James 2:1-13, "What's Your Glory?"

James chapter 2 verses 1 to 13, hear the word of the Lord. 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 a 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.

Well, you say to 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? 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. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who would drag you into court and. Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You were doing well 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. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder if you do not commit adultery. But do murder you have become a transgressor of the law.

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. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word.

Well our North Carolinians and Virginians too for that matter, I guess proud of their basketball. Because they're good at it. Or are they good at it? Because they're proud of it. Our Alabamians proud of their football because they're good at it.

Are they good at it because they're proud of it. Our Singaporeans proud of their wealth because they're wealthy. Are they wealthy? Because they're proud of wealth. Our Chinese proud of their culture and civilization because they have a great one.

Or do they have a great one because they're proud of it. Are Americans proud of their freedom because they're free or are they free because they're proud of freedom? Obviously Americans would be proud of their freedom or Chinese proud of their culture and history if they if they didn't feel they had A lot to be proud of.

Alabamians might be proud of their basketball if they had a decent team and I better leave, North Carolina alone. People are proud of something that that's the way we speak. That's our terminology. Which makes it kind of difficult for us because Bible condemns pride.

But I don't think that's the way we're using proud of when we talk like that. But people are proud of something if they feel that is something great to be proud of. Which begs the question then what is great to be proud of?

Well the way the Bible speaks of that of that thing that is great to be proud of is where the word glory. Glory in the Old Testament is literally heaviness. It's weightiness. It's important or it is self is importance.

It's what makes the one who has it Important you have glory. You're important. Well, then what is glory? What is glorious so North Carolinians think college basketball is the most important glorious? Because not coincidentally they have some of the best college basketball teams.

If you're the best at football. You'll probably think that is glorious. If you have a lot of money. You probably think that is what gives you weight makes you a big shot. Being educated is glorious. You'll pursue degrees and hang them on your wall.

If the beautiful girlfriend or boyfriend is what's glorious having that that relationship. People won't rest until they can post that adorable profile. Picture of themselves and their sweetheart cheek-to-cheek on their social media account.

Maybe it's your family. Right a lot of cultures think family is glorious. Confucian cultures family is what makes for glory and even in here in the u .s. You know, the people say We need to focus on the family because that's what that's where your glory comes from.

Proverbs chapter 20 verse 29 says the glory of young men is their strength. Because they have a lot of it or at least they can and the splendor of old men. Is their gray hair? Well, that's a different culture, isn't it?

May and our baby in our culture. We Say things like, you know, I've forgotten more about life than you even have learned so far. I've been around the block a few times, you know, I'm old enough to be your father.

Something like that. It's just proud of their Years, even if they buy this stuff from the drugstore to make their hair not so great. Something is your glory if that's what gives you weight gives you respect.

Importance. So what is it you think gives you weight? Of course, it's not so simple that everyone just feels proud of whatever they have. Some people don't have what they think will give them respect and and crave it.

They want that glorious thing that money that talent that degree and work hard to get it. I remember like 2005 2006 him some guy on TV Watching an Alabama game Alabama was just another mediocre team and some sports commentator was commenting that these Alabama These are crazy Alabama fans.

Just got to get used to the fact that they'll never go back to the glory days. When they were the best team around and I've listened to that guy I thought that guy doesn't know anything about Alabama people not he doesn't have a clue.

I Know exactly what a guy that believes in Alabama is. He believes in Alabama. He believes in Alabama because he believes in Alabama. And that's not surprising. He probably doesn't believe in Alabama.

I mean that's that's a humane thing. I mean that's that's a humane thing. He believes in Alabama, but look at the way Alabama is. It's not about the money they make it's not about the money. But what?

Where the glory is, in basketball, not in running. And so he tried to become another basketball player. And there's just too much competition. The glory isn't there in basketball. In China, Ding Xiaoping is supposed to have said, although I don't really know if he said it or not, early in his leadership of China, to get rich is glorious.

Now, he said that, said to have said that, in the late 1970s or early 1980s, before China had begun to get rich, he said that as an incentive, to signal to the people that they were now free to get rich, to pursue wealth.

