Active Faith (Part Nine): The Perils of Playing Favorites

Transcript

JRNT 9
01/08/2023
Active Faith (Part Nine): The Perils of Playing Favorites
James 2:1-7
Jesse Randolph


I don't think anyone would or could disagree with this observation, that favoritism is all around us in the world today. The boney fingers of favoritism poke their way into various stages of our lives and dimensions of our society. Favoritism leads to the welling up of those stinging, jealous tears in the child who feels left out or overlooked or forgotten. Favoritism provokes the vengeful thoughts of the employee who feels passed over come bonus or promotion time. We see favoritism in restaurants where the white collar or the sport coat or the polished appearance might get you a table a little bit earlier or a nicer table than the person in sweatpants or the person who just finished their shift at the chicken processing plant. We see favoritism in prisons where having a few extra dollars in your canteen or having a certain last name might get you more of the country club experience than it will get you the solitary confinement experience. We see favoritism stitched into the very fabric of certain cultures where the color of your skin or the cadence of your speech or your last name will dictate how far up or down you go on the socioeconomic ladder. Whether we call it favoritism or nepotism or cronyism or bias or discrimination or preference or partiality, the reality is that some form of this phenomenon is all around us. Favoritism is rampant in our society, it is inescapable in the world around us. It is part of day-to-day life in this broken and imperfect and sin-cursed world. It's what politicians and parents and social workers and various activists deal with and fight against and fight about day after day and year after year.

But not in the church, right? The church is where all of our preferences and biases go away, right? Cronyism and favoritism never rear their ugly heads in the church, right? The church being this outpost of heaven here on earth has no traces of the sin that we see out there in society, right? The church is already an unblemished and spotless bride, right? Wrong. The reality is favoritism and bias and cronyism and discrimination can and do arise in the church just as we see out there in the world. See, the ones with the connections to the various movers and shakers around town can find ways to pull levers in the church with church leadership in a way that those who don't have those connections can't. The men who wear well-tailored suits with polished shoes and the perfectly knotted ties, the women who wear elegant dresses and accompanying jewelry and just that perfect splash of perfume regularly find a way to get their way. Plum titles and cherry opportunities are given to people who have befriended the pastor. “He'll never bring me up for church discipline if I take him here or I treat him there or if I buy him that.” Otherwise unqualified men who have had a few strokes of success in business are given the title of elder or deacon. The big givers in the church are given more of a platform to share their views on the direction they think the church should go. You know, “Here is that check for that building project, by the way here is the direction I think you should go with the youth ministry”. “I really think you should hire so-and-so to be the next such-and-such. By the way, did you see my giving statement last year?” “We're thinking of leaving and going to such-and-such church… I mean, maybe we'll stay if you agree to allow my son… or to officiate the wedding of my son to his unbelieving fiancee.”

The reality is humans play favorites, and humans play favorites even in the church. Though we bear the image of the living God of the universe, though many of us in this room have been washed and cleansed and made new by the blood of Christ, and though many of us in this room have been set apart to live upright and godly lives in Christ Jesus, favoritism still creeps its way into our lives. And favoritism still creeps its way into the church. And in the text that we'll be in this morning, James, the half-brother of our Lord says this ought not to be. Turn with me if you would in your Bibles to James 2, we're going to be reading from verses 1-7 this morning, that's our text for this morning. James 2:1-7, find Hebrews, turn right and you're in the book of James.

James 2:1-7, God's Word reads as follows, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For 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, and 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,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, 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? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”

The title of this morning's message is “The Perils of Playing Favorites.” And I've given the sermon this title because as we see here from this very plainly worded and straight forward text, favoritism has no place in the church of Jesus Christ. There is, of course, a place for wisdom, a place for discernment, a place for patience, a place for evaluation. There is even a place for judgment so long as that judgment is righteous judgment as Jesus said in John 7:24. But there is absolutely no place for personal favoritism.

Now I know it has been a while since we've been in the book of James, over a month in fact, as we took that break during December to go through our “Peace on Earth” Christmas series. So I think it would be good as a bit of a refresher to go back to where we have been so we'll have a better sense of where we are going today, where James is taking us. And I'll remind you that over the course of the eight Sundays that we have had so far in this book, we've made our way all the way through one chapter of James, James 1. And what he has shown us up to this point is that as God's chosen people, as His elect, Christians will go through various trials. It's not a matter of ‘if’ those trials will happen, it's ‘when’ they will happen and he calls on us to persevere in our trials, to maintain an eternal perspective on our trials and to pray for wisdom in our trials. He has already shown us that trials will look different for some than they will for others. For instance, the rich of this world will have trials that look one way, and the poor of this world will have trials that look a different way. He has shown us that there is a difference between the trials that come from without us and the temptations that arise from within us. And he has already shown us that we cannot blame Satan and certainly cannot blame God when we are tempted from within.

