James 2:1-13,  My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. ²For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; ³And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: ⁴Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? ⁵Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? ⁶But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? ⁷Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?  ⁸If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: ⁹But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

We have learned in our previous lesson that God has not given faith to his children to be used in the respect of persons.

The reason you have been given faith is to please God, but using your faith with respect of persons does not please God.

Now this does not mean that we should not respect individuals for their character or their position or their authority but it means not to favor one person over the other in proportion to what each can do for you.

The rich man described in this passage was favored over the poor man, for natural thoughts led to the idea that the rich man would be more beneficial to the assembly than the poor man.

These were biased and prejudiced thoughts, thoughts that the body of Christ should not think, for the mind of Christ never thinks these thought.

These are thoughts based on the outward appearance and not the appearance of the heart.

Jesus Christ would never think this way nor should his body act as if it is getting such direction from the head.

Christ saw all people as in need, whether rich or poor for he came to seek and to save sinners, the one category to which we all belong.

His body is also to see that, for all people need Christ.

The body of Christ is Christ’s body on earth, kept here to do the work of Christ, kept here to minister, not to be ministered unto.

As we read last week in Mark 10:45,  For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Thinking and acting outside of this principle reveals an

underlying motive of hope for gain.

James, after describing this respect of the rich man by the assembly, brings to our attention that God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him.

But he then states that we have despised the poor.

We have taken a position against the poor that is in opposition to the position that God has taken.

It is easy to see from scripture the mission of Christ for when he came to this earth to minister He came to heal the sick, and to save the lost.

He came to lift up the humble and the needy and to put down the proud.

Read of this mission in Luke 4:18-19, which is from Isaiah 61:1-2,  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁹To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

On many occasions the Pharisees complained about Jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners.

And Jesus knew very well why he did that, for it met the conditions of his mission.

He told them, they that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. ³²

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance He said.

God knows who will repent for they fit into the category of humble, hungry, poor in spirit, those who weep.

The Apostle Paul was given this truth and with it he comforted the Corinthians when he told them in:

1 Corinthians 1:26-31,  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ²⁷But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; ²⁸And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: ²⁹That no flesh should glory in his presence. ³⁰But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: ³¹That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

He knew that in general the rich, the wise, the mighty, the people who have standing in this world, the people that are something, hear not the gospel for they, many times, think they have no need, for their riches are their god, and they go to their riches for help in time of need.

God has chosen to bless the poor, we too are chosen to bless the poor but when we chose to humiliate the poor we act contrary to God.

The question of why is inferred, for James in chapter 2, verses 6 and 7 says this:

James 2:6,7,  Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? ⁷Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

Remember that James is writing to Jewish Christians who are dispersed among the nations.

They had begun to experience persecution and in that persecution was the loss of economic strength.

Many had become poor as a result of following Christ.

Many were drawn into court in their state of poverty to face the rich who could afford the legal costs and because of their wealth and power, influence the outcome of the trial.

James is reasoning why would anyone favor those who are their opponents.

Why would any child of God be partial to those who are blaspheming the name of the Lord.

This is not a condition that is only applicable to these persecuted saints but is a condition that has been operating throughout the generations and is applicable to us.

See this condition as expressed in Psalm 73:3-9

James’ point is that favoring the rich is acting outside of reason and in addition to show partiality toward the rich was to break God’s law.

For he says in James 2:8-13,  ⁸If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: ⁹But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

It is interesting to note that this passage starts with a reference to neighbor and ends with a reference to mercy.

This reminds me of the story of the good Samaritan who was declared by Jesus Christ to be the neighbor of the one who had been left half dead after being robbed by thieves.

He asked the lawyer to whom he had told this story:

There is more to being a neighbor than is defined by location for being neighbor means extending mercy and this is what James propounds.

The royal law commands God’s people to "love their neighbors as themselves".

Now neighbors include the wealthy and the poor.

We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and we do indeed love ourselves for we are very careful to see to our own needs and to desire mercy from others instead of judgment.

Does loving your neighbor as yourself mean that if your neighbor were hungry you would have the same desire to feed him as you do yourself?

If your neighbor was hurting would your heart hurt as much for him as it does when you are hurting?

Would your hands rush to his aid as your hands rush to your aid?

We are very careful to treat all parts of ourselves with the same care.

When we bathe do not our hands bathe our feet as well as our face?

When our hand puts food into our mouth does our body deny certain parts of itself nourishment or does it share equally throughout?

When a stone is cast at our face do not our arms come to its rescue, sacrificing themselves to deflect the force?

We are to love our neighbors with the same level of concern and care that we have for ourselves.

But in that love we are to love equally and without partiality, not treating one neighbor better than another for advantage.

This is a very difficult commandment and rarely attempted, for we usually treat others on the basis of how we are treated.

My neighbor down the street is very kind to me and I try to be as kind but no way will I be kind to that crank on the other side of the street.

This quid pro quo, a favor for a favor, way of life is far from the mind of Christ for recall how Christ was treated and recall how Christ treated those who despitefully used him. ²

If our Lord Jesus told you to love your enemies, to do good to them who hate you, to bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you how much more should we love our neighbor as ourselves.

So showing partiality to the rich, while discriminating against the poor is alien to the mind of Christ and the doing of it will specifically break God’s law.

And James brings into the discussion the breaking of God’s law with regard to adultery and murder.

It is our nature to categorize sin and to place some sin as greater than other sin.

Oh no, we are not an adulterer like that neighbor down the street, no, we are not a murderer like those thugs behind bars.

But what about showing favor to some and not to others because of the lack of expected return from others.

To some there is obviously no advantage to showing favor in this life but God wants us to have the mind of Christ, the mind that dwells on things above, not on things below.

To break the law in one point is to break the whole law.

God does not categorize sin.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and if all you do is one sin in your life you too come short of the glory of God and will stand with the congregation of the sinners.

Those who show partiality to others are law-breakers.

And James ends this passage with a reminder to all of us that showing partiality in our judgments of people ignores the inevitability of our own judgment by the law of liberty.

James 2:12,13,  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

There are consequences in our judging others by their appearance, by their power, even by their blood connections.

Those who discriminate become judges with impure motives.

Those who judge are also those who will be judged for there is a day of judgment coming for all men.

There is a judgment for unbelievers, just as there is a different day of judgment for the saints.

If men have not shown mercy to those in need, then they should not expect God to be merciful to them in their day of judgment:

As Matthew 5:7 tells us,   Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

And in Matthew 7:1-2;  Judge not, that ye be not judged. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

How God will carry this out, I do not know, but His word is sure.

If you live a life of favor for favor, partiality for partiality, God will in some way see to it that that a like judgment will apply to you when you stand before Him.

This kind of a life is a life of wood, hay and stubble.

Just composed of a pile worthy only of the judgment flame of God and that flame will consume everything but you.

Yes, if you are a Christian, you will be saved, but with the absence of lasting gold, silver and precious stones, things that will eternally last.

When Jesus told us to love our enemies and to do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, he said we would then be called the children of the Highest.

Jesus called him neighbor who extended mercy to the man who had been robbed and beaten. And he calls them his children, those who love, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.

For children are to be like their Father and when we are truly children of the Highest, then we will indeed be merciful, even as our Father also is merciful.