All right, good morning, church family.
Let me invite you all to find your seats.
And as you find your seats, if you would open your Bibles or
type in your devices. The book of James, chapter 1,
we're going to be in the last verse of chapter one, verse 27,
and then we will go into chapter 2 up till verse 5.
S James 127 to chapter 2, verse five, title of the sermon this
morning Is this. Christianity produces holiness
and compassion. Christianity produces holiness
and compassion. So let's read the text, open us
in a word of prayer and we'll jump to the sermon this morning.
James one beginning in verse 27. Religion that is pure and
undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and
widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from
the world. My brothers, show no partiality
as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring
and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man
and 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? 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? And we'll stop right there.
Let's pray. Lord, I pray that this morning
you would give us a vision for your heart, God, your heart for
those in need, your heart for the helpless, Lord, for widows,
orphans, the poor, and even beyond this.
Lord God, would you give us not only a vision of your heart, but
then would you help us, as we learned last week, to be doers
of the word and to and not merely hearers only?
That we would not hear the, the command to, to care for those in
affliction, but that we would go and actually do it, find ways to
care for those who need help, Lord, and whatever capacity we
can, whatever ways that we are able to.
Lord, would you give us your heart, Lord, for them that it
would move us to action and move us to, to, to do whatever we
can, Lord, in whatever capacity we have.
I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
One of the biggest political divides that exist in this time
of our age is how we should think about the needy.
You know, there's there's a lot of debate over things like
immigration and immigrants and, and refugees or the poor and,
and how much, you know, should we care for the poor or for
women or, you know, all kinds of categories.
And I will not wade into those Muddy Waters this morning at
all. But what I will say is this,
regardless of where we come down politically or from government
or from any of that sense, what we cannot debate on, what we
should not debate on is that as Christians we are called to
care. We are called to show compassion
to those in need, whoever is in need.
We are called to show care and compassion and we are called to
be holy while doing it. That's what the sermon is about
this morning is that Christianity produces holiness
and compassion. So let's look at our text.
I'm going to give us expedition of the text where I try to
explain it and to break open the meaning of it as we work it
through it verse by verse, and then I'll give us application.
I think I have 7 points of application this morning, maybe
6. I can't remember.
I think it's seven points of application this morning.
So let's start looking at verse 27.
A James writes religion that is pure and undefiled before God
the Father is this. Let me stop right there.
Last week we looked at the statement by James in verse 26.
Look at it with me, he says if anyone thinks he is religious
and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this
person's religion is worthless. We looked at that last week.
Now James wants to contrast worthless religion with pure
religion. He wants to draw a contrast
between this is what worthless religion is.
Now I wanted to show you what pure religion is.
James here describes religion that is pure and undefiled
before God the Father. Now we began looking at this
word religion last week or religious last week.
The Greek word is Thracekaya. Thracekaya It means expression
of devotion to transcended beings as it expresses itself in
cultic rites or worship. Brace Kaya is actually not a
Christian term necessarily. It can be used in the Pagan
world as well. James Contrast worthless
religion that we looked at last week with two terms that are
rooted in the Old Testament. Here are the 2 terms #1 pure
religion. That is pure James.
What does that mean? James is using that term pure
there in a ritually clean sense of like a ritually clean sense.
It's the same way that Jesus uses it when he is talking to
the disciples at when he washed their feet and he said and you
are clean, but not everyone of you is referring to Judas.
He says when you are clean, he doesn't mean that I, because
I've washed your feet, you are clean.
That's not what he means. He means you are ritually clean.
The Lord has made, I have made you clean.
That's the sense that James is using it here #2 religion that
is pure and unfiled. What does that mean?
Undefiled means pertaining to not being ritually defiled with
implications of a company moral defilement.
And so notice James says that religion that is pure, meaning
ritually clean and undefiled, being richly undefiled before
God the Father, before meaning not in the eyes of man.
This is not that the eyes of man are defining what religion
should look like. This is the eyes of God the
Father. I think James God, I mean, this
is not a normal way that he's refers to God.
And I think the reason he calls him God the Father here is in
light of the exhortation that he's about to give.
Look at 27-B, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
So religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father
is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
So James now is going to give 2 practical, 2 tangible
descriptions of this type of religion #1 it's to visit
orphans and widows in their affliction.