He has shown us that the main tool in our tool belts, as we navigate this long and meandering path called life, is the Word of God. It's the Word of God which “brought us forth” in salvation he says in James 1:18. It's the Word that we are to receive “in humility” he says in James 1:21. In James 1:19 he says we are to be quick to listen to that Word and slow to speak in response to that Word and slow to anger when guys like me proclaim that Word. And he has shown us that we are not only to be hearers of the Word though, we are called to be “doers of the Word,” James 1:22, We are to be not mere hearers but doers. And if we are mere hearers only and not doers, we delude ourselves he says.

And then last time, about a month ago as we finished James 1, in verses 26-27 he sort of added some color to the type of doing that we are to be doing. And we saw last time that mere doing is not enough. Mere busyness, mere activity is not enough, mere ownership of a Bible, mere speaking of Christianese, mere attendance at church is not enough. No, just as one can be a mere hearer, one can be a mere doer. Meaning our doing must be done with the right perspective and the right motives and the right orientation of our hearts. Our doing must be done we saw last time with purity of heart. That was James 1:26 where he says, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.” So we're called to have a purity of heart. We're also called to have practical concern. We saw that in verse 27 where he says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress.” And then there is this concern for personal piety at the end of verse 27 when he says we are “to keep ourselves [oneself] unstained by the world.” Those are the marks of true religion.

And what James says there in James 1:26-27 is such a helpful and useful transition to where he is going to take us today as we launch into chapter 2, because as we're going to see today, a true saving faith, active faith, pure and undefiled religion is not just about how much you know or about how much you grow. It's not all about how well you weather the various trials and temptations that may come your way. It's not just about your own pursuit of holiness as you put aside all filthiness and wickedness. And it's not just even about your own efforts to keep yourself unstained by the world. See, your faith, assuming you have faith, is not just about you. Your faith, if you have faith, is not just about being deeply introspective as you live some sort of an ascetic or monastic lifestyle. Your faith, if you have true saving faith is not about living some life of puritanical, self-loathing as you mentally self-flagellate for the many ways you fail to be like Jesus. You know the types, the types that get so caught up in how far they fall short and how wicked and evil they are, and how past generations of godly men were so much closer to Christ than they were that they get to this place where they are always brooding with these gloomy and dour and long-faced countenances, lamenting forever about the many ways they fall short, which in many cases, sadly, is just a mask they are wearing to cover their prideful obsession with themselves. It just happens to be garbed up in religious speech so it sounds more holy and okay.

Building on what he has said so far in James 1:26-27, namely caring for orphans and widows in their distress, James here in chapter 2 continues to challenge his original audience and by extension every one of us, to get our eyes off ourselves and to get our eyes on other people. And as we do so, to walk in wisdom, to evaluate the purity of our motivations and to entirely weed out any notion of personal favoritism. I've broken our text this morning, James 2:1-7, into three parts which for you note-takers will give us our three headings. I'll give you my three points up front if you are taking notes and we'll fill these in as we work through it. In verse 1 we have “The Issue,” in verses 2-3 we have “The Illustration,” and in verses 4-7 we have “The Inquiries.” Three points alliterated (I can't help myself).

Let's pick it up in verse 1 with “The Issue.” Look at verse 1, he says, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” Let's start with those words, “My brethren.” A person does not need to have a Master of Divinity or Doctor of Theology to understand here that James is not writing to the world. He is writing instead to fellow believers, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and James' context here as he is writing to these early Jewish converts, these ethnically Jewish individuals, he calls them the “twelve tribes” in James 1:1 “who are dispersed abroad,” who had recently come to faith in Jesus Christ. And as James tends to do when he needs to get in their face a little bit and to exhort them, he begins by addressing them warmly. He does this all over the book of James; James 1:2 where he says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren,” or James 1:16 he says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren,” or James 1:19, “This you know, my beloved brethren.” And then here in James 2:1 he says, “My brethren.” And that word “brethren” speaks to James' familial connection and kinship with his audience. It's this term of relationship and endearment, it's a term that is highlighting their common bond in Christ. And by using that term “brethren” here, James quite simply is reminding his audience of his love for them before he lets them have it. Right? That's what preachers do. Friends, dear brothers and sisters, dearly beloved... And then, BAM! Let them have it, right? James is a good preacher.

