All Are Welcome (James 2:1-13)

The Danger of Partiality in the Church

Welcome back again. Hope you had a good week. Certainly a lot more pleasant, wasn't it? Indeed, indeed. Well, let's pray and we'll begin. Father, we are grateful to be gathered here together this morning as we draw together in your presence, praying that your spirit would be our instructor this morning, that he would make his word come alive to us, that as we hear, we would heed the words of James in this important letter, and that your spirit would apply it where it needs to be for each of us, and that the glory of Christ would remain ever before our eyes as both our model to pursue after and the reality that he has secured it all for us.

We are forever grateful in his name. Amen. All right. So as we begin again this morning, what I'd like you to do is imagine something with me. So put on your imagination caps. If that means you have to close your eyes, then do that.

But I want you to imagine something with me. I want you to imagine that we have been invited to somebody's home for dinner. They've invited us to their home for dinner, you and I. And when we arrive at the house, we arrive at the same time.

We arrive at the same time, and we walk up together to the front door, ring the doorbell, and the host greets us at the door and opens the door and invites us in, welcomes us in. As we enter, the host offers to take my jacket from me because it's cool out.

He takes my jacket and hangs it appropriately, but he ignores yours. Then he invites us into the living room, and there in the living room are two very comfortable chairs. And he offers one to me, and he sits in the other himself and says to you, there's a wooden chair right there in the kitchen.

Why don't you drag that up, but don't get it on the carpet. Don't get the chair onto the carpet. There you will sit in the wooden kitchen chair right on the edge of the living room carpet and listen while he and I talk together.

Then dinner time comes, and his family gathers, and your host seats me right next to him there at the table. He says to you, just choose a seat, have a seat. So you choose a seat, and you sit down. And then one of the kids comes up, and he kind of stands next to you and says, that's my seat.

And he just kind of stares at you until it becomes really uncomfortable. And you get up and move to another seat. Dinner conversation itself is wonderful. It revolves around the Bible and how amazing the gospel is, how God in his mercy reaches out to save sinners without any regard to their economic or social status or intellectual or athletic achievements.

It's just a really wonderful conversation. And after dinner ends, the host bids us farewell and shows us to the door. He retrieves my coat and helps me on with it, extends his hand to shake my hand and just sort of pat you on the back, and out the door we go.

We walk down the driveway, and you get into your 25-year-old Honda, and I get into my 2024 Lexus. How'd that make you feel? How'd that story? Say again? Rather have the Honda, yeah. Yeah. Interesting, isn't it, huh?

Why? Why are we uncomfortable with that? I mean, it's clearly an exaggeration, but why are we uncomfortable with it? Here's the problem, is that scenario plays itself out in churches all over this country week after week.

And these things should not be. These things should not be. So open up your Bibles to James' letter to us again. We're in the second chapter now this morning, beginning in verse 1 of James chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 13 together of James chapter 2.

I've entitled this, All Are Welcome. All Are Welcome. Last week, James warned us about the dangers of substituting good and desirable qualities like Bible teaching and church involvement for true discipleship.

He warned us that unless these external activities produce an internal change whereby we live in love like Christ, that they are a delusion, that we are deceived. And by that delusion, we are in danger before God himself.

Well, this morning, James is going to continue. He's got his finger right on an uncomfortable spot, and he's not going to move it yet. He'll continue to poke a little bit. And the uncomfortable probing this morning regards the sin of partiality, the sin of partiality.

Let's read the text together here, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 2. 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 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. Here before us this morning in this text, I find three bedrock statements regarding the sin of partiality. Three bedrock statements regarding the sin of partiality. So let's take a look at them as we work through the time we have here.

Faith and Favoritism Are Incompatible

The first statement is this, faith and favoritism are incompatible. Faith and favoritism are incompatible. Notice in verse one, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

This idea about the non-partiality of God is something that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter two and verse 11, where he says the same thing. There is no partiality with God. It was a lesson that God illustrated to Peter when he repeatedly lowered that sheet filled with unclean animals and said, you know, arise, take and eat.

