Good morning!
I’m going to be preaching out of James, chapter 2 this morning. If you’d like to turn in your Bibles to that passage and follow along you may find it helpful. I’ll place parts of this on the screen as well as we move forward.
In my Bible (and as most of you know I generally use the New American Standard Bible - in fact, if any of you do not own a copy of this Bible and would like one to follow along with let me know and maybe we can help you get a copy), chapter 2 is subtitled, “The sin of partiality.”
Partiality is another word for favoritism. Sometimes that means undo bias or prejudice. Of course with all of us here in this room, our partiality is really just our fine, discriminating taste. Like the ability to choose a good steak, or an excellent cup of coffee. It’s a good thing, in other words!
Let’s look at how this chapter begins. Verse 1 of James 2 [READ].
Can we even do that? Is it possible to hold our faith in Jesus and yet maintain an attitude of partiality?
I remember chatting with the leader of a church I attended years ago. And I remember pointing out to her that I had come across a website whose title seemed rather incongruous.
I don’t recall the specific group online, but I remember that the members of that particular church I was attending considered what the website people were into, a sin. Their name was something like “Homosexual Baptists.”
I was just wondering aloud what the deal was with that with respect to their religion (and it wasn’t Baptist. I just picked that out of a hat). And this leader responded in a manner I’ll never forget. She said, “Well Tom, to the extent they are one, they are not the other.”
That was one of the more profound statements I’d heard in quite some time so it stuck in my sometimes forgetful mind. To the extent they’re one, they’re not the other. Good answer!
This isn’t a sermon about homosexuality so I’m not going to get onto that tangent. The greater point was that sin is incongruous with Christianity. But, because we all sin, the sin itself does not disqualify the person from being a Christian. However, to the extent we identify ourselves with sin (any sin), we are not identifying ourselves with Christ. Pretty simple.
So, as the lady said profoundly, “To the extent we’re one, we’re not the other.” Amen to that! And the same can be said for each and every one of us regarding whatever sin we allow in our lives. To the extent we sin, especially to the extent we identify ourselves with this or that sin, we are not of Christ.
We can (and should be), good, non-judgmental, loving-our-neighbors, Christians and still recognize sin as sin. We just need to separate the sin from the sinner. People today often play this as a zero sum game. Either a person is defined by their sin as 100% sinner and zero percent Christian, else we try to find a way to Christianize the sin and make it inoffensive.
Jesus didn’t take either approach. He separated the sin from the sinner. He loved the person even while they sinned, but did not make excuses for their sin. We would be a better reflection of God and Christ if we emulated Jesus’ on this.
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
Okay, let’s consider the next three verses, James 2:2-4 [READ].
We do well to ask ourselves when reading this passage, what it is that’s happening here? On the surface it’s apparent. The rich guy comes in it’s a great, big deal. “Oh wow, we’re all kinds of honored. Here have the best seat in the house. You sit beside the distinguished Elder Shaw!”
The poor man comes in wearing holey pajamas and it’s, “You go hide back there with that Walkington fella in the sound room. And for goodness sake, Larry, give the man a comb!”
We have certainly made distinctions. And there they are. I’ve just outlined them. Rich out front. Poor hidden in the back. But James goes further. He says, “[we’ve thus] become judges with evil motives.”
What are our evil motives? What’s the definition of “evil?” In the Bible Concordance it defines the root Greek word for “evil” as “toilsome or bad.”
Toilsome. Interesting. When you hear the word “toil” what do you think of?
Work, right? If someone is said to have toiled all day long, do you think they’ve been engaged in evil deeds, manufacturing voodoo dolls, sacrificing cats or even more every day sinning? I don’t. I think of toiling as simply working.
So in what sense could toiling be evil? First of all, we think of sin and evil is anything opposed to God’s will. Okay, a little insight into my brain and how it handles word and thought association.
Two verses come to mind, both citing the words of our Lord and teacher, Jesus. Matthew 6:27-29
27"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
And the second verse is “like unto it,” to use the language of the King James. Matthew 11:29-30 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
What is Jesus warning against in both these verses? Isn’t he saying that we are working too hard and in a misguided way? “My burden is easy,” Jesus said. Conversely, it means that our burden without him is hard. It’s hard work. It’s toilsome. It’s evil.
The lilies neither toil (work hard) or spin. Yet Solomon in all his glory wasn’t adorned as one of these
So now we can return to that passage in James with this expanded understanding of the word “evil.” Verse 4 of James 2, “…have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”
Their motives with respect to the treatment of these two guests were not only out of God’s will, they were toilsome. There is often a lot of unnecessary work and effort put into swooning over the rich, the good looking, the famous, etc., when the payoff is often much better with the poor man in the sound booth with Larry.
It’s much ado about nothing. We go through all this effort to swoon to the charismatic, popular, fancy, whatever, and it won’t buy us a nanosecond in the Kingdom. Won’t buy it for us or the rich man. So why do we, as Christians, waste our effort? Why do we work so hard to get what looks “successful” to the world? God is not impressed.
16And [Jesus] told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive.
17"And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."'
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?'
21"So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
The parable of the rich fool. The operative word, “fool!”
The earth is God’s and all that is in it. Time is God’s creation. We only think we are masters of the universe. It’s a silly game we play amongst ourselves as humans. Things are not as we have made them appear on this earth.