And then look at what comes next in verse 1. He says, “Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” Now there is the positive statement first, you know, the reminder in this statement of what connects James and his audience together, namely “faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” And then comes the negative statement, these words of admonition, the imperative, the command where he says, “do not hold your faith… with an attitude of personal favoritism.”

Let's explore first what James means by “hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” In one sense what he is saying here is so simple, it makes immediate sense to us when we read it. But there is so much texture and depth to James' language here which I don't want us to miss. First note that he says to his audience that they have a faith that is held. He says, “do not hold your faith.” See, true saving faith is held, it's a faith that is possessed, it's a faith that is owned, and because there is ownership of one's faith, true faith is purposeful. It leads to action, it leads to activity. That's why the whole sermon series is called “Active Faith.” True faith is a faith that produces works, Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship,” it says, “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” True faith results in transformation, not only of one's heart, but of their entire life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature,” behold the old things have passed and the new have come. True faith is a faith that strives. Colossians 1:29 says, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” Or Paul in Philippians 3:14 says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God which is in Christ Jesus.” True faith is a faith that perseveres. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Or Hebrews 3:14 says, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

True faith is a faith, going back to our text, James 2:1, that is held. True faith is not just held, though, true faith is personal. Look again at the text. He says, “do not hold” whose faith? “Your faith.” It's not the community's faith, it's not the culture's faith, it's not Judean faith or in our context, it's not American faith or midwestern faith or Nebraskan faith. No, what James is referring to here is “your faith,” my faith. And what James is saying here is really an excellent reminder for all of us here this morning to really evaluate the faith we claim to have, to really make sure that the faith that we say we have is our faith. See, no one is going to get to heaven based on the faith of grandma and grandpa. No one is going to get to heaven by riding the coattails of their favorite Christian author or theologian. No one is going to get to heaven by singing songs like “What a Friend We have in Pastor So-and-So.” No, it doesn't work that way.

If you claim to have the faith in Jesus Christ that you say you have, you need to make sure it's your faith. Not borrowed faith, not appropriated faith, not cultural faith, not faith by association, not faith by osmosis, not faith by elimination. I know I'm not a Catholic, I guess that makes me a Christian. I know I'm against all the transgender craziness that is happening in the world, I guess I'm a Christian then. I know I voted Republican in the last eight election cycles, that must mean I'm a Christian. Doesn't work that way. And by the same token, especially for those of you in the room who have younger children still in the home or grandchildren that you are still tending to, you need to make sure that they know that your faith is just that—your faith. And that their faith will need to be just that—their faith.

True faith is rooted in a person's trust in, look at the next part of verse 1, “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” That's it, “faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” trusting exclusively in His finished work on the cross. That demonstrates whether the faith that you claim to have is truly, as James says here, your faith. By the way, don't you love the language that James uses here, “faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” He indeed is glorious. In fact, turn with me in your Bibles if you would, to Colossians 1, because we're going to see a few aspects of the ways in which our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, is glorious. Look at Colossians 1, we're going to first see how He is glorious in His position. Colossians 1, a few books to the left of where we are in James 2. Look at Colossians 1:15, speaking of Christ it says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” So He is glorious in His position, having first place in everything, in the world and in the church.

He is also glorious in His person. Turn with me if you will to Revelation 1. You might remember when I first arrived here last summer we took a jet tour through this section in Revelation 1-3 in that “Postcards from Patmos” series and beheld the glory of Christ. Revelation 1 starting in verse 13, it says, “and in the middle of the lampstands,” this is the Apostle John on the island of Patmos speaking, he says, “I saw One like the Son of Man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out or His mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

So Christ is glorious in His position, Colossians 1; He is glorious in His person, Revelation 1; now go to Hebrews 1 where we are going to see He is glorious in His power. Hebrews 1, a neighbor of James, one book over from James to the left. Look at Hebrews 1 and we'll just look at verses 1-3, here the author of Hebrews says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” “The word of His power,” there it is. He is glorious in His power.