Now, what does that mean to visit orphans and widows in
their affliction? The word for orphans is the
Greek word orphanos. It's where we get the word
orphan from. We get it from the Greek.
It means pertaining to being deprived of parents.
Widows is simply a woman whose husband has died.
It's very simple. Woman whose husband has died.
James writes that these two categories, orphans and widows
to visit them. Now that word for visit I don't
think is necessarily the best translation.
It can mean to either go see a person with helpful intent.
Like if I paid Fred a visit right and I went and saw him.
It can mean that it can also mean to exercise oversight and
behalf of to look after or to make an appearance to help.
This is the same word used by Jesus when he said I was naked
and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me.
Same word. Matthew 2536.
So it it doesn't mean to simply pay a visit where you know, you
just go pay a visit to them and then you're like, OK, see you
later and then you go home, right?
That's not what it means. It carries the idea of look
after to care for. Well, I'll give you one example
in Acts 6. You remember in Acts 6, there
were widows. There was there was some Greek
speaking widows and then there were Hebrew speaking widows and
the Greek speaking widows were getting neglected because they
didn't speak the language and they couldn't defend themselves
because, you know, how do you speak up?
They don't I don't know what you're saying.
Right. And so these widows were not
getting the daily food distribution.
And then the church stood, you know, took action and said we
need to do something about this. Appoints seven men, if I
remember, six or seven men who will care for these widows to
make sure they get the daily food distribution.
That's a practical example of this.
Paul gives instructions for how widows should be cared for in
First Timothy 5, which we won't get into today, but you can read
that in your own time. Where he gives instructions is
how the church should care for them.
Now, why orphans and widows? Why?
Or I mean, and James is just giving these two examples.
He could have given other examples, but he's just giving 2
examples. Why does he give these two
examples? Well, look at how he describes
them. Widow, orphans and widows in
their affliction. That word for affliction, it's a
broad term in the Greek. It can refer to tribulation,
suffering, anguish, trouble, burdens.
Why are they afflicted? Keep in mind, this is a time
when there are no orphanages. There are no orphanages at this
time. There are no government programs
to provide housing or food or medical care to care for
orphans. There is no foster care.
There is no adoption services. It doesn't exist.
These are all more modern ideas. This is also a time when there's
no Social Security. There's no Social Security for
widows. And it's also during a time when
people did not save up for retirement the way we do today.
Retirement is a pretty new idea. Historically, people did not
save up for retirement back then like that, like we all do today.
And so if a woman became a widow in these days, especially in her
old age, she would often become quite poor unless she had
someone to care for her. Remember the widow in the
Gospels at the temple? Jesus said she had two small
copper coins to live on. That was all she had to.
Her name was 2 coins and she gave them away.
Look at verse 27. C and to keep oneself unstained
from the world. The second thing that James says
of religion that's pure in the file is to keep oneself
unstained from the world. This is quite different from the
first one, isn't it? Notice we are to keep ourselves.
We have a personal responsibility here to keep
ourselves unstained. This is another Old Testament
idea. It means pertaining to being of
untainted character, pure, without fault of inward
condition. The idea here is blemish free.
The idea is that we are to keep ourselves blemish free,
unstained from what he says, unstained from the world.
This is actually the first time that James uses the word world.
This clearly refers to the lost world.
James says we are to be blemish free on staying from the world.
Now James is not suggesting that as Christians we should become
hermits. He's suggesting that we should
become holy. Look at chapter 2 verse one.
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
So James now exhorts the church with another practical command
for how to live out our faith. And this time he doesn't exhort
the church with what we should do, but with what we shouldn't
do. The first one was what we should
do. Now he tells us what we
shouldn't do. He says, my brothers, show no
partiality. Well, what is that?
What is partiality? We don't really use that word in
our modern vernacular. Partiality, the Greek word, is
defined as this, and it's an idiom.
Actually, in the Greek, it's literally to accept a face, to
accept a face, to make unjust distinctions between people by
treating one person better than another, or to show favoritism.
Like we have a phrase to save face.
The the Jews had a phrase to accept a face.
It's an idiom. It means the idea is that I will
show favor upon you based on how you look.
If I like your face and your face is just a autonomy for all
of you, right? I'll look at you.