And it was a lesson that Peter finally got the idea, or at least was working through the idea when in Acts 10, he repeats the message and applies it to Cornelius the Gentile, where he says, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcomed to him.

That's faith in Christ is built upon the understanding that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right? All sinned. There's none righteous. No, not one. Therefore, everyone needs a savior and everyone equally needs a savior.

All need to be saved by grace, by grace, through faith, faith, through grace. They're wrong by grace, through faith. There we go. Right. We all need it equally. We need it. And so in light of that reality, it's really incomprehensible that we would demonstrate a personal favoritism towards others with regard to the gospel.

In other words, that we would regard one kind of sinner above another, that one would be more savable than another. We can act as if salvation is our personal gift, that we can dispense according to our prerogatives to give to whom we choose.

And yet the gospel is God's gift, not ours. And it's God's gift to all equally. This word translated here, personal favoritism, is an interesting word. It is a compound Greek word and it means to receive a face, to receive a face.

In other words, to pay attention to the face, to how the person looks. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word is used to express the idea of lifting up a face, lifting up a face.

So to receive a face or to lift up a face still carries the idea of sort of looking on to that individual for the purpose in Leviticus 19 .15 of judgment. Leviticus 19 .15 says, you shall do no injustice in judgment.

You shall not be partial, there it is, to the poor nor to further the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. In other words, justice is to be administered like we, you know, blind. Justice is to be administered equally to all without regard to whether they're advantaged or disadvantaged in this life.

So it's referring to a bias in judgment based on a person's position, based on the circumstances, based on their popularity, or any other external factor. It means to accept the outside surface as a substitute for the inner reality.

That's kind of what's bound up in that term personal favoritism. So what is James telling us here? He's saying in essence that to look at a person and to judge them based on what you see is abhorrent to God.

It's incompatible with justification by grace through faith alone. Now, James is going to describe one way for us that this happens with an illustration. As we said before, we like James because he's a great illustrator, and illustrations well done make things much clearer.

So in verses two and three, he picks up on the statement about personal favoritism and gives an illustration. 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.

So we've got to get the picture here. This here is in the first century, right? This group, this meeting, and in comes this guy with a gold ring. Now, a gold ring in Roman society in the first century was not uncommon, particularly for those of the more wealthy class.

It would frequently be some sort of a ring that would have a family crest or initial or something like that, a signet ring, we might say. So was it widespread? No. Was it uncommon? No. But it's interesting here because the word, the Greek word behind this guy with the ring is it's a gold-fingered man.

That's the word that's used there. It's a unique word, actually. A man comes into your assembly, a gold-fingered man, a gold-fingered man. So what's a gold-fingered man? That's a guy with a Mr. T starter set is what it is, right?

I mean, there's like rings all over his fingers. That's the idea. That's the idea. So he stands out because he's got bling. And not only is because of the jewelry, but notice also the clothing being described.

He's dressed in a bright and shiny garment, right? Dressed in fine clothes again. That's the idea. It's the purple, the crimson with gold embroidery built into it. This is not just nice clothing. This is fine clothing.

If we were to kind of move this forward into our day and age in the vernacular, we might say that the guy comes in with a diamond pinky ring in a custom suit, something that could be observed across the room.

And then James contrasted with another man, right? Look at this one who comes in. Another man comes in, a poor man in dirty clothes. So this guy has no gold rings. His clothes are soiled. They're dirty, perhaps because he's a common laborer with one set of clothing, which would have been very common for the working class of that age.

Or perhaps he might even be without housing, what we would call homeless, sleeping in his outer garment. Again, not uncommon for the working poor. And notice how the congregation responds. They usher the rich man into the finest seat in the house, and they direct the poor man over to the place where he'll be out of the way.

Or better yet, they say, here, sit under my footstool. Right? Obvious that you need to go lower. Well, James paints this picture for them, and then notice in verse four what he says. He says, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

Hmm. I mean, both visitors to the assembly ought to be welcomed because they are both equally in need of Christ and may be equally one to Christ. So they're not barring the door and keeping the poor man out.

