No. Playing. Favorites.
This past Sunday, we were going to continue our series Walk the Walk, but unfortunately the wonderful St. Louis weather had other plans. As we move forward in our study of James, we didn’t want to shortchange this last week’s passage, so we are going to take the newsletter this week to unpack the main ideas of James 2:1-13. I want to encourage you to take time to read through James’ teaching and to think through how his message should shape us individually and collectively as a church.
In this passage, James addresses the topic of favoritism and he challenges Christ-followers to put an end to showing partiality. In our world, people evaluate each other’s worth and value based on their gender, sexuality, political affiliation, age, money, skin color, education, ethnicity, social status, speech, clothing, manners, abilities or disabilities. People in every culture are divided over all sorts of issues like this and we see all sorts of mistreatment targeted against people on the other side of the aisle. Specifically in the church, James is says that when we bring about these distinctions and divisions in order to evaluate the worth and value of other people, we are dividing and dishonoring the body of Christ. Favoritism, partiality, and discrimination deny the core message of the gospel that God has made all human beings in his image (Gen. 1:26-27) and that all who put their faith in Christ enter into this family (Gal. 3:25-29). There are no second-class citizens. In our world people will divide over any and every line, but the church is to be a place where these outward evaluations in our world are overturned.
James’ first and primary point in this passage is that faith in Christ is incompatible with favoritism (2:1). “Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” This word “partiality” can also be translated as “favoritism,” and it literally means “to receive according to the face.” That is, to evaluate a person based on externals or on the basis of what society says. It isn’t about just having a preference, but it’s about preferential treatment. Favoritism in the way James means it includes prejudices and discrimination.
The specific example that James addresses is favoritism based on the division of rich and poor, but this applies much broader to how we evaluate people. James sets forth a situation in 2:2-4 that probably was happening to some degree in their assembly. A rich man with gold rings and luxurious clothes comes into church and one of the ushers directs him to sit in a really good seat. Then, a poor man comes in with ragged clothing and is directed to stand in a corner or sit by people’s feet. A sinful attitude of favoritism has now lead to sinful discriminatory action.
James then shows that this example of favoritism is first of all incompatible with God’s heart for the poor. (2:5-6a). Secondly, James says that favoritism towards the rich is foolish because they were trying to gain favor with the those who were oppressing them (2:6b-7). In their day and age Roman law explicitly favored the rich. People in lower classes were thought to act only out of self-interest so they were not allowed to bring a lawsuit against a person of a higher class. Only upper-class people could initiate a lawsuit. In addition to this, there were harsher consequences and penalties for when a poor person broke a law than a rich person. So, James argues that it doesn’t make sense to try to gain favor by showing favoritism to the rich.
James builds on his prohibition against favoritism by showing us that faith in Christ requires us to bring our heart in line with the character of God (2:8-13). He springboards off from the idea of favoritism into a larger discussion of what we should be doing – loving God and loving our neighbors. In 2:8 James here quotes a famous verse from Leviticus 19:18, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is what James calls “the royal law,” meaning this is the law of the God’s kingdom. God’s laws express his own character and values, and when we show favoritism we are not just violating his command, but we are violating the very character of God. That is why James says in verse 10, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” There is a seamless unity between the laws themselves and the Law-giver. Whenever we violate a specific command we are declaring that we are in rebellion against God himself. Here we see James highlighting the seriousness of showing favoritism and discriminating against others.
So, when you think about your small group or going to church on Sunday morning, do you see the value and dignity of each and every person there because they are made in the image of God? Or are there people that show up that you really find undesirable? Do you really wish that they weren’t there? Do you ever think that this kind of ministry and church isn’t for that kind of person? We are called to love all people and to recognize God’s heart to see all people come to know him. The church is called to be a healing community of reconciliation that unites people in God’s family and reverses the damage done by injustices, division, favoritism, and partiality. James’ message is directing us to think through what it means to truly love God and love our neighbor. We each need to reflect on James’ challenge and think deeply about what it means to pursue justice within the walls of the church as well as to extend out into our cities and culture.
Give me a call if you have any thoughts or questions about it, thanks!!!
Johnathan