Today we continue our look at the epistle of Jesus’ half-brother James. If you recall, we ended last Sunday by James giving us some pretty direct words about what true faith is to look like. We saw that true faith doesn’t just stop with hearing the gospel, but that true faith means putting it into action as well. We were told to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” I said last week that the sad truth of the matter is that most folks who attend worship services on Sunday mornings have already moved on from the gospel message before lunch is even paid for and have turned their attention to what they really view as important, their secular work. Most self-proclaimed Christians are not doers (or even listeners for that matter), but hearers only. Now, I could just skip the sermon and go around the room and let everyone share how they went out in search of the lost this past week or tell me whether or not their heart remained on the gospel through Sunday lunch and all throughout the week, but I won’t do that. I prayed last week that we would all be placed in situations where we could minister to those in need, even if it meant that we had to be uncomfortable in our doing so. Well, did that happen for you? Or, did you just go throughout the week and remain isolated and insulated from the world around you? Some of you may answer yes, some no, and some maybe. Well, if you answered yes then good, if you answered no then you know better, and if you answered maybe, then we’re going to talk about you today.
However, before we get into that, we need to connect what James has said thus far with the text that we have for today in order to fully develop the full reach that our faith ought to have. James has already spoken about difficulties and blessings (trials of life) as being opportunities for growth and not excuses for our lack of faith. He’s already given us those words about our faith being worthless if we are able to stop it at a mere acknowledgment without action. Merely acknowledging the existence of God and acknowledging that Jesus is his Son, our Savior, isn’t nearly enough. Even Satan and the demons do that, and they aren’t saved. James opens this second chapter by saying, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” In other words, James calls us to go all out. He calls us to commit fully to the gospel and to give it all we have. This gospel isn’t just worthy of a little commitment, but of a full, complete, and total commitment. Let this be a little foretaste of what we’re going to say when we talk about those folks who were in the “maybe” or “no” camps in just a moment.
However, before James fully develops this notion of faith being all or nothing, he gives this little example of sin through the showing of favoritism between a poor man and a rich man entering some type of gathering. Now, Amy can attest to all of you in here that people don’t impress me. I don’t really care who you are or what you’ve done; you’re just a person to me. As my dad would always say to me, “We all put our pants on one leg at a time” (except for Thomas). I’ve never really understood the admiration that one person may have for another. I’m not talking about respect, that’s a different matter. I’m talking about being in awe of another person or catering to them for really no reason other than them being who they are. I’ve had lunch with billionaires, homeless folks, U.S. congressmen, addicts, fortune 500 CEO’s, convicts, professional athletes, and famous social figures. I’ve listened to a lot of them and I’ve joked with all of them. I’ve even made fun of some of them with them sitting at the table; obviously, not about the same things because all of their backgrounds were different, but ultimately we’re all human. We’re all created in the image of God (Imago Dei), and deserve the respect that goes with that. There is no inherent value within a person that makes them more or less worthy of our love and affection than any other person.
I love what James does here. After telling these Jewish Christians what true faith looks like, he gives them an example. If two guys walk into a building and one is dressed nicely and the other not-so-nicely, do you show preference? Well, if you do, then you have “become judges with evil thoughts” as James says. Think about where we sit today. If someone wearing a custom-tailored Italian suit walks in and sits somewhere in this room and someone else comes in off the streets, how many of you are going to rush to talk to the homeless man? I would guess not many of you, yet he’s probably the one more in need of what we are to offer as the church. James says that we are to love them both. “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 isn’t saying that only the poor will enter into heaven, but he’s saying that God’s children can be from both the rich and the poor. We also have to remember that the majority of Christians living during James’ time were poor, since it had yet to be completely accepted within government circles to follow Christ. Don’t fall into the trap of mistaking earthly treasures as a stamp of acceptance as one of God’s chosen. It’s so common for people to think that earthly success means favor with God, but such thinking isn’t only not biblical, it’s anti-biblical. James says that when we show this favoritism that we “have dishonored the poor man” and that we oppress him. This word that is translated oppress carries with is a meaning of the oppressive work of Satan. In other words, by showing favoritism to one, you are sending the message to the other that he is not important. By oppressing this man, you are carrying out the work of Satan, which is to counter to the work of God.
