James 2:1-13

well let me also say good morning to you my name is Lia one of the pastor's here at Cross Ridge it's my joy today to be able to open God's Word with you and to share some truths from it with you as a church we have been spending some time in the book of James together we're spending several months together in that book in a series that we have called at the intersection of faith and life we're picking up our study in Chapter two of that book this morning so if you've got a Bible or a Bible app with you today I want to invite you to open it to James chapter two if you happen to be using one of the Bibles from the connect desk in the lobby you're gonna find this passage on page 699 what we're gonna do this morning is I'm simply gonna read the passage for you I'm going to show you a short video clip and then I'm going to unpack the implications of what this passage has to say to us so let me begin just by reading the passage we're looking at James 2 1 to 13 this is God's Word and this is what it says 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 or and the ones who drag you into court are they not the ones who blaspheme the Honorable name by which you are called if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you're 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 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 well this passage has something to say about partiality or favoritism it has something to say about the inequality that often exists in our world and as I was thinking about that I thought about a short video clip that I had seen some time ago that just kind of highlighted or sort of pictured what inequity looks like the clip is taken from a TED talk that was given by friends de Waal back in 2012 it sort of pictures how these two capuchin monkeys responded to unequal compensation when they performed the same test so I'm gonna show you the clip it's pretty much speaks for itself and then we'll talk about the passage to capuchin monkeys side-by-side again these animals they live in a group they know each other we take them out of the group put them in a test chamber there's a very simple task that they need to do and if you give both of them cucumber for the task the two monkeys side-by-side they're perfectly willing to do this 25 times in a row now if you give the partner grapes then you create inequity between them the one on the left is a monkey who gets cucumber the one on the right is the one who gets grapes the one who gets cucumber note that the first piece of cucumber is perfectly fine the first piece he eats then sees the other one getting grape and you will see what happens so she gives a rock to us that's the task and we give her a piece of cucumber and she eats it the other one needs to give a rock to us and that's what she does and she gets a grape and she each of the other one sees that she gives a rock to verse now gets again cucumber [Applause] she tests our rock now against the wall she needs to give it to us and she gets cucumber again so that is what inequity or inequality looks like right you have two people side by side and you treat them completely differently for some reason I wanted to say that the way we respond to that ought to be very similar to the way that monkey rejected the inequality I don't mean that in relation to the compensation we get for the job that we might have I mean that just in relation to the way we treat other people there ought to be equity in it and this passage has something to teach us about it so I want to come back to the passage and focus on what it has to teach us about partiality or favoritism and the first thing to note is that we need to recognize that we all have a tendency to show favoritism the first words that James says in this passage or in this chapter in verse one are my brothers show no partiality the word partiality is an interesting word it's translated as favoritism or prejudice in other translations that the Greek word is pro so palencia you can use that later when you're having lunch and discussing things with friends the word literally means to receive a person according to their face so you could have a literal translation of James which would say my brothers do not receive people according to their face now James gives us an illustration or a picture of what that looks like one person walks into the church with the appearance of wealth and the other walks in with the appearance or looking like a beggar and based on nothing more than their outward appearance they are assigned their place in the church they are received according to their face and the truth is we do this all the time without even thinking about it we make snap judgments about people or about a person based on nothing more than their physical appearance and the clothes they might be wearing and we can think of lots of examples what this looks like in practice I mean it happens based on race it happens based on gender at times and like the example that James gives us it happens based on socioeconomic status or perceived status and we do this in big ways and in small ways I read an article a while ago that said you know if you want to get upgraded when you are flying somewhere you have a far better chance of doing so if you dress up when you go to the airport because they look at you and think well that person must be important I should upgrade them this is why I always wear a tuxedo and a top hat whenever I fly anywhere but look receiving people according to their face showing partiality based upon the way someone looks is something that happens in all sorts of arenas in life there's a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's book blink that kind of highlights the fact that we all have these hidden biases or preferences and he gives insight into the ways that this sometimes works in the corporate world as he talks about the hiring process here's what he says about that he says or what if the person you are interviewing is tall I'm sure that on a conscious level we don't think that we treat tall people any differently from how we treat short people but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that height particularly in men