Online Bible Study - James 2:1-13

hey everybody welcome to the next in our new bible study series that we're calling authentic faith this is a study of the book of james and we're into chapter 2 starting with today and so you're going to need your bibles or your bibles at bible apps open to james chapter 2 and there is also a listening guide for this study you'll find at the same place you found this video just scroll down a little and click on that link download that listening guide and print it out there are some blanks to fill in during the teaching portion but much more importantly there are some discussion questions there for you and your small group or you and your family to go through after the study i hope that you're doing that as well before we jump into the lesson today let's pray shall we we we really can't overstate father uh the place of your word in our lives and how important it is to us and how it helps us to better understand ourselves and better understand the world around us and most importantly better understand you and who you are we also can't think of a more important time in our lives lord than now to understand what authentic faith really looks like so our prayer father is that as we open your word today you will open our hearts and that you will grant us through the work of your spirit in each of us you will grant us that understanding that discernment help us to see through your eyes help us to understand who we are and who you've called us to be most of all help us to to understand what authentic faith looks like not just so that we can know it father but so that we can then begin to become doers of your word and live out that authentic faith in our lives we are grateful for your word father and for its place in our lives and we pray all of this in jesus name amen it comes at a perfect time in the life of our culture because there's so much talk these days about deconstructing our faith uh in the most in most of the times when that term is used it's used in a negative context in terms of a bad thing that it's a bad thing that but but the truth of the matter is in in most of those cases it's not deconstruction that's happening it's complete blowing up and and destroying that's happening but what is a good part of deconstruction is when it's followed by a reconstruction so there's nothing wrong in our culture of being deeply wounded and and realizing that my faith the faith that i have built doesn't have a place to hold this pain doesn't have a place to explain the world around me that's probably a good thing for me a good realization for me as long as it's followed up then by reconstructing a faith that will hold that and that's what we're talking about in this study of authentic faith now we're looking at what jesus's brother james who became the pastor at the church in jerusalem became a believer after jesus's resurrection and pastor james has such practical wisdom for us in the book of james he is writing this letter primarily to jewish believers but everything he writes is applicable to all of us whether we're jewish believers or not but but understanding these things in the context of those ancient jewish thinking and philosophies and cultures is helpful to us helpful to understand where he's coming from and so that's how we've approached this study of the book of james and we're in chapter two today chapter one gave us some rich lessons though there was a a good lesson on faith and adversity and and whether or not our faith is authentic in the face of struggles and adversity that we face there was also a good lesson on temptations and whether or not our faith is authentic in the face of temptations and when we are facing temptations and does the faith that i'm building in my life does it have a mechanism to help me get over to help me overcome those temptations and to respond to them in a way that honors the lord now we had a great lesson last week on faith in god's word and how faith approaches how an authentic faith approaches the word of god and how important it is that we not just be hearers and knowers of the word of god but that we actually be become doers of the word of god if it's an authentic faith that will happen we will become doers we will be actually living out the word of god as we understand it today as we get into chapter 2 pastor james takes us to a really important concept and that is a concept that i would call equality um under under god and and that is helping an authentic faith is helping us to see other people the way god sees those people rather than the way the world teaches us to see those people and so learning to learning to get beyond our biases and our prejudices and to get rid of those biases and prejudice as much as possible so that in our interaction with others we begin to treat them as image bearers of god and the way god would want us to treat them an authentic faith does that it separates ourselves from the ways of the world and from seeing others the way the world teaches us to see others partiality is a big topic uh it's it's way more than just the rich versus the poor which is the example the illustration that james draws on in this but it's a much bigger topic than that it it deals with all kinds of ways that we have a tendency to categorize one another and identify one another i see you wearing that t-shirt and that identifies you you see me with this bumper sticker on my car then you've identified me that way so all of these ways that we have of categorizing not only ourselves but one another are ways that we've got to be really really careful about and we've got to be holding before the lord and holding loosely so that the lord can can teach us to see people the way he sees them racism classism uh celebrity ism we definitely have a different way of treating celebrities than we do other people in our culture what i would call us-ism