So, let’s look at how this stacks up with what James has called us to do already thus far in his epistle. We were told to bridle our tongue (which includes our actions as well as our words), to care for the orphaned and widowed (i.e., the poor), and to keep ourselves unstained from the outside world. Well, when we show favoritism (and as a result show another person that he is of lesser value), then we have already violated all three of these markers for true faith that James has given us. After all, as James points out in verse 8, if we were fulfilling all of these things, then we would be fulfilling part of what Jesus gave us as the Great Commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the part of that commandment that pertains to how we treat others. None of us would want to be ignored or told that someone else was more important than we are, so why would we think it is okay to do that to someone else? Yet, we do it every single day.
Now, I’m well aware at how many of you will probably view favoritism, and I can predict some of the comments that may come about from this discussion. “Yeah Tommy, I understand that favoritism is wrong, but it’s not really that bad. After all, it’s not like it’s something serious like theft, adultery, or even murder. It’s only human nature to tend to care more for those that are similar to us.” Well, hold on just a minute before you start to think that. “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 other words, sin, no matter how big or how small, is still sin, and it still places us outside of complete conformity to God’s will. It’s difficult for us to understand because of the way that things are structured in this world. Look at it like this; I have received seven civil (driving) citations in my life for speeding, wrong-way on a one-way street, and failing to stop at a stop sign. That’s not very good, but I have never been convicted of a crime. If I have to fill something out asking if I have committed any crimes then I’m free to mark no because of what we consider to be a distinction between a crime and a civil citation. However, if the question was, “have police ever had to be involved to prevent you from doing or to stop you from doing something outside of the law?” then the answer would be yes. Myself and a convicted felon would both mark the same box.
Now, there’s no one who is going to argue that a speeding ticket (even 7 of them) is in any way comparable to burglary or murder on the scale of severity. However, there is no debate that both of them are things that involved the breaking of the law. Well, that’s what sin is; it’s the breaking of the law of God. Some sins are indeed more heinous than others, there’s no denying that. However, even in the smallest sin a serious offense is made against God. To sin at any point (small or large) is to sin against the law and therefore against God, the Lawgiver. And any sin whatsoever (even the civil citations of God’s law) places us outside of God’s favor and places upon us condemnation and wrath. James is telling us that for us to abhor one sin and excuse another is a false view of God’s law. “For he who said ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not commit murder.’” The same God who said that we should not murder is the same one who told us to keep the Sabbath holy. The same God who told us not to commit adultery is the same one who said that we are to give him our firstfruits. Do you see where James is going with this? If you’re going to live by the law then that’s great, but you have to keep every jot and tittle of it. One little mistake, even a very tiny and seemingly insignificant misstep from the law, and you stand completely condemned by God.
So, where does all of this fit in to our discussion about true faith being one that works as we look at this epistle? Well, look at vv. 12-13, “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Do you remember what I said last Sunday the phrase “law of liberty” represents? It represents the gospel, the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his conquering of sin and death. And what this means for us is that although God is never obligated to show mercy, he freely chooses to do so in great measure. As Romans 9:15 says, God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, which doesn’t depend on us but upon him. However, we are commanded by his law to temper justice with mercy. Refusal to do so will cause us to loss that mercy. In other words, we are to show mercy to others as a result of God’s showing us mercy. That’s the balance between faith and works. Remember the C.S. Lewis quote about faith and works being blades of a pair of scissors. We can’t stop at head knowledge.
In other words, our good works ought to be the outpouring of love and gratitude that we have for God because of our being saved based on the gospel (i.e. Jesus) and not the law. And when we show this gratitude, we are not to do so partially, but with all that we have. When someone thanks you for something that you’ve done, or if you send one of your kids to go thank someone for giving them a present, you don’t want them to just walk up to someone and give a half-hearted thanks. No, you want them to give a look-in-the-eyes whole-hearted thank you. You want there to be a totality of thanks and not a partiality. Again, there’s a big world out there with thousands upon thousands of opportunities for us to show our gratitude to God. Are you going to seize one of those opportunities? Yes? No? Maybe? Well, building off of the past two weeks, faith that can be turned on and off like a light switch is not true faith. And faith that does not call us to be both hearers and doers of God’s word is a dead faith and of no value. So, if we aren’t to be able to silence our faith and the right manifestation of our faith is to be our works, which are our thanks to God, then how in the world could our answer not be “yes”? How in the world could we not go out into this world and find opportunities for witnessing, serving, loving, and showing the grace and mercy of Christ? That is, we have true faith, without which we stand hopeless and destitute. Apart from Jesus and his saving work, we’re as good as dead. Don’t have a dead faith, but have a right faith, a saving faith, that shows our gratitude by carrying out the works of God. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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