The Sinfulness of Showing Partiality

Transcript

GRM 820
11/24/2002
The Sinfulness of Showing Partiality
James 2:1-13
Gil Rugh

I want to direct your attention to the book of James this evening. We met James again in our study of the book of Acts in chapter 21. We saw him in chapter 15 in a key role at the Council of Jerusalem where he is the leading figure in the church at Jerusalem there, and he continued that role as we come to chapter 21. And Paul has returned to Jerusalem. At the end of his third missionary journey he meets with James and the elders of the church at Jerusalem. And clearly James is the leading figure still in the church at Jerusalem. I put him in a very key position in the developing of the early church, which began in Jerusalem. And as we saw in Acts chapter 21 there were particular tensions associated with the ministry to the Jews, particularly then those Jews who believed the gospel. And they were believing by the thousands, James said. It was a major adjustment as they came to accept the fact that the Gentiles were being saved, and also to understand how they were to relate to the Gentiles, the role of the Law, and so on.

The letter of James is written by the same James. So we get some appreciation of the stature of this man, a man greatly used of God, a man selected to be the human writer of an inspired portion of our scripture. And it’s a burden of James that our lives reflect our relationship to God. And James 2 beginning with verse 14, James makes the point very strongly that saving faith always results in a changed life, saving faith always produces works. That’s different than saying we are saved by faith plus works. What he is saying is saving faith always produces works. And that is key that we keep the distinction. James is taken up with that emphasis really through his whole letter, that we must not just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, as he talks about in chapter 1.

I want to look with you at the first part of chapter 2, just to give us a little bit of a reminder of the character of James and his burdens. By the time Paul is meeting with James in Acts 21, James has already written this letter. And so he has already been used of God to make an impact, not only with his personal ministry, but with the writing of a letter that was really written, according to verse 1 of chapter 1, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, the Diaspora. The Jews that had been sold in other places outside the land of Palestine. James is writing to them, believing Jews, addressed them as beloved brethren several times in the letter, those who have come to saving faith in Christ. He wants them to understand their responsibility and obligation. You know, right down to our day there are some people who think that because we talk about the fact we are not obligated to the Mosaic Law, therefore we are antinomian, anti-law. We do not believe we are without law, we do believe we are not under the Mosaic Law. We do believe that salvation was never by keeping commandments, keeping the Law, whether it was the Mosaic Law or any other law. Salvation never was through works.

James addresses the issue of our responsibility in obedience to the Lord as a manifestation of our faith. And that’s true even though we talk about we are not under the Mosaic Law any longer. What he wants to deal with in the first part of chapter 2 of his letter is the issue of partiality. You know, the world makes a clear distinction between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the not powerful. And we look up to and respect and honor, envy those of wealth and power and influence. And it’s always a danger, that that kind of thinking infiltrates the world and we develop a worldly attitude of thinking that the wealthy, the rich, the important people of this world are more important in the ministry of God’s truth than the poor and the insignificant of the world. So James is going to deal with this matter, in fact, he’s going to say this is so serious that if you do show partiality you are guilty of committing sin.

And writing to Jews he tells them that they are guilty of breaking the Law, so understand that there are serious matters here in showing partiality. All are lost and without hope outside of Christ, and for all who have come to salvation in Christ there is a blessed equality of being the sons of God and heirs of all that God has promised. God Himself is said to be devoid of partiality, and we are to be a people manifesting the character of God. And so to be demonstrating partiality is to be denying the character of God that is to be being produced in our lives.

Back in chapter 1 verse 9, James already got into this a little bit, now he’s going to elaborate it in chapter 2. But in chapter 1 verse 9, “Let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position.” So you may be poor in this world, glory in the fact all the riches of an heir of God and co-heir with Christ are yours. “Let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like the flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” There is a humbling reality for those who are rich, even believers who have come to wealth to realize: praise God for His grace. All this that the world holds as so important is nothing, and it will all pass away and be gone and I will be a nobody, humanly speaking, just like everyone else. And all I have to glory in, too, is that same grace, but the riches which are eternal.

