The Sin of Partiality: Part 1

Part series here in the book of James so please go with me to chapter 2. We're talking about beware of personal favoritism. Beware of favoritism. This will be part one of the sin of partiality. The sin of partiality.

You'd be quite surprised how much the Bible has to say about partiality. It's amazing. As I was studying this, it's just incredible how many verses just kept popping up, popping up, and I said I definitely got to break this up in a two-part series if I can get it in that.

But scripture has a lot to say about personal favoritism. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 13 as a whole, but we're gonna break it up. We'll be breaking it up this morning and we're gonna try to get to verse 7, if that, but let me read the first 13 verses so we can get the whole picture of what James is speaking about.

Beginning at verse 1, reading again to verse 13. I'll be reading from the New International, I'm sorry, New American Standard translation this morning. Hear the word of the living God. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool.

Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into the court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You are 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 and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts this morning as it goes from our ears to our hearts. I can bring it to the ears but only the Holy Spirit can take it to the hearts and that's what we want to pray this morning.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you. What a glorious privilege we have to hear your revealed truth in our own language this morning. Father, we're so thankful for that. There's so much we do have to be thankful for.

And your word is most definitely at the top of the list. Without your word we'd be lost. We would not know anyway where to go. For you had the words of eternal life. And so Father, our prayer this morning is also give us ears to hear, to be attentive to your truth.

Give us an attentive mind to perceive your truth. Give us a willing heart to obey your truth and to apply it in our everyday living, in our home, in our workplaces. Father, here is where we gather together to be encouraged of your truth, to hear the truth and to sanctify our souls that we may know how to live holy, to know how to live right and righteous before you, before your eye.

We learn this here. We pray together. We sing hymns together. We hear the words together. Father, we would ask that your Holy Spirit would now come show us our blind spots, Lord, because we all have blind spots.

Also, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would shed light to give us the knowledge of the truth so that we would be more holy. We can never live up to the full standard of it, Lord, but under the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus.

That same Holy Spirit that was upon Him is in us. May we not forget this. So Father, we would pray that your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the one we look to. To this end, we live. In Him, we live and move and have our being.

And Father, the chief end of man is to enjoy you forever and to glorify your name. So Father, teach us to do these things as we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. There's great words years ago that goes like this, and you're very familiar with it.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal. These are the words, as you well know, of our 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

And of course, that speech he gave changed the very course of American history. And what this nation was undergoing, a lot of wrong was going on, a lot of abuse. Thinking of Lincoln, as we've all heard these great words, that all men, all men, all people are created equal.

Where was he drawing that from? Thinking of when he wrote these words at the address, it was not new words that he came up with. He put it in his own language, and he confronted the issue of why we were killing one another, the most bloodiest war that has ever happened in this nation, that divided us.

Much, much wrong, much sin. It has a lot to do with people having to respect our persons and show impartiality. It divided us. Lincoln was reflecting and hearkening back to the words of our forefathers, wasn't he?

He took this back, and it was given from the Declaration of Independence. So let's go back there. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. There it is. All men are created.

This is where Lincoln was drawing this from. This is why our forefathers came to this nation, for freedom and liberty, not for bondage. And then it goes on to say that they are endowed by their Creator with certain and inalienable rights, that among these are life and the pursuit of happiness.

All men are created equal. That's a true statement. And if I'm not mistaken, our forefathers were taking this truth, let's go back a little further, from the Word of God. What current comes to your mind?

There's much, but Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, come to mind that all people are created equal in God's image. God created man, and He created man and woman equal. And yet, at the same time, according to Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We've got to bring that into light too, that all of us are on that same level, that we're all depraved, that we're all sinners. So the Bible teaches us also that all men are depraved and stained and tainted by sin.

Then comes the gospel, right? That God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. The invitation is to all. Aren't you glad?

We know that all is not going to come, but the invitation is to all. So in that sense, He's the Father of all, but in a different kind of relationship. He's the Creator. But in relationship and knowing Him as Father and family, it's to God's elect, to those who believe.

That's what Scripture says. The gospel is the greatest truth that has ever been given. And speaking of what Lincoln said, those were great words. The whole speech was great, and for a good reason. The Declaration of Independence is great words, but there's none greater than what the Lord Jesus Christ said.

He gave liberty as far as it sells, the liberty that's been given here. And it's been a great price that's been paid. Commentator Warren Worsby says this. By the way, I went to be with the Lord this past week at the age of 90.

Warren Worsby, I've got a lot of his books. I've got actually his commentary on the whole New Testament. So right now is a good time to borrow from his work. He was a very prolific writer. He says this about James chapter 2, quote, Not only is the mature Christian patient and testing in James 1, but he also practices the truth.

