James 2:1-7...What more do we learn about God?...sermon post


James is giving us a lesson about how we are to respond by showing us what God is like.  

Previously we looked at the command for the Christian not to say when tempted, "I am being tempted by God" (1.13).  As a Christian we cannot say this because God cannot be tempted with evil because He is holy and secondly, because God tempts no one, rather He provides the way of escape from temptation.

James addresses another issue this week about what the Christian is not to do.  The Christian cannot hold in one hand the practice of showing partiality toward others while holding in the other hand a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (2.1).  Why not?  The answer provided by James is another look at our God.

God is impartial when it comes to salvation - Jew or Greek.

God is impartial when it comes to judgment - you reap what you sow.

God is impartial when it comes to social standing - rich or poor.

God is impartial when it comes to discipline - no loophole for sin.

Since God is impartial, we who are His children are to be impartial.  James heightens the command with an illustration that takes us to our "home turf," the assembly of the church body.  What is going on when different people, rich or poor, enter our assembly?  Do we treat them differently (partiality) because of their outward appearance?  The odd man out in James' illustration is the poor man in shabby clothing.  Hence we learn another thing about our God.

Christ (God) loves His bride whether physically rich or physically poor and He has made provisions for the physically poor through the actions of His children.  An action of the Christian is to see the poor (physically or otherwise) around themselves and reach out to them appropriately.

Jesus offers the rich young ruler to follow Him and instructs him to give what he has to the poor.  Zacchaeus, down from the sycamore tree and following Jesus, offers half of what he has to the poor.  Judas Iscariot criticizes the use of the oil poured on Jesus' feet because it could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  This last example gives you a little glimpse of what did happen with the money in Jesus' ministry purse even though we learn that Judas Iscariot was embezzling off the top.  

This sermon bleeds into the next one but it amazes me how straightforward James is as he speaks through this letter, read as a sermon, to the 1st century Christians who were mainly Jewish.  This type of partiality is wrong.  In this section he calls it "dishonoring" the one being looked down upon and in the next section he calls it "sin."

I finish with the questions of:  What do I see? or Who do I see?  If it is "What do I see?" then I am looking at the other with my physical eyes.  If it is "Who do I see?" then I am looking at the other with my spiritual eyes.  I am afraid we make judgments on what we see and therefore not get to know who God has brought before us.  It is more than just a "you lose" mentality because you allowed your judgment of the outward appearance to hinder the opportunity to see what God might do through the interaction (I have always found the benefit goes both ways).  James says this type of action of the Christian and church body is flat out wrong.  (And to think he is only in the bull pen getting warmed up!)

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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