James 2:1-13

1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

2 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,

3 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,"

4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

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?

6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?

8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well.

9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

11 For 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.

12 So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

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Key Verse:

James 2:12

"So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty."

INTRODUCTION

A. Historic background.

The Jewish believers to whom James wrote were generally of the poorer classes. They had suffered loss through persecution and its dislocations. So when they met together for worship and a well-to-do person attended, they had a tendency to treat him with special favor. But when persons poorer than themselves attended, they were told to stand or to sit wherever they could. The poor detracted rather than added to their social aspirations. Such partiality was motivated by a desire for acceptability with the rich. This desire and its resultant practice was selfish. It violated the law of love, the essence of true faith.

B. Current background.

The desire for social acceptance, upward social mobility, and the advantages that such bring can be a very real danger in modern churches. It is a sociological fact that there are poorer class churches, middle class churches, and upper class churches (and churches trying to be identified as upper class). When someone from a higher "class" attends, the tendency is to treat him or her with greater deference than the poor family from across the tracks. So is the desire for upward social mobility. This is selfish and contrary to the truth that true faith professes. It is treating people on the basis of their contribution to our own selfish desires.

I. Does faith have moral character? (2:1-7).

A. Does what one believes have any relationship to morality and ethics? Is faith only the assent of the mind that something is true or is it also the commitment of the will to the values perceived and recognized by the mind? That is, is faith only a recognition of the truth? or is it also a volitional, heart-surrender to the truth, evidenced in behavior?

B. What we believe about God becomes faith in God only when a volitional commitment is made to God. The same is true regarding others. The great commandment is to love God with all our hearts and others as ourselves (Matthew 22: 34-40). If this commitment of the heart is missing, true saving faith is missing. True faith is evidenced by love.

C. Partiality, then, is inconsistent with true faith. It is the fruit of selfishness, not of love. They who demonstrate this spirit in habitual practice reveal that they know not what it means to be begotten of the word of truth.

D. Even among true believers, this spirit can manifest itself if we are not watchful. Guy King calls this the short-sighted usher, the one who could not see beyond the superficial, the material, and the temporal. Of course, it involves more than the ushers. It is an attitude that pervades whole congregations. It is wrong in that it refuses to recognize "our glorious Lord Jesus Christ" as our basis of fellowship, and introduces instead social status as the basis. This is the attitude of the unregenerate world. Such distinctions and biased discriminations are the expressions of unworthy, selfish motives. They are totally contrary to "our glorious Lord Jesus Christ," who said that all believers are brothers (Matthew 23:8).

E. Partiality rejects and ignores God's choice in election. It rejects what God has chosen. It also fails to see what constitutes true riches. Many years ago a minister in the southern part of the United States said to me, "If a black man comes into my church, I will personally usher him out." Horrible. The most charitable thing that can be said of such an attitude is that it expresses a lack of light on the subject.

F. Partiality to oppressors represents a callous disregard for those who are oppressed, in this case our own brothers and sisters. Yet it goes beyond even that. Since the rich oppressors blasphemed the honorable and beautiful name of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, partiality to them is an insult to Him and a virtual denial of their high and holy calling in Him. "But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God." (1 Peter 4:16).

G. In verses six and seven James levels a serious charge against them. "But you have dishonored the poor man." This is one of the most serious charges that can be leveled against professed believers. It is a virtual denial of the faith, akin to that committed by the one who provides not for his own (1 Timothy 5:8).

II. What is the royal law? (2:8-11).

A. James does not include the whole church in his rebuke. He leaves the possibility open that some were indeed following the royal law. Paul states that faith establishes this law (Romans 3:31). It is the law of love. It is the law of liberty. Its establishment in the heart of the true believer is what makes liberty from legalism morally possible and justifiable. It was the real principle behind the Mosaic law (Leviticus 19:18), and Jesus affirmed it to be the essence of true religion and morality (Matthew 7:12). It is the law of faith, that is, the principle on which true faith operates.

B. James's addressee who practiced partiality was committing sin by violating the very essence of morality and was also being convicted by that law as a transgressor. To the legalistic Jewish mind, only outward acts were transgressions. Here the Scriptures again show that what really counts is the disposition of the heart. This reminds us of the exchange between Jesus and the lawyer in Luke 10, and of the Lord's answer in the parable of the good Samaritan. Legalism asks, "How much do I have to do?" Love asks, "How much can I do?"'

C. Moral action is a unit. Jesus established that fact when He said, "No one can serve two masters..." (Matthew 6:24). The person who stumbles in one point of the law becomes guilty of all. This stumbling is not a mere mistake in ignorance. It is wilful violation of the basic principle, breaking the integrity of moral character. If a person chooses to sacrifice the interests of God and of others for the sake of some selfish gratification, what does it matter the occasion? If the person will do it in one way, what would prevent him from doing it in every way if he had sufficient desire and opportunity? Certainly not love for God and man, for that was set aside in the choice to commit the one transgression. The person who will lie but will not steal has no particle of morality or true faith in him.

III. Will believers be judged? (2:12,13).

A. James says so. So does Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:10. Will we be judged according to the law of Moses? No, but by the higher law, the law of liberty. James still has the offending usher in mind. Legalism centers morality on the precept and its technical obedience. The law of love centers on real values (God and man) and our attitudes toward them. Since we are to be judged according to this law, we should speak and act toward others in love.

B. Under the law of love, we receive as we have given. This is not to say that by showing love and mercy to others we merit mercy ourselves. Our own mercy cannot save us. Only God's mercy can do that. But under the law of liberty, mercy on our part (or the lack of it) becomes a condition (not the ground) of the dispensation of God's mercy toward us.

C. Under the Mosaic law the wilful offender had no mercy (Hebrews 10:28). It was retribution. The law of liberty recognizes mercy. Since that is the law by which we shall be judged, let it be the law by which we live and by which we treat others. That is the only way to triumph over judgment. We shall be judged by the same law we apply to others (Matthew 7:1,2). Speak and act as one who desires to be judged by the provision of mercy. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." (Matthew 5:7).

CONCLUSION

The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is more than a catechism, or a set of doctrinal propositions (though it is certainly that). It is an embracing of the truth, a commitment to the truth, a heart-conformity to the truth. This volitional response to the truth is an act of love, induced by the Holy Spirit. It is the beginning of the reign of love in the heart. If love reigns in the heart, it will express itself in our words and actions, particularly toward others. This law of love is the standard by which we shall be judged. Let it be the standard by which we speak and act.

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POINTS TO PONDER:

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1. Is the Church the true classless society?

2. A well-known evangelical church holds separate services for poorer people. Is this justifiable?

3. Some church growth writers emphasize that to grow a church should be a "homogeneous unit," that is, a group of people socially and economically and intellectually compatible. Do you agree?

4. How is partiality shown in the church besides the way it was shown in the early Christian synagogues?

5. What is meant by the unity of moral action?

6. The person who has shown no mercy will receive merciless judgment. Is this person a believer?