Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from James 2. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Most of us have a deep-seated desire to be “favored” or “privileged.” This is encouraged by the world around us – to be accepted into the club, to have prestige, to be considered honorable and capable, to be respected. In some respects, this desire produces some good results – it makes us somewhat ambitious, and ambition is likely to result in greater accomplishment.
- This tends to glue people together to some degree, to produce the “herd mentality.” It helps us with shortcuts to understanding one another – if it can be assumed that we all kind of want the same things. We can then set rules for the competition and an agreed upon criteria to sort things out – whether the criteria be wealth, good-looks, popularity, intelligence, academic accomplishment, or productivity.
- In contrast to this, many decide that individuality and uniqueness is more important – and they refuse to participate, becoming eccentrics and perhaps even outcasts. Often this is because the criteria are skewed against their success and upward mobility within the group, and they refuse to be judged and pigeon-holed as inferior.
- All of this is an aspect of our fallen sinful nature – which feels compelled to find ways for us to feel good about ourselves, based in comparisons to others around us. This dynamic was consistently rejected by Jesus – who not only had compassion on those who were sick, disabled, and ostracized from society, but who also “charged” others not to speak of the good and miraculous things that He had done. He didn’t come here to win popularity contests or even to “compete” in our perverse egotistical combat.
- We are called to follow Him. But we want Him, and His church, to be “respectable,” and also to be accepted and even socially desirable. So the church can be perverted and corrupted into a “club” that we are gratified to belong to. And contrary to the message of our text, it can even be turned into a “do-gooders” club – where we “show off” our works for the purpose of gaining “status” and power within the club.
- All of this, however, is in fact perverse and contrary to the will of God and the real nature of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do well to beware! For there is “NO PARTIALITY IN GOD’S KINGDOM.” But we are all aware that:
I. The World Is Full Of Unjust Partiality
A. The Rich Are Favored Over The Poor [And James describes how this might happen even within the church]
Text: “If a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
B. The Healthy Are Favored Over The Disabled [So the compassion people had for their disabled friend]
Text: “They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him.”
Statement: We begin making distinctions and pressing ourselves over others at a very young age. Who has the stronger grip and gets the toy when two tots both want the same toy? Who wins the race? Who gets the better grades in school? Who is noticed as the more attractive child? Who is the better athlete who gets more playing time? Who is stronger and prevails in competitions? Who is more intelligent and finds ways to get his way?
And when we are thoroughly arrogant, convinced of our superiority, we may get to the point where we mock and taunt those who are less capable than we are, or those who are less privileged. And we may even get to the point where we don’t even want to be in the same place with people who are “inferior” to us.
Application: But the whole message of the Gospel, and of God’s Word, is that all human beings, all of us, are disabled by sin and riddled with guilt, and utterly in need of God’s gracious mercy and forgiveness. And the Scripture reveals that one of the more treacherous and disgusting aspects of our sin is precisely this competition to distinguish ourselves from others, to elevate ourselves over others. It is of course primitive and disgusting if we allow this sinful perversion to infect the church – especially if the criteria are worldly, having to do with wealth, earthly prestige, privilege, pride, and power.
Transition: But it is even more disturbing and perverse when the distinctions we make within the church, the criteria we seek to use to elevate ourselves over others have to do with some supposed “moral superiority.” We’ll speak of this more fully a bit later. But sadly:
II. Many Want The Same Principles Of Sinful Partiality To Prevail Within The Church
A. Even Though The Privileged Tend Always To Oppress Humble Believers
Text: “Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?”
B. Even Though The Privileged Tend To Reject Christ And His Repentant Believers
Text: “Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable Name by which you were called?”
C. And They Do So Even Though It Is The Poor And Downtrodden Whom God Has Chosen To Be His Own
Text: “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man.”
Statement: We equate earthly success and wealth and possessions with the blessing of God, and proof that we are superior to others, proof that we are “privileged.” If we fail to obtain these things we consider ourselves inferior; if we obtain them we consider those without them to be inferior. We drag God into the equation as well. But this is terribly dangerous, for “God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.” If we dishonor those whom God has chosen what does this say about us? There is no question that “wealth, privilege, worldly status, power, and prerogative,” are terribly dangerous things, spiritually. Not because they are evil in themselves, but because of our sinful nature and its propensity to this evil partiality!
Application: And so we must take care to fight this within the church. The church actually belongs to the poor, the needy, the afflicted, the disabled – to those who are brutally honest about their spiritual decrepitude and utterly humble in their repentance. So let us understand that:
III. To Mimic The World’s Partiality Is Sin – And Negates Faith, Love, And Good Works
Text: “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”
In contrast: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.”
Statement: The utterly wretched sin of partiality is that of self-righteousness and elevating ourselves above others – whether those who are less wealthy than we are, those who are less capable than we are, or those we deem to be less “holy” and “righteous” than we are. For the fact is that we are all, every one of us, “accountable” for sins against all of the law.
And those who are “well to do,” who have done well in accumulating the wealth and goods of this present temporal world are especially “accountable” to those who are “poorly clothed” or “lacking in daily food” – to give them “the things that are needed for the body.” It is as the apostle John also noted, not how we love “in word” that matters, but how we love “in deed,” in what we actually do.
Application: With this in mind, it is clear that all are guilty – for we all indulge ourselves while there is much poverty and hunger around us, even in our fellow citizens. And as long as this is the case, any partiality or self-elevation is the epitome of utter hypocrisy.
Thankfully, we too are among those whom God has chosen and called to faith, and so we also love Him. But if we love Him then let us take careful cognizance of the humility we must retain, and also of how He wills for us to bless those less privileged than we are – to honor and uplift the poor and less capable!
Conclusion: There simply is no place for partiality as we “hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” Just as we have learned to cultivate skills in fending others off and elevating ourselves above them, so we must now “unlearn” these skills and as we follow the example of Jesus, learn utter humility, service, and love.
This is contrary to our sinful nature, and it is also contrary to our vision of making the church a glorious place, an exclusive fellowship of people of accomplishment. Nothing kills the real church, the kingdom of God, more quickly and efficiently. Though many cannot help themselves, pray God that we not be among them. Instead, let us show our faith by our works – in humble repentance, and in genuine love and sacrificial works of kindness and generosity.
Remember, that it is the rich and privileged who “blaspheme the honorable Name by which you were called.” Let us take care that we not join them. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.