Now he wants to expand on this truth in the practice of these believers. He starts out, “my brethren.” So you see he’s writing not only to Jews but to Jews who have made profession of faith in Christ. “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” Now you’ll note how he lays the context for what he’s going to talk about. He’s going to talk about our “faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” So we’ll put this in perspective, the rich and the poor… really, let’s focus our attention on the one who is glorious, not the glory of man but our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Now you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t have that faith with an attitude of personal favoritism. Personal favoritism denotes partiality, biased judgment, and opinions based on external circumstances, you know, a person’s wealth, social standing, race, nationality. Any of these external things are not really the matters of value and significance when we’re dealing with people, they’re externals. So you have your faith in Jesus Christ. Well, you ought not to have faith in Jesus Christ and be manifesting an attitude of partiality, being biased toward some people and not others on the basis of these superficial external kinds of things. We have a glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

God never functions with that kind of biased attitude, and James is going to develop that. Turn back to Romans 2, Romans 2:11, the framework that all the writers of the scripture come from. Romans 2:11 says very simply, “there is no partiality with God.” And there he is talking in the context of racial partiality when it comes to salvation, Jew and Greek, Jew and non-Jew. God is not partial, a Jew ought not to think he’s going to be saved because he’s a Jew, he’s going to get preference in judgment because he’s a Jew. So there’s no racial partiality with God, there is no partiality of any kind.

Look over in Ephesians 6, he’s going to talk about masters and slaves. Here we get into some social position, positions of power, prestige. Ephesians 6:9, “masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master,” your slaves, “and your Master is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” You see, whether you’re talking about wealth, whether you’re talking about race, whether you’re talking about position, understand there is no partiality with God. You masters need to understand when you stand before God you will stand before Him to be judged not with a different standard than your slave is judged. Not as someone more important. “There is no partiality with God.”

Colossians 3:25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done,” last part of verse 25, “and that without partiality.” You know, these are simple truths, but you know there are times in the church’s history where it has been ugly because the church has lost perspective and used external things as a measure of judgment and marred the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is a God without partiality. His people are to manifest His character, and that’s what James is talking about. This doesn’t mean you don’t show proper respect, whether they are positions with authority.

Slaves were to respect their masters, honor them with their obedience. We are to show the proper respect to governmental authorities, we’ll see that as we move into Paul’s trials and so on. He always deals with respect with these individuals who have positions, and thus to whom he is responsible. Husbands and wives, parents and children, children to their children and so on. There is proper respect. So we oughtn’t say, well, we’re all equal so I don’t have to show respect. Sometimes this is a sad thing when Christians work for Christians, a Christian worker thinks he’s due special treatment because he’s a Christian like his boss is. His boss has a responsibility before the Lord to be fair, but that Christian has a responsibility then to work as unto the Lord and not expect special treatment. There is a balance in this, but there is to be no partiality.

Come back to James, there are other passages, but that gives us a sample of what area we’re talking about. There’s not partiality with God in these matters. You know, in Christ, we won’t turn there but in Matthew 22:16, even His enemies when they addressed Him said we know you act without partiality. Even those who were opposed to Him gave the point, we know you don’t show partiality. So they saw that in Christ’s ministry even though they did not respect Him in that sense, or agree with Him. No personal favoritism.

James gives an example now, and it’s a hypothetical situation, but it’s one you can identify with, to help you understand what he is saying in a practical level. 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?” So here in their assembly you have two people come in, and one is obviously a person of means. Their clothes demonstrate it, and they have the kind of jewelry that indicates wealth, and they’re concerned that they are well taken care of, that they sit in a good seat, that people say, hi to them, let them know they’re welcome. Somebody else comes in and obviously they’re poor, they don’t have much, and it’s just not as important that they get a good seat. We don’t say, oh, I hope they get one of the best seats, I hope they can hear well. Oh, I hope the people sitting next to them talk to them and make them feel welcome, and I hope one of the pastors meets them and says, hi. It comes naturally, humanly speaking, for us to be drawn that way. We say we’re glad we’re not like that. We consider and say there’s an element of that that we easily fall into. That’s what James is talking about.