This is the theme of James chapter 2. Immature people talk about their beliefs, but the mature person lives his faith. Hearing God's word, according to James chapter 1, verse 22 through 25, and talking about God's word can never substitute for doing God's word.

Every believer has some statement of faith. Now you have vouched for this. Listen to what he says here. Every believer has some statement of faith or personal expression of what he or she believes. Most churches have such statements and members are asked to subscribe to the statements and practice it.

Most churches also have a covenant that they read publicly and often when they observe the Lord's Supper. Now this is what he says. Worsby, statements of faith and church covenants are good and useful, but they are not substitutes for doing God's will.

I amen that all the way. As a pastor, and I vouch for this too, this is Worsby and he was much more experienced than I am. He was a pastor for many, many years and he was also a pastor at the Moody Church in Chicago for years, but he says, as a pastor I've heard believers read the church covenant, listen to this, and then come to a business meeting and act in ways completely contrary to the covenant.

That is so true, end quote. And how true that is and every one of us can amen that. And personally as a pastor for over probably 20 years, I personally have witnessed myself that very same thing and hear more recently.

James desires to help us practice God's Word. Aren't you glad the Word of God helps us to see how we can practice the Word of God? We need help, don't we? We are a poor bunch of people and we do need, even being redeemed, we need help.

Why do you think Jesus wanted us to have the Holy Spirit? You think about what you can do and I can do without the Holy Spirit. We could not do nothing. We would not even be in the family of God. We would not be regenerated.

We could not even have the mind of Christ if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit. So we desperately need the Holy Spirit. Even though the Holy Spirit is living in us, we need to be filled with the Spirit so we know how to walk and act but how to think and everything that we do.

James desires to help us practice God's Word so we know how to live holy. He gives us a simple test here in chapter 2. Now think of this. He sent two visitors to a church service, a rich man and a poor man.

He gives an example. He watched to see how they were treated. A very simple example but it says a lot. And the way we behave toward people indicates what we really believe about God. Really it does. And the Apostle Paul talks about how we should behave in the house of God.

Among our family, we cannot and dare not separate human relationships from our divine fellowship with God. Chapter and verse, Pastor? You know I got it. I won't just give you a couple. There's so many that I could give.

But here's two. Matthew chapter 22 verse 37 -40. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. They tried to trip him up. And he, the scripture says, Jesus said to him, a lawyer. It had to be a lawyer. Watch out for them lawyers.

He says this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. Now what is he quoting from? He's quoting the first great commandment comes our vertical relationship with God.

Deuteronomy 6 -5. That's what he said. He brings it from the Old Testament. Most important thing is your relationship with God. But out from your relationship with God is your horizontal relationship with each other, with your neighbor, with the other people, with the people you come in contact with.

Where does he get that? Jesus, of course, is a man full of the Holy Ghost, but he was the word, the living word. Leviticus 19 verse 18. He takes it from there. He goes to Deuteronomy. He goes to Leviticus.

Your relationship with God, first and foremost, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, with everything you have. Then you love your neighbor as yourself. Now what does he say about that?

On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets. Got more? How about another verse from the New Testament, not only from the gospel where I read from the most important person who ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

But what about the Apostle John in 1 John 4 -20? If a man says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. Notice how the word of God gets right to it. Doesn't beat around the bush. You could say you love God, but if you don't love your neighbor, your brother, you're a liar.

Wow. And we know what the scripture says about liars, don't we? For he that loves not his brother who has seen him, how can he love God who he has not seen? That's pretty strong language. That gets down to who we really are.

How we pass that test. Very strong commands from the word of God and from our Lord Jesus Christ and from the Apostle John that brings it right down to the question whether we keep it or not depends if we really love God and love our neighbor.

That's what it boils down to. So in this section, in James chapter 2, he really deals with these great truths. He deals with the truth here in chapter 2, half of this chapter is taken up with partiality and then we'll see faith without works is dead he's talking about working faith, we're not talking about faith that saving faith, right.

Like Paul the Apostle, but he's talking about faith that works. That's what he's talking about. So it's very important that we see this. Now, what I like to do is three things this morning that's only covering seven verses, Lord willing.

Next Lord's Day I like to finish up verses 8 -13. If we can get to that far, I'm going to do my best. First we see, this is what we're going to look at this morning. This is part 1, dealing with the sin of partiality.

First we will see, number 1, a clear command. A clear command in verse 1. Second, we will see a shocking example in verses 2 -4. A shocking example in verse 3. And third, and this will be the last point, we will see a bracing reminder in verse 5.

