The Evil of Favoritism in the Church, Pt. 2
James 2:5‑7
Let's open our Bibles together tonight in James chapter 2 to these first 13 verses. We'll not be able to get through them all tonight and I'm not even going to try to rush. I just really want to open to your heart the things that are here in a full way so that you'll get a grip on what is really a major issue in the church. We've titled this little series on James 2:1 to 13 "The Evil of Favoritism in the Church."
I received a phone call today from a friend back in the midwest and he said to me, "I just had an experience that made me so sad." He said, "I was in a church..." and he went on to describe a certain situation, he didn't know what I was preaching on, and he said, "I never saw such favoritism, such partiality in my life as I saw in this particular church and it grieved my heart to see that."
And I said to him, "Well, you know, that's exactly what I'm preaching these days and I realize that that's a part of our culture and a part of our society." We tend, as I said last week, to stratify everybody, to evaluate everybody on how they look and how they dress and where they went to school and what kind of job they have and home and car and so forth and so on. And we really are a long way from, in many cases, understanding that God evaluates a person purely and simply and only on the basis of their relationship to Him, their soul, their inner man. And the only legitimate favoritism, and there is a legitimate favoritism to be tolerated in the church, the only legitimate favoritism allowed by God is that which allows us to esteem everybody else better than ourselves. That is a legitimate favoritism. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3, "In lowliness of mind let each regard other better than themselves." But apart from the humility that says I consider you worthy and myself unworthy, I consider your needs more important than my own, I consider serving you more important than serving me, I consider loving you more important than being loved, apart from that kind of legitimate favoritism, any other favoritism is illegitimate and forbidden. And any estimate of a person's worth on the basis of their race, on the basis of their clothing, their money, their education, their position or some other external fact or circumstance is a sin of great proportion.
And very frequently, in fact quite commonly in the church, people who look better and dress better and have more money and better education and better social status who are higher up the ladder of professions seemingly get more status in the church. They tend to receive more favors, more attention, more consideration. Very often less is required of them, and if they do something wrong, no one will approach them with the same eagerness they will approach someone further down the ladder. People like that usually are able to avoid...what should I say?...elimination from fellowship because everybody sort of wants to make them a part. Whereas there are some folks that are often left out. We tend to tolerate more sin and more evil who are higher up the ladder because I suppose we think they're a bit more sophisticated. They may not be quite as ugly in their sinfulness as some less sophisticated people.
But all of those externals show nothing but partiality. And it is unacceptable to God. It is favoritism and it is flatly called by James sin. It has no place in the church, no place whatsoever. In Deuteronomy 10:17 it says, "The Lord your God is a God of Gods and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and an awesome God who regards not persons." He has no regard for a person's outward form and outward appearance. And Peter says the same thing, as we noted last time, "Be ye holy for I am holy." And what does that mean? God is no respecter of persons so you be no respecter of persons either, 1 Peter 1:16 and 17.
As we noted last time, God is perfect equity. God is perfect justice. God is perfect impartiality. He treats people with absolute equality based simply and only on the internal condition of the soul, not on the external circumstances. God doesn't care one bit what you look like. He doesn't care how you dress. He doesn't care how much money you have or don't have. He doesn't care about your education and where you went to school. He doesn't care about your social standing. He doesn't care about your prestige. He doesn't care about your race. He doesn't care about any of that, that's all absolutely inconsequential. He is indifferent to all of that. And when the church is anything less than indifferent to that it ceases to be like God.
Now in the text before us James is confronting a problem in the congregation to which he writes. There is partiality in that congregation and he's dealing with it here. And it is another of his tests of living faith. If you want to see whether your faith is real, then test yourself as to your partiality. If you want to see whether the life of God beats in your heart, test yourselves against the principles of partiality. If you want to know whether you are really living out the life of Christ, then test yourselves in regard to the matter of partiality. That's the essence of these verses.
Now he gives us five things to look at: the principle, then the example, then the inconsistency, then the violation and then the final appeal in the last two verses. Obviously, as I said, there was a problem in the church. It wasn't only in the church to which James wrote, it was also in the assembly of believers to which the Apostle John wrote when he wrote 1 John because over and over again in 1 John he says to them you're not a Christian if you don't demonstrate love to your brother. God says it is a mark of true faith that you love your brother, that you love your sister with an equality of love, that is godlike. And if you say you love God but don't love your brother, if you say you love God but hate a certain brother, you say you love God but hate a certain sister, if you are willing to embrace certain people into your friendship and keep other people out of your friendship purely based on the external, that's not a very good record when taking the test of true faith. So it was a problem in the church to which John wrote, it was a problem in the church to which James wrote as we shall see looking at the text.