does trigger a certain set of very positive unconscious associations I pulled about half of the companies on the fortune 500 list the list of the largest corporations in the United States asking each company questions about its CEO overwhelmingly the heads of big companies are as I'm sure comes as no surprise to anyone white men which undoubtedly reflects some kind of implicit bias but they are also almost all tall in my sample I found that on average male CEOs were just a shade under six feet tall given that the average American male is five foot nine that means that CEOs as a group have about three inches on the rest of their sex but this statistic actually under estimator in the US population about fourteen point five percent of all men are six feet or taller among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies that number is 58% even more striking in the general American population three point nine percent of adult men are 6 foot 2 or taller among my CEO sample almost 1/3 were 6 foot 2 or taller and then he goes on to cite a number of other studies that kind of back this up he cites another study that actually followed thousands of people from birth to adulthood and calculated that when corrected for such variables as age and gender and weight an inch of height is worth about seven hundred and eighty nine dollars a year in salary so a six inch difference in height amounts to about a five thousand dollar difference in salary this is why I've started wearing lifts or whatever you put in your shoes but part of the conclusion of all of these studies is that being short is as much of a handicap to corporate success as being a man or a woman or mine or sorry being a woman or a minority now all of those studies are interesting in and of themselves as it relates to the business world but more importantly what they all reveal is that we all have hidden biases towards certain people so Gladwell says it like this most of us in ways that we are not entirely aware of automatically associate leadership ability with imposing physical stature now I know that's a chapter in a book about leadership but the underlying issue that gets surfaced from that is that we all actually have a tendency to show favoritism based on nothing more than appearance or perceived appearance of the way a person looks now look you do this and I do this and so I said the first thing we need to do is just to recognize that we have this tendency to show favoritism and I want to flesh that out now by just saying a little bit more about that the first thing is just to remember that this tendency often goes unchecked now James was a good preacher as you read this book you can tell that he was a good communicator and preacher and so he didn't just sort of make a general statement about favoritism he gave an illustration that everyone could understand and he invited his hearers or his readers to picture a scenario in their mind suppose a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes into your assembly and a man in shabby clothing also comes in I mean everyone could picture that you could imagine being tasked with seating newcomers at the church on the day that that happened and these two individuals showed up and if you were honest you would also know that the situation James describes is pretty much how things would most often go without without thinking about it you would be likely to treat the two individuals differently simply based upon their appearance and dress Oh you look important let me find a good seat for you oh you look like you know you just crawled out of a sewer grate or something just just don't get in the way go sit over there somewhere and just at the moment that we might be nodding along with James and thinking yes if I'm honest that's probably how it would play out he asks a series of questions and we see his first question in verse four he tells us that when we do this he says have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts so James is very pastoral here he's stating hard truth but he's doing it in such a way to make his readers come to the right conclusion on their own saying just think about it when you make distinctions like this between people based simply on their outward appearance the color of their skin the number of piercings or tattoos are when you make distinctions based on those things you become judges with evil thoughts don't you and we do this in a number of different ways and I've told you before that sometimes I find it hard to you know walk through a Walmart without being judgmental there are lots of people that we might be tempted to dismiss or somehow treat as less than valuable based on hidden prejudices that we might have and on the flip side of it I've seen people placed in leadership positions in the church based on nothing more than the fact that they look like a good leader or have sort of the appearance of success about them I don't remember being handsome or being a good businessmen being on the list of qualifications for elders in the church those lists always focus on character issues but so often we focus on something else some external thing it's not just in leadership or not just even in the way that you know we might handle two different individuals who come to church one Sunday we need to be aware of these tendencies because they work at cross-purposes with the gospel so often so if all of the people in our churches look just like us if all of the people in our friendship circles look just like us then there is a good chance that we are not nearly as inclusive as we think we are so maybe a good diagnostic tool is just to take a look at who we spend our time with who we include and who we don't let into what Jesus said about this then jesus said to his house when you give a luncheon or dinner do not invite your friends your brothers or sisters your relatives or your rich neighbors if you do they may invite you back and so you will be repaid but when you give a banquet invite the poor the crippled the lame the blind and you will be blessed although they cannot repay you you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous now the point is not affirmative action you know make sure