The poor man here is somebody who is dirty poor. The word here for poor would refer to somebody who is a beggar, who is dependent on others for their support. You know somebody that’s staying at the City Mission that’s brought out to attend a service, you know, wherever. They get stuck down here behind the piano or the organ, it’s not a big deal. But you don’t want somebody who is from one of the better families and one of the wealthier people in the city to come and get stuck in a place like that. They expect better, and we’re really showing partiality, we’re saying the wealthy person is more important. And James lays it on here. This poor man, not only poor, he comes in dirty clothes. I mean here is somebody so poor he doesn’t have the kind of clothes that get taken care of regularly. That would mean maybe other things about him in bodily hygiene aren’t the best. I mean, let’s face it, if you’ve been wearing the same clothes for an extended period of time that creates other problems. So James draws the contrast here in a very clear way. We’re talking about somebody who is well off and somebody who is at the very opposite of the scale. You pay special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and you want him to sit in a good seat. The poor man, he can sit wherever he finds a seat.

This was the way the Jews functioned. I mean, these Jewish believers can understand that. Look back in Luke 11. You know, some things are not new. This is almost so commonplace we say, well, it doesn’t need to be elaborated a lot. We all recognize that’s just the way things do happen. Luke11:43, “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places.” They want to be recognized, they want to be treated better than other people. Luke 20:46, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market place, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at the banquets.” You know, important people and rich people get used to having attention, they’re used to having things their way, they’re used to having people think more highly of them. And we need to be careful that that doesn’t become a pattern among the people of God. If somebody well-known in our city comes to a service here do we just say, oh, it was good to have them? Is it just as important for us to meet someone else who obviously doesn’t have very much, they look poor, we saw them get out of their car that was leaking oil and think, oh, do they have to park there and run oil all over? They could have parked out back. If somebody pulls up in a Rolls or an expensive Mercedes, I hope they saw the Visitor’s Parking so they don’t have to walk far to the door. Those kind of things go through our mind, but they have no place, that’s worldly thinking, James says. You understand this person who’s in dirty clothes and smells is just as important before the Lord as this rich man in beautiful clothes. And God shows no partiality to one over the other, and neither should we as His people.

That doesn’t mean that with visitors we ought not to pay a special attention to them all. You know, sometimes I’m more concerned about my seat than I am about a visitor having a good seat. And it irritates me; I come in and I’m ready to sit down and somebody is sitting in my seat. What in the world is this, what’s this church coming to? Poor person didn’t know it was your seat, but we don’t think, oh, praise the Lord there’s a visitor, I’m glad they’re in the seat I usually sit in because that’s one of the best seats here. That’s wonderful. And then if it’s a smelly bum (that’s not the best terminology), someone poor in old clothes, that makes it all the worse. I mean, one thing if you see someone sitting there and they look like money and then you recognize them, they’re somebody important, well, of course, they can sit in my seat. Glad you’re here. We should want any visitor, somebody who is new, we’re happy to have them have the best, regardless of what they have or don’t have. We’re not saying, oh, we don’t want new people to feel the difference, we don’t want to make the distinction between those new people, those that have come.

“Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives.” We’re making distinction among ourselves based on what, the heart, internal things? No, we’re making distinction on the basis of what we see, what is appealing on the human level. So instead of focusing on our glorious Lord, we’re focusing on the material splendor of the rich who have blessed us with their presence. They’ve set themselves up as judges to determine who is most important, who is worthy of honor. They have evil motives.

Let’s face it, why do we want to treat the rich or the powerful better? There’s something in it for us. I mean, we think, well boy, if these rich people, important people, start attending our church that says something about us, doesn’t it? I mean, we can start naming off these significant people who attend here, what does that say? We’re just not a group of nobodies, I mean, people of importance come to this church. And besides, you know what? They’ll really be a help with the offering. I mean, they could write a check and really move us along. And it won’t hurt me in the business world or other contacts to be able to rub shoulders with them. And all these things out there, because why else would we do it? We have evil motives, we’re looking at it from the world’s viewpoint, not God’s viewpoint.

James is now going to demonstrate the inconsistency involved in this kind of partiality. He’ll do that in verses 5-7, “Listen, my beloved brethren.” So you see there are those that he loves, those who have faith in Jesus Christ… I’m concerned. Back in chapter 1 verse 16 he said, “Do not be deceived my beloved brethren.” Verse 19, “This you know, my beloved brethren.’ Now in chapter 2 verse 5, “Listen, by beloved brethren.” God has chosen the poor, and most of the opposition comes from the rich. Those are the two points he’s going to make. Look at verse 5, “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.” God has sovereignly chosen the poor. That’s a work of God’s election. 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.” It doesn’t mean that there is some kind of spiritual advantage in poverty. But we recognize more people get saved from the low class than the upper class. There is more openness among the poor to the gospel than there is among the rich.