It was now the glory they could go out and get, even if most of the people were still poor at the time. People are very capable of believing that something is the thing to be proud of, the thing that is glorious, even if they don't have it yet.

So what's your glory?

Is it money?

Is that why you pursue it? You know, not just to pay your bills and have a place to live, but you kind of agree with Ding Xiaoping to get rich is glorious. Or is it that adorable relationship? So that's why you crave it.

Or is it athletic prowess? It's not, maybe if not for yourself, so you know, you're not gonna be the great athlete, so you're not going to the gym every day, but your team, by association, can give you the glory, right?

Is that what you're counting on? Maybe that's why. Are you counting down the days for the basketball season to start? Five more, four more weeks, however long it is. My glory's coming back. Are you loving this current football season?

Are you saying, no, that's so juvenile. My money is for the family, the sports, yeah, the kids like to watch, the family likes to watch our sports. The family is the glory.

Or is it something else?

What's your glory?

Whatever it is, that will shape what you pour your money, your time, your energy, your interest, and your life into. Your glory is what you pursue. We see that here in James, what we just read, in two broad parts.

First the glory, then the mercy. Sorry I didn't rhyme or alliterate or anything. James doesn't make any secret of what the glory is in verse one, he just says it right out. But the translations, I don't think, show it well.

He's making a practical case here, a specific application that his brothers and sisters, us, should not show partiality in the church, and he gives us the reason why not to show partiality, and not to prefer one people over another, as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice that, as you're in the process, you're holding faith in the Lord Jesus, you cannot be partial to one kind of people over another. Those two are contrary to each other. It is faith versus favoritism.

Those two things should not coexist. Believing in Jesus and preferring one kind of people over another, they cannot go together because, he says at the end of verse one,.

Jesus is the glory.

That's what it literally says in Greek. Sometimes I'm really glad I took Greek. The ESV in some other translations translates it here, like here, the Lord of glory, they're trying to make it sound good and smooth English, but the word Lord is not repeated there.

It occurs once where we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, but it doesn't occur again with glory. Like in here, it doesn't say Lord of glory. The NIV translates it as our glorious, hold faith in our glorious Lord, trying to make glory modify Lord as an adjective, which is okay, I think.

It's probably, I think actually better here than the ESV, but what it literally says is here, don't be partial to certain people. As you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory. He's saying Jesus is the glory.

That's why we're not to show partiality to certain people. You know, if our glory is college football and Nick Saban enters here, wow, you know, the maestro, the great champion of college football, well, we give him glory, right?

We greet him with a special, he's especially important. We give him the best seat. If there is a best seat, I don't know what seat that is here, but if it was basketball, maybe you'd do the same for Coach K or whoever.

If it's political power, it's being prominent. When the president comes in here, well, we fall all over ourselves trying to host him, you know, trying to make him special, have him come up here, give some words.

If it's money, then we prefer the rich. You know, someone comes driving up here in a Rolls Royce, nice suit, man, we want him to stay. If it's social status, that's what we crave, what we think the glory is, then we want above all, you know, the doctors, the lawyers, the PhDs, the CEOs, we want the somebodies.

We want a church full of somebodies. Maybe they get quickly made deacons and elders because they're somebody while other lowly faithful members get ignored even after years of faithful service. I know of someone in Yanceyville that goes all the way to Durham to go to church because that church there in Durham is full of professional people, full of somebodies, people with degrees and high incomes driving to churches in their Rolls Royces.

And that person doesn't want to be associated with, you know, a church full of lowly wage earners. What in the world? Some of them don't even have college degrees. Can you imagine sitting with such riffraff?

Their glory is the status, the education, the position, the income. And so they will pass dozens of churches on their way so they can go wallow in that glory. James says, no, Jesus is the glory. And James gives a specific example, starting in verse two.

A visitor comes to church, dressed in expensive clothes in their day, wearing a gold ring, a fine suit. You know, in our day, maybe a $5 ,000 Italian suit. Another visitor comes in at the same time wearing shabby clothes.

He looks homeless. He's one of those guys you recognize. You know, there's a few of them, at least one of them anyway, I recognize always walking up and down the streets.

In Yanceyville.