And for application, we'll squeeze in what it means, how favoritism dishonors the poor in verses 6 -7. So, let's go. Let's look at verse 1. A clear command. A clear command. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

Now, right there he starts from the get-go. Now, what would qualify as favoritism? Now, we've got to get this straight because there's so many people that may have different definitions. But the word means to judge on the basis of outward appearance, as Brother Keith has already mentioned.

And that's, this is something we all fail at. We have a tendency to judge people on the outward appearance. According to the Greek text in the nephatic position, it literally means to hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, which gives special force to the imperative admonition of the Lord Jesus that which carries the idea of conviction of not making a practice of favoritism.

We do not need to make a practice of it, which has no place whatsoever in the life of the faithful Christian. And if you notice a few verses later, in verse 9, that James makes it crystal clear that favoritism is not simply discourteous, nor is it disrespectful, but he simply says it is sin.

It is a serious sin. And that's sad. I've pointed this out to people that has fallen into this, and I always examine my own heart as well. But those people that brush this off as not sinful. But I'm telling you, if God calls it sin, then it's sin.

I want you to think of it. Why? Because being partial is in total conflict with our salvation. Total conflict with salvation. Now here's some things I wrote down here, and this is what the scripture teaches.

If we are saved, and we are children of the living God, and if we are his children, then we should emulate him. We're part of the family of God. We are to look like what Jesus looked like. Now we may not perfectly look like Jesus, but he's our example, and scripture says we are to follow in his steps.

We are to walk as he walked, right? He is the example. Paul declares categorically that in Romans 2 .11, there's no partiality with God, period. No respecters of persons with God. Okay, Leviticus 19 .15 says this.

Let's go to the Old Testament a little bit. These are good verses if you want to write these down, and there's so many others. There's about maybe a hundred verses. I might be over exaggerating a little bit, but there's a lot that says in the word of God about partiality, but I'm going to give you some that's very high highlighted.

Leviticus 19 .15 says, you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor. Now we're going to be looking at that, but you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, speaking of the rich, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

Boy, don't you love the word of God? There's justice at the highest mark, and God wants justice for all. Proverbs 24 .13, the wise Solomon says this. These also are sayings of the wise, he says. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

Proverbs 28 .21 says again, you shall not be partial to the poor. Solomon repeats it. To show partiality is not good, and then he extends it a little bit, because for a piece of bread, a man will transgress.

Now he gives the reason. For a piece of bread? In other words, Solomon is showing us why one will be partial. He gives the reason why people are partial. For a piece of bread, a man will transgress. A piece of bread.

What does that mean? Well, let's look at it. In other words, he would do it for a bribe. That's right. He would do it for the bribe. You've seen it. I've seen it. Proverbs 15 .27. Let's connect Proverbs 15 .27 to what he says.

He who profits illicitly troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. Proverbs 18 .5, to show partiality to the wicked is not good. Again, he mentions not good. Nor to thrust aside the righteous in judgment.

And, this I mentioned to Brother Keith, in his situation, this is very timely, but in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says this, in Ephesians 6 .9, and masters. You could say there, in our day, that day, masters, it was different.

There was masters and slaves. But, in our day, it's basically what he's referring to is bosses, employers, and employees. So, you can apply it to that. It's the same thing, really. Do the same things to them.

He's talking about to the employers, the bosses. This is what he says. You do the same things to them, and give up threatening. Right there, he gets right to it. You don't threaten. You respect people.

You do not threaten. And, then he goes on to say this. Knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, God's the boss. That's what he's saying. He's running it up the ladder, that God is the highest authority.

And, then he says, and there is no partiality with him. So, would it be like him, in all that we do? He's talking about the workplace here. We can bring that down to where we live, can't we? In other words, there should be mutual honor and respect from Christians, employers, to their employees, based on their common allegiance to the Lord.

So, if the boss is a spirit-filled Christian, let me say, he should always use his authority and power with justice, with grace, mixed together. Justice, he should be firm, he should be fair, but he should be gracious.

That's the way Jesus was. Never putting people under threats. Never using his power to abuse people. And we see this a little too often, don't we? Brother Keith is right in the situation right now. He has a boss that is very, he takes his authority and his power and he abuses it.

And I know, Sister Linda, you've seen it at Wal-Mart. And I know Sister Sherry has seen it in the school systems. And I know all the rest have seen it. I know definitely Brother Daniel has seen it in the military.

So, I've seen it. I've been in the military. A lot of people that are in authority should not be in authority, because they don't know how to handle authority. They don't know, they abuse the power that they have.