that is you're not a part of my group and therefore i'm going to treat you as an outsider i'm going to treat you differently because you're part of that group but you're not a part of my group and so us-ism is a big deal and so all of these isms in how we categorize people are what we're talking about in today's lesson our world constantly categorizes not only us but everyone our culture constantly pressures us to do the same thing a part of that is because we live in such a fast-paced world we live in such a fast-paced culture the truth of the matter is our culture tells us you don't have time to sit down and actually get to know the truth about people you've got to make quick decisions and judge them quickly and understand where they're coming from quickly so that you can be a part of this fast-paced culture and let's just be honest categorizing myself and categorizing others is a way of not having to do that hard work of actually getting to know someone we can we can see a post on facebook that they've posted or we can we can see that bumper sticker on there on their car we can see them at that protest rally and that tells us everything we need to know about them we don't need to know anything else and we completely categorize them and siphon them off uh into this silo that in our mind helps us think now i understand that person but we really don't and that's the problem that pastor james wants to deal with today our faith calls us to a very different way of being our authentic faith if it is an authentic faith it is pressing us to a very different way of being in our interactions with other people jesus demonstrated for us a very different way of being around people jesus hung around people that in that culture the the best people of that culture would say you're not supposed to be hanging around those kinds of people you're not supposed to be um inviting those kinds of people you're not supposed to be even engaging with those kinds of people that culture would say and our culture does the same thing our culture has a way of of creating these categories that we're supposed to live by and jesus says i'm not going to have anything to do with with what culture tells me in that regard our authentic faith should be telling us the same thing so just remember james is talking here to jewish christians about how they should be living out their faith so what he's doing is he's he's giving very practical principles of life for them as jewish christians but but also but also he's helping them to understand that that jesus following jesus as if you will their rabbi if you're going to follow jesus and still be a part of the jewish culture then there are some things that you need to grasp about authentic faith and that's the approach he's taking and we can learn so much from this as we as we read it as well so we're just going to pick up in james chapter 2 beginning in verse 1 and let's hear what pastor james has to say about equality and about prejudice and about partiality here we go my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our lord jesus christ the lord of glory and then he goes into a very specific illustration a very specific example that would have been very pertinent to their way of life in their culture 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 show no partiality what he's saying here is there should be an equality in treatment and in order in order to properly get to inequality and treatment what he's really getting to here is there should be an equality in how we think about these people he talks about an assembly and the assembly that he's talking about here is not necessarily a religious assembly it's not necessarily synagogue or church it is it is just any kind of a gathering people having people into your home any kind of a any kind of a gathering where you're pulling people together don't be so categorizing in how you treat those people and how you think about those people the adjustment then must be about our thought life not just about how we treat them we can tell ourselves well i can treat them equally without necessarily having to adjust the way i think about them that's not true it will come through it will it will become come out as inauthentic if i'm not addressing my thought life the specific example james uses for that culture is a very common scenario for them and frankly it's not that uncommon for us either how we treat people of means versus how we treat poor people and when we see someone of means where said the conversation in ourselves is this could be a good relationship for me i could actually get something out of this relationship but when we see that poor person we tell ourselves with the conversation we're inclined to tell ourselves is this person has nothing to offer me i can't get anything out of this friendship and so we're going to treat them differently than we would the person of means this works for our culture it absolutely happens in our culture how well we treat those who have something to offer us verse 4 though is where he gets down to the bottom line he says have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts making distinctions among the among people the same way the world tends to make distinction what he's saying here is that's the way the world does it that's the way the world teaches us to do it make make these distinctions these distinctions matter these are part of our identity these are part of your identity and therefore they're important distinctions and you should you should put great weight in these distinctions and and you should hold these distinctions over other people as well that's the ways of the world james says you should be separate from the world you should be different we become judges with evil thoughts when we fall into that trap we as christ followers really must be different we should see people in god's