I'm going to use a Fred here. I'll look at Fred.
I will size him up and I will decide whether I am going to
favor him or I'm not. And it's this could be purely
based on this. That's it.
That's the idea here. So James's point is that as we
live out our faith, show no favoritism.
And then James is going to give an example of where that may
very well have been happening in the church.
He's going to give an example of where it may have been
happening. Look at verse 2 to 4.
For 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, why you say the poor man
you stand over there or sit down at my feet?
Have you not been made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil thoughts?
So James gives this example that very well may be real or it
could be hypothetical. It's not clear, right?
It's not clear if it's a real hypothetical, but it involves 2
men who come into the assembly. The Greek word there for
assembly is synagogue. It's that's what it is.
Now that was where they went to, to worship for us to be the
church, right? Our assembly is the church.
So these two men come into their local assembly.
One of them is rich. And this is evidenced by the
fact that he's wearing a gold ring.
Again, remember, this is at a time where like, I mean, many of
us have gold necklaces or earrings or this is a time where
like the average person does not have gold.
It just doesn't, right? This person is wearing a gold
ring and is wearing fine clothing.
Again, there are not malls. And you know where we, we go
out, we buy new clothes all the time.
This is at a time where you have like 1 outfit, maybe 2, and you
wear it over and over and over again.
It gets dirty. It's not a time where you know,
we got like 47 different outfits to wear.
This person has fine clothing, literally bright clothing,
applying clean, It's clean. Again, no washer and dryers.
They don't, they don't wash their clothes the way we wash
our clothes. That's one man.
The second man is is poor. He's a poor man.
And this is evidenced by the fact that he has shabby
clothing. Shabby clothing, literally dirty
clothing. That's how it literally
translates dirty or soiled clothing.
He has dirty clothing. And the reason is probably dirty
is because that's probably the only clothes he has, and he's
wearing it over and over and over again.
He doesn't have access to Oxiclean and and Tide, right?
And as these two men come into the assembly, there are two
responses by the Christians in the synagogue. 2 men, 2
responses #1 For the rich man, the text says you pay attention
to him, that what that means is that you shall respect him.
That's what, how it translates or what it means that you shall
respect him. And, and, and how do they do
this? They tell him, you sit, you sit
here, right, For our church to be the back row, that that's the
privileged place, no offense. Back rowers, you sit here,
right? You tell them you take the, the
place of honor, right? But for the poor man, they say
you stand over there or sit down at my feet, which probably more
accurately means you sit on the floor.
You sit here in this privileged place and you you could sit on
the floor. That's that's what James is
saying. And James says that if you do
this, have you not been made distinctions among yourselves,
IE have you not concluded that there is a difference between
these two men and consequently you have become judges with evil
thoughts. James says that when you make a
distinction between people based on and standards, not only are
you making a judgement, but you are making this judgement as a
self appointed judge. You have made a judgement that
this rich man is worthy to sit here and this poor man is not.
The poor man is only worthy to sit on the floor.
And look at how James describes Christians who makes this kind
of judgement. He says you are judges with evil
thoughts. Look at verse 5.
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?
James writes. Listen, listen.
Just as James earlier told him to be quick to listen, he now
exhorts them to be a doer of the Word by listening.
Kind of ironic. Be a doer of the Word by
listening. Listen, my beloved brothers,
this is not the third and final time that James refers to them
as beloved brothers. It's a reminder.
He is not rebuking them as lost people.
He is exhorting them as beloved brothers.
James is going to make an argument to them for why they
shouldn't show favoritism. He's making an argument why you
shouldn't. There are two parts of this
argument. We'll look at the first part
this morning, and we'll look at the second part next week.
Here's the first part. The first argument he's going to
make as to why we shouldn't show favoritism, has not God chosen
those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of
the Kingdom? Now, we must be very careful
here with this type of verse to not lapse into what is known as
poverty theology or liberation theology.
These are very real theologies, Poverty theology or liberation
theology. What is that?
This is a theology that teaches that God actually favors those
who are monetarily poor. God actually favors those who
are monetarily poor. We know this can't be true for
two reasons. Number one, it would contradict
what James just said. God would be showing favoritism
to monetarily poor people, which James just said don't do #2 then
Abraham, Job, Zacchaeus, Joseph, Arimathea, the Apostle Paul, and
probably most everybody in this room would never be saved
because we're all rich. I know some of you may think
that you're not you, you are. If you're here in Seattle,
you're at UW or you live, you're rich, you are.
