verses 9-18, the emphasis moves toward living a life of holiness with your neighbors.

In Leviticus 19:9-10, God instructs his people to live a holy life by tithing a portion of their harvest to the poor and stranger in the land.

Whether it was grain or grapes, God’s people were to display their love and commitment to Him by providing for their neighbor who has fallen in hard times.

And in order to maintain their dignity, God instructed them to do it in such a way that allowed the poor neighbor to “work” for his food.

The poor were not philanthropy projects nor should they have to beg for our charity.

They are image bearers who need their neighbors to live a holy life.

In verses 11-18, God further elaborates what it means to love your neighbor, especially your poor neighbor.

He offers four musts for loving your neighbor.

Love your poor neighbor by upholding your integrity (Leviticus 19:11-12)

In verses 11-12, God insists that his people keep their oaths in order to nor pervert justice.

Do not lie to the poor.

Do not promsie them work or to be paid a certain wage, and then renege on your agreement.

This is stealing.

You know the poor have to way of defending themselves, no means of recourse for themselves.

Moreover, when you act this way you play the hypocrite and take the Lord’s name in vain.

Love your poor neighbor by having concern for their vulnerability (Leviticus 19:13-14)

In verses 13-14, God says you love your neighbor as yourself when you have concern for their vulnerability.

Loving your neighbor, especially your poor neighbor means you protect them from being exploited.

You will makes sure they are paid what they are owed, properly compensated for their time and work.

You will make sure that others in the community are upholding the same standard so that the poor do not cry out to God in their injustice.

Love your poor neighbor by being impartial (Leviticus 19:15)

In verse 15, you see the connect between loving your neighbor and partiality, that is showing favoritism.

No one is to receive special treatment, poor or rich.

In this context, God is speaking of judicial settings, likely settling something in court.

All court proceedings are to be characterized by justice because God is just.

Love your poor neighbor with a genuine love that does not harm them (Leviticus 19:16-18)

Finally, you are to, love your neighbor by guarding your heart from ill will.

You are to love your neighbor with a genuine love that does not slander or do anything that puts your neighbors life in jeopardy.

When your neighbor sins against you, God says you are not to hate your neighbor.

You can rebuke your neighbor, with love and gentleness, so as not to share in his guilt.

But you are not to take vengeance in your neighbor, by your own wrath.

The goal of your rebuke is restoration and reconciliation, not death and destruction.

Therefore, love your neighbor as yourself.

From this context in Leviticus that Jesus offers the summary of the law in two commandments: love God entirely and love your neighbor as yourself.

If you love God entirely, then your lifestyle will reflect a deep and profound love for your neighbor: a love honest love that looks on the poor with compassion and not with a desire to exploit them.

A love that comes from a genuine heart that speaks words of kindness and does not seek to do harm.

This is God’s demand on you, that he expects you to keep this commandment.

Love your neighbor as yourself, by feeding the poor, keeping your promises, protecting justice, being impartial, and guarding your heart from ill will with genuine love.

This kind of holy lifestyle is self-less, sacrificial, and sacred in the eyes of God.

This is the kind of love you long for and even demand at times from people.

And Jesus says with the same desire you have to be loved, love your neighbor, especially your poor neighbor.

At TTV, our goal is to lead our children to Jesus so they can live wisely and flourish.

We spend at least two days a week planting in their heart: Love God entirely and love your neighbor as yourself.

Then we work through the Ten Commandments.

The first four commandments teach us how to love God entirely.

The remaining six tell us how to love your neighbor as yourself.

Leviticus is a further instruction on those remaining six commandments.

When we are done reviewing commandments, we alway arrive at the reality that we fall short of keeping those commandments.

None of us can keep them perfectly.

God had to command us to love him and our neighbor as ourself because we naturally do not love God or neighbor rightly.

So, then I ask the children, “What are we to do?

If we cannot keep his commands to love God and love neighbor, are we doomed?”

No, say the kids.

God sent Jesus into the world to love God with all of his being and to love his neighbor as himself.

The cross is Jesus’ perfect demonstration of what it means to love God entirely and to love your neighbor as yourself.

He loved the Father with perfect obedience, even to the point of death on a cross.

He loved his neighbor as himself by dying on the cross as a substitute sacrifice for your sin, so that you can have eternal life.

He fulfilled the Royal Law.

And James’ application to fulfill the royal law is grounded in Leviticus 19:9-18, a law you cannot fulfill on your own, but a law Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension fulfilled for you.