Or maybe some guy you've seen panhandling in Danville. Or maybe one of our gym guys comes to church, you know, with sagging pants. Don't you hate that fashion statement? I mean, that's gotta be, that's the dumbest looking fashion statement I think in history.

Maybe, I'm not sure, it's that or the wigs. You know, they wore like 300 years ago. I mean, you look at those pictures of men with wigs on, that looks so dumb too. I think, you know, it's debatable. But I think I'd go with the sagging pants, that's worse.

You pay attention to those, the one with a nice suit. Give them a visitor packet. We show them, I don't know where the good seat is, but we show them whatever it is. Everybody tries to be friendly to him.

We think, you know, if we can only get a few more like him, get him and a few more like him to come and stay, we'll be able to build a proper sanctuary. Well, I'd be sitting in a gym anymore. The gym guy though, you know, over there with his sagging pants, well, he can go play basketball for all we care until the service starts at least.

And where he sits after that, who cares? If he even stays there at all, who cares? Of course, he's gonna have to lift up his pants, right? You know, in our early years here, we did in fact have a gym guy visit us on Sunday morning with the obligatory sagging pants.

And a couple of members, former members now, made an issue out of it, confronted him about it. I remember even one, I can just see it in my mind, right over there, chasing the guy, trying to take the basketball away from him because he's not gonna be allowed to play basketball until he raises up his pants.

We tried to compromise at the time, which maybe would have been a mistake on our part. Tried to explain to both sides. Mary even bought the guy a good pair of basketball shorts. So even if he sagged his pants, it was just basketball shorts showing.

When you say, why don't you have a long shirt, you know, tuck it so you can sag your pants under your shirt and we don't see it, you know, this kind of stuff. Looking back on it, I'm just so ashamed. I'm ashamed we had members of this church who did that.

One of the members who did that had a son's girlfriend who came to church about the same time with a top that left very little to the imagination. But that was okay with them, I guess. Just not the sagging pants.

Why, what's the difference? Well, they were making distinctions. James calls it in verse four. They thought they were valid distinctions. You know, they desperately did not want to be part of a church where guys could come with sagging pants.

That's disreputable.

That's gangster.

And they don't mean that in a good way. It's shameful. It's the opposite of glorious. James says that what is shameful is your distinctions. In verse four, we've made distinctions. And that's the same word there as he used in chapter one for the double-minded.

In one mind, we say Jesus is our Lord, Jesus is our glory. And in another, we say being reputable, being sophisticated, being well-mannered, being upper-class, being somebody, that's our glory. That's what counts.

A divided mind has been shown by the different treatment. The divided treatment we give to different people depending on how glorious the world says they are. The sagging pants guys are at the bottom.

Doctors, lawyers, CEOs, politicians. They're at the top. We want more of them. I once went to a church in Birmingham, Alabama where a senator spoke. He gave a sermon. Now, do you think the senator was the most godly, most biblically sound preacher that they could find that day?

Is that why he spoke? You've made distinctions among yourselves in the assembly, the church, and become judges with evil thoughts. Evil thinking judges, James says.

Strong words, isn't it?

We might think, come on, James. What's so evil about recognizing obvious differences? One is wealthy and he can help us have a bigger budget and the other, come on, he really doesn't have anything to offer us.

In fact, we'll probably end up having to give to him. We need those wealthy people for the good of the kingdom, for our budget, for the things we can buy with it,.

His money.

That's the evil thoughts that James condemns. Come on, we think. What's so evil about that? We need rich people to help us pay our bills. We need respectable people. You know, their respectableness will wear off on us and we'll be looked up to.

So you're judging then. You're deciding based on your criteria you made up about who deserves respect, who has, quote, glory. You're judging what you think you need. And worst of all, you're overlooking who your real glory is.

The real evil thought is that thought that says, the Jesus we hold in our faith isn't glorious enough. Mark Devers says in Capitol Hill that it was, or maybe still is, for all I know, that full of ministries are aimed at, quote, influencing the influencers, you know, reaching the powerful, shaping the culture by shaping those who shape the culture.

And of course, if you're gonna go be, you know, be a witness to the congressmen and senators and stuff like that, you gotta have a status that's equal to theirs, which means you need to have an income that's equal to theirs and drive like they do, right?