when you're hosting a dinner you've got at least two poor people and one blind person but we're not trying to imitate George Costanza and just make sure you know we can find that one minority who's a friend of ours the point is that our actual practice reveals our hidden prejudices and we need to check those biases and this is not a small matter James says when we make distinctions like this when we show favoritism like this we become judges with evil thoughts that's why those biases need to be checked second thing to note about this tendency towards favoritism that we all have is that our tendencies are often wrong so just think about your own tendencies to make snap judgments about people based upon their appearance or even upon based upon the first time you meet them I mean how often have you been wrong about a person how often have you thought I don't like that person and then later became friends with them or how often has it worked the other way or maybe you've just observed this the other way you know I thought this guy or this girl would be great because you know they're really handsome or they're beautiful or they're charismatic they seem like my kind of people but then once you start to get to know them I mean you're looking for an exit strategy we make mistakes in our quick judgments about people all the time so back to our passage James continues to ask questions in verses 5 and 6 and 7 of this chapter he says listen my beloved bro has not got 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 are who oppress you and the ones who dragged you into court are they not the ones who blaspheme the Honorable name by which you are called see the problem James identifies is that we often pander after the wrong people the people that we think are most worthy of our time and attention and energy because of their wealth or their status or their beauty often aren't and the people we are tempted to ignore or dismiss because they don't have the smell of success about them are often the ones who are rich in faith now the best illustrations I could think of related to this whereas they often are biblical ones so I want to just take you to two places one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament Israel's first king was a man named Saul and we are told specifically that his physical appearance alone made him a good candidate to be king he just looked kingly in the same way that we might say someone looks presidential but if you know the story then you know that Saul turned out to be an absolute disaster as a king because he didn't have the character to match his appearance so God rejected Saul as king and then tasked the prophet Samuel with naming his successor and 1st Samuel chapter 16 contains the story of Samuel declaring that David should be king over Israel in place of Saul but if it had have just been left up to Samuel David wouldn't have been his first choice if you remember the story then you know that it sort of plays out like a male version of the Cinderella story right so samuel comes to the house of a man named jesse who has these eight sons and the boys start to come and appear before samuel so he can evaluate them and see if they make a good candidate to be king and this is what we read when they came he looked on le ab that's the firstborn and thought surely the Lord's knowing anointed is before him but the Lord said to Samuel do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature because I have rejected him for the Lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart see God evaluates differently than we do and so as the story goes on one by one Jesse's sons appear before Samuel none of them match what God was looking for the glass slipper doesn't fit any of them and then Samuel says well do you have any more sons and Jesse's like oh you know what I do have one more it's the shepherd boy but let me go get him and of course this turns out to be David Israel's greatest king what's interesting about that story for our purposes is just the way that human assessment based on appearance was completely wrong it's a second story that illustrates this same principle it's found in the Ministry of Jesus Luke chapter 21 records this story Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box and he saw a poor Widow put in two small copper coins and he said truly I tell you this poor widow has put in more than all of them for they all contributed out of their abundance but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on now the rational human assessment of that scene would have been very different it would have been look at all those faithful and generous wealthy people putting in these great gifts into the offering and look at that pathetic widow over there thinking that her two cents it's going to make any difference but here's the thing God assesses things differently than we do and our tendencies when we evaluate based on those criteria are often wrong so says if you will step step back and look at it you will see that it is actually most often the rich who are oppressing you they're the ones taking you to court they're the ones blaspheming the name by which you're called they're the ones who are most antagonistic often to the gospel and the poor actually they're the ones that are often most open to it they're rich in faith oftentimes and the history of the church tells us that we often get this wrong or have gotten this wrong so the first thing we need to do is just to recognize and be honest about the tendencies you have and I have towards favoritism and then the second instruction from this passage is that we need to reject all forms of favoritism this is the main point James is making look again at verse one my brother's show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory show no partiality reject favoritism we should reject it in the same way that capuchin monkey rejected that piece of cucumber look we won't put up with that but James does more here than just tell us not to show partiality he gives us a number of reasons why we should reject it now that we should reject favoritism is something I think we all know it's a thoroughly biblical principle we find it in the Old