James jumps right into his next topic in this letter with these words: show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. The New Living Translations says: “how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?”
James is saying it is inconsistent to say that I follow Jesus, I want to model the heart and character of Jesus and then turn around and say:
“I will spend time with this person but I won’t spend time with that person. I will invite this person into my home, but I wouldn’t be caught dead with that person in my home. This type of person is welcomed in our church but not that type of person.”
James begins chapter 2 with these challenging and pointed words: how can you claim to have faith in Christ if you favor some people over others?
And the natural question is then: what does it mean to favor someone or to show partiality. There are times we chose to people to serve in certain positions and we have to choose one person over another. We have close friend groups where we spend more time with them over others. Are these examples of partiality? What does James mean?
And so James gives us an illustration or example.
And he describes a scenario in which a man wearing nice clothes comes into a church service and he is immediately given a seat of honor. And then a man wearing shabby clothes comes in and he is told to essentially stand in the back. And the point James is making is that these two men were treated differently, honored differently, cared for differently because of their outward appearance and also what their outward appearance said about their social status.
There was a judgment made about these two men that caused that church to receive them, welcome them and love them in two very different ways. One was honored, one was dishonored. One was welcomed and one was not welcomed.
James says, if you do this, you have become judges. By showing favoritism, you are the one who is determining a person’s value—and by determining a person’s value your love and grace and mercy and justice now becomes conditional. I will love you based on the value I have place on you. If I judge you to have little value then I will give you little love, little grace, little mercy, and little justice.
That is the favoritism that James is talking about – where I take a people and divide them up and give them different value causing me to look up to others and down on others, causing me to give love and to withhold love.
In verse 4, James calls this type of attitude: EVIL.
Evil reigns in this world when we determine that one group of people has greater value over another. Evil reigns in this world when we determine how much we will love one group of people over another based on our own determined value of them.
If you have a different skin color then me, I am going to de-value you. If you have a lower social status then me, I am going to devalue you.
Human history is full of this type of favoritism or partiality. American history is full of this type of favoritism or partiality. And James recognized that this type of behavior was happening in the early church.
And so James addresses this issue very directly but calling this type of thinking evil–it is contrary to the heart of God. It is contrary to the values of the kingdom of God. You are adopting the world’s values – you must think differently James is urging them.
James 1:27 tells us that the heart of God cares for those that society has devalued. And we are called to love the unloved, and care for those no who are uncared for and defend those who do not have a defender.
Our role is not to determine how much we will love someone based on how we value them. We love others because people are made in the image of God. God is the one who has placed value on people. And we have been given both the command and the privilege to love everyone God has created in His image.
And so James talks about what this looks like within the body of Christ in James 2:5.
In verse 5, James is not saying that God has chosen everyone who is poor to be saved. But what James is saying is that God has given to those who are poor, powerless, weak, those with no influence the opportunity to be rich in faith when they place their trust in Christ. The true distinction in whether we are rich or poor in the Kingdom of God is not in our possessions or in our social status but it is in our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ.
The person who is financially poor may be viewed lowly in the eyes of this word but if they are a believer in Jesus Christ have been lifted up through Christ and are now heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ.
And even if that poor man, walking into your church, has not placed his faith in Christ, he needs to be received and welcomed as one made in the image of God and as a soul that God loves. And through your hospitality and love and grace and mercy, he might be receive the gift of salvation.
The body of Christ should be the one community in this world where people of all ages, and nationalities and social classes can come and know dignity and honor and love. It should be the one place we can lay down our mask and the healthy and the hurting, the rejoicing and the weeping can can know true love.
There are too many stories of people who walked inside a church searching to know the God of grace and mercy and because of their skin color or social class or even because of a sin they were struggling with were told they were not welcome there. And because of the partiality of man, the conditional love of man, that person would leave the church, never return and would reject God. If those people reflect God, then I want nothing to do with God. This is the part of the evil of partiality. When we show favoritism as the people of God we are misrepresenting and distorting the character of God.
James continues in verse 6 and says that not only are you dishonoring the poor man but you are honoring the very class of people that are currently persecuting you. In the Greek culture that these early Christians were living in, it was the powerful and the wealthy that were often oppressing the Christians. The Greek courts favored the wealthy over the poor. And many of the wealthy took advantage of this favoritism for their own gain.
James is not making a statement about people who have wealth. He is not saying if you have wealth you automatically oppress the poor. What James is saying is you have seen how some people in this culture have abused their influence and their power—you have experienced the oppression of the rich, you have experienced the powerful in your culture blaspheming the name of Jesus—so don’t be quick to honor someone, elevate someone simply because they have wealth and influence. And of course, his challenge is also, don’t be quick to dishonor someone because they are poor.