They're inconsiderate. Well, why? Why? Because they, there has an authority over all, and God the Father is the master who is impartial over all. And he sets the example for us. That's the way God, that's the way God is.

He's no respecter of a person. Now, in context to James 2 .1, I want you to think about this. I wrote this down to get the background of what's going on. Jewish people in that day, in the early church, coveted recognition.

The Jewish people did this. They coveted recognition and honor and vied with one another with praise. Jesus our Lord deals with this in a parable of the ambitious guest. The ambitious guest. Go with me real quickly to Luke chapter 14.

I'm just going to read it and comment here and there, but we've got a lot of verses we've got to cover. But we're going to let the Word of God speak for itself. Amen? It can say much, much more than what this preacher can ever say.

The Word of God speaks, and here Jesus gives a parable. He speaks, actually he is speaking about an ambitious guest. Notice in verse 7 through 14. And he began speaking a parable to the invited guest.

When he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, when are you invited by someone to a wedding feast? Do not take the place of honor for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him.

And then he says this in verse 9. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man. And then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. Notice it's almost like James I think is drawing from what Jesus said here.

But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place. Wow. So that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. And then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.

And then Jesus says this, and you see him repeating this time and time again in the parables and what he teaches. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. It's going to happen. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

You see James speaking that. You see Peter speaking it. This is where they got it from the Lord. Because James and Peter are using commentators and basically commenting on the gospel. And then he goes on to say, and he also went on to say the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.

Otherwise they may also invite you in return that they will be your repayment. And one will comment about that verse because that verse seems to be tricky. But verse 13, when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you.

Isn't that great? The poor, they can't repay you. And then for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Isn't that beautiful? Now I said I would comment on verse 12, and he went on to say that the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.

Otherwise they may also invite you in return that will be your repayment. John MacArthur says this, to not invite your friends or your brothers in this context here, our Lord was saying that this is not to be taken as absolute prohibition against inviting friends and relatives to a meal.

Because we've done that, haven't we? He's not saying that. What is he saying? Well, MacArthur goes on to say this, Christ would speak in hyperboles. A hyperbole is basically a language in a Semitic discourse, and he's using it for emphasis.

He's using it for emphasis that people would get the point. In other words, he, I don't want to say, he didn't blow it out, but the hyperbole was strong language. He does it on the Sermon on the Mount when he says, pulling out your eye, plucking out your eye, cutting off your arm.

Did he mean really literally to do that? No. It's strong language. So it's kind of metaphorically, hyperbole. In other words, stop, what he was saying for emphasis, he's saying stop what you're doing.

Whatever is causing you to sin, stop it. Pull it out. Cut it off. So he's using the same language here, hyperbole. He uses this for emphasis or great importance. So his point here on this, and this is MacArthur, is that inviting one's friends and relatives cannot be classified as a spiritual act of true charity.

That is the point. He may also be, and actually what he's saying, it may also be a rebuke, and I believe this, this is what it is, against those prone to reserve their hospitality for rich neighbors. Partiality.

That's it. So who they know will feel obligated to return the favor. Boy, don't you see this happening today. Wrong motives. Wrong motives. So we still have this problem with us, don't we? And we see it in the churches too often.

Well, of course, churches are not perfect. They're full of sinners. We'll save sinners. And we have to examine our own hearts because we've fallen. Even though we're redeemed, we have remaining sin, don't we?

And we have to deal with it. Well, almost every church has its cliques. Almost every church has its, well, think of it. New Christians find it difficult to get in somewhere when you have people in their groups, in their cliques.

Haven't you seen this? We have to jolt ourself that we don't get in a clique. Let me go on a little further. Or should I say, there's abuse of offices to enhance their own images and importance of being important.

Let us always keep before our eyes that God is no respecter of persons. Jesus did not respect persons. Now let's look at Jesus. We know God the Father is not a respecter of persons. How about Jesus? Well, you know, look at the woman at the well.

She was a mixed breed. She was a Samaritan. People rejected her. That's why she said, you're a Jew and you're talking to me. She was amazed. That was just uncalled for, she was thinking. But here Jesus was giving her the gospel.

I think of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. Jesus did not respect persons. Hey, get this. Even his enemies admitted that he didn't respect people. His enemies. You think of this. No one can find any sin in Jesus' life.

None. Matthew 22, 16 says this, and they sent their disciples to him. Who is he referring to? The Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him, how they might trick him, trip him up. They were constantly trying to trip Jesus up.

Constantly. So what did they do? They sent out their disciples. They had their disciples too, right? Their followers. Along with the Herodians. Now, I don't want to go into detail of the Herodians, but this is basically a party of Jews who supported the Roman-backed Herodian dynasty.