So we gotta fund that.

We used to make fun of beach ministries because we know that was, you know, I wanna go to the beach and witness to the girls there. You know what that's about. Meanwhile, we still can't find anyone except for that one Chinese church in Houston who is really interested in helping.

A small church that tries to reach the local, mostly poor kids.

Why is that, you think?

You know, in the church business, members, or I should say numbers, are our glory. Numbers are the glory of churches often these days. The bigger the church, the more people, the more budget, the bigger buildings, maybe multiple campuses linked by video, the more glory.

And so the more respect is given. The pastor then gets more invitations to speak at conferences, sell books, to be somebody, and of course that all wears off at us, and more numbers, it's glory. When we were getting started about 10 years ago, I spent a lot of time, you wouldn't believe all this time, you wouldn't believe the number of emails and stuff I sent.

I spent a lot of time trying to get help for us from outside, from denominations and other organizations. I even went to a conference in Houston on planting churches. Mainly, the main intention on going to that conference was to get help for us.

We eventually did get help from Houston, ironically, but not from anyone attached to that conference. While I was at the conference, Mary was invited to go see this Chinese church there, and that's where we got our help.

What I heard there when I went to that conference, from the pastor of this large church that was hosting the conference, the pastor there, big church, about how when he applied to be part of the organization, all right, big church, lots of numbers, the national head of the organization comes to him to talk to him and accept him.

When it came our time to apply, no one ever came to us. I had to go to them in Raleigh. I didn't get to meet, certainly not with a national head, you're kidding, I'm a nobody, and not even with a regional head.

Some of his assistants talked to me. We're small, we didn't deserve much attention.

Small means no glory.

To be fair, well, we can say, well, they can't possibly go to every little church plant that tries to apply for help. Yeah, maybe, maybe that explains why they didn't come to us, but what explains why the national head went to the big church?

I think if we had a few hundred more members, we'd have all kinds of people interested in, quote, helping us. James says favoritism ought not to be because Jesus is our glory. If Jesus is our glory, then why are you, these people here, why are you pursuing the rich or the powerful or the connected, the accomplished?

You occasionally hear Christians say, you know, if we can only get so-and-so, that celebrity converted, and he'll testify, and then people out there in the world, then they'll perk up and then they'll listen and then they'll be converted.

The so-and-sos they so desperately want are the ones they think have the most glory. You know, the rock stars or the movie stars or the great athletes. You know, if only Metallica or Jay-Z would get converted or Tom Hanks or LeBron James would become Christian, then we'd have glory, their glory.

Can you imagine LeBron James' glory wearing off on us? We'd finally have something glorious. If LeBron James would be with us, people would pay attention and millions would be saved and the kingdom would come.

That's what they imply. James says, you know, we've already got the superstar.

Don't you know?

We already have glory. If you think you need the stars of the world, the wealthy or the connected or the somebodies, then you're missing Jesus. You can't hold simultaneously faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be desperately looking for glory from the world, from the rich to fundability project or from the professors and the professionals to make us high class.

You can't do both at the same time, holding faith in Jesus while with the same hands trying to grasp for the glory of the world. Because if you do, you show you don't understand who that Jesus you're supposed to be holding on to is.

The one you claim to hold in faith, who is he?

He's the glory.

Listen, James says in verse five, to his beloved, again, he's affectionate. Yeah, he's those strong terms of rebuke. You become judges with evil thoughts, evil thinking judges, but then warm terms of love, my loved brothers and sisters.

You wanna know why else you shouldn't make a distinction? There's several reasons here. First, most importantly, Jesus is our glory. But why we shouldn't make distinctions? These are our kind of people.

We want more like them. These others, not so much. Because, well, first, most importantly, Jesus is our glory. But second, God has chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.

Notice again in James, the sovereignty of God there. Those who have faith and who inherit his kingdom are that way, are believers who inherit his kingdom, ultimately, because God chose them.

God chose.

Now, sure, they made their choices, but God chose them. God chose the mostly poor. God chose the poor. Now, sure, they chose him too, but they did that. They chose him because, first, from eternity past, God chose them.