Testament law Leviticus 19 tells us do not pervert justice do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor fairly right that's the standard we all want to be judged by and there are lots of verses in both the old and the New Testament that teach this but when the Bible gives us instructions like this it's not just stating moral platitudes it also gives us reasons for these instructions there are lots of good reasons to reject favoritism in this passage highlights at least three of them the first one is simply because we are brothers and sisters in Christ notice again how James begins these instructions he begins in verse one by saying my brother's show no partiality now that word brothers isn't interesting words the word of Delphi it means brothers or brothers and sisters it's one of the most common words in the book of James and James begins many of his exhortation with that word so just let me take you on a tour through the book of James where he does this back in chapter 1 verse 2 he said counted all joy my brother's when you meet trials of various kinds in verse 16 of chapter one he said do not be deceived my beloved brothers in verse 19 of chapter when he said know this my beloved brothers and of course he does it again here in chapter two and then later in chapter two he says what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says go in peace I wish you well but doesn't do anything what good is that then chapter three verse one he says not many of you should presume to be teachers my brother's chapter 4 verse 11 do not speak evil against one another brothers the one who speaks against the brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges in which after five or seven be patient therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord chapter five verse nine do not grumble against one another brothers so that you may not be judged behold the judge is standing at the door and then chapter five verse 19 right near the end of it he says my brothers if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone should bring him back let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins the word brothers is not a filler word that James uses when you look at all the expectations he gives in context you will see that in many of them the reminder that we are Brothers & Sisters is making a theological point the reason we don't speak evil against one another is because we're brothers and sisters the reason we break seek to bring someone back who is wandering away is because they're a brother or sister and we care about them and it would be hard to miss that point here in this exhortation not to show partiality you don't do it because you're part of the same family and the family is supposed to be the place where everyone is treated equally you know I wonder how many of our relationships with other Christians would be different if we started with the simple foundation that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and that that's what's most important now I don't want to trivialize this but I spent a good chunk of this past week in Kelowna for one of our boys was playing in the provincial volleyball championships up in in Kelowna so I got to spend most of the week with a group of 14 year old boys so it was pretty lit but anyway while we're up there I mean it sports sports breeds rivalries right and sometimes it breeds intense rivalries now our boys go to a public school you go to Earl Marion and Surrey and that we've had this intense rivalry with one of the Christian schools I mean there's been some really close games there have been some controversial finishes and it just kind of brings out a lot of that sort of intense rivalries and as I've watched that you know watching those games I mean a lot of times I thought man that coach their coach he's pretty intense now we didn't play them this weekend but I when I was thinking about this and thinking about this passage you know what I've done is I've actually received him according to his face I've just kind of make judgments about this must be what he's like and as I was up there and preparing for this week and thinking about this passage I just thought you know what that's completely unfair to do that we didn't end up playing them this week but I was thinking about it and just thinking you know look what's really important what really matters is not whose team is better at volleyball even though ours is what what is really important is that this is my brother in Christ we didn't play them this week but I had the chance to just chat with him a little bit yesterday and and come I came away from that going you know what he's a really nice guy and I've been a fool to just receive someone according to their face this is what James tells us look your brothers and sisters in Christ don't show partiality don't exclude people second reason we ought to reject favoritism is because it's incompatible with the Christian faith so back to verse 1 where we've spent a good chunk of our time already James says my brother's show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory that's a loaded statement you cannot hold to faith in Jesus the one who left his glory in heaven to come and redeem us and show favoritism or partiality towards the rich or anyone else for that matter those two things are mutually exclusive years ago there was a famous gangster in Los Angeles named Mickey Cohen he basically ran the underworld in the 1930s and 40s but at one point in his life he became interested in the gospel through the preaching of Billy Graham and in fact Billy Graham actually visited him in his home on one occasion and he was interested in becoming a Christian but not if it meant giving up his life of crime and his contention was look there are Christian Athletes and Christian actors and Christian musicians and Christian politicians so what's wrong with the Christian gangster now even just saying that sounds ridiculous right because you say look those two things can't go together so we get it when it comes to something like that but we ought to get that every bit as much when it comes to this issue of partiality is there such a thing as a Christian racist now I