That's who they were. Yes, it goes back to King Herod. So what does the scripture say here? It says, teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth. Listen to the way they say it.

I'm really getting some flattery here. And defer to no one, for you are not partial to any. Now, they meant what they said, even though they were flattering, but that was Jesus' enemies. For you are not partial to any.

That's what they said about Jesus. So basically, they're saying it's not a concern to you about anyone, or you do not seek anyone's favor. Jesus showed no partiality, period. Our Lord did not look at the outward appearance, in other words.

He looked at the heart. And that's what He always aimed for. When He preached, He didn't preach to just the ears and the mind. He preached to the heart, to the soul, to our being. That's why His words are so powerful and so convicting.

Don't you know when you read the Sermon on the Mount, don't you get pricked or cut to the heart? Think of this. He looked at the heart and He was not impressed with riches. He was not impressed with social status.

The poor widow who gave her mite was greater in the eyes than the rich Pharisee who boastfully gave his large donation. That's a good one, isn't it? 1 Samuel 16, 7 says, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

And we're all prone to judge by outward appearance, aren't we? Rather than by inward attitude or the heart. So let us keep in mind that our Lord Jesus was a friend of sinners. Though He disapproved of their sins, I'm not saying He liked their sins.

He hated sin, of course. There was no compromise, but He was full of compassion and truth. And He caused them to welcome them. And when they trusted Him, He forgave them. So what James, let's go back to James.

What James is saying here in verse 1 is, faith in Jesus Christ, our glorious Lord, rises above secondary issues. That's what he's saying. If we truly believe in Jesus, then we ought to welcome anyone who shares common faith.

Just the same. So faith in Christ rises above the things that divide us. It matters more than money. It matters more than social class. It matters more than language. It matters more than culture. And it matters more than skin color.

That's the gospel. We have absolutely no right to reject a fellow believer on the basis of the low secondary matters I just mentioned. Now, I want to say this. This is a personal note from me to you. I praise God for this little group of people.

Because the believers here live this truth without partiality. I can honestly say that. Because we all come from different backgrounds, and different culture, and we have different skin color. And I'll be honest with you, I pray in God's good time, and I've seen some churches like this, there's all kinds of nationalities mixing in.

And that's a beautiful thing. When I went to visit Grace Community Church, and I know Brother Keith's been there, I know Ben's been there, and Daniel's been there. There's Asians. There's African Americans.

There's people that's all Hispanics. There's all kinds of what they say, the Heinz 57, all mixed up in one, in a melting pot. Motley Crue, right? And you know, isn't it a beautiful thing to see this? The redeem from all different backgrounds, and even different languages, and parts of the world, and from China, from Asia, and you see this.

Isn't heaven going to be filled with people of different tribes, and languages, and tongues, worshiping the Lamb? Giving away my thunder, that was my application. But anyway, we'll get there, right? But isn't it beautiful?

That's the way heaven's going to be. Heaven's going to be full of people of different tribes and languages. Well, let's go to point two. Our second, we see a shocking example. A shocking example. Look at verses two through four.

Back to James. You can quickly read this. Two through four says this, for if a man, and he gives a shocking example, and here's an example, for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.

Notice the contrast. Rich, poor, dirty clothes, fine clothes. You pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes. Usually that's the way the flesh goes, isn't it? Say, well, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there.

You don't sit, or sit down, or if you do sit down, you sit at my footstool. Boy, listen to that, and that abuse of authority. And then he says, have you not made a distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Boy, what a question. Nails it. He nails all of us, doesn't he? Well, to better appreciate James' emphasis in this passage, it's necessary to understand that the vast majority, I'll pull this off, of early converts to Christianity were Jewish, and they were poor in that time period.

And if they were not already, many suddenly became poor, and because of their faith, they were ostracized. They were ostracized from their families and society. So, in other words, that a husband and a father lost his job, and also a wife and a mother was thrown out of her house without anything but the clothes on their back.

In other words, there was some suffering going on here, and there was a cost to following Jesus. We've got to remember this in this time period that James wrote this. So there was an intense hatred of fellow Jews who converted to Christianity.

So, what's the problem here in the text? Well, that's the question. It is that we care so much for the rich man, or that we care so little for the poor man. You see that? James is not condemning this unbeliever for his distracting dress or clothes, but the church's flattering reaction to it.

That's what he's getting to. So he's pinpointing, or should I say, he's getting to the heart motive, the attitude here. The attitude of why we do this. So James isn't arguing we should do less for the rich.