Part 7 “God Has No Favorites”
James 2:1-13
Part 7 “God Has No Favorites”
James 2:1-13
Intro – welcome back to our series in the book of James… …please open your Bibles to chapter 2:1-13…
Charles Swindoll tells a story that took place a number of years ago, back when the street people were all over southern California, he writes:
“We had a young man stumble into our church one Sunday evening. He was wretched looking - dirty, torn shirt, cutoffs, disheveled hair, a scraggly beard, and dazed eyes. He smelled of beer, the beach, and body odor.
But one of our members saw beyond the surface and lovingly offered the stranger a seat in the meeting. We found out later the guy had never been inside a church before in his life. He had been kicked out of his house by his parents, so he’d taken up residence in a garage, sleeping on a cot. He existed on a six pack and corn chips during the day and drugs at night. He was useless to society but not to the Lord and several in our congregation decided not to lose contact with him.
They showed him love and Steve could not get over it. He’d never known such attention, never felt such a magnet. He realized that these people really cared.
Slowly the walls began to crumble. Steve began to change all on his own - nothing forced. He changed from within first. His attitude changed. His habits changed. His language changed. His appearance then began to change. He even changed his clothes! His hunger for God and for His Word knew no bounds.
He decided to go back to work . . . then to return to school. He made things right with his folks. Love totally won that young man! He entered seminary and ultimately graduated. He is currently ministering in southern California. In fact, Swindoll writes, my older son and his wife, Curt and Debbie, now fellowship in his church. Steve is their pastor.
In James 2, starting at v. 1 we read…
…Prayer…
I The Heart of The Passage v.1
-“don’t show favoritism”
-the word favoritism from the original language means “to receive by face…”
-we are being commanded by the Lord here not to receive people by face alone…
…in other words, not to pass judgment on a person based solely on outward appearance…so that we treat them a certain way based on their:
• looks, clothes, shape of their body, color of their skin, whether they appear rich or poor, what kind of car they drive, what kind of house they live in…all those kinds of things…
-that’s the heart of the passage…God says, “don’t show favoritism to the rich, to those we think can benefit us in some way…and don’t reject the poor, those we improperly judge as having nothing to offer us…
Let’s get honest for a moment: we do this. We show favoritism to those we think can benefit us, offer us something…who appear to be important and wealthy and powerful…and we disregard those we think are not…
And not just that, but we all have the human tendency to gravitate toward people who are like us, who are in the same circles as we are: in a similar social circle, economic circle, ethnic circle, age circle…
-white collar people gravitate toward other white collar people: blue collar people do the same…
-birds of a feather flock together…we do…
-most of us have been so thoroughly discipled by the culture and values of the world that this is how we view people and treat them…the rich and powerful impress us and deserve special treatment when the poor and unimportant don’t really matter…
Now being with people we naturally gravitate to is not a sin…but it becomes a sin when those relationships become exclusive, a clique, when they purposely exclude others who are not like us…when our hearts get hard and closed off to those we don’t want to love…
-this kind of behavior is a sin because it is a misrepresentation of the “royal law” of love found in the Bible…it is a misrepresentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ…Who shows love to all people… favoritism dishonors the heart of God for all people, especially the poor and vulnerable…favoritism is disobedience to God’s word…
II Background of the Passage vv.2-4
-to really grasp what this passage is teaching, it’s important to know a little background of the times in which James was writing…
-it is most likely that these Jewish Christians were still meeting in the synagogue…holding their services in these places of Jewish worship…
-and in a synagogue there are “chief seats”…(not the cheap seats!) places of importance located down near the front near the speaker…
Mt.23:6 refers to this, speaking of the Pharisees… they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues…
-the reason the Pharisees loved these seats is because they could enter the place of worship fashionably late in their elegant religious robes with their gold jewellery on display for all to see…and march right past everyone down to the front, calling attention to themselves and their importance…
-on the other hand, if you weren’t quite so well off, the ushers would seat you on the floor, which is actually where most people sat, or have you stand off against the wall somewhere less noticeable…
Another bit of background that gives us an insight into why the first century Christians behaved this way toward rich people is alluded to in v.6…
Apparently there was a practice in the 1st century called “summary arrest”. If a rich man met a poor man on the street who owed him money, he could demand that money, and if the person couldn’t pay, then the rich man could seize him and literally drag him into court right then and there, where the poor man would be required to explain why he was unable to pay.
And if he couldn’t give a satisfactory explanation, then he would be thrown into prison where he had to stay until his debt was paid…
So there may have been some genuine fear motivating these first century ushers to give the best seats to the rich and powerful…
This practice of favoritism, of favoring one over the other, the rich over the poor, James says, is sin. Does that sound a bit harsh to you? If it does, James goes on to tell us why this is a sin…why it is sinful for any of God’s people to favor certain people over others…
Keeping It Real
Now, before I get to this point, let me ask all of us a question: just to keep this real and personal…so we don’t keep this topic at a safe distance…at arms length, where we don’t want to own up to anything here and not let the HS speak to us personally today…
-this issue of favoritism is far bigger than just between the rich and poor…it’s a whole attitude toward people that are different than us…people that we treat un-lovingly because they are different from us, which generally means those we consider as less than us…
-so in this church, who do you treat un-lovingly because they are different than you? Who would you prefer to have nothing to do with? Who do you avoid? What person do you have no interest in wanting to know, accept, welcome, view as an equal part of this church family?
I’m not going to ask you to tell this to anyone…all I’m asking is that you recognize and admit this to yourself…God already knows the answer to this…so there’s no need to hide anything from Him…
-all I’m asking for is a moment of personal honesty…between you and God…
Who are the people in our church you consider as being less than others? less than yourself?