He is also glorious in His plans, (this will be our last one), look over at Titus 2. So we have Christ being glorious in His position, glorious in His person, glorious in His power and now in Titus 2 we see He is glorious in His plans. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared,” says Paul, “bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” See, we're just a couple weeks past Christmas now and during the Christmas season we rightfully focus on Jesus as that precious little infant in the manger, that little feeding trough in that sleepy little town of Bethlehem. But we cannot relegate our thoughts about Christ to just those because Christ the Lord, the eternal Son of God, the God/Man, the Alpha and the Omega is truly, as our text says, James 2, glorious. He is, as Paul would say elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “the Lord of glory.” When you think of Jesus Christ, do you think of Him that way? Do you think of Him as glorious in each of those ways that we have just walked through? I truly hope that you do, because if you do, as John Owen once pointed out in his book “The Glory of Christ,” “the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in [your] eyes and [you] will be more and more crucified to this world.” But if you don't, the Christ that you are worshiping, the Christ that you believe you are worshiping, the Christ that you say you are worshiping, is a lesser Christ, a less-than-glorious Christ and a false Christ.

Turning back to James 2, with that faith that we hold, with that faith that is ours and with that faith that is attached to this object, this incredible object, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, we're finally now, about halfway through the sermon, at James' command. It's found at the end of verse 1 where James tells us we must “not” have “an attitude of personal favoritism.” That's about as straightforward and as direct as it gets. And as we are going to see next time, James will double down in James 2:9 when he says, “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin.” Now that word “favoritism” in verse 1 or “partiality” in verse 9, the two words come from the same root and have the same basic meaning. It's a compound Greek word and its literal meaning is to receive a face. And what it is pointing to, and remember James here is writing to Christians in the context of this local gathering of Jewish believers, what it is referring to is the attention one person will give to another person based on their appearance, based on their looks, based on their level of attractiveness, which is found generally where? Your face. Putting it in the modern vernacular this word here about receiving a face, where it says favoritism, is judging a book by its cover, and specifically judging a person by their face, their outward appearance, their looks.

And James here is saying with this imperative statement, “do not hold your faith… with [this] attitude of personal favoritism.” He is saying, stop it, stop saying that you are holding to this faith in Christ when you are hiding this attitude of partiality behind your back. Don't fall back into classism or racism, don't bow to status, don't weigh or measure the social capital of others, don't pander to image, don't focus on external appearance. No, for you believer there is to be no partiality, no prejudice, no pigeonholing of fellow believers and image bearers into your own preconceived notions and ideas of who you consider to be attractive enough or worthy enough or intelligent enough or wealthy enough or upwardly mobile enough or highly ranked enough or otherwise acceptable enough to enjoy the grace of your presence.

And why? Why this prohibition? Why this command? Well, it is rooted in the character of God. God Himself shows no favoritism or partiality. Consider just a few passages from both the Old and the New Testaments. Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God who does not show partiality.” Sounds like a great verse for the moms to put on the fridge with all the little kids in the room. Romans 2:11, “There is no partiality with God.” Ephesians 6:9, Paul here says, “Both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.”

And not only does God the Father show no partiality in this way though, the same is true of God the Son. Think about it. During His earthly ministry Jesus, God the Son, demonstrated impartiality. Did He not? Think about it. In John 3 and John 4, putting those two chapters in contrast, you have Him relating in one situation to this outcast Samaritan woman but you have Him relating in this other situation to this very powerful and influential Pharisee, Nicodemus. In Luke 8 our Lord was gracious to the woman with the hemorrhage of blood just as He was to Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. In Mark 10 He was just as available to blind Bartimaeus as He was to the rich young ruler. He offered salvation to rich and to poor alike at various places throughout the New Testament. And for us, as those who have been saved by God through the blood of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, we are to honor God and to emulate God and to follow the example He sets for us. We are to “be holy,” 1 Peter 1 [verses 15, 16], “as He is holy.” And one of the ways we do so, as James is instructing us to do here in James 2:1, is to ditch any attitude of personal favoritism that we may be hanging on to. Faith and favoritism are incompatible. I love how directly and plainly certain statements are made in the Proverbs, like this one, Proverbs 28:21, “To show partiality is not good.” Fair enough. We are to eliminate the attitude of personal favoritism and in doing so, emulate God and glorify our Savior, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. So to summarize we are to show no partiality, that's the main idea here in verse 1.