Now first of all remember the principle I gave you last week comes in verse 1, "My brothers," he says, "with favoritism...the Greek order is this...with favoritism, do not have the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ the glory, or the glorious one." What he is saying is, do not practice partiality. Why? Because practicing partiality and claiming to hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious one, that is God revealed in human flesh, the very God of glory, is absolutely incompatible. You cannot practice partiality and be consistent with calling yourself a Christian. You cannot hold the Christian faith which is centered with the Lord Jesus Christ who is the very essence of the divine presence of God who shows no partiality.
When Jesus came into the world He revealed that God was an impartial God. You read, for example, the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, read the genealogy again recorded in Luke and you will find a list of those people in those genealogies that run all the way from the commonest to the king, from very righteous people to prostitutes, harlots, people who committed incest. All kinds of people are in that genealogy. The genealogy of Christ, in a sense, is the great leveler. In that genealogy you have Tamar who committed incest. You have Rahab who was a professional prostitute. You have Ruth who was an idolatress. You have Bathsheba who was an adulteress and the paramour of David. You have those kinds of people all the way to the good and the godly kind of people as well in all stratas of society. Jesus comes even in His genealogy to be the leveler of all men.
And where was Jesus born? He was born in Bethlehem and then after having been born in Bethlehem, the city of David, He then had a choice of where to live and God had set it up so that He would live in Nazareth. Nazareth was the common man's town. In fact, people said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" And when the Apostles began to preach in the book of Acts, the comment of the leaders of Israel was, "How do these uneducated illiterate Galileans know anything?" They were the despised. They were the up‑the‑road, out‑of‑town hicks...uneducated, untrained, unsophisticated, uncultured. And so even the fact that Jesus spent His life up to the age of 30 in that obscure out of the way dusty town in Galilee called Nazareth, which was not even a blue‑collar town as we would design to call it, indicates how God is in Jesus Christ giving us a message about impartiality.
And then when you look at the ministry of Jesus Christ, His primary ministry was among what segment of people? The poor. Without question the great bulk of His ministry was to poor people, people who had little or no resources, humanly speaking. And all the way through the ministry of Jesus as well, He taught principles of impartiality. They were part and parcel of everything He taught. For example, in Matthew chapter 20 He told a story about a man who owned some land and wanted to hire some people to harvest the grapes. Went into the city, to the marketplace and early in the morning, six A.M. and hired some men, took them out. Those men worked 12 hours that day. And then he hired some others, they worked 11. You remember? Later he hired another group. And finally there was a group that only worked one hour and at the end of the day all these people working all different times, they all received the very same pay. Right? Every man received a denarius, says Matthew 20, each man received a denarius. And the principle Jesus wanted to illustrate was that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. What does that mean? That means everybody ends in a dead heat. If the last are first and the first are last, then everybody finishes at the same time because if you're first you become last and if you're last you become first. And as soon as you're first, you're last, as soon as you're last you're first. You understand that?
So what He is saying is you're all going to end up at the same point. It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how you served, if you loved God you're going to receive the same eternal life. That's a wonderful promise...wonderful promise.
In Matthew chapter 22, also, later on as Jesus spoke, He gave another very fascinating parable about a wedding. It's the marriage of the king's son...referring to Christ. And in Matthew 22 we come to it in verse 9, he says to the servants, verse 8, the wedding is ready. Then he says in verse 9, "The guests who were supposed to come didn't show," that's the nation Israel, so he says, "Go out into the highways and as many as you find, bid them to the marriage." There's no discrimination there. There's no partiality. So they went to the highways and they gathered together all as many as they found...bad and good. In other words, people who were moral and people who were immoral, people who were religious and people who were irreligious, good, nice, faithful family types and evil street people...everything. And then the wedding was furnished with guests. When it comes to calling people to Himself, Jesus was absolutely impartial. In fact there was only one requirement for salvation and that was to acknowledge yourself to be...what?...a sinner...a sinner.
So, whether you're talking about the genealogy of Jesus, you're talking about the place in which He was raised in Nazareth, you're talking about the focus of His ministry among poor people, we note that He demonstrates this great impartiality. In fact, in Mark 12 when He was teaching in the synagogue it says in verse 37, "And the common people heard Him gladly..." rather He was teaching in the temple. And teaching in the temple speaking of the truth, the scribes, of course, and the Pharisees were antagonistic, but the common people heard Him gladly. So He said to the common people, "Beware of the scribes, they love to go in long clothes, they love salutations in the marketplaces, they love the chief seats in the synagogues and the upper most places at feasts, they devour widows' houses and for a pretense they make long prayers, these shall receive greater condemnation."