• those young people…those older people
• those who wear shorts and flip flops to church…those who wear three piece suits to church
• those who sing out of the hymnbook…those who wouldn’t know how to use a hymnbook if their life depended on it
• those who are socially awkward…those who are poised and socially skilled
• those “Johnny-come-lately’s” who think they can have a say around here…those who have been in the church for years who seem to have all the influence
• those who don’t lend a hand to help in any way around here…those who do tons of work in this church
• those who come from another country…those who were born and raised in this country
• think of your own categories…who is on your list?
III Why Favoritism is Sin
1. we place ourselves above others as judges v.4
-put ourselves in the place of God, who is the only One qualified to judge people…
-and our judgment is flawed anyway because of our “evil thoughts”…
-best to leave the judging to the one and only Judge…and not get into that game…it will backfire on us…
2. we dishonor the poor that God loves and has chosen v.6
-God actually loves to take the downcast, the outcast, the poor, vulnerable and needy, the one that the world rejects…and elevate them to a high place through Christ…He loves to confound the world’s value system…He loves to reverse the status that the fallen world confers among people…
I Cor 1:27-29 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
Even James 2:5…
-God has a real love, compassion and care for “the least of these…” those society rejects and writes off…
And by the way, when we dishonor poor people, by default, we dishonor God Himself…
-we’re saying, “we don’t like Your choice of people Lord…they’re not acceptable to me…I don’t want them…You may want them, but I don’t…”
-you and I don’t want to start treading into that territory with God…because He always wins those discussions…
3. we violate God’s royal law vv.8-9
-what exactly is “the royal law found in Scripture?
It’s the two greatest commandments taught by Jesus in the gospels that summarize all the law and the prophets:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And the second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. Mt. 27:37, 39
-to show favoritism is to sin against God’s greatest commandments…to love people like we love ourselves…
And by the way, when we violate God’s royal law, by default, we show we don’t understand and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ…
-favoritism and the gospel are incompatible…
In John 3:16 when it says, For God so loved the world…that He gave His one and only Son…” it doesn’t mean that He loves the physical planet, which He does, it just doesn’t say that in Jn. 3:16.
It means that God loves the whole world of people that He made…all of them…in all their variety and differences… …created in His image, people endowed by God with dignity, worth and value…
Jn 3:16 means that God is heart-broken that these people have been separated from Him through sin and ignorance…and are heading for eternal separation from Him…people that He loves with a love that aches to bring them back to Himself…
-that’s what drives the heart of God and that’s the
heart-drive God wants to impart to us…
Tim Keller weighs in on why this is such a big deal when you fail to lack the love for your neighbor, especially the poor and vulnerable. Here’s what he says:
"A merely religious person, who believes God will favor him because of his morality and respectability, will ordinarily have
contempt for the outcast.
'I worked hard to get where I am, and so can anyone else!' That is the language of the moralist's heart.
But the language of the Christian's heart is this: 'I am only where I am by the sheer and unmerited mercy of God. I am completely equal with all other people.'. A sensitive social conscience and a life poured out in deeds of mercy to the needy is the inevitable sign of a person who has grasped the
doctrine of God's grace."
So do you want to see who has grasped grace, who understands the mercy and salvation of God?
Look to those who care for and are concerned about the needy around them. To be blind and unmoved and indifferent towards the needy and broken makes visible a heart that fails to
understand what the gospel message actually is.”
4. we let judgment triumph over mercy v.13
-in other words, favoritism and it’s related judging of people, is sin because it puts judgment ahead of mercy…it makes judgment more important than mercy…
-and in v.13 we are told that with God, mercy triumphs over judgment…so it must be with us as well…
Here’s what that means: God deals with all of us fallen, sinful human beings through mercy and not judgment…God’s mercy triumphs over His judgment…we deserve judgment…but we get mercy…
-sure God judges…the Bible is clear on the many ways God judges people…the Bible says that at the end of our lives we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ where our whole life will be evaluated…James says we are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom…
But, mercy controls the way God judges…God doesn’t judge us as an angry, vindictive punisher…
-He judges us as a compassionate Father who is gracious, who does not treat us as our sins deserve, who will not harbor his anger forever…
-and the reason He can do that is because of Jesus Christ…because Jesus was judged and punished by the Father in our place…when Jesus died on the cross, all of the Fathers anger against sin… and judgment against sin… and the punishment for sin…was placed on Jesus Christ…
Jesus became our Substitute as the recipient of God’s judgment so we wouldn’t have to…Jesus became sin for us on the cross so that we might be forgiven and made righteous…because of the cross, mercy triumphs over justice…
That’s the gospel of grace…the gospel of Jesus Christ…
And because we’ve been shown such great mercy, we are now commanded to show others that same kind of mercy…instead of judging people, we love them and show them the same kind of mercy and grace we have received…
Conclusion
-remember that list of people?…the ones in our church we look down on for whatever reason?…treat differently…
How are we going to overcome this sin of favoritism? How are we going to overcome the natural pull of our hearts to associate only with people like us, people that we like and gravitate towards?
Our only hope is through the gospel of Jesus Christ…by a thorough embrace of the gospel of Jesus Christ…by letting our minds and hearts be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ…where we start seeing ourselves and other people, all other people, through the eyes of God’s grace and not human standards…
-where we see far more deeply into someone’s soul and not simply judge them on the basis of appearance…
An Idea
-I’ve got an idea of something very practical and powerful we can do right now to start overcoming favoritism with love and mercy…
-I want you to pray for someone on that list…ask God to bless them…thank God for them…pray for their needs…
Something revolutionary takes place when we start praying for people…especially those we find difficult to love and accept…
Prayer…Worship…