Notice the verb tense there in verse five. God has chosen. In other words, the choosing is already done. The choice has already been made. It's settled by God. And he chose for his own glory, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. No one comes, I'm so proud of what I am before you, God.

No, he doesn't choose those kind. And yet we still are often scrambling around looking for something to be proud of. But Jesus is our glory. Here he chose the poor to be rich in faith, to have a lot of faith in Jesus, and to be heirs, like a rich kid is an heir of his or her parents' wealth.

So we whom he has chosen as heirs of the kingdom, that means we will inherit that kingdom. And since God's kingdom will bring every enemy, even death, every thought captive, every kingdom, the republics, the commonwealths, every country, all the world and all it contains, the kingdoms of this world have become or will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

And we inherit that kingdom. Then we, as the father's heirs, will inherit all things. All things are yours, Paul says. He has here, at the end of verse five, promised that all-encompassing kingdom to those who love him.

That's a lot of wealth coming for you. Imagine if you saw a will, and there you are, stated in the will, all my wealth is being, what is it, bequeathed, I guess is the fancy word, bequeathed to, and there's your name.

And this person is a billionaire. And you would think, man, I'm set. Maybe for right now, I'm getting by, but when I get this inheritance, I'm set. That's what we have. All things are yours. It's settled, it's yours.

So we have a lot of wealth coming our way, more than enough to keep us from so craving the crumbs that the local rich people have that we feel like we have to cater to them, hoping to maybe get a crumb or two to follow our way.

So don't dishonor the poor, the nobodies, the gangster wannabes with their ridiculous sagging pants. You might wanna give them a fashion tip if they'll trust you, but don't dishonor them by treating them with no honor.

After all, he says in verses six to seven, it's the rich who often don't share our values, who wield their money only for themselves, who will sue you if you get in their way, they will. You don't think they will?

They will.

They'll charge you, overcharge you if they get a monopoly, who will squeeze you, who make laws that benefit them and not us, who often blaspheme the name of Jesus. You know, just two weeks ago on the news, I heard a story from a man, happened to be Oliver North, complaining about how that senator that I heard give that sermon in that church in Birmingham, Alabama, that senator that that church put in that prominent place had slandered him, had lied about him in public.

We crave their approval, that their worldly glory would wear off on us. And so we overlook their behavior.

What's your glory?

James is going on, driving home this key point. It's really just one big point in this whole passage. That point is the evil of us choosing who we will prefer in church. These are our kind of people, not those.

People used to do that based on race. I don't think not so much anymore, at least probably do in some places,.

But not so much.

Now we're back to, we're pretty much back to what James was talking about, the money, the status. We want those who have it. He condemns that because first, Jesus is the glory. Second, God chose the poor.

Third, look at the way these glorious people you're pursuing often treat you, often behave, and the way they treat the name of Jesus. And now, finally, what about, lest we forget, mercy, the command to love our neighbors as ourself.

What about mercy? Have we forgotten about that? If you really fulfill the royal law, the law of the King, King Jesus, who is the glory, if you keep his law, and then James quotes it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

If you do that, you're doing well. But notice the command, according from Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18, according to the scripture, we've heard it so much. No, love your neighbor as yourself. You probably stopped thinking about it.

It's only, we just, okay, I heard that a million times. But it's love your neighbor as yourself. It's not as so many people think, it's kind of a generic, just love everybody. That's kind of what it means, but it's not really what it says.

That's too general. That's too shapeless. And so you could say, you know, I love everybody. That's why I'm ignoring this person right in front of me, because I love these other people over the horizon that I'm not seeing right now.

But this person in front of me who needs me, forget you, I love those other people over there. I want good things for everyone. Even if I'm ignoring these specific people who are right there in front of me.

The Lord Jesus illustrated that in the parable of the Good Samaritan. You know, the despised half-breed Samaritan treated the wounded assault victim as a neighbor. The priest and the Levite thought they'd go, they would go love someone else.

They're gonna go love their families or love their friends they're going to see. They're gonna go love the people of their own choosing. Why should I have to help? And they're probably thinking to themselves, why should I have to help this moaning, bleeding victim just because I happen to be traveling here when he's in need?