That's not the sin. The sin is, when invited in, that there's an immediate partiality that begins to manifest itself. They're giving preference to one who is more socially acceptable, perhaps someone who can give tangible benefit to the local congregation.

His patronage is something that needs to be cultivated. Again, let's bring it forward. Maybe it's a financially successful, I'm just, I'll stay with the male illustration. It's a successful man, a businessman comes in.

And, oh, this is somebody that we need to get to know. Here, there's a seat for you here, sir. Why? Well, perhaps because, boy, we could sure use a guy who put that kind of money in the offering plate.

Maybe. Maybe it's that crass, or maybe it's just that who doesn't want to be seen with the powerful, acceptable. And yet James says these kinds of distinctions are based upon evil thoughts and evil motives.

It's the failure to see people as God sees them, sinners made in His image and in need of redemption. Faith and favoritism are incompatible with one another. And the reason, fundamentally, is because at the cross, the ground is level.

No one has an advantage. They may have been providentially advantaged in this life, but when it comes to entrance into the life to come, there are no advantages. The second, verses five to seven, God chooses those whom the world rejects.

That's another bedrock truth. God chooses those whom the world rejects. To make distinctions based on temporal and external differences is not only incompatible with the gospel, but is contrary to the evident way God works in saving people.

Verse five, listen, my beloved brethren, pay attention. 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? Now, James is not saying that wealthy people cannot and do not become followers of Christ.

That's not his point. But he is recognizing the reality that typically the rich and the powerful find no need for a savior, but rather it is the poor who tend to respond in faith. I can remember many, many, many decades ago, an old Baptist preacher, when I was a young convert, said that he was going to teach me how to do door-to-door evangelism.

And so every Wednesday night we would gather and then we would go into the community and knock on doors and seek to share the gospel with whoever would answer the door and give us the time of day. And early on, I remember him saying, and he had been a productive evangelist before becoming a pastor, door-to-door kind of evangelist, he said that he had never seen anyone saved who had a boat in their yard.

That was his observation. And I remember asking him, why do you say that? And he said, well, because people with boats in their yard are too busy on the weekends for God. And so where do we find the greatest welcome?

In the poor parts of the community, among the working poor. Now this reality is both testified to in the New Testament and church history. This is the reality. If you remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 19, 24, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

News alert, our camels don't go through the eye of a needle. Largest animal, smallest hole, that's the point. Or Paul's words in 1 Corinthians chapter one, 1 Corinthians chapter one, the beginning of verse 26, he's writing to the Corinthian assembly.

This is one of the more wealthy of the New Testament churches. Why? Because Corinth was a wealthy seaport. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

In other words, they were not the influential class of the community. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not, so that he might nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

In other words, that church in Corinth was made up largely of people of no social standing, no influence. The witness of church history is the same, that over the last 2 ,000 years, it is generally the poor in world goods who respond to the gospel.

Beyond that, notice, that James is going to point out the obvious. It's the wealthy and the powerful who abuse the followers of Christ. It's not just that they're not interested. They're the ones who heap the most abuse.

They financially abuse the followers of Christ, James says, and they legally abuse them. They even drag them into court to press their case against them. Generally speaking, they're the ones who blaspheme the name of Christ.

Look at verses 6 and 7. But you have dishonored the poor man. And here's the question to arrive at home. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you are called?

I mean, just, well, stop, think. Isn't it really the rich and the powerful that are most aggressive in their abuse of the Christian church? Well, that was then, not now. No, wait a minute. No, that's now.

That's now too. I mean, did you happen to catch any of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics? No, thank you. Yeah. As they keep scoring an abuse upon who primarily? Upon the Christian church. It's the wealthy.

It's the powerful. It's those that are rich in this world's goods that have no need personally for Christ, but they're not willing to end it there. In true Romans 1 fashion now, they want you now to approve it and will insist upