"Mahatma Gandhi, once said that during
his student days, he considered becoming a Christian. Deeply touched by the
reading of the Gospels, he seriously considered becoming a convert. It seemed
to him that Christianity offered a solution to the caste system that plagued
the people of India."
[I
should note: Caste system are social
divisions based on wealth & status... it treats the poor horribly]
Bosch
continues…
"One Sunday, Gandhi went to a local
church. He had decided to see the pastor and ask for instruction on the way of
salvation and other Christian doctrines. But when he entered the sanctuary, the
ushers refused to give him a seat. They told him, "Go and worship among
your own people!" He left and never went back. Gandhi later said “If
Christians have caste system also...I might as well remain a Hindu”
So he
did. He stayed Hindu...in a nation of 1 billion people. We can only imagine
what would've happen to India had Gandhi turned Christian. But he didn't! Why do
I read this? Our passage is about the very same type of treatment but it's Christian-to-Christian
not Christian-to-Hindu. This post
will show favoritism & special treatment based on wealth or status. From
Gandhi's story we see how damaging this behavior can be. We see that preferential
treatment is a sin of prejudice & injustice...and we'll see just how unChrist-like & unChristian this behavior really is.
James
2:1-13 "My brothers, show no
partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For
if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a
poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and
if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit
here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,”
or, “Sit down at my feet,” have
you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil
thoughts? Listen, my beloved
brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in
faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
But you have dishonored the poor man.
Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into
court? Are they not the ones
who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill 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. For
whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for
all of it. For he who said,
“Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit
adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So
speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to
one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
So what've we learned by reading James 1? So far in James we've
been through a series of tests. They're to see where believers stand in relation
to God. They're to see where believers stand in relation to one another. The 1st
test is how we react to trials in James
1:1-12. The 2nd test is how we react to temptations James 1:13-18. The 3rd test
is how we react to the Scripture (doers of the word) in James 1:19-27. This is
the 4th test: To see if we’re impartial to others-especially in the Church. By
seeing how we stand in relation to believers we
see where we stand in relation to Jesus Christ both relationally and in salvation.
Love the Lord God with
all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”
As we'll move into James 2 we'll begin to see that God is impartial. We’ll see there’s no injustice in God.When God deals with
man there is no playing favorites. There are either those being saved or
those that are dying in their sins. Those being saved in Christ are all viewed as equal in
Christ
Galatians 2:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither
slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The first half of James 2:1-13 is verse 1-7 and it shows the
disunity caused by ungodly behavior and will be the remainder of this post. The second half is verse 8-13 and shows
how a Christian’s behavior matches up with the Law of the Old Testament will be the conclusion in my next post. It is a law
that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, therefore, it shows how a believers behavior
matches up to Jesus
Distinctions Based on Wealth or on Outward
Appearances (v. 1-7)
This
example concerns two men—one appears rich, the other poor. Both attend an assembly
or a "synagogue". One man wears gold rings and fine clothing, one is
dressed shabby. In the Greek it says χρυσοδακτύλιος /chrusodaktulios
or "goldfinger". The
man was wearing a gold ring or rings. Most likely signet rings which conveyed
an air of prestige or authority since signet rings were used to seal legal or
official documents. Please note James says "brothers" and talks to
the entire assembly.The Greek “ἀδελφοί / adelphoi”
in this context ...means brothers and sisters. So by saying Brothers/sisters he
makes himself equal to them all, not above.
This
passage also seems to imply the rich man was treated preferentially and no one
rebukes this behavior so silence or apathy advocates sinful behavior. In so doing they all treated the poor man with
contempt and disrespect. The actions in this synagogue are based solely on
appearances. They’ve judged people from a distance w/o even knowing them. Isn’t
this just like man to do this? To judge by the outward appearance?
Quite
simply: It is called Favoritism. Do we do this...in our church? In public? When
we watch TV? Do we give special honor to those that drive nice cars? Speak
eloquently? Dress nice? Look nice? Smell nice? Do we come in on a Sunday…when
we see certain people and think, "don't make eye contact!"
If the
point of James is to see where we stand in relation to God or to see if we
indeed have The Holy Spirit in us, therefore Salvation. So...if we prefer certain
people well and others with distain we’ve violate basic biblical principle such as treating your neighbor as
yourself . Treating a neighbor preferentially creates disunity in the body. Anything
that is not of unity is not of the Spirit. If it’s not of the Spirit it can’t
possibly be of Christ, can it? Therefore the behavior can hardly be considered Christian.
