The Sin of Showing Partiality

Transcript

GRM 542
10/12/1997
The Sin of Showing Partiality
James 2:1-13
Gil Rugh

I want to direct our attention again this evening to the book of James. If any of you are doing the book of James in a Bible study, I'm just walking all over your study, I realize. But I do want to look into James chapter 2 because it coordinates with what we were talking about this morning regarding distinctions in the Body and the danger of making improper distinctions, showing partiality, and so on.

I referred to this passage, but we didn't turn there for time, so I do want to look into it in some detail this evening. The pressure we find in this area is not new. The fact that the New Testament and the Old Testament, constantly reminded people, particularly God's people now, not to be partial. In the New Testament there are constant reminders to those who are wealthy not to place their confidence in their wealth. We have the warnings within the Body not to distinguish among people on the basis of possessions or other material or physical issues or matters. It's a natural human instinct, if you will, to give preference and priority to those who have worldly importance or significance, and money brings that. So, a person who has wealth is viewed as an important person, a person worthy of special consideration. Often these people expect special consideration. So it's a cycle because we think we are not doing what we should if we don't give them the consideration that they have grown accustomed to receiving. But this is an artificial distinction and does not really get to the heart of the matter. It's one that we are to avoid as believers.


James has dealt with this matter in chapter 1, verse 9 where he says, “But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position.” The brother, the believer, who has nothing, or very little of this world's possessions should glory in the fact that he is an heir and joint heir with Jesus Christ. The focal point of the individual believer who has little or nothing of this world's goods is on Jesus Christ and the riches and wealth he has in Him. Verse 10 “and let the rich man glory in his humiliation.” And that word translated humiliation is the same as translated humble circumstances in verse 9, so the one who has humble circumstances in the material realm glory in his exaltation in Christ. The rich man glories in his humiliation. He is humbled to know that all that he has in the material realm is nothing for it will pass away. He can glory ultimately in Christ knowing that the material things I have do not make any difference in light of eternity because like the flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; its flower falls off, the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. You'll note he elaborates on the warning to the wealthy.

We'll see more of this as we move through our study in chapter 2, that there are special dangers attached to material affluence. While you're here, there's four verbs in verse 11 that stress this passing of the rich or the wealth of the rich. The verb "rises", "withers", "falls off", "destroyed". Those four verbs "rises", "withers", "falls off", "destroy". It's like the flower of the field, so the wealth of the rich is passing and transitory. So neither the poor nor the rich are to be focused, talking about believers now, on their wealth or their lack of wealth, because it's just not a significant issue when placed in the perspective of eternity. If you have nothing, so what. If you're a believer, you have the riches of your heavenly inheritance that is eternal in its duration. That's the focus of your life, not what you don't have here physically. If you have an abundance materially, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you don't focus on that either because you know this material wealth is here today and gone tomorrow. It's transitory and all that really matters is the eternal wealth that you have.


Now come over to chapter 2. Incidentally, at the end of chapter 1, verse 27 “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” The importance of the widows and orphans in God's sight. Particularly in biblical times, these would be the people who would experience more commonly the poverty of this world's possessions. He now expands this emphasis on the importance of putting the Word of God into practice in these personal relationships. Chapter 1, the last part of the chapter has emphasized the necessity not to be just “hearers of the Word”, but to be “doers of the Word”. To implement what the Word says in the way that we live, which becomes the theme of James. “Faith without works is dead”, which will really be developed at the end of chapter 2. But he begins chapter 2 by saying “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” What is glorious is our Lord Jesus Christ. So he refers to our faith in Jesus Christ, but it's not just our faith in Jesus Christ, it's our faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

As we talked about this morning in our study in Colossians, He is the One who supersedes everything. He is the only thing that matters, the only one that matters. He is everything. When we consider Him, glorious as He is, the wealth of the world is put in proper perspective. Our faith in Christ, he's talking here to believers, “brethren”, and the “faith we have in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, should not be held with personal favoritism”. In other words, those of us who believe in Jesus Christ should not have our perspective colored by favoritism, personal favoritism. It's a word that denotes partiality or a biased judgment that is based on external circumstances, such as race, wealth, social rank, and so on. In other words, the personal favoritism of this expression is favoritism on the basis of these external kinds of things, human kind of distinctions. We ought not to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with personal favoritism. In fact, when we get down to verse 9, James will say: if you do have partiality, it's sin. If you show partiality, you are committing sin. So we have faith in Christ. As we saw in our study this morning, it washes out these human kinds of focuses and distinctions. God never functions with such partiality, and we are to be growing and maturing being conformed to His image, and He is the God who is impartial.

Back up to Romans chapter 2, verse 11, a very simple statement “For there is no partiality with God.” “There is no partiality with God.” And we ought not to have our faith in Jesus Christ colored by an attitude of partiality. “There is no partiality with God.” He doesn't hold the Jew above the Gentile. He does not hold the rich above the poor. He does not hold the cultured above the uncultured, all those matters. “There is no partiality with God.” In the context of Romans 2, he's talking about particular partiality in the context of the Greek versus the Jew. The Jews thought they had one up - they were Jews. “There's no partiality with God.” That statement's repeated concerning God a number of times in the New Testament.

Now let me just say something as an aside. This does not mean we do not show proper respect to those to whom it is due. Showing proper respect does not mean that we have been partial. You're in Romans; turn over to chapter 13. Romans 13:7 “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” But in the functioning of the church, honor is not given to a person because he has more money than someone else or a higher social standing than someone else. But it doesn't mean that I am disobeying Scripture if I show proper respect to someone who has authority. Here in Romans 13, it's governmental authorities. I would assume if I was to meet with a governing leader, I should show proper respect to that person and honor for his position. It shouldn't be, well, I won't treat him any different than I treat anyone else because I'm not partial to anyone. Well, that's a misunderstanding. There is proper respect shown in our society, but in the body of Christ we do not function recognizing these decisions. This governmental official, for example, if he became a believer and was part of the body, would not be honored because he has the high standing as a governmental official. He would just be a member of the body of Christ and acknowledged as such.

Come back to James. So the faith that we have in Christ is to be devoid of all partiality, personal favoritism, and so on. You know, even the enemies of Jesus Christ during His earthly life acknowledged that He did not show partiality to anyone. Matthew 22:16 “we know You teach the truth, and You show partiality to no one.” So Jesus gave the truth to whomever He gave it, and wherever He was. No partiality with Him. Perhaps we ought to leave our marker in James. Come back to Leviticus chapter 19. This has always been God's intention for His people. Leviticus chapter 19. And you'll note the partiality here goes both ways. Verse 15 “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” The poor don't get special treatment like we do in our judicial system today. They are not held accountable for their wrong deeds because of their circumstances. God says no, you don't give anyone exceptional consideration for that. You aren't partial to the poor, nor are you partial to the great. You mete out fairness. That impartiality is to characterize God's people in Old Testament and New Testament alike. Why? We are the people of the God who is impartial, and His character is to be seen in and through us.


Now when you come back to James chapter 2, the construction, as well as the context, indicates that this is going on, and James is dealing with a problem that needs to be corrected. In other words, the believers he's writing to, which are Jews of the dispersion as the letter opened up, Jews who have become believers, that are scattered throughout certain parts of the world.

What he's going to do now is give them an example of the kind of partiality that he is talking about. “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's wearing 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?” They come into the assembly of the saints and when the believers meet together, and this is a hypothetical illustration, he’s not talking about a particular case. The construction here indicates this is a hypothetical example, but it clarifies what he is saying. An obviously wealthy person comes in. They have jewelry, they have fine clothes, the way we sometimes judge people. You meet someone, and you give them the quick look over. You say, looks like they have money. You know, you see them, that looks like a Rolex. Hmm. Hmm. Must have money. Boy, that's good-looking clothes. They obviously have money. So here the visible representation is affluence. There is a poor man who comes in, and that word for poor denotes a beggar, one who is dependent upon others for support. We could use the word beggar, a street person, becoming perhaps a more common term in our day. This is a person who is dirt-poor, and when he comes in, he's wearing dirty clothes. And you might expect, he comes in in dirty clothes because they are the only clothes he has. So you know, it's hard to take them off and send them to the cleaners or get them washed because you live in them. As we're all familiar with these kinds of situations and seen perhaps more in our big cities in a more clear and obvious way, but you see the contrast is great. A person with obvious affluence comes in; a person who is obviously dirt-poor and dirty, smelly clothes comes in. Verse 3 “you pay special attention to the one who is wearing fine clothes”, and you want him to sit in a good place. The poor man, he can sit wherever he could, but boy, preferably, where he's going to do little damage as possible. The last thing you would want is for the poor man to happen to get seated next to the rich person because that could give a wrong impression. Anyplace is good enough for the beggar, but you want the rich man to have a good place. Now this actually went on in the synagogues of the Jews. These Jews could relate to this.

Jesus condemned it in his earthly ministry. Back up to the book of Luke chapter 11, verse 43 “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the front seats in the synagogues.” And I really can't accuse you of being Pharisees on this standard. We would have to say, Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the back seats because they are the premium seats, but in the synagogue it was the front seat. “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the front seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces.” You see, they expected to be treated importantly.

Look over in chapter 20 of Luke. Chapter 20, verse 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues.” They want to be honored. A number of years ago, when we visited China, and we were going to visit a Sunday evening service of a church. We had indicated to certain people we had met from the church that we would visit their church that evening. We'd been invited and so on. You know, when we got there, the place was packed. But they had saved the front seats for us because we were the guests of honor. That was very gracious of them, but if that becomes a pattern for the wrong reason in the church it shouldn't be done. So that's what he is talking about.

I don't know what to compare it to. One thing, we put our seats much in the round, so there are a lot of good seats, but you know, it amazes me, and the ushers deal with this. We all have our favorite seats. I can pretty well tell on Sunday morning when I'm up looking around, and there's times when I'll look around, I'll say what are they sitting there for? You know, I'm talking, but it dawns on me, they're out of place, they're over here. They always sit over there. We do get our place, you know, and that's us. And you know what it feels like when you walk in on Sunday morning and someone's in your place. Sometimes people get rather bent over someone being in their place. It would be all the worse if that someone was sitting there in dirty old rags. Don't they know, I sit there every Sunday? As though everybody ought to know, and no one ought to take my seat. Well, the warning here is clear.

Come back to James. When you make such distinctions: the poor beggar, it doesn't matter where he sits, and we don't even really care if he comes back, but the wealthy we want to make them feel as at home as possible. Verse 4: have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Their basis of making their evaluation has been solely on external appearance, material things. They have turned their attention from the glorious Lord and what He can do in a life and what is really important to material splendor and attractiveness. They have set themselves up as judges with evil motives. They have decided who is most important, who is most worthy. They have evil motives. Why? Why are they catering to the wealthy? Well, we have more to get from them. I mean, if we had a number of multi-millionaires in our congregation, they could give and make a difference. We have people of influence in our city. They will open doors that otherwise would not be open. They would give respectability to our congregation for people to know that so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so go to this church, but it won't help us at all to have street people taking up seats. In fact, it may keep people away because when well-to-do people want to visit, they don't want to come in and sit down next to a beggar in dirty clothes. So the beggar does not only, doesn't add anything, he detracts if your evaluation is a human standard. So our motives are evil. We're looking out for our social standing, our material well-being, and so on. We have something to gain from the wealthy person; the beggar has nothing so our motives are wrong.