Look back in 1 Corinthians 1, 1Corinthians 1:26. Paul writes to the Corinthians who had the same kind of problem. The world has always had this attitude. Chapter 1 verse 26, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen.” That’s basically the way it is. Doesn’t mean that no noble, no wise, no mighty, no wealthy are saved. By God’s grace some are, but that is not the usual pattern.

Back up to Matthew 19, Matthew 19. The context of this, you’re familiar, the rich young ruler comes to Christ and asks, verse 16 of chapter 19, “What good thing should I do that I may obtain eternal life?” How can I be saved? Jesus tells him about his need to obey the Word of God, and down in verse 20 the young man said, I’ve done all that. “What am I still lacking?” Verse 21,” 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 is a test. Remember, if you love father or mother, brother, sister more than Me you cannot be My disciple; and if you who does not give up all his own possessions cannot be my disciple. You don’t get saved by giving away your possessions, but here is the occasion for this man to commit himself to Jesus Christ and let go of everything else. Jesus is really dealing with what is precious and most important to him. There is something more important in this young man’s life than eternal life. That is what he has. He wants to add eternal life to his possessions. Jesus says you can’t have it. You must let go of all your possessions and take hold of that which is life indeed. Verse 22, “the young man heard this statement and he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.” What a decision! Two thousand years later where is his wealth? What does he have now? Then “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ ” Do you want to know what I mean ‘hard’? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” You understand, it can’t get any harder than that. The disciples said, “Then who can be saved?” It takes a gracious work of God, with man it’s impossible, with God it’s possible.

You see our abundance becomes its own obstacle, and we need to remember that and remember that as families for our children. I don’t mind if my children are poor, I do mind if they’re lost. And if poverty will help them walk with the Lord, come to know the Lord and be faithful to Him, may God bring poverty to them. We must keep that perspective. So Jesus said the same thing Paul did. It’s hard for a rich man to be saved. Possessions, power, it’s hard to humble myself before the Lord and let go of everything when I have much. When I don’t have much, then I don’t have that to deal with. So these things become an added barrier.

Come back to James. Now what God has done. ‘Did not God,” verse 5 of chapter 2, “choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith?” They are rich in the realm of their faith, they have the riches that saving faith brings to them. Now the inheritance of heaven, the kingdom as the Jews anticipated it, anticipating the time when Christ will rule and reign on the earth, all the splendor of that kingdom will belong to those who belong to Him. Everything else is passing. In Luke 12:15-21 Jesus dealt with this same issue. You don’t need to turn there, but the rich man… told the parable, what? I’ve just got so much, I’m going to build new barns, store up more treasure, good sound investments. And the Lord said, you fool! Tonight your soul will be required of you. Then whose will these things be you’ve stored up? So is the man who is rich in this world, but not rich toward God.

God has chosen “the poor of this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him.” Romans 8:17 says, we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” They may not look like much before the world, but that lowest, poorest believer in Jesus Christ is rich beyond measure. Some day we’ll sit with Jesus Christ in His kingdom, we’ll rule and reign with Him, have the treasures of heaven bestowed upon Him. We have the audacity to look at him and say, just not very important, he won’t add much to our church. It’s just hard to go to church with people like that. What? We want to do it the world’s way. Doesn’t work. You don’t have anything when you’re all done. Heirs of the kingdom, the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him. You see, they have a special relationship to God.

Now the sad thing is verse 6, “But you have dishonored the poor man.” What a terrible thing to say. God has so honored him, made him His child, bestowed on him the riches of the coming kingdom, and here you have people who claim to belong to the living God who dishonor him, don’t think he’s important. We treat him with disrespect and unkindness, would ignore him if there is a rich person or somebody influential that is present at the same time.