And to illustrate His impartiality, immediately He says, He sat opposite the treasury, does Mark, and people started putting in their money and a certain poor widow came. And the rich people put in much and the poor widow threw two mites and He said, "Now there is a lady who gave more than everybody else because she gave everything she had." What people had, how people dressed, all that religious falderal meant absolutely nothing to Christ. He was absolutely utterly and totally impartial and evaluated people simply and only upon the openness of their heart and their willingness to respond in faith to the message which He proclaimed. In fact, it all sums up, I think, in Luke chapter 5 verse...I believe it's verse 32, He says, "I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
So the principle then is illustrated. Let's go back to James. The principle is illustrated in the life of Christ. So you cannot hold partiality in one hand and hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very God of glory, in the other hand. Those are absolutely incompatible. If you are committed to the faith of Jesus Christ you must be committed to impartiality, that's the principle. The example, do you remember it in verses 2 to 4, if there comes into your assembly a man gold fingered, more than one ring, gold fingered, he's wearing fine clothes, there comes also a poor man in shabby clothing and you show favoritism to the one that wears the fine clothes and say sit over here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, stand there or get down under my footstool, which is to say get somewhere will you, out of the way preferably. Are you not then partial in yourselves and have become judges with evil intent?
He postulates a somewhat hypothetical illustration to show the kind of behavior that is sinful. There were some special seats in a synagogue, there probably were a few special seats in the place the assembly of the church met as well. But there was to be no partiality shown to somebody giving him the special seat because of the way he dressed and because of his money. The gospel is to be an equalizer.
Back in chapter 1 that was made clear in verses 9 to 11. "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted into rich in that he is made low." The gospel is the equalizer. It takes the poor man and exalts him to heavenly riches. It takes the rich man and strips him of all the uselessness of earthly riches. And so it's the equalizer. And James says if you do that, if you show partiality to someone like this usher at this particular church service, you have become a judge. Or literally are you not making distinctions in yourselves? You're judging. You're separating. You're dividing people.
Now some judgment is necessary in the sense of evaluating truth and error, evaluating right and wrong, in the sense of righteous judgment, in the sense of disciplining sin. But an arbitrary favoritism for someone who is simply shows up more on the outside than someone else is sinful. Someone whose outward appearance or status is superior to another one should not be treated any differently at all. And it's precisely that which God forbids us to do who bear His name. If we're going to bear the name of God, we have no business acting in an ungodly way. And when a believer does this, he contradicts the Christian faith at its very core. Think about Christ, it says in 2 Corinthians 8:9 He was rich but for our sake He became...what?...poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. Jesus also said in Matthew 11:29 in that wonderful beautiful invitation, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Come everybody, come everybody. The gospel's a great leveler...anyone who needs rest, anyone who needs forgiveness. That's the essence of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. And anyone who does other than that is guilty of judgment, guilty of being a judge with an evil discriminating motive. You have become judges, he says, with evil thoughts.
Now thirdly, he talks not only about an appeal...about a principle and an illustration or example, but thirdly, about the inconsistency. And I want you to notice this in verses 5 to 7, this is very very practical and very interesting. Verses 5 to 7, "Hearken, my beloved brethren, has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him? But you have despised the poor. Do not rich man oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats, do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called?" Stop at that point.
And James is here pointing out the absolute inconsistency of being disrespectful to poor people or people who are lower on some...some human level of evaluation. And this is a call to listen. He starts in verse 5, "Listen, hearken, tune in on this, my beloved brethren." It's a warm call to listen. It's aimed at the heart. "My beloved brethren," is a respectful way to talk. It shows that he's giving them his word not only because he's concerned from the standpoint of truth but he's concerned from the standpoint of love...my beloved brethren. He's not just a hard‑hearted expositor of truth, he also has a passion for the people who are the objects of that teaching. I understand that kind of pastor's heart. You love the truth but you also love the people. And so he doesn't hammer them in the head, he says, "My beloved brethren, listen to me." Like every good preacher, every good exhorter, he calls for their attention. And he's saying let me show you the inconsistency of this partiality. To be partial to the rich and the status people and to turn your back on others who are below that level is inconsistent in light of two facts...here they come, they're in the text. Number one, the divine choice of the poor, "Has not God chosen the poor?" Number two, the blasphemy of the rich, verse 7, "Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?"
When you side with the rich, you side with the blasphemers. When you go against the poor and the downcast, you go against the ones God has chosen. You are utterly inconsistent. You have reversed the whole picture. Partiality then is inconsistent in the light of those two facts.