Now the inconsistency of this kind of partiality is set forth now in verses 5 to 7 by James, “Listen, my beloved brethren.” And he speaks out of love. These are the brethren that are loved by him. Even though he's saying some harsh things, he's saying it because of his deep love for them. Back in chapter 1, verse 16, he said “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” Verse 19 of chapter 1 “This you know, my beloved brethren, my well-loved brethren.” So again, verse 5. I mean, when you've just said, you've made distinctions among yourselves, you've become judges with evil motives. That's harsh, but listen to me, loved ones, is what he's saying. “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?” He’s going to have two areas that show the foolishness of believers making such distinctions between the rich and the poor. Number one, God has chosen the poor. Number two, the rich oppress believers. General statement that we'll have to look at. Now, first statement, we just read in verse 5, “God chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. This doesn't mean that God is going to save every poor person, but there is a truth expressed here that is consistent through the New Testament, and that is God's work of salvation is accomplished more often and more broadly among the poor than among the rich. Yet most of our churches today, and our large churches want to be geared to reach the baby-boomers or the baby-busters or baby-whoever’s. Somebody needs to reach the poor, but you know, God's raised us up to reach the middle class, or the upper middle class. The church loses its focus and loses its effectiveness and then begins to adjust its theology to cater to those that will come if it does certain things, and we become totally twisted. Generally speaking, it is the poor of the world who respond to the salvation that is in Christ because of God's sovereign choice.

Back up to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, another passage we referred to in our study this morning, but did not turn to. Colossians chapter 1, verse 26: For consider your call, brethren. 1 Corinthians 1:26, “that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.” It doesn't say not any – “not many.” “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, that He might nullify the things that are, that no one should boast before God.” So you see God's choice centers in the lowly, the base, the despised. By His grace, He has chosen some that were well-bred, so to speak, upper-class, mighty or noble, but they are few. God's choice is centered in the poor of this world.

Back up to Matthew 19. Jesus in conversation here with a man who has come and asked Him what he must do to obtain eternal life in verse 16. Jesus addresses him regarding obedience to the commandments God has given and then comes the test. Verse 20: The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." There's one thing you must do. You must give up all of your possessions and become My follower. When the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved for he was one who owned much property. This is a hard statement that Jesus confronted this man with. Stop and think, if you confronted Jesus today, and He said, alright, I want you to give up everything - everything - He didn't say most here - He told him go sell all your possessions and come follow Me. This young man understood what He was saying - He wants you to empty your retirement account and give it away. I want you to sell your house and give the proceeds away. I want you to sell your car and give the proceeds away. I want you to give away everything and come follow Me. You'll have treasure in heaven. No, that's, that's too great a, a price. Now if you don't have anything, you say, I'd make that decision in a snap. Why? Well, I rent my house. I don't own a car. I don't have any retirement account. And we just have enough money for today. So, sure, I'll take the treasure in heaven, but if I have four million dollars in my retirement account and a lovely home that I've paid for and two nice cars. Now, you tell me, give it all away? Ho, Ho, wait. There's got to be some mediating ground. Now, the young man walked away. Now, bad choice. Two thousand years later, what does this young man have? Nothing. Where is his wealth? Gone. But those who have treasure in heaven, the Apostle Paul, what does he have? He has the riches of heaven. Now, note what Jesus said on elaborating on this, verse 23, “Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." In fact, you want to know how hard it is? "Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." The disciples get the point. Then who can be saved? It looks like no rich people are going get saved. Did you ever try to get a camel through the eye of a needle? A needle, here's a sewing needle. Pretty tight squeeze. Well, looking upon them, Jesus said, with men, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible. It takes that supernatural work of God and by His grace, some rich are saved, but that is rare. But we devote far more of our resources in trying to reach the well-to-do, than we do the poor. Now, we're willing to give to the poor. I'm talking about the ministry of the church in trying to reach out and build the body. We lose our perspective. We no longer have God's perspective on the ministry of His church and what really matters and who are the people that the Scripture says God is calling to Himself. But, Lord, they're not the kind of people we're looking to fill our church with. Why? Well, we're turning it into a social club, a cultural center, which is really what we're doing, isn't it? If we don't follow the pattern that is set down and appreciate what God is saying.

Come back to James chapter 2. Some people who are not believers have taken these kinds of Scriptures and twisted them as though there was some particular value in being poor. Don't lose sight. It's God's grace that brings salvation to the poor. The poor are no closer to God than the rich. The poor are just as lost and just as on their way to hell as the rich. What we're saying is that God's work of salvation, the call of God, goes to far more poor people than it does rich people, and our focus in ministry ought to reflect that.