Last part of verse 6, “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 greatest opposition doesn’t come from the poor, it comes from the rich, is what James is saying. The book of Acts here, early part of Acts particularly, it was the Sadducees with all their power and all their riches who were the greatest opponents of the gospel. The rich, the powerful, they present the greatest opposition to the gospel. The word “oppose” as James talks about it, the rich oppress you. They want to hold you down, they want to crush you, they want to oppose you, they drag you into court, they are offended. And so the opposition comes from them. You know, we just don’t give up, we just think, oh, if we could target them. When we fall into it, what do we think? We have a celebrity Christianity today and someone well-known or influential gets saved, right away we want to put them on page 1, want to put them out front. Why? Well, that’s the way the world attracts people. You know, in all of Paul’s ministry, you don’t find him taking celebrities along to be the showcase Christians. You can talk about his influence in various places, but you just don’t find Paul going from place to place and here is so-and-so, he was of this stature, this position, and now we hear their testimony. It’s the world’s way of doing it, reach the powerful, reach the influential, through them we will reach many people. That’s not the way God does it. We keep falling back on oh-if-we-could-do-that. You know, would we rather have one person worth $100 million join our church, or ten people worth $1,000? Well, maybe if that one person worth $100 million joined we could reach a lot of people. What are we saying? As though the Lord could be helped out? I mean, the Lord looking for money, is that the real problem and we want to help the Lord out?

“Do they not blaspheme the fair name,” verse 7, “by which you’ve been called?” And here it becomes clear we’re talking about unbelievers. He’s not talking about wealthy Christians, he’s talking about wealthy unbelievers. Believers who have been blessed by God with financial possessions should not be embarrassed by that, should not be ashamed of it. And those of us who have not been blessed with as much shouldn’t be envious and jealous. I find it humbling as I talk it over with the Lord and realize, if He gave me anymore, I’m probably not trustworthy with anymore. And I’m glad for those that the Lord can trust with abundance, and will be faithful to Him. And I realize there are fewer of those, but praise God for them. And God does use them and their means and possessions, and we can praise God for that. But that’s not the normal pattern.

So they “blaspheme the fair name.” He’s talked about our glorious Lord in verse 1 of this chapter, now he talks about the fair name. There’s a song about the beautiful name. Here the fair name, the noble name, the beautiful name, the excellent name. And yet they’ll blaspheme against the Lord. I was watching a program on one of these things, you know, they have these programs on TV about the castles of the rich and famous, or America’s castles. This was on the Rockefellers, one of the past Rockefellers that built Rockefeller Square in New York, some of you may have seen it. Then he also built Riverside Church in New York. He builds this monstrous cathedral, not monstrous in an ugly way -- beautiful, millions of dollars spent. As though you build a grand building and now you have a building that riches have built, but you don’t have a biblical church. You just can’t decide riches will do it. God has to do it.

Blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called. So he’s talking to them as those who belong to Christ. I want to read you an account, I took this out of the “Our Daily Bread,” a devotional from 20 years ago. But it’s about Mahatma Gandhi who was so influential in 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, 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. That does not excuse his action, but it does hold the church accountable, does it not? If we’re going to treat people… He’s right, that church just functions like Hindus function, they make the same kind of distinctions. I wonder after he was world famous if the church would have said you’re not welcome here. We don’t know the person, we deal with them on the same level.

James wants to show the importance of this function properly so he says in verse 8, “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” The royal law – remember, he’s talked about the kingdom and going to the kingdom, and so the law of the king would fit. And the royal law, that which was the greatest part of even the Mosaic Law, was love God and love your neighbor. Jesus said the entire law could be summarized in these two commandments. Well, James says, you’re in violation of the basic issue here of love your neighbor as yourself. If you love your neighbor, then you are fulfilling the royal law, you’re doing well. Leviticus 19:18 is what is quoted here. Jesus referred to this on a couple of occasions. You could jot down Matthew 22:36-40, one of the occasions where he referred to love God and love your neighbor. You love your neighbor as yourself.

I got to get off on a sidetrack here. I was listening to a well-known Bible teacher, I believe it was this past week on the local station. He’s not local, but he’s well-known. He was talking about the importance of loving God, and you know he got off-track there. He was going alright. And he says, you know some Christians do not love God. And he said, the reason they don’t love God is they’ve never learned to love themselves and they cannot love God if they haven’t learned to love themselves. And he’s going off on a discourse on how you must love yourself or you are not able to love God and love other believers. What happens? You just walk off out in the air here. I’ll give him credit, he never did try to substantiate it with scripture, give him credit. Maybe he knew he was out in la-la land. I don’t think so; he acted like he was being so very profound. He was an idiot. I mean, would you just abandon the scripture and talk baby-talk, silliness, make up some kind of myth of a story. He says, you are to love your neighbor as yourself. I already love myself. Ephesians 5:29 says there has never been a man who didn’t love himself. And I take care of myself, that’s the point, I provide for myself. When I get a pain I want to take care of it; I want to be sure my body is properly clothed so I’m not cold; I want to eat properly and all these things. We love ourselves, we take care of ourselves, that’s the emphasis of scripture.