image that's what the only thing that matters about people around us is that they were created in the image of god they are fellow image bearers of god therefore they must be thought of in our own hearts and minds as equal to us in every respect they must be thought of as equal to us therefore we must treat them as equal to us if you have your listening guide let's fill in the first blank on your listening guide one of the ways christ followers are called to stand out in the world is in how we relate to others especially those who are different from us advocating for equality those are your blanks advocating for equality is a hallmark of authentic christian faith so james continues then with this very specific example of rich versus poor beginning in verse 5 he says 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've dishonored the poor men are not the rich ones 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 so he's continuing this example but what he's drawing on here is he's he's reminding us of jesus's treatment of people remember how jesus uh when you read in the gospels of the way jesus related to people he he seemed to turn he seemed to turn all of the social constructs of the time completely upside down and inside out and so he would treat poor people as rich and often treat rich people as poor he had a very different way of seeing things and in his sermon on the mount if you remember he taught us that the kingdom of god would treat us very differently that it would feel to us in the kingdom of god once we're there it will feel to us completely inverted completely upside down from the way the world treats it because in the kingdom of god these distinctions are a lot less important in luke chapter 6 jesus says and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and he said here's the words of jesus in luke chapter 6 beginning in verse 20. blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of god blessed are you who are hungry now for you will be satisfied blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh he's saying to us not that the kingdom of god is upside down what he's saying to us is this world is upside down this world treats everybody exactly the opposite of the way they should be treated in accordance with the kingdom of god and you're going to feel that when you begin to experience the kingdom of god you have dishonored he says you have pastor james says you have dishonored the very people who will be inheriting the kingdom of god and and so think about that it reminds me of uh in a in a corporate world in the corporate world when you are the boss of someone and you're treating them badly because you're their boss and you can and you can get away with it but before you know it they end up being your boss they end up getting promoted over you you have you have dishonored the very person who's going to be standing over you in one in one sense and anyone who's lived in the corporate world very long has experienced this very phenomenon and all of a sudden you're in bad shape because you treated them so badly that's what james is saying james is saying this person may be poor and maybe below you in this world's way of thinking but be be assured of one thing when you're in the kingdom of heaven together they may well be above you and here you have spent this short time in this world dishonoring the very people who will be above you there and so that's what james is saying he's saying be careful about that our ways our ways of thinking in this world are the ways that are wrong or the ways that are messed up the kingdom of god will set it all right for us if you have your listening guide let's fill in the second statement on your listening guide when it comes to categorizing people god's ways are not our ways not at all to be clear his ways are not upside down and inside out ours are the truth that sets us free is the truth about ourselves and about others the truth that sets us free from the ways the world thinks about people is the truth about ourselves and the truth about others and beginning to see each other as fellow image bearers fellow people created in the image of god god's own law addressed this in the old testament with his people the law that these jewish believers believe so strongly in and when made a part of their culture actually addresses this and that's where james goes next beginning in verse 8. 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 listen to this this is so convicting for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder if you do not commit adultery but you do murder you have become a transgressor of the law james helps us know where the law addresses this matthew chapter 22 same thing starting with verse 35 listen to this and one of them a lawyer asked him ask jesus a question to test him teacher which is the great commandment in the law and jesus said to him you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind this is the greatest and first commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all of the law and the prophets so what jesus is saying here is they're both equally important loving god yes and loving each other also these are the two first greatest commandments all of the laws can be summarized under this and that's what jesus jesus was saying but even under the new covenant even under the new covenant under the new covenant with the people of god the same is true listen to what listen to what he says in john chapter 13 verse 34 he says a new commandment i give to you that you love one another just as i have loved you you are also to love one another by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another so what is the point here the point that pastor james is making here is there are no misdemeanors in god's laws there are no well these are big laws but these are small laws if you break these laws it's