Life itself is eternal. Our part in life may not be, but life itself is forever because God is forever and He is life. This is our Father’s world as the song goes. It is not ours. We are the workers in His vineyard. Jesus is the foreman. This is our Father’s world.
How can I illustrate this? The world is a vineyard of grapes. But we decide it’s really a plantation of nut trees (and some days it seems like the world is full of nut trees!).
Anyway, we convince ourselves that even though technically we might concede that the world is God’s creation, we declare that we have remade it into our image. It’s a plantation full of nuts. So we get a job at a vineyard and we set about to crack the nuts open with a nutcracker. And we’re so convinced we’re cracking nuts we can even hear the sound of the breaking shells. And we do this hour after hour.
At the end of the day when we go to collect the wages for our work all we have to show for it is a pair of purple-stained pants and a vineyard full of smashed grapes. Do we expect the boss to promote us? We did a lot of hard toiling, and yet we will receive no reward.
Let’s consider the next three verses:
5Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
6But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
7Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
Do you think that it is the amount of money in a person’s bank account (be it a lot or a little), that defines his character and faithfulness to God? (pause) We ought not take this too literally.
What James is saying is that God is calling the godly into the kingdom. He wants everyone, but the kingdom will ultimately be inhabited by only the godly. And the godly serve God, not man, not things, not money, not fame, not charismatic leaders, not worldly success. They serve God and His anointed, Jesus Christ. Period, Amen. Does that describe and define us?
Verses 8&9.
8If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors
The “royal law” is summarized in the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Let’s say our house is located on a street with three houses and ours is in the middle. The guy living on the East side of us is cool, handsome and successful. He drives an awesome car. Probably something really styling like a white, Kia Rio 5. I’m just saying J
As for what’s his name to the West, he lives in a dilapidated old shanty. He’s dorky, plain looking and just bought Christine’s used Ford. Which one is our neighbor?
Their station in life or the car in their yard is irrelevant. They live beside us, they’re our neighbor. That’s how God wants us to look at every occupant on the planet. They’re neighbors.
It doesn’t mean we have to agree with them. It doesn’t mean we condone what they do. It doesn’t mean we have to hang out with them eating fried Turkey buzzard at the RoadKill Café. But it does mean we can’t judge them by appearance and we must realize that they are a creation of God and He wants them repented (if they’re not already), and ultimately in the Kingdom.
Verses 10-13:
10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
11For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
13For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Recall when the people brought the adulteress to Jesus and alluded that she ought to be condemned and stoned to death as she was “caught in the very act.”
You know, “in the act” infers two people. A guy’s got to wonder what happened to the other half of the equation and why he wasn’t brought before Jesus as well. But that’s a topic for another time.
What was Jesus’ response? Simply put, “You’ve all erred in one part of the Law or another. If you want me to stone her, then I suppose you’ll be wanting me to stone you next???”
Did Jesus say adultery was no longer a sin? No. Did Jesus tell the women that he would turn a blind eye and that because she was a weak sinner she should just go live in her sin and not worry about it? No. What did Jesus say to that lady after he asked where her accusers went? He said two things. What were they? And “Go and sin no more.”
The law of liberty is taking on the yoke of Jesus. It’s not that sin isn’t sin any more. Or that we should make excuses for why people sin. The law of liberty is taking the weight of the world off our shoulders thinking we’re supposed to recreate the world in our image. We need to stop being judges with “evil motives.” It’s not our job. Our job is to point people to God through Christ. Judge the sin. Help the sinner toward salvation.
Verses 14-19 [READ]
14What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
17Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
19You believe that God is one You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
The royal law, the golden rule is not in effect without works. How can we truly love our neighbor if we see him in great need and simply say “bless you” and walk on by? To the extent we do that we are not active Christians.
There is not enough money in most anyone’s pockets to help everyone, and that’s not the point. Our attitude has to be one of caring for those who truly are in need.
We don’t have to literally give everyone a coat who doesn’t have one. Quite frankly there are some who if we gave them a coat they’d sell it for dope money. So what’s the point? There are others who would use the coat to suffocate us even in our kindness. We have to be discerning. But we should always be caring and help when and to the extent we can.
And again, this calling is to us. And we should not think ourselves as fulfilling this commandment by directing our secular government to force non-believers into being charitable. Jesus never once advocated or even intimated that we should fulfill his commands through the secular government.
God and Jesus are after changed hearts. The call is to love our neighbors, not legally force them to follow God’s will. This isn’t intended to be a political statement but a strong reminder that we are called as individuals to personal, voluntary responsibility. We can answer God’s call and commands in no other way.
Let’s continue by reading verses 20-23 [READ].
We can’t just say, yes God I will follow you and then do nothing ourselves. We have to act upon our faith. Now that means different things for different people, but act we must. We must have an active, living faith or we are called a “foolish fellow” by Scripture.
Sometimes action is nothing more than being a listening ear and a willing shoulder to a friend in a challenging situation. If you have little money and little physical strength due to health or whatever, maybe that’s all the action you can do, but that action if done in a loving, sincere, Christian way can make a world of difference in a person’s life.
Let’s finish up the chapter reading verses 24-26 [READ].
One is a product of the other. Faith is made alive through works. Neither stands alone with any efficacy.
24You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
20But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.
“Neither do I condemn you.”
.
. Work, outside of God’s will, is hard and gives us false rewards if it rewards at all.
2For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,
3and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,"
4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