But here we are saved. James writes that God has
chosen. Chosen.
This is a word that's often used in connection with election.
It it, it, it has the same idea that God has elected them.
God chose those who are poor in the world.
But here's the question, if they are not necessarily monetarily
poor and what sense are they poor?
They are poor in spirit has not got chosen those who are poor in
spirit. James is using this term the
same way that Jesus used it when he said blessed are the poor in
spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 53 James writes that God chose them.
Chose chooses those poor in spirit for a purpose 2 purposes,
to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the Kingdom.
So not rich in money, but rich in faith.
Not heirs of a company, but heirs of a Kingdom.
And he gives this heap to those. He promises this to those who
love him. This is not the second time that
James has used this phrase. God promises a crown and a
Kingdom to those who love Him. We'll stop there with exposition
application. I have 7 exhortations #1
Christianity is not only being unstained with the sin of the
world, but also stained with the blood of Christ.
Christianity is not only being unstained with the sin of the
world, but also stained with the blood of Christ.
What keeps us from becoming modern day Pharisees?
Religious people who are pious, holy, moral, law abiding,
knowledgeable, doctrinal, but who do not help the helpless?
What keeps us from becoming like them?
What keeps us from becoming like the people that Jesus described?
For I was hungry, and you gave me no food.
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me naked, and you
did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit
me. What keeps us from becoming like
them? Passages like this.
What makes verse 27 remarkable?
James 127. What makes that remarkable is
that James doesn't write religion that is pure and
undefiled before God the Father. Is this to keep oneself
unstained from the world? That would make sense.
If you want to be pure and undefiled before God, do this,
keep yourself unstained from the world.
That would make sense. But that's not that all, James
writes. James first writes, visit or
care for orphans and widows and their affliction.
And what does that mean? It means this Christianity is
not only being unstained with the sin of the world, but also
stained with the blood of Christ.
With the heart of Christ, our goal is not only to wear white
and to show the world look how clean we are.
Our goal is also to have those white garments stained red with
the blood of Christ to show the world that Christ heart is for
the helpless and his heart is my heart.
Crisis called us to care for those who are in affliction.
This includes orphans, widows, the poor, the hungry, elderly,
people with disabilities, refugees, victims and violence,
the sick, those with mental illness, those who are
persecuted, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
And James gives two of these categories as examples.
Now he just lists 2, but I just listed several.
But let's look at the two that he listens.
These are the two that he lists #2 be a father to the fatherless
or a mother to the motherless. Be a father to the fatherless or
a mother to the motherless. One of the practical ways that
James writes that we can show our true faith is to visit
orphans, literally to care for them.
Now, 2000 years has passed and much has changed, right?
We're reading the text that's 2000 years old. 2000 years have
passed and a lot has changed. Most of the care for orphans
today is done at the government level or the nonprofit level.
Things like foster care, adoption services handle most of
this ministry now, right? Whereas it didn't exist then, it
does now. That's how most of it is handled
now. But that doesn't mean there
aren't ways for Christians to get involved.
Let's start with the practical. There are is there is a
spiritual involvement. There is a practical
involvement. Let's start with the practical
involvement. How can we care for orphans now,
practically of us five ways really quickly #1 adoption,
adoption. When couples go through
premarital counseling, I always tell them my second session of
premarital counseling is on family life.
And I tell every single couple, do not assume that you will be
able to have kids. Don't assume that even when
couples say yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
No, no, no, no, no. You say that and you're like,
but we will. Do not assume that you will be
able to have kids. About one out of every seven
couples cannot get pregnant. Statistically about one out of
every 7. And I always tell them the same
thing. If God ordains that you are not
able to have biological children, let me highly, highly
encourage you to adopt. Even if you are able to have
biological children, adoption is still a wonderful option.
I have known couples who have chosen to adopt one or two kids
before they had their own biological kids.
I had a professor at seminary. He adopted, they adopted two
kids. I always thought they couldn't
have kids. And then one day he's like, what
are you talking about? We can have kids.
I was like, OK. And they did.