really bad but if you break these laws it's it's not quite as bad it's kind of a misdemeanor in god's laws that's not true there are there there are no uh there are no small uh sins in god's eyes any breaking of any of god's laws is a fatal breaking is a huge deal in god's eyes jesus's perspective is the same jesus jesus came to say to us he didn't come to do away with the law jesus came to say to us the law is so much bigger than you think it is and it's so much more difficult to keep than you think it is jesus would say things in the sermon on the mount such as well you have heard it said that you should love your friends i'm telling you the law says you should love your enemies as well if you really come to understand the law and what it means and god's heart behind it you have to love everybody even the people you disagree with so jesus came to tell us that the law is very big in this regard very comprehensive in this regard and breaking any one little part of it is breaking all of it our partiality our ways of thinking about others with the biases that we keep uh with the partiality with the inequality that we treat people that is tantamount to murder under the law that is that that is no smaller than if we had committed adultery or gone out and committed murder that is equally bad equally sinful if you have your listening guide let's fill in the third statement on your listening guide in god's eyes when it comes to how we treat others and even how we think about others there are no minor infractions partiality and bias toward others is a fatal failure for christ's followers a fatal failure for christ followers and that's what jesus came to teach us about the law he came to teach us that you can't break the law down like that into big pieces and small pieces and really important ones and not so important ones all of them are important and it came the law is there to show us how much we need a savior in our lives it's the whole point of the law so james's conclusion is in the last couple of verses in verses 12 and 13. this is kind of his bottom line his conclusion he says 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 he's talking here about a type of judgment even for christ's followers now it's a different kind of judgment than those who who die without having followed christ without having given their their life to christ those who do not call christ the lord of their life will suffer a different kind of judgment than christ's followers but there is a kind of examination of our lives if you will a kind of judgment so to speak that even christ's followers will will uh will be under paul talks about this uh as well he talks about how our lives will be examined how the things that we have built will be tested uh in that final judgment that there is this there is this spiritual building that all of us are working on each of us in our lives is building something uh and and in first corinthians chapter three here's how he talks about this beginning in verse 13 he says but on the judgment day fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done that's talking about each of us who's building something spiritual in our lives we're building a faith the question is is that faith authentic or not and it's going to be tested with fire the fire he says will show if a person's work has any value if the work survives that builder will receive a reward but if the work is burned up the builder will suffer great loss the builder will be saved but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames everything that we built will be shown to be worthless if we're not careful and so all of us the work that we've done the legacy that we leave behind will be tested we'll be tested in that time the question is do you want your judgment your testing of your faith when it's when that happens do you want that judgment to be impartial or do you want it to be filled with biases and prejudices that's the question that james is posing here he's warning us that our way of judging other people has a way of coming back on us it has a way of coming back on us and eventually making us judged in the same way that we judge others so fill in your last statement on your listening guide with me according to scripture how we handle our own biases and inequalities toward others has a way of coming back around on us come judgment day how do you want to be judged such an important question so what does authentic faith have to do with equality how does how does an authentic faith address and relate to this notion of equality or inequality among people well first of all we should be if we have an authentic faith we should be striving and advocating for equality that's a hallmark of an authentic faith secondly seeing people the way god sees them that's the ultimate goal here thirdly our failures in this regard when we fail when we have biases when we treat people inequally unequally when that happens those are not minor infractions because there are no minor infractions with god's law and then lastly how we handle equality in our dealings with others has a way of coming back around on us come judgment time so we should be aware of that oh the practicality of the words of pastor james to his people at the time and to us as well i am loving loving these lessons i hope you are as well i'll be right here next week to pick up right where we've left off here in chapter two we'll pick up right where we've left off in the meantime i love you guys and i hope you have a blessed week

Channel: First Baptist Church of San Antonio

Views: 121

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: FBCSA, First Baptist Church of San Antonio, FBCSA Online Bible Study, Online Bible Study, James, Study of James, James - Authentic Faith, Blake Coffee

Id: yzYMhlchciE

Length: 26min 36sec (1596 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021