Favoritism is just the opposite of what
God does.
Favoritism is just the opposite of what
Scripture tells us to do.
James
even states this in verse 5. “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in
the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised
to those who love him?”
We see this same concept in 1 Samuel 16 when the Lord Picks
David to be his anointed:
But the Lord said to
Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.
[referring to Saul] The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People
look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 states:
“God chose the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God
chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things
that are not —to nullify the things that are…
The question is why?
1 Corinthians 1:29 “…so
that no one may boast before him [God]. It is because of him that you are in
Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness,
holiness and redemption.
It’s here we see the
first key to unraveling James 2.
It is solely through Jesus Christ and our trust in His work
on the Cross that we gain credence in the eyes of God. Quite simply, God
is no respecter of men (He’s not partial) for all men are sinful (Romans 3). It
is only through Jesus Christ that we are even reconciled to God. We’ll solely be
judged on the condition of souls as matched against Scripture…and the perfectness
of Jesus Christ. The value of a person from God’s view is therefore based on
the value of their heart or soul. God views believers through the blood-stained
vision.
So
let’s look at our two men again. One is well-dressed and another in unkempt and
poor. The attitude of favoritism towards the nicely dressed man and it is based
on outward, superficial appearances. What's our salvation based on? Salvation
is based on...all people who will what will what according to John 3:16…“For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes…”
Why
would outward appearances play into our lives? They shouldn’t! We are to be
like Jesus! Jesus who is a member
a three person Trinity. A Trinity, 3 different persons, 1 Being. One God, One
Being, Equal! Therefore…impartial to one another! Just as believers should be:
Impartial to one another. So when we are impartial as a unified body what are
we imitating? Not only Jesus but also the Godhead.
Be
holy for I am holy!
We
were created in God’s image (Imago Dei). We are to be like Jesus. By being
impartial we form fellowship! Fellowship of what? A Body! Who’s body? Jesus Christ’s!
So if
we treat a believer with partiality or distain what've we done? Matthew 25:45 ‘Truly I
tell you, whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do
for me.
We’ve
treated them the same way we treated Christ when he was crucified. How do I
know that? Isaiah 53 foretold of it...
“He had no beauty or
majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a
man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their
faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our
suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds
we are healed.
What
made this sin even more obnoxious in verses 6 & 7…
“Are not the rich the
ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court, are they not the
ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?”
These
believers were literally showing favoritism towards well-to-do’s who had
dragged them into the courts because of their faith. By doing this these gaudy people
literally blasphemed the honorable name by which they were called…these people
were Christians… Jesus' holy name: Christ.
Christians were elevating people that were persecuting them and defaming Jesus Christ!
Do we see this today? Should we? Honoring people due to their status, who tread
on Christ's holy name? Do we elevate politicians or athletes, actors or
celebrities?
Let
me ask this: If God views all men in relation to Jesus, shouldn't we also? Why would
we judge others based on outward appearance? Why put emphasis on something so
temporary? James 4:14 even tells us that, “You are but a mist that appears for a little
while and then vanishes”. Why honor that which is the perishing and
passing away by the minute? Why not give honor to something God does value - a
human soul and the person themselves.
I also
need to ask this: If we’ve caused disunity in the body due to favoritism, can
this truly be of the Holy Spirit? A Spirit is of unity and order. 1 Corinthians 14:33~For
God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the
saints.
This therefore tells us that partiality is a siren
that screams of untransformed life. When we judge other's outward appearances we’ve
simultaneously judged ourselves as inwardly for all to see. Partiality shows
either an absence of the Holy Spirit or willful suppression of Him because of sin
Luke 6:45 says: The
good man brings good things, out of the good stored up in his heart, and the
evil man brings evil things, out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of
the overflow of his heart ...his mouth speaks.
By someone
saying “sit here" or "sit there" they will bring judgment on
themselves. Do we mentally tell people: "Sit here" or "sit there"?
Do we pass judgment on people like this?
I do
this sometimes! For this I’m ashamed. I don’t mean to
…but
that is my sinful fallen nature. I loathe it and ask forgiveness for it too
So did
we pass this new test from James? Only you and Christ can know this for sure.
[Part II coming soon...]
[Part II coming soon...]
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