James 2:1-13

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? ² For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. ³ If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well,⁴ doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? ⁵ Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear? ⁸ Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. ¹⁰ For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. ¹¹ For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law. ¹² So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. ¹³ There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Not only should we treat people based on God’s purposes, but we should also:

3. Treat people based on Christ’s commandments (2:8-11)

Once again, James goes back to the words of Jesus. In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus was confronted by an expert in the Religious law who pretended to be interested in truth but was really trying to trap Jesus: “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Jesus spoke truth into this trap and in a few sentences he summed up the entire law, reducing the 10 commandments down to 2. The first 4 commandments deal with the way we are supposed to love God. While the next 6 deal with the way we are supposed to love each other. Everything that God had revealed in His Word to that point dealt with how we should treat Him and others. When we treat others the wrong way, it violates God’s Word, not just part of it but all of it. Today we are trying to address social issues through a worldly system instead of through the Word. We are protesting social injustice by kneeling during the National anthem instead of kneeling to the King of Kings. Why do we treat others people like trash because we have disregarded and trashed God’s truth. Now before you get carried away with judging those who are kneeling, I have a question for you. Why do we get so worked up over the American flag being disrespected and yet have no problem dragging the name of Christ through the mud in the way that we live? In some of Jesus last words to His disciples before He was betrayed, He told them in John 13:34-35: “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” This is what James calls the royal law, and when we violate that law, we violate the Word of God. So, is it really that big of a deal when we show preference to people? Is it really that big of a deal when we treat people unfairly? I mean, what’s the harm in a little gossip? What’s the harm in only talking to people I like? Or in ignoring difficult people, or people who are different? What’s the harm in criticizing or putting other people down? What’s the harm in bragging about myself to make me look good? What’s the harm in showing partiality and setting myself up as judge and jury as to who is worthy and who is not worthy? Well is it loving, is it in obedience to Christ’s commands or am I displaying disobedience? If it’s not following His commands, then it’s breaking His commands. And verse 10 says that if you break one commandment, you’ve broken the whole law. James paints a sobering picture revealing God’s perspective on the subject. That when we fail to treat others right, spiritually we are just as guilty before God as if we had committed adultery. How serious a sin is mistreating people James likens it to murder. Now we might think that those “big sins” adultery and murder have way more temporal consequences because they’re more obvious in destroyed lives and broken homes. But what happens when we don’t treat people right? Think back to James illustration of the rich and poor man who walked into the Jerusalem church. Do you think that poor man is going to come back to church? Will he be drawn to Christ or driven away? What about the rich man, is he going to be pointed to Christ? Or because everybody else is focused on his wealth, that’s what he will focus on too? Treating others, the right way is serious business, serious enough that He reiterated it by telling us it was His only new commandment.

James 2:1-13

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? ² For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. ³ If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well,⁴ doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? ⁵ Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear? ⁸ Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. ¹⁰ For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. ¹¹ For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law. ¹² So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. ¹³ There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Instead of treating others based on man’s motives we need to:

2. Treat people based on God’s purposes (2:5-7)

James’ words here are almost a quote from the first Beatitude Jesus opened His Sermon on the Mount with in Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Does that mean that we have to sell everything and go live in a monastery? No, that misses the point. The point is that God has a purpose in the way He treats people. Unfortunately, so does man in his natural state. How many times have you heard the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves?” Sadly, many Christians think that this is a quote from the Bible, which is sad on a couple of counts. First, it’s sad because people aren’t familiar enough with their Bible to recognize what’s in it and what’s not. But the saddest part is that we would believe a phrase that goes completely contrary to the entire message of the Bible. Look God isn’t there to give us a boost when we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. No, He takes people who are sinners and makes them saints. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Why would God treat us that way? Why does He exalt the humble and humble the exalted? Ephesians 1:5-6 tells us: “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.” God treats people with grace so that He gets the glory and we exalt Him above all. Above all circumstances, above all trials, above all tests. While God’s purpose is that He will be exalted, apart from Him, our purpose is that we will be exalted. It goes back to our innate selfishness. Verse 6 says that we despised the poor. Why do we look down on those who have less than we do? Why do we focus on the flaws of others? Why do we gossip about people who are having troubles? Why do we highlight negative things about each other? Why do we cut and bite and tear at each other? Because we’re trying to exalt ourselves. An easy way to look big is to belittle those around you. Think about your conversations over the last week. Did you spend more words exalting God or yourself? God is not exalted by words that despise, words that oppress, words which show partiality and exalt. If you call yourself a Christian, don’t you think God is the one who should be exalted by the way you treat others not you? Are you making it about your preference or God’s purpose? Are you treat others in light of God’s purpose and exulting people made in His image or self? You will either pursue people based on God’s purpose or mans. I want to encourage you to take some time to examine the way you talk to and treat those in your family. Are you kind and loving, or do you make your interactions more about self than serving? It’s easy to show partiality in our families it’s one of the generational sins we see passed down from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob. They all had a favorite son and it led to jealousy and hatred. We all struggle with selfishness, and sometimes we treat those closest to us worse than those furthest from us. So, make a commitment to care for those in your care, to be Jesus and not a jerk. So how are you treating those around you? Are you treat them based on God’s purposes or man’s motives?