The point here is you are to take care of your neighbor like you take care of yourself. Can’t get any clearer than that. Same basis of that passage in Ephesians 5 with the husband loving his wife, you nourish and cherish her like your own body. Nobody every hated himself. So that’s the point. You love your neighbor as yourself, you’re fulfilling the scriptures. You’re doing well.

But if you show partiality you’re committing sin. That’s what it is, partiality is sin. You’re convicted by the law as transgressors. So partiality is sin, so if we show that kind of favoritism, I’m guilty of sin. If we as a church function that way, we’re guilty of sin. We are not reflecting the character of Christ to those who come. Again, we’re not going to go out of our way to snub the rich to let them know we don’t think they’re important, or any more important than anyone else. That’s not the idea. We want them to know they are very important, we love to have them, but they are no more important than someone else, no less important, no more important. We want to demonstrate our spirituality by showing we don’t like rich people; that’s not the point. Again we are not to show partiality, and so one kind of partiality shouldn’t replace another kind so I can be proud of my spirituality. But partiality is sin, and the kind of partiality we are naturally prone to is the kind James is dealing with.

You’re convicted of the law as transgressors, so even these Jews ought to understand you’re law-breakers, because the Law said, “love your neighbor as yourself” and you don’t. For whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. So you just can’t keep part of the Law, you can’t decide you’re doing pretty good -- I keep 602 of the 613 commandments of the Law. James says you break one you break it all, because there is only one God who gave the Law. Verse 11, “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.” Now note how he elevates this, we’ve gone from showing partiality to a rich man over a poor man to using the illustration of adultery and murder. Because you understand, the same God that commands us not to be partial but to love, is the same God that says don’t commit murder, don’t commit adultery.

And James is really saying you oughtn’t to be proud of your spirituality and think you obey God and keep His Law when you show partiality. How are you different than a murderer? You understand the same God gave all the Law, so anybody who breaks any of the Law has rebelled against God. That’s the sin at stake, you’ve rebelled against God, that’s the issue. Whichever of His commands you have broken, you have rebelled against God, that’s the foundational offense. Jews were like people today, they think God is going to put it on His scale and my good will outweigh my bad, because I only did two bad things today, but I did twenty good things. You just can’t measure it that way. You break one command, you’ve broken them all. The Law is a unit, which incidentally is another reason why you can’t break the Law down into ceremonial and civil and moral and we don’t keep the ceremonial and civil of the Mosaic Law but we keep the moral of the Mosaic Law. You understand you can’t do the Mosaic Law that way. You break one portion of the Mosaic Law you’ve broken it all, so these Jews understand they’re guilty.

So what are they to do? Verse 12, “So speak and so act as those to be judged by the law of liberty.” Our conduct is to be governed by the reality of coming judgment. We are all destined to stand before God. God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man that He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. Established fact, we know that. We’re going to stand before God, this rich man is going to stand before God, this poor man is going to stand before God. The rich man won’t stand before God as a rich man, and the poor man as a poor man, there’s no partiality with God. The rich man won’t stand there with his riches, the poor man won’t stand there with his poverty, they will stand there as individuals accountable to the living God. And we understand that we will be judged by the law of liberty.

I don’t think we’re talking about the Mosaic Law here, we’re talking about the law of liberty. In chapter 1 verse 25, “one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty.” Because we don’t believe we’re under the Mosaic Law, doesn’t mean we believe we are lawless. There are commands from God, He is the ultimate authority, He is the lawgiver, broadly speaking, not just the Mosaic Law. And so we will be judged by the law of liberty, it’s the law which brings liberty, that’s why it’s the law of liberty. Another way of referring to the Word of God, because the Jews were familiar with the concept of the law as the Word of God. And now we have the law of liberty, the truth from God, the commands from God that bring liberty. As I John puts its, this is the command of God that we believe in His Son, and that’s a command. That God’s law, you must believe in His Son, perfect law of liberty.