Why should I, why is it my problem? They were playing favorites. The people in the church who were falling all over themselves to impress the rich guy while chasing off the kid with the sagging pants were doing the same.

They were playing favorites for their own agenda. They weren't loving whoever the Lord put in front of them. But if you love your neighbor, whoever's beside you, and that's often out of our control. If you do that, then you're not going to show partiality.

If you do in verse nine, you are committing sin. Notice that in verse nine. That's not my interpretation of the verse. That's what it says. You are committing sin. If you're catering to the wealthy guy, having the senator speak, nevermind that he slanders people, chasing after the stars of the world while at the same time chasing away the pants saggers, having the people of another race sit back there, sit in the balcony, just be quiet.

You're treating some differently because they're not of the kind you want more of. You are convicted by the law as transgressors. The law is love your neighbor as yourself. You wouldn't want to be treated like that.

You wouldn't want someone to wag, be quiet and go sit up on the balcony. So if you treat some people like that, you have broken the law. And if you've broken that law, even if you've kept everything else perfectly, all 612 other laws, you've broken them all.

It's not like school, where you can miss 30 to 40 of the exam and still pass. And this exam, God's exam, if we miss even one, even one time, we failed. You either get 100%, which nobody does, or 0%.

That's because for, he explains it, why breaking one is breaking them all in verse 10, for he who said, that's key. He who said, notice from whom the command comes. Do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder.

That is if you murder or play favorites in the church because you really want to have some of those people, their glory, the glory of the senators and the billionaires wear off on you. Well, you don't care about the gangster wannabes or the homeless.

Then you broken the command of the one who said it. He commanded it. You broke it. You flouted his authority. You didn't care what he said. You're gonna do what you want to do. You violated him. He said, do this, but you do something else.

And so you show that you don't submit to God. You don't keep his word. He said it, but you cared more about your own wishes where you could get some glory from the world. You don't respect him and you don't love him.

Do we then earn his mercy by being merciful?

Okay, that's it.

I gotta be merciful to other people to get mercy from God. Is it just like that? Or maybe we can hide behind mercy even if our lives are no different. We just say mercy and we just go about our lives being completely unmerciful to everyone around us.

What do we do? Well, yes, we need now a responsive obedience to keep God's commands. That is, we respond to his previous mercy to us by being merciful. We don't say, well, I depend on mercy. I've already broken the law, so I don't even need to try to keep it anymore.

I don't even need to try to be merciful anymore because it's already broken, nevermind. And verse 12 says, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. You might say, well, I'm not gonna be judged by the law.

I'm free from the law.

Probably even a song that goes that way, right?

Well, that's true, sort of. He doesn't say, James is not saying you'll be justified, you'll be saved by the law, but he does say you'll be judged. The law of liberty is the same term he used in chapter one, verse 24 about the word of God, the word, the truth that sets you free, it makes you at liberty if you do it.

You won't be justified, made right with God, saved finally by whether you kept God's law, but we will be judged, rewarded or not, by whether you kept his word. Now, some so-called Christians need to judge themselves now by God's word, the law of liberty, to see if they are really saved at all, to see if they're really free from sin.

You know, if not, they need to get saved. We need to live in obedience to it, to God's word, even if we're not justified by it. Now, why? Because you love him, because he had mercy on you, even after you forgot to have mercy on the guy with the sagging pants.

Speak and act as if you will be judged by God's law, because in verse 13, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. That's a strong sentence, isn't it? Think of that. Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

The particular command here is love your neighbor as yourself. Show mercy to whoever God puts in front of you. If you don't keep that command, you show lots of, maybe you show lots of mercy, but it's always to the people that can show mercy back to you.

Invite people over to your house, who can invite you to their house, like that. You know, I'll scratch their back, they scratch mine. A lot of people show mercy to rich people, you know, and the rich get a lot of mercy.

Rich people have a lot of favors and gifts given to them. Mary and I have had the blessing of having some friends, really all her friends, who are rich. It's nice, it's nice to have rich friends, because occasionally they have extra, you know, stuff, they have extra CD players or computers or purses or whatever that other people have given to them to curry their favor, and they don't really need it because they have enough of their own stuff already, and they'll pass it on to you, isn't that nice?