But being the good teacher that he is, James now gives us an illustration in verses 2 and 3. And that's our second heading if you're taking notes today, “The Illustration.” James 2:2-3, he says, “For 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, and 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.” Now I acknowledge the thought continues on from here but I'm going to cut it off here at verse 3 and have you note that just in these few lines, in these two verses James is sketching out this vivid and easy to imagine illustration to highlight his point. This early gathering of believers in this illustration have assembled. The seats are scarce, people are sitting elbow to elbow, they are waiting to hear from the Word of God and then at the exact same time two men arrive. And the usher, standing in the back of the room as he is watching these two men enter the assembly, has to make a snap judgment about where to seat them. And he makes his judgment, he makes his decision. To the rich man he says literally here, “You sit here in a good place.” And to the poor man he says, “You stand over there,” or option B, “sit down by my footstool.”

Now this scene is given to us with such brevity and clarity in these two verses that we might just be tempted to read it, accept it, move on, have a shorter sermon and get off to lunch. But there is a lot of detail here that is worth exploring to give us a fuller and clearer picture of what James is describing here. For instance, what is the literary device that James is using here? Is he giving a historical account of a scene that he has seen play out before him and now he is using that historical account to illustrate for his audience? Basically he is saying, don't do what I have seen happen before. Or is this a totally hypothetical illustration where he is painting this picture of what could happen in a gathering of believers if they were to sin against God by demonstrating partiality or favoritism? I favor the latter interpretation, I think the second word in verse 2 where he says, “For if a man,” that strongly suggests that what James is describing here is more hypothetical than it is recorded history. This reads more like, suppose a man were to come into your assembly and then this could happen. But the real point is to his audience, what would you do if this did happen. And that's how we have to think about it. Would you show an attitude of personal favoritism? Or instead would you heed what James is saying here?

Here's another question which these two verses and the illustration James is giving here have brought up. The other question is what is the nature of this gathering? Well, the men here described as coming into your assembly, we see that there in verse 2. Now that word assembly in Greek is “sunagoge,” and of course that's the word from which we get our word “synagogue.” Now the word is actually more generic than you might think. It doesn't necessarily, based on just the raw exegetical data, mean this is a Jewish synagogue. It just means a gathering together, and what is being described here by James is this gathering together. He is emphasizing that there are people assembled, like we are assembled here today, all together, when these two men enter the room. Now could have James used the word “church” instead? Sure he could have, he knew the word. In fact, in James 5:14 he uses the word “church,” “ekklesia,” but that word “ekklesia,” that refers to believers being called out, called out of the world. That's literally the definition of the word “church,” “ekklesia,” the called out ones. In this hypothetical in verses 2-3, what James is focusing on is the physical gathering, the fact that people are physically connected and sitting in the same room in this gathering, this “sunagoge,” which happens to be of early Jewish converts. And it was in that assembly, in that gathering, that was open to rich and poor alike.

Now here is another question that we need to wrestle with in understanding this illustration. Who are these men? We already read it, but you note there are two men described here, and one is described as coming in with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes and the other is described as being a poor man in dirty clothes. Are they believers? The text doesn't tell us. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. But that's actually not the point. The point here is the contrast in their appearance and the socioeconomic status that could not be more stark. The first man comes in, the text says, with this gold ring. The text doesn't say actually that he is rich, but the description of this man leaves no doubt. The words on the page in Greek literally say he is gold-ringed, meaning he doesn't have just one ring on one finger, he is like one of those “Chicago Dons,” he has rings on every finger (apologies to any “Chicago Dons” in the room). He is covered in gold rings. And what that meant was he was intentionally flaunting his wealth for all to see. This was no accident, this was an ostentatious display of money, of rank, of power, prestige and bling. But not only that though, this same man is described as being dressed in these fine clothes. And the word there in Greek for fine is “lampros,” and that is the word from which we get our English word “lamp.” So this literally could be rendered, he is wearing shining clothes, bright clothes, he is wearing these dazzling, luxurious clothes, clothing that was surely to draw attention to himself. And he is doing so undoubtedly in the midst of this very impoverished congregation. Gives you a sense of the character of the man. So that's the first man described in verse 2. He is not directly called rich, but we can glean that he is.

Well, the second man is directly called poor, “and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.” Now the word that is used for poor here is a word that describes the most severe form of poverty that existed in the known world at this time. This is not first world poverty, like I'm just struggling to make it to my next paycheck. This is third world poverty, like I'm struggling to make it to my next meal. It's describing somebody who is fully dependent on the graces of God simply to survive. This man, the poor man, was absolutely destitute with no resources, no prospects, no hope. And the way he is described here, the only way he is described here, is by virtue of what he is wearing. It says, “dirty clothes.” A better translation is filthy clothes. You know, how like your 16-year-old son might be dirty but your toddler might be more like filthy. That's kind of like our life. But that's kind of what he is saying here, he has filthy clothes. And in these days those were almost certainly his only set of clothes. They were worn and unwashed and sweaty and stained, encrusted with who knows what and carrying the stench of a man that likely hadn't bathed in weeks or months or even longer.

The contrast couldn't be more stark, two men entering the same “sunagoge,” the same assembly at the same time with distinctly opposite appearances, coming from totally different walks of life. And let's now zero in on what happens in this scene in verse 3 as James here is speaking hypothetically to the usher in the back of the room as he sees these two men walking in. He says, “and 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.” So the rich man it says is paid special attention. Those words, “special attention,” there is a verb there that means to stare, to look with admiration upon, to gawk is the idea. The idea is as this rich man walks in, necks start to crane and look back in his direction and likely with varying degrees of envy. Saying in their hearts as he walks in all bedazzled, with his hands full of rings and his white clothing, if only… If only I had what he had, then I'd really have it made. Maybe I should go talk to him after the service, maybe the pastor should cut this short so I can go get with this guy. Again we need to note the contrasts that are given in this vivid picture of what James is painting.

And then there is this contrast between sitting and standing, this contrast between comfort and convenience, this contrast between discomfort and inconvenience, this contrast between covetousness and shame, and this contrast, I just said it, between here and there. One man receives familiarity and intimacy and the other man receives distance and ostracism. One man is taken right away to the VIP box and the other man is taken to the cheap seats, or if not the cheap seats, by my footstool, he says, which can be rendered at my feet or on the floor. But why? Why the difference in treatment? The answer is plain and simple. Appearances, preferences, favoritism.

The very thing James has been speaking about, going back to verse 1. See, James here is appealing very directly to the wickedness and the waywardness of the human heart and our natural proclivities and tendencies to follow these very same patterns as we seek the face of those whom we more naturally prefer. In James' day the rich man is here and the poor man is there, the rich man is ushered up to the front and the poor man is sent to the back. The despised person, the person with no money, no status, no connections, and overall negative image, is directed somewhere else, to the back of the assembly or maybe on the floor next to the usher's grubby and unwashed feet. One man was favored, the other man was disfavored, one man was privileged, the other man was denied those privileges. And James here is calling out this type of partial, sinful favoritism.

But he is not done. After giving this simple command in verse 1 and after illustrating his command in verses 2-3, next in verses 4-7 James is going to fire off in rapid succession four questions to drive his point home, which takes us to our third and final point this morning, “The Inquiries.” Inquiries is alliterated with the other I's or else I would have called this “The Questions.” All right, James 2:4-7 says, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, 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? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” And here is question four, “Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”

Now as we take on these final four verses today I'm going to do something a little bit unconventional as we go a little bit out of order here. I want us to start by zeroing in on this first sentence of James 2:6 where he says, “But you have dishonored the poor man.” A very simple, a very plain indicative statement. After he has given this illustration of the rich man and the poor man entering the assembly, he says here, “But you have dishonored the poor man.” No kidding, right? But by telling the poor man to go there in the assembly of God's people, while the rich man stays here in this place of prominence, of course that dishonors the poor man.

But I carved out that sentence here at the front end to highlight so that you can all see and highlight the main thing that is happening here in verses 4-7 which is James' use of these four rapid-fire questions or inquiries to drive home the point of this entire section. James frames the issue in verse 1 as that of being favoritism and partiality, we just saw that he illustrates that point in verse 2-3 with this illustration of the assembly and the rich man and the poor man, but now he is going to give us these four questions to really drive in the final nail. And each of these four questions, by the way, implied in them is a positive answer. The answer to all four of these questions is yes. So while it sounds like James is asking questions, he is actually making statements, which is what any preacher who uses questions often ought to be doing. Sort of letting you see through the questions that are asked that there is a statement underlying there which convicts you and all of us of sin and ungodliness.