They ended up having biological children.
After that, they said we wanted to adopt two kids first.
I've known couples who after having their own biological
children, they stopped and they said we'll now adopt after this.
That's one way #2 foster care. If you are not ready or you're
not able to adopt, foster care is also a wonderful option,
whether that's done at the government level, whether it's
done at the nonprofit level, or even if it's just family or
friends who need help. You may have family or friends
who mom or dad can't help out right now and and you can become
a foster family temporarily for them #3 there's local mentoring
or advocacy. There are often opportunities to
be a tutor or a mentor for giving.
One of the things that most of us, if not all of us can do is
to give. I remember reading this passage
several years ago. I, I was reading My Quiet Time
and I realized I was like, I'm not doing any of this.
I don't care for widows. I don't care for orphans.
I, I don't even, I mean, I, I don't even know if I care for
the poor. And I remember being convicted
to do something. I actually called up several
local orphanages in Seattle. I called them up and I said can
I volunteer and I mostly hit roadblocks.
I think they thought it was weirdo or something.
But why? Why is this 35 year old random
dude calling us saying can I volunteer?
I was like, OK, I hit Roblox, but I was like, I'm not
satisfied with doing nothing. So I decided at the very least,
let's start with giving. We now give to a Christian
organization called Antioch adoptions.
You may have heard of them before.
They're locally based here in Washington.
They provide free adoptions for families here.
So if you want to adopt they it's free.
I mean, and, and, and it's made free by donors.
So we give to them. In fact, if God leads you to
give to them, October is actually double impact month.
All donations are doubled. I don't like secretly work for
them or anything. Just you're like you.
And every year our church participates in Operation
Christmas Child. Now, not all of those children
are orphans, but some of them are.
And we, we do that every year. We, we send them shoe boxes to
help provide to them so they have something to look forward
to during Christmas time. One last 15 mission trips, we
have had at least two members, maybe more, who have taken
mission trips to both Africa and Mexico, and some of the trips
were to work with orphanages. Those are 5 practical ways that
you can actually do this Now on a spiritual level.
Not every Christian or new believer or seeker in the faith
has a spiritual father or mother.
You could consider taking up this role.
Not every person in the church grew up with a father and
mother. Or maybe they did, but their
father and mother were so emotionally distant that they
actually never knew the love of a father or mother.
I have met many. I've been at this church for 14
years and many of you have had a physical mother and father, but
you have actually never known a father and mother.
You've never known their love. You could consider taking up
this role. Paul was a spiritual father to
Timothy and Titus. Even the Apostle Paul wrote this
Greet Rufus chosen and the Lord also his mother who has been a
mother to me as well. 3 point #3 honour widows who are truly
widows. The second category that James
gives is widows. Now again, our society is quite
different than it was 2000 years ago.
Today we have things like Social Security, we have Medicare, we
have retirement savings, we have retirement homes, we have life
insurance payouts. And even many widows can still
work today. If if their husband dies, they
can still work. Now.
None of this was a reality 2000 years ago.
None of this was a reality. So what does it look like to
care for widows today? Well, let's start with the most
basic. Let's start with your mom or
possibly your dad as a widower. Not everybody has retirement
savings. Not everybody has life
insurance. Not everybody can work.
And Social Security, Who knows if it'll be around?
It's even if it is, it's barely enough to pay for groceries and
utilities. It's not much.
Paul writes in First Timothy 5. Three honor widows who are truly
widows. But if a widow has children or
grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their
own household and to make some return to their parents.
For this is pleasing in the sight of God.
Paul's point is that the church is not plan A, it's Plan B.
The family is plan A. If there is no plan A, then the
church becomes Plan B. But the family is plan A.
When God gave the commandment honor your father and mother, a
large part of that command was to care for them in their old
age, both financially and even physically, if possible.
Not always possible, but if possible.
But he says if a widow has no children, if a widow has no
grandchildren who can care for them or provide for them, then
he says the church is to step in and is to help.
Now, even if you don't have any family or don't have family,
your mom or your dad is not a widow or widower, there are
still ways that we can follow this command.
There's still ways we do it. One way, as I mentioned earlier,
is you can give again, several years back when I was reading
this passage, I wasn't just convicted about the orphans
piece. I was also convicted about the
widow's piece and I thought, what can I do with this?