there are people who call themselves Christians who are racists but if we take seriously what it says here you can see that those things are mutually incompatible and this is not a small thing in God's eyes James says that if you do this you are committing sin and you are convicted by the law as a transgressor this becomes clear in second half of the passage let me just read verses 8 & 9 again he says if you really fulfill the Royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you're doing well but if you show partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors now maybe it's worth noting that James doesn't just tell us not to show partiality just kind of be passive and don't do that he tells us instead to love our neighbor and this idea that we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves is one of the most basic Commandments in the Bible you'll remember that Jesus was asked the question by someone what's the greatest commandment and he said the the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and the second then he said is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two Commandments depend all the law and the prophets or as Paul put it in Galatians chapter 5 for the whole law is fulfilled in one word you shall love your neighbor as yourself so if we're tempted push back and say come on James it's not that big of a deal I mean it's not armed robbery or murder James has something to say to us look at verse 10 for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it right this is a big deal to God so we cannot put these two things together this partiality or favoritism towards any group and hold the faith in our Lord Jesus the Lord of glory third reason to reject favoritism is because we have experienced and hope to experience God's grace this is the point James makes in verses 12 and 13 when he says so speak and act as those who will be judged by the law or - 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 how did you become part of the family of God was it because you had the right qualifications or the right pedigree were you so morally upstanding that God said I just have to have you on my team or was it solely a matter of God's grace so if that's how we got in then why do we exclude people on external factors we have experienced God's grace and the way we treat others needs to reflect that or to speak and act as those who are gonna be judged by the law of Liberty now maybe it sounds a little bit backwards I said not just that we or maybe it sounds wrong to you I said not just that we've experienced God's grace but that we hope to experience God's grace so we're all going to appear before God in judgment one day on what basis do you want to appear before him on the basis of what you've done on the basis of his grace how do you think you will be received and if it's on the basis of God's grace then why don't we show that to others think about how Jesus taught us to pray is he says here look judgment without mercy will be shown to the one who's not merciful think about what Jesus taught us as he tell us to pray forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses or think about this parable that Jesus told there for the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants when he began to settle one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents and since he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made so the servant fell on his knees imploring him have patience with me and I will pay you everything and out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt but when that same servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe so his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him have patience with me and I will pay you he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt when his fellow servants saw would have taken place they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place then his master summoned him and said to him you wicked servant I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and should and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you and an anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart the point of the parable is that God has forgiven us of much more than we are ever asked to forgive anyone else off the ratio and the parable is something like six thousand to one ten thousand talents was equivalent to 600,000 dinar i focus is not on the specific numbers but on this massive gap that exists between what god has forgiven us of and what we're asked to forgive others uh and that same thing is true in relation to what James says here when he says judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful look if you have truly experienced God's grace and God's mercy it will come out in the way that you treat others and you will not be partial or favor or show favoritism towards this group or that group or exclude this group or that group because you understand the grace of God you've experienced it and you know that you're gonna be judged by the law of Liberty or under the law of Liberty that's how we should live so let's pray together father we want to thank you for your word which we can apply in many different contexts in our lives and we can apply it in relation to the others around us and so Lord we pray that you would help us to be mindful of what it is you've done for us the grace that we have experienced from you and that that would reflect itself in the way we treat others God we pray you'd protect us even as a church as we think about the people that walk through our doors Lord would we be a church that understands that each person who comes in is created in your image and loved by you and we pray we would reflect that kind of grace as a church we pray in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Crossridge

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Keywords: crossridge, church, surrey, bc, canada, sermon, bible, god, jesus, spirit, christ, christian, christianity, holy, message, lee, francois, book of james, inequality, impartiality, prejudice

Id: 6oLyDvKvLto

Length: 39min 15sec (2355 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 27 2016