Let's take these questions one by one, starting in verse 4. Here is our first question from James, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” Again, this is all tied to this main idea of partiality and favoritism, having just illustrated the point, and now he is going through these four questions. And question one is, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves?” Now of course we all make distinctions, we all make judgments. Every single day that's what we do. Think about how chaotic the roads in our town would be if we didn't make distinctions, if we didn't distinguish between the gas pedal and the brake pedal, if we didn't distinguish or evaluate the speed of others on the road, if we didn't distinguish between a green light and a red light or one of those flashing yellow left lights (I still can't figure them out). It would be a disaster, it would be deadly. Right? We all make distinctions, we all make evaluations, we all make judgments, and this is true even of life in the body of Christ. Right? We make distinctions about men's and women's roles in this church, based on what the Scriptures teach. You can mark my words and quote me on this, we will never have a female elder here. We will never have a female pastor here. We will never have a female who comes up and preaches to a mixed crowd here. Why? God's Word forbids it. We are making distinctions. We make distinctions in the music choices that we make. If a musical arrangement comes from an enemy of the Gospel or somebody who is actively promoting heresy, we're not going to use it. We make distinctions in the books that we sell in Sound Words. If a book is theologically unsound, we're not going to put it in your hands and encourage you to read it, we're not going to sell it.

But those kinds of distinctions, the ones I just mentioned, are not what James is after here in verse 4 when he says, but you make distinctions among yourselves. He's not calling these early believers to task for being theologically discerning or being rigorously committed to biblical truth or in the words of Jesus again in John 7:24, “judg[ing] with righteous judgment.” No, the issue that James has with his early audience is what we have already seen. They are making distinctions among themselves in the church, among this body of believers, based on favoritism and partiality. They are favoring the ‘haves’ while disfavoring the ‘have-nots.’ And in doing so, James says, they are judging with evil motives. He is saying here, you are fomenting favoritism, you are promoting partiality, you are thinking and you are acting sinfully, you are judging perversely. You have usurped the role of God who is the ultimate judge and in doing so you have failed miserably in the process. And not only that, James says, it's evil, “poneros.” That's the Greek word for evil which means vicious, injurious, destructive. As he tends to do, James is just calling it what it is, cutting to the chase, getting down to brass tacks. It is evil, he says. You are being evil. And friends, it is no less evil to engage in this type of behavior in the church today, to say you are playing on Team Jesus as you stiff-arm your fellow teammates because they don't look the way you wish they would or live where you wish they would or give you what you wish they would. It's evil.

Not only is this type of favoritism evil though, as we see in verse 4, now as we move into verse 5 we see that this attitude runs completely contrary to how God has divinely ordered things. Look at verse 5. He says, “Listen, 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?” See, not only is favoritism and partiality sin and evil, it denies this very biblical truth that James is laying out here, which is that God has “chose[n] the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.” And not only that, that form of favoritism denies what we saw back in James 1:9, that the brother of humble circumstances has a high position on account of his faith. So we need to put ourselves in James' sandals, right? We have to understand that in the times in which James lived in this ancient world, the poor in this society were often overlooked, often ignored and when they were seen, when people actually did allow their eyes to land upon them, they were utterly despised, often spit upon and beaten and taken advantage of and sometimes even enslaved. But the moment a poor person in James' day came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, it changed everything for them because it meant that they had immediately been raised from their lowly position in the world to this new high position that they had in Christ. It didn't change their social position in the world, of course, they still had rumbling stomachs and they still shivered in the cold and they still had incredibly short life expectancies. But because of their faith in Christ their eternal destiny had been dramatically rerouted.

I want us all to think for just a minute about the relationship between the poor of this world, (and no, this is not a social justice sermon, don't worry) and faith in Christ. Right? When Jesus began His ministry there in that synagogue in Nazareth He takes up the scroll of Isaiah and reads those inaugural words in Luke 4:18 where He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” In Luke 6:20 the Lord said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” In Luke 6:24 He provides the negative statement where He says, “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” Does this mean that God only saves the poor? Am I spouting off liberation theology here this morning? No. Does that mean that He never saves the rich? No, it doesn't mean that. Of course, there are many unregenerate poor people just as there have been many regenerate rich people who were saved and used mightily of God. But the fact is the statistics have borne out throughout history that those who are materially poor are significantly more likely to realize that the fact that they are nearing physical bankruptcy only points to the larger issue. That they are actually spiritually bankrupt and desperately in need of the grace of God. And it's those individuals, those who have so little in this world, that have so much more to look forward to once they put their faith in Jesus Christ, because now they, as James 2:5 says, are “heirs of the kingdom” which is a reference to Christ's future earthly kingdom during His millennial reign here on earth, which He “promised to those who love Him,” it says. The Gospel, in other words, levels the playing field, eternally speaking. And that truth is especially precious to a poor person who has nothing in this world to gain, nothing in this world to lose, but by God's grace has become rich in faith. So tying it altogether here in verse 5 he is asking, James is asking his audience, why would you favor the rich of the world over those who are actually rich in faith? It is completely contrary to God's eternal design.