Back in James chapter 2. Did not God choose verse 5, the poor of this world to be rich in faith, rich in faith. In other words, they're rich where riches really count. They have true salvation through faith in Christ. God has provided for them by His grace through faith, salvation and all of its blessing. Everything else is fleeting. Everything else is passing. Everything else is irrelevant.

We have to look at Luke 12, verse 15. And this comes out of someone wanting Jesus to arbitrate between the dividing of an inheritance. You know how much of our life is taken up with worries and concerns and conflicts over material possessions? I mean, it absorbs people. Here somebody comes and says, Lord, I'm not getting my fair share of the inheritance. Tell my brother to divide it more fairly. Jesus doesn't even address that issue. He says, you know, your perspective is totally twisted. Verse 15 He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." No matter how much you have, real life consists of something other than your material possessions. He told them a parable. "The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' He said, 'This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I will store all my grain and my goods. 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."' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you. Now who will own what you have prepared?' So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." You know, I need to remember, you need to remember, we all need to remember, everything I have materially could be gone before the night's over. If God would say, tonight your soul is required of you, tonight you will die, everything would be removed. Talk to someone who's a millionaire who has the sentence of death, perhaps from a disease, see how much he'd give if he could have his life. Why? Because when he dies, all of his possessions are irrelevant. Amazing. How we forget that as believers and begin to think there is some specific or particular importance to be attached to earthly wealth and possessions.

Come back to James chapter 2. He's chosen them to be “rich in faith”, “heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him”. This is the coming kingdom over which Christ will rule. They're “heirs of that kingdom”. There's nobody on earth, even with all that's in the news about how many billions this person's worth and how many billions this person's worth. None of them have anything compared to the simplest believer who is an heir of a coming eternal kingdom. I mean, well, you have that. That's nothing compared to the inheritance I have. I mean, that's like trying to compare ten cents to hundreds of billions of dollars. I mean, they don't compare. I mean, these poor that we're talking about are heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him. But you have dishonored the poor man. Sad statement of rebuke. “You have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, personally drag you into court?” This is true.

You read the book of Acts. It was the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, Pharisees who led in persecution of the early church - people of position, influence, wealth - they, by and large, oppress believers. More intense opposition to the ministry of truth comes from those who have more, not from those who have less. That's true even down to our day. Those who would oppress, verse 6 “you have dishonored the poor man.” “Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” By and large, that would be true. The poor man is occupied, even if he's not a believer, even if he doesn't believe the gospel, with providing for his family, taking care of it. The rich, what, they're out to make it difficult often. “Do not they blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?” Read the statements of some of the very wealthy. Some of the billionaires and their attitude toward Christianity, their attitude toward Bible-believing Christians. Appalling. Are they embarrassed to express it? No. They blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called, the beautiful name, the excellent name of Christ.

There is an account, this came out of Our Daily Bread a number of years ago, regarding Mahatma Gandhi, who was the leader of the Indian national movement and was considered the father of India. He says in his autobiography that in his student days he was truly interested in the Bible, deeply touched by reading the Gospels, he seriously considered becoming a convert. Christianity seemed to offer the real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. One Sunday he went to a nearby church to attend services. He decided to see the minister and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines, but when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go and worship with his own people. He left and never came back. If Christians have caste differences also, he said to himself, I might as well remain a Hindu. You say, well, that would be terrible, but we have to be careful that same kind of attitude is not repeated in our conduct.

What James goes on, down through verse 13, is to show how we carry out the requirement to love our neighbor as ourself. For these of Jewish background and descent, they could appreciate, as Jesus said, all the law is fulfilled in two commandments: love God; love your neighbor. Verse 8 “If 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.” And so these Jews should understand when you broke one part of the law, you broke the whole law. What James is trying to do is show the seriousness of the sin here. And we say, well, this is not sin like immorality is sin, like murder is sin, like stealing is sin. Yes, it's just that kind of sin to show partiality. And so it's to have no place.

Similar to what we mentioned with Paul with circumcision. In his argument in Galatians chapter 5, he says, if you're going to practice this you've denied the grace of God. You might as well go on and practice pure paganism in bodily mutilation. So James uses similar kind of argument, you've broken the whole law. You are not being obedient and submissive to God. “So speak,” verse 12, “and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” The law of liberty is the law we have in Christ. It's not the Mosaic law, but it's the new law, if you will, the freedom we have in Christ. So it's not a law of restriction, it's a law of liberty because it's the law that sets us free, what God has done for us in Christ.