God has redeemed me, He’s saved me, He set me free not to do as I please. He set me free to do as He pleases, the whole point of James. Saving faith produces works. We live under a law of liberty, the Word of God has set us free, and if the Son shall set you free you’ll be free indeed. But don’t misunderstand, you are not free to do as you please, you are now free to do as He pleases. Before you were not free, you were the slave of sin, the slave of the devil. Now you’ve been set free from bondage to sin, bondage to the devil. Oh good, I can do what I want. That’s antinomianism. No. You are free to do as He wants. You are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price.

“So speak and so act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.” Paul deals with this, we don’t have time to go there, but in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 he says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. The realization that some day I shall stand before the living God, even as His redeemed child, and give an account, gives me a holy fear of God. And that should shape all of our words and all of our actions. Judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Oh, we’re saved by works, blessed are the merciful, the Beatitudes. The point here is those who have received the mercy of God manifest the mercy of God. The character of God is to be seen in us; God’s lack of partiality is to be characteristic of His children who are not to show partiality. The God of mercy, people are to see His character; we have received His mercy, we demonstrate His mercy.

I’m reading a reference from Revelation, I’m trying to get to Matthew and I’m getting Romans out. We really want to go to Matthew 18. Same point Jesus is making. When Peter asked in verse 21, “ ‘how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him,” not seven times, “ ‘but up to seventy times seven.’ ” And the conclusion of this account is in verse 35, so “My heavenly Father also will do to you if each one of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Those who have received the forgiveness of God manifest the character of God in their forgiving spirit. Those who have received the mercy of God manifest that character of God in His mercy in the mercy they show to others.

I should make decisions on the basis of what a person has materially? They who have received the mercy of God so undeservingly? And I would show partiality on superficial matters like that? What a sad denial of the gospel. What a sad testimony it would be if some poor, homeless person walked in here on a Sunday and was ignored. We’ve fallen over ourself to welcome any new visitors, but I sure hope this person doesn’t stay, and I hope they’re not trouble, and I sure hope they don’t come in and sit down next to somebody who will be offended in sitting next to someone like this.

Maybe my attitude ought to be: I better go get them and ask them to sit with me, that would be the best thing. And I’m sure they might feel out of place and uncomfortable here, and I sure wouldn’t want that to happen. And if I don’t invite them and take them to a good seat with me, they might not get a good seat… and so on. I say, why would I do that? Well, what did God do with me, wretched, vile, stinking sinner? He showed me mercy. What should be my characteristic? Mercy. We claim to be a church that proclaims the mercy of God in salvation. What would people find when they come? That same kind of attitude: they love you, they pay attention to you, they fuss over you whether you’re rich or whether you’re poor they’re just as concerned with you. Treat you as though you’re important no matter what. So it’s not that the rich get treated worse, the poor get treated worse. I mean, they want to treat everybody that well; they can’t do enough for you. That’s manifesting what? The character of God. We’re the redeemed. We realize we’re nobody. All that we are and all that we have is a testimony of His grace, and all that is important and significant is what we have in Christ and what we have for eternity. And don’t feel in any way embarrassed or out of place because you have less. You are a blessing here and a great blessing. We are thrilled that God has brought you, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Simple, basic truth. You think, oh, James had to lay it on these believers like that? Yes. And then the Spirit of God put it in the Word for us. Why? He knew 2000 years later we’d have the same things to struggle with. May God make us the kind of fellowship of believers where we manifest the character of God in this very basic and important way, so that our testimony shines before the world and thus men and women are drawn to Christ.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you, for this reminder from Your Word, reminder that we are blessed to have a glorious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are blessed to be heirs of a coming kingdom, our riches are not earthly riches, worldly riches, our importance is not our importance in this world. Lord, we revel in knowing that we know You, the living God. We belong to You, You have made us heirs, You have promised us heavenly riches. And Lord, may that be manifest in our dealing with others, give us a burden and a passion for the lost. Lord, may we look beyond material situations, poverty, insignificance, Lord, to see people as You see them with the needs that they genuinely have, to rejoice that You have chosen the poor of this world. We praise You for every rich and powerful person that is saved. And Lord, we praise You just as much for every poor, insignificant person in this world who is saved. Pray that the testimony of the gospel might shine forth from this place clearly as we manifest Your character. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.