Now look at verse 6, question three. After he says, “But you have dishonored the poor man,” which we already looked at, he asks this question, “Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” By asking this question James is saying here to his audience, this largely poor and disenfranchised group of early Jewish Christians, that the favoritism that they would show to a man like the man described in verse 2, the rich man with all the rings and the fine linen, it's irrational, it's unreasonable, it's foolish. Note again, he says, “Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” In context here he is referring to the oppression that was brought about by the rich of this day toward the poor. It is well recorded that the rich in these times would overcharge the poor, they would lend to the poor at exorbitant rates and then they would crack down on the poor by dragging them into court, knowing that they couldn't pay them back on time. And then there was the threat of taking away their property or throwing them into these very rudimentary debtors' prisons. Of course these practices totally violated God's law, which prohibited Israelites from impoverishing their countrymen. But many of the rich of James' day didn't care. I'm not speaking of all the rich at this time, but there were many who wouldn't hesitate to haul a poor debtor into court, often with dire and tragic consequences as land was torn away and potentially even families were ripped apart all because of the greed of the rich. And that's why James is saying here to his audience, why are you fawning over this rich man in your assembly on a Sunday, when on Monday he may be hauling you into court? Why are you pandering to the one in the Sunday gathering who later in the week is going to seek to oppress you? See, the poor weren't oppressing Christians, they had no power or leverage with which to do so. It was the rich who were doing so, they had the leverage. So why, James is saying, would you roll out the red carpet for them, of all places, on a Sunday worship gathering?

And with that we turn to our fourth and final question from James in verse 7. He is still talking about the rich here and he says, “Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?” And that fair name with which you have been called, of course, is a reference to the name of Jesus. There were rich people in James' day who apparently were blaspheming the name of Jesus. How they were doing so, what formulation of words they were using, we don't know. Maybe they were denying His deity or denying an aspect of His resurrection or denying His kingship or His lordship or His power. We just don't know. But whatever form of blasphemy they were employing, the important detail here is that they were blaspheming. And not only that they were blaspheming, but that James' audience here is tolerating these blasphemers into their assembly. And not only tolerating them and welcoming them but actually favoring them.

Not only is favoring the rich evil, question one; not only does favoring the rich run contrary to God's purposes, question two; not only is favoring the rich irrational and foolish, question three; through this fourth question we see that favoring the rich is disloyal. By siding with the rich, James' audience was siding with blasphemers and doing so was disloyal to the very One who had saved them, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, there is a poet named Hesiod who lived about 700 B.C. and he once wrote these words. I wouldn't write these down, they are not great words. He says, “Love those who love you, and help those who help you. Give to those who give to you, never to those who do not.” That's the way the world works, isn't it. What benefits can that favored person give me? What feelings can I get from that favored person? How can I move up the socioeconomic ladder by knowing that favored person? How can I leverage my relationship with them so that I can scrape and claw my way to the top? How can they give me more clout? How can they give me more fame and followers? How can they get me out of this town or out of my job or away from my family? That may be the way that things work in the world, but that's not the way things are to work in the church. See, in the church, in the family of God, in the body of Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, nor slave nor free, nor male nor female, and James might add, nor rich nor poor, because we are all one in Christ Jesus. And because of that no one here should be falling prey to the temptation to show favoritism or partiality within the body of Christ. It's wicked, James says, it's evil and it's sin. And it blemishes, ultimately, the beauty of Christ's beautiful bride. Let's resolve to do all that we can to keep her spotless by showing honor and goodness and compassion and love not only to the ‘haves’ here at church, but to the ‘have-nots.’ And in doing so we will bring much praise and honor to the Savior, our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for this chance again this morning to open up Your Word and to hear a man like James speaking not only to this initial gathering of early Jewish converts, but ultimately to us across the world, living many hundreds of years later in a different context and a different day but with the same hearts and tendencies and proclivities to favor those who could favor us. I ask, God, that there would be conviction this morning, that we would look upon those more frequently that look less like us and may have less in this world, that we would show them favor and kindness and show them a godly example and not favor those in the body who look like us and sound like us, who live in the same part of town as we do, and have the same memories in history as we do. Help us to be a welcoming body in every respect and in doing so avoid the sin of favoritism and partiality and in doing so bring great glory and honor to Your name. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things, amen.