Impartial Faith

James 2:1 – 7

 

The tv show, Undercover Boss, is a reality tv show where high level corporate executives and business owners leave the comfort of their offices and secretly take low-level jobs within their own companies to find out how things actually work and what their employees think of them. This is all done through the use of hidden cameras so that the employee has no clue that the new guy they’re training is actually their boss.

 

What often unfolds is the undercover boss gets treated like an average Joe and hears some hard and challenging things about themselves that they may not otherwise hear in their echo chamber at the corporate level. As unfortunate as it is, it is often human nature to interact with and treat people based on their position in life.

 

Because the body of believers is made up of, yup humans, human nature often shows its face. The church body is not immune from treating people, visitors, and members differently based on their lot in life.

A hard honest look at churches today will show that in many instances, the biggest givers are treated differently because of it. Often, they come to expect special treatment because of it, and just as often it is at the expense and neglect of those in need.

 

Human nature hasn’t really changed all that much in 2,000 years. James understood that genuine faith that endures through trials and overcomes temptations, is to be demonstrated. Such faith is to be seen in the actions of believers, in how they interact with the rest of the body and the rest of the world. Let’s read God’s Word together: James 2:1 – 7.

 

In chapter 1, James talked about the necessity of getting wisdom, maturing faith through trials, and that faith must be demonstrated in “true religion”. In chapter 2 James builds upon the truth that genuine faith must be demonstrated, especially in relation to one another within the church.

 

• Partiality cannot coexist with genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

 

James taught the strongest possible connection between faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and impartiality when he wrote, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The world’s love shows its true nature in its lack of love for the many who suffer under desperate circumstances. According to the USDA, one in every five children in the US doesn’t know where their next meal will come from. For all our social programs, our country still does a poor job of providing for the most vulnerable among us.

 

 Meanwhile, the US ranks third in the world for food waste, creating over 24.7 million metric tonnes of food waste. It ranks a close second when looked at on a per capita basis. Overall, our country is so well off that it can waste that much food. The world clearly favors the well to do, those of higher status, just look at how it reveres celebrities and the wealthy. Power and privilege in this world belongs to the wealthy. But not so, in the kingdom of God.

 

James earlier showed us the incompatibility of doublemindedness and prayer, and here he shows the impossibility of combining faith and the approval of the world. What reason does anyone have to show preferential treatment to someone based on their elevated status in this world?

 

            The reason is selfish gain and self-promotion. The concept that popularity, wealth, and prosperity is contagious is an ancient one. James illustrates this so pointedly with his example of a rich man and a poor man coming into church.

 

Two men walk into the church, one wearing a gold ring and fine clothing and the other dressed in shabby clothing, probably dirty and full of holes, it becomes instantly clear that the first guy is wealthy and a man of status while the second guy is poor and in need.

 

If, when they both walk in, the poor guy is ignored and the well-dressed man is given the best seat in the house while the poor guy is told to stand at the back or sit on the floor, the church is clearly guilty of making distinctions among themselves, as James put it, of becoming judges with evil thoughts.

 

This is more than just a seating arrangement too. The preferred seat in the house probably had a footstool with it, so that the favored person could put their feet up, meanwhile the poor man is relegated to not only sitting on the dirty floor, but literally at a level lower than the rich man’s feet. James paints a pretty clear picture.

 

• Partiality turns believers into unrighteous judges.

 

This isn’t a new concept developed through James either. James’ teaching here has its roots in Leviticus. Respect for the entire people of God, especially for the needy and defenseless, sums up the majority of Leviticus 19.

 

In Leviticus 19:15 Moses wrote, “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”

 

Whenever judgements are made based on selfish gain, like giving preferential treatment to the rich because you can get something out of them, instead of on true need or on truth, God’s justice is perverted. Neglect of orphans and widows and the poor in the church are prime examples of Christian neglect, that is, sins of omission and injustice.

 

The Lord does not show favoritism, and neither should His people. There is no room for that kind of judgement in the church. God doesn’t take worldly wealth into account when saving sinners. In fact, James goes on to ask a series of rhetorical questions beginning with the imperative to listen, asking has God not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith, to be heirs of the kingdom?

 

God doesn’t distinguish between rich and poor in whom He saves, in whom He’s chosen to be His elect people. Clearly in James we see that God has chosen many poor in the world to be rich in faith. Remember back in chapter 1, verse 9 where James exhorted the poor to boast in their exaltation.

 

The great reversal that Jesus brought about reverses the real fortunes of even the poorest on earth, as Jesus said in the beatitudes as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).

 

God does call for a certain kind of preferential treatment, but only for the poor because they are most in need. Poor believers are not the only ones who will be saved, but they, above all, demonstrate God’s gracious saving work. God saves those that the world deems unworthy to save.

 

• Partiality makes believers complicit in oppressing the poor.

But the problem of partiality remains, and James makes it clear, those who treat the poor with partiality and contempt are complicit in their oppression from the rich. After stating that they have dishonored the poor man, James asks more rhetorical questions.

 

Are not the rich your oppressors, are the rich not the ones who drag you into court to take from you what little you already have, are the rich not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name that called you out of death to life? The rich trust in their wealth more than they do in God.

 

The picture of the poor man sitting lower in the church than the rich man’s feet is a picture of a church complicit in the oppression of the poor at the sake of keeping the rich man happy.

 

Christ didn’t die on the cross for His church to be party to oppressing the ones He died to save. Christ made the way of salvation plain to both poor and rich, but if you think back to the Gospel’s, it was the rich who had a harder time accepting that they needed saving. Camel through the eye of a needle and all that. The same is true today.

 

The glory of God did not remain up high, but rather Jesus came in humility, emptying himself and taking the form of a servant, and humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on the cross.

 

Since Christ, the Lord of glory, came to earth, believers do the works He has assigned to them on equal footing with each other. All acts of favoritism toward the rich of this world contradict the divine glory that saves believers. You must never mix faith with partiality because such faith is not genuine.

 

When favoritism dominates, the obedience of faith is compromised and undermined. Resisting human nature to show partiality, by showing no partiality, is a visible demonstration of genuine faith, which is of major concern to James.

 

God didn’t play favorites when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for you. God shows no partiality in whom He saves. Worldly status means nothing in the kingdom of God; it ought to mean nothing in His church. How the church treats and values one another, means something to God; that ought to mean something to His church.

Let’s pray.