For Richer Or Poorer

FOR RICHER OR POORER

James 2:1-13

If you look at James chapter 1 verse 27, James says; This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

And that last phrase is what I want you to notice.
Pure and undefiled, sincere, active religion involves “keeping oneself unstained by the world.”
And “unstained” literally means “unspotted; unblemished physically or morally.”
And so what James is saying is, “Even though you hear these messages from the world, and you are bombarded by the temptations of the world every day, you are not to be stained by it. You do not let those things pollute you. You think the way God thinks. You act and live the way God wants you to act and live.”

Now I think it is interesting and intentional that immediately after James says that we are to “keep ourselves unstained by the world” that he goes immediately into chapter 2 and speaks of “showing favoritism or partiality.”

Look with me at vs. 1 again. First of all it is very important to understand who this is addressed to. James says,” My brethren.”

The NIV says, “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is not written to politicians.
James isn’t writing this letter to his governor or to the senate or whoever might make the laws of the land.
He is not even writing to the general public.

He starts off “My brothers” and this means that James’ goal was not to address cultural or societal problems even though they were very serious in his day

We tend to think it’s really bad in our day and it is (all the prejudice, and hatred, and bias based on social standing, and cultural background, and race.
But it was just as bad if not worse in James’ day.
But that’s not what he was addressing. That’s not what he was trying to change.

He was writing to remind believers, and that’s you and me, to remind us that the prejudice, and bias, and favoritism, and racism have no place in the body of Christ.

That is where James starts and stops.
It’s not that he didn’t want these things to be part of their culture. The fact is, they were already part of the culture.
He is writing to keep it out of the church!

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

This is strong language. James says, “If you have a strong faith in our “glorious Lord”…you confidently believe that He is King of Kings and has all authority…and you believe the angels of heaven cry out, “Worthy is the Lamb” then; you are not to show favoritism.”
The implication is, to claim to be a believer in Jesus and to show favoritism is a contradiction.

And there are two very key reasons why we, as believers in our glorious Lord, should never show partiality in the body of Christ and the very first reason is that to be IMPARTIAL IS TO BE LIKE GOD.

Look at these three passages.

First, Romans 2:11: For there is no partiality with God.

Ephesians 6 9. Paul writes: And, masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

And then Colossians 3 25: For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

These verses reveal to us the heart of God and because it’s the heart of God it ought to be the heart of believers.

We should bring no partiality and that means no prejudice, bigotry, racism or hatred for others of any other social class or standing into the church.
It shouldn’t exist here and we could probably just leave these three passages as plenty of testimony and proof as to why those things should never be in the church.

But there’s another very, very, very, very important reason why bigotry and partiality and prejudice should never exist within the church and that is because they’ve all been abolished at the cross of Christ.

Look with me at Galatians 3:26-29. The apostle Paul says: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Now, since you are “sons of God and since you have been baptized into Christ and clothed yourselves with him,” look what he says: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek (Jew or Gentile), there is neither slave nor free man (to you and me in our culture we might say, poor or wealthy), there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

IN Christ, and in the body of Christ, those distinctions no longer exist.
We are all one body in Christ.

And he goes on to say: 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

What that means is that all people from all classes, all distinctions, all areas of life, all socioeconomic backgrounds, religious persuasions, all races, it doesn’t matter, once they come to Christ once they embrace the cross of Christ, those distinctions are gone, they go away.
IN Christ and at the cross we stand shoulder to shoulder; nobody stands over another; nobody stands above another; we are all sinners and because of His love, mercy and grace we are saved by saved by grace.

Look what Paul wrote in Romans 3. At the end of vs. 22, he says, …for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I don’t care how much money you make, I don’t care what your family lineage is, you have fallen short of the glory of God.
And the consequences of “falling short of God’s glory” is death; Romans 6:23.

But when you and I come to Jesus, no matter who you are, Paul says in vs. 24 that “we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ.”.

When we’re living in a culture that is rife with racism and bigotry and hatred it’s important for us, as believers, to remember that In the church it doesn’t matter what your income level is , or your skin color is, or your popularity or your education level or your ethnic background is; those things don’t matter.

No one in the body of Christ stands taller than anyone else.
We are one in Jesus Christ and if we don’t get it we don’t understand the gospel.

Showing favoritism or partiality is something the world does; but it is not something that is to “stain the church.”

Now in verses 2 and 3 James gives us an example of two men walking into the same church one of them is wealthy, one of them is poor. (there are other standards used to make social distinctions; education; position or authority; perhaps even appearance or beauty. James uses perhaps the most common standard and that is money and wealth.)

And he tells us in verse 4 that if we make a distinction between those two men we’ve actually done something that is evil.
He says that “You become judges with evil motives? Some versions says, “Evil thoughts.”
It is actually evil to make social class distinctions in the body of Christ.

What are some “evil motives?”

Perhaps greed: “A rich man can put more money in the plate.” “Don’t care about his spiritual and moral life. What is important is that he is rich.”
Perhaps prominence: “He can enhance our church attendance.”
Perhaps personal benefit: “If I pay special attention to him, perhaps he will let me use his cabin in the mountains.”

Whatever the motive or thought process is, becoming judges and making social distinctions in the church according to what we prefer and like goes completely against God’s will; it is to usurp God’s authority; and James says that to do that is “evil.”

But look at another reason why it is wrong to show favoritism to the rich over the poor. Look at verse 5-7.

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?

Do you see what these brethren were doing.?

They were despising the poor and in doing so, they were despising the very ones who were the most receptive to Christ.
While at the same time they were honoring those who raged bitter hostility against them and who did damage to the name of Christ.

But that is what prejudice and bigotry often does.

Prejudice and bigotry can be so strong that it can completely blind you to that which is sensible.
Prejudice can so blind an individual that it actually causes hurt to themselves.

It is like the man who had a heart attack and yet refused to call the doctor because the doctor was a black man.

The point is, the people of God are not to be guilty of the sin of partiality.

The church of Christ must be the one place where worldly standards of judgment and discrimination, and partiality are abandoned.
In Christ, we are all equal.

Christians are never to show favoritism to rich men…nor are we to carry it too far and show favoritism to the poor.

Instead, James says in verse 8 that we are to live by a higher and nobler standard.
We are to live by “the royal law” which originates with Christ and is bound upon all within His kingdom.
Look what it is in verse 8:

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

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

You cannot keep the royal law and show partiality. It just won’t work.

But some will always try to excuse themselves.

They will always try to come up with some way to justify their biases and prejudices.
And that is what some of these people were doing.

They were taking the law of God and dividing it into a series of separate injunctions.

And what they were saying is: To keep one of the laws was to gain credit.
And to break one was to incur debt.
And what really counted was, when you finished having more to your credit than to your debt.
So, some laws you could violate just as long as you kept a positive credit to your account.

Well, James answers this notion in verses 10-11.

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.

James says that the will of God is one great whole…all of which is to be kept.

To break part of it is to break it all…and thus come under its condemnation.

So, when it comes to showing partiality, or making social distinctions in the church, what are we to do? Vs. 12:

12 So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. (We are going to be judged by the gospel of Christ; Romans 2:16) So we need to live accordingly. We are not to live according to what we might prefer or according to what the world might prefer.)

Why?

13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy (in this context it is probably a reference to have a wrong attitude toward the poor. It is better to have mercy because; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Whether it is caused by wealth…by race…by education…by looks…or any other thing…the temptation to show favoritism is a very real thing.

But in Christ and because of Christ we are all equal…and because we are, when you/I are faced with this temptation to honor some more than others…you and I would be wise to quickly remove those “evil thoughts” from our minds.