So I got online. I was like, how can I give to
support widows? And I found a ministry of the
Southern Baptist Convention called Mission Dignity.
Mission Dignity. Here's what their website says.
Since 1918, Guidestone has been on a mission to provide dignity
to retirement age Southern Baptist ministers, workers and
their widows. We serve around 2800 individuals
each year by providing needed financial assistance to help pay
for housing, food and medical costs.
Because of this, these servants of the Lord continue to live
with dignity, independence, and often the ability to continue
serving. End Quote.
The average Southern Baptist minister in America makes very
little. You guys pay me well.
I want to be clear on that. You guys pay me way more.
The average Southern Baptist minister in places like Arkansas
or Missouri or North Dakota, they make very little.
And when they pass, their wives often have very little to live
on. This is a practice.
This is just one. There are other organizations.
This is just one way to practically care for widows.
Another way is to literally visit.
You could literally visit whether that is a nursing home,
a retirement home and assisted living home or someone at their
home. Just visiting and playing
checkers or talking about the weather or bringing a care
package is a tangible way to show the love of Christ to
widows and or widowers #4 The gospel produces more than do
gooders, it produces holy do gooders.
The gospel produces more than do gooders, it produces holy do
gooders. I asked the question earlier,
how do we keep from becoming modern day Pharisees?
Let me ask another question. How do we keep the church from
becoming nothing more than a humanitarian nonprofit, right?
I mean, there, up to this point, the sermon, there are some
people not probably in this church, but like if I was
preaching this in the South somewhere, somebody be like, oh,
here we go, we're going woke. I feel it.
Up to this point, the sermon, this is wow.
Many churches would take what I just said.
How do we keep the church from becoming nothing more than a
humanitarian nonprofit? What separates the church from
the Red Cross or UNICEF or the World Food Program?
What makes us different passages like these?
James writes that religion that is pure and undefilable for God
not only cares for widows and orphans in their afflictions,
but also keeps oneself unstained from the world.
Or another way to word this is the Gospel produces more than do
gooders, it produces holy do gooders.
It is not uncommon to come across churches, especially in
King County, who are actively involved in homeless ministry,
drug recovery, helping the poor, counseling services for women,
and yet they affirm homosexuality, transgender
abortion rights, and on and on. That is not uncommon.
It is not uncommon to hear about para churches or even churches
where they're raising funds for the poor or raising funds for
orphanages overseas and it turns out they're embezzling those
funds. The Gospel produces more than
people who do good. It produces holy people who do
good even on an individual level.
Let's just not let's talk about individually.
Even on an individual level. James's point is that doing good
doesn't atone for our sins. In the words, it's not a 0 sum
game where if I commit 5 sins today I need to go help 5
orphans. If I commit $0.05 tomorrow I
need to go help 5 widows. That's not how it works.
It does US0 good to hand out a cup of cold water if it's not
handed out with holy hands in Jesus name, eternally speaking,
it does a 0 good five. We are to show no partiality
because God shows no partiality. We are to show no partiality
because God shows no partiality, James writes.
My brothers show no partiality mean no favoritism.
And then he gives an example of where this may be happening.
Now, it could be real, It could be hypothetical.
It's not clear, but before we look at that, before we look at
that example, I want to point out the reason that we are to
show no partiality. Now James doesn't make that
reason here, but I want to point out the reason because this is
the main reason that we are to show no partiality.
And the reason is this because God shows no partiality.
Deuteronomy 10/17 For the Lord your God is not partial, and
takes no bribes. Second Chronicles 19, seven For
there was no injustice with the Lord of God, or partiality, or
taking bribes. Job 3419 would who shows no
partiality to Princess, nor regards the rich more than the
poor, for they are all the work of his hands.
Romans 211 For God shows no partiality.
Ephesians 69 and there is no partiality with him.
Can you imagine if God was partial?
Like, can you even wrap your mind around that?
Imagine if God was partial. Like what if God favored men
over women? Or women over men?
Sorry ladies, sorry men. What if he favored the rich over
the poor? Or the poor over the rich?
What if he favoured white people?
Or black people? Or Latinos?
Or Asians? What if he favoured moral people
over immoral people? What if he favoured immoral over
moral? Is that me?