Let's look at fact number one. This is most interesting. The divine choice of the poor, verse 5 again, "Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him but you have despised the poor." That really should go into verse 5. God has chosen the poor but you, if you act like this, have despised the very ones God has chosen. Now what poor is he talking about? Not the poor in spirit, this has no relationship to Matthew chapter 5, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." This isn't talking about poor in spirit, this is talking about poor in status, economics.
Generally speaking, and we don't really have time to exhaust the subject, but generally speaking throughout God's redemptive history God has chosen the poor. What poor? Those that are poor in this world, or literally those who are poor in the eyes of the world...the ones the world thinks are the poor, the ones who are the down and outers, if you will, the ones who are without. It is a general principle. The elect of God are dominated by the poor, the people who do not have everything that the rich possess.
Now that's not to say that no rich folks are chosen by God because some rich folks definitely are chosen by God. In Genesis Abraham was a very very wealthy man...extremely wealthy, probably wealthy beyond, vastly beyond other men of his own time. In Genesis 13:2 it says, "Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold." He was very rich. God had prospered him and God chose him, not only chose him but chose him to the father of a nation. Job, that very unique and special man, also a godly man. Godly in the sense that few other men would be godly. In fact, he was so godly that God literally turned Satan loose on him to test him. He was so wealthy his substance, Job 1:3 says, was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she asses, a very great household so that this man was the greatest or the wealthiest of all the men of the east. The wealthiest guy in the world. He would have been top of the list in the latest issue of Forbes Magazine.
And then there was Joseph of Arimathea who was a rich man. A prosperous rich man, rich enough to provide a garden tomb for the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we bless God that that rich man was redeemed. And then there was Levi who later became known as Matthew. And he was the tax collector and all tax collectors were loaded because the whole profession was filled with graft. Matthew was wealthy. He was not a poor man.
There were rich in the early church. In 1 Timothy 6:17 to 19 Paul says to Timothy, "Charge them that are rich, charge them that are rich to share." That is, to stoop down and help those that are not rich, those that are poor. Zacchaeus, according to Luke 19, was the chief of all tax collectors which probably meant that not only was he collecting money for himself but he was getting a piece of everybody else's action also. Again, a very wealthy man. He had parlayed what he took in taxes into an absolute fortune, so much so that he could repay everybody multiple times what he took from them. So there are in God's economy certain elect people who are rich.
But in spite of that the general mass of redeemed people has come from the poor. And God has a special affection and love for the poor. In Psalm, let's look at the Psalms for a moment, and let me just see if I can't give you an understanding of this. God has chosen the poor in the eyes of the world, James says. They are the elect. They are the ones who are desperate. They are the ones who cry out for resources. They are the ones who need help. And listen to the heart of God in Psalm 41, "Blessed is he that considers the poor." Psalm 41:1, "Blessed is he that considers the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble and the Lord will preserve him and the Lord will keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies, the Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing, thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness."
In other words, you take care of the poor and God will take care of you because you have the heart of God. Psalm 68, and I can't even start to give you all the scriptures on this subject, but just a few, Psalm 68 verse 10 says, "O God, thou hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor." Beautiful statement. Thou hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor.
Psalm 72 verse 4, "He shall judge the poor of the people. He shall save the children of the needy and break in pieces the oppressor." God is the defender of the poor. He meets their need and He goes after their enemies. Verse 12, "He shall deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also and him that has no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy and save the souls of the needy." Mark that, "He shall save the souls of the needy."
See, rich people tend so much to be able to solve all their own problems with their own resources whereas the poor in their desperation so often cry out to a source of supply greater and beyond themselves. In Psalm 113 verse 7, "He raiseth up the poor of the dust, He lifteth the needy out of the dump, the dung hill, the manure pile, the trash bin." God picks up those kinds of people.
Go to Proverbs for a moment and a few other passages that give us the heart of God in this matter. Proverbs 17:5, very important scripture, "Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his maker." When you mock a poor man, when you say to a poor man, "Get down here on the floor out of the way, get over to the side," when you treat a poor man with disdain, when you are unfaithful to meet a poor man's need, you mock the poor man's maker. You reproach the poor man's maker. And the poor man's maker is God.
In Proverbs 21:13, "Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he shall also cry himself but shall not be heard." If your prayers aren't being answered, you might do a little inventory and see if you've stopped your ears to the need of someone around you. I want to be sensitive to that.
I received a little note on my desk today. It said, "Here's a dollar," a gift of a dollar. "This is all we can send because