This last statement, verse 13, “judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” The issue here is that demonstrating mercy to others reveals that you have experienced the mercy of God in your own heart, and those who do not demonstrate God's mercy are demonstrating that they have never received God's mercy in salvation. Similar argument that Jesus develops extensively in Matthew chapter 18, verses 21 to 35. When Peter asked, how many times shall I forgive my brother? Seven times? Jesus said, seventy times seven. And then he gave an illustration to show how great the forgiveness we as fallen sinners have received from God. If we've really received such an overwhelming forgiveness for such great transgressions, how could we withhold forgiveness from someone who wronged us? And if you do, it demonstrates you've never really understood and experienced the fullness of that forgiveness of God. So that's the argument here. So James draws to their attention, you know, we've got a real issue here. He's going to flow out from this then - faith without works is dead. This kind of partiality being demonstrated ought to be a cause of concern. It shows a lack of the reflection of the character of God in a crucial area. Do you understand, if your faith has no works, and what has he just been talking about, this kind of partiality, that's the sin he has been talking about that as he leads immediately into this discussion. So it shows the importance of being careful that we do not make these kind of distinctions.

You know, I've sometimes thought, maybe it ought to become an intention and goal of our ministry as a local church to find the poorest people of this city and determine we are going to do all that we can to evangelize them and bring them into the body. You say, oh, yeah, the first thing we can do is get them cleaned up, get them new clothes, make them like us. Wait a minute, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is number one, they get saved. Number two, that they grow now in the Lord. Number three, that we demonstrate to them the love of Christ, and that they are every bit as much a part of the body as we are, and any physical distinctions that may be among us are irrelevant. They don't count for anything. The kind of house I live in versus the kind of house you live in. The kind of clothes this person has versus the kind of clothes this person has. They're nothing. They don't count for anything. Our delight should be to see the people that God has called to Himself come to salvation in Him. We pray, Lord, use us as an instrument of that, but we often avoid carrying the gospel to the very people that He said He has called. He hasn't called many mighty, many noble, many from those class and strata. But He's chosen the lowly and the base. O, Lord, use us as an instrument in salvation, but I never carry the gospel to the people He says He's called. Would we be comfortable? Would we soon say, well, you know, I'm not as comfortable in church as I used to be. It's changing. The people are changing, you know, and I'm concerned about my kids, you know, and what kind of influence they'd be. Wait, wait a minute, wait a minute, all these distinctions, what more beautiful for our children to learn than true godliness and what true godly character is, what the truly focal point of a godly life is, of a godly church is. Isn't that the most important thing? I trust God will use this whole area to challenge us and cause us to evaluate, are we really the kind of church that we ought to be? In our own lives, do we really have the kind of attitude that we really must have? And those areas where I find myself reflecting worldly divisions, worldly evaluation, I have to say, God, I want to take hold of that and deal with it. I don't want it to be part of my life, and one of the best ways for it to be dealt with is for me to be brought into context with the diversity and variety so I learn to appreciate God's work in the lives of the people He has called to Himself and realize these other things are irrelevant and passing very quickly.

Let's pray together, thank You, Lord, for such a wonderful salvation. Lord, our attention subtlety gets turned away and over time we lose our focus. We begin to respect physical, worldly divisions among people even within the church we reflect more the patterns of the world than the transforming power of our God. You have blessed and enriched us as Your people. Lord, I pray that our impact on this city will be Your impact. Give us a love for the people of this city that You have, and particularly Lord, a love for those that You have called to Yourself. Lord, I pray that we might reach out with love and compassion, with the gospel of Jesus Christ, to those who may be different than us, who have less than us, who are of a different social or cultural position than us. Lord, may the passion of our lives be that men, women, and young people come to know Jesus Christ and then be brought to maturity in Him. And may we be brought to the place where the physical and material things that divide the world are nothing to us in our thinking and in our ministry. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.