You know, commit crimes? What if he favoured intelligent
people over unintelligent people?
What if he favored people who grew up in the church over
people who didn't grow up in the church?
Aren't you so glad that our God is not partial?
The clearest evidence of this is in the life of Jesus.
Just look at the life of Jesus and you will see a God who is
impartial. He eats with tax collectors and
sinners. He welcomes prostitutes.
He does not ignore the bleeding woman when he is on the way to
the ruler of the synagogue's house.
He does not ignore Zacchaeus, a man who was despised by all the
Jews. He does not choose any Pharisee
to be his disciple, but he chooses fisherman and tax
collectors. And he does not avoid the leper
and the demon possessed, but he runs to them.
Brother and sister, the reason that you and I will be in heaven
is because our God is not partial.
He shows no partiality. 6 Favoritism is not a personality
flaw, it is an evil flaw. It is not a part of our culture.
It is a part of our flesh. Whenever we do see favoritism or
partiality in the church, often it gets defended in one of two
ways. It's either a personality flaw.
Well, you know, I've always been partial to da, da, da, da, or
it's a part, or it gets defended by it's a part of our culture.
That's just a part of our culture, right?
It usually gets defended one of those two ways.
Growing up in the South, it was not uncommon for a church to be
predominantly white, and if another ethnicity stepped into
that church, they were often ignored or sometimes comments
were made to them. Now I'm not saying that because
I got it from Facebook. I'm saying it because I lived
it. Not I did it.
I I, I saw it. This is not just true for white
culture, though. This exists in every ethnicity
in some shape, form or fashion. I was talking to somebody the
other day and they were telling me they were they were Korean.
They were like, they don't like me because I'm Korean.
They were talking about Chinese people.
Even in this example in James, where a rich person comes in the
assembly and they are favored, they say, come sit over here in
this esteemed place. But then a poor person comes in.
They're told you can sit on the floor.
Now, this very well may have been a hypothetical example,
right? Very well made.
But we certainly have either witnessed this before, or maybe
we've heard stories of it, or maybe we didn't be an recipient
of it. Favoritism can creep into the
church in all kinds of ways, right?
We can favor extroverts over introverts.
We can favor attractive people over unattractive people.
You ever see a group of girls together?
Why is it that everybody in that group is attractive?
We can favorite leaders over followers.
We can favorite families over singles.
We can favorite educated over uneducated white collar over
blue collar. It also goes in reverse.
There's also a reverse discrimination where people look
down upon white collars because they grew up blue collar.
We can favor members over visitors, able body over
disabled, one ethnicity over another, men over women or women
over men, seniors over young people, or young people over
seniors. And when this happens in the
church, James writes, Have you not been made distinctions among
yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Favoritism is not a personality flaw.
It is an evil flaw. It is not a part of our culture.
It is a part of our flesh #7 last point.
God does show a righteous favoritism to the poor in
spirit. God does show a righteous
favoritism to the poor and spirit.
James is making the point that God does show favoritism in one
sense, but it's not based on outward metrics, it's based on
the heart, he writes. Has God not chosen those who are
poor in the world, meaning poor and spirit?
James is using this example to exhort the church to not make
the same mistake that Samuel and Jesse did.
Remember when Samuel went to go visit Jesse and Jesse paraded
all his sons in front of Samuel and Samuel and Jesse both
thought with each son, sure this is the next king.
Eliah for sure. He is 6/5 and 2:20 and looks
like Tom Brady and and this is definitely the next king and the
Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or the height
of his stature because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees not as a man sees man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
James's point is that if you're going to favor someone, favor
those who are poor in spirit. He even wants to make the point
don't favor the rich. Next week he's going to give an
argument for why you shouldn't favor the rich.
We'll look at that next week. James wants the church to stop
seeing people as a means to advance their own Kingdom.
I mean, why does he say you sit over here?
Right? Because they are a means to
advance their Kingdom. James wants the church to stop
seeing people as a means to advance their Kingdom and to
start seeing them as a potential heir of God's Kingdom.
In heaven. There is no class system, there
is no caste system, there is no socio economic status in heaven.
There's just a community of people who are all poor in
spirit. That's the only people that are
in heaven is those who are poor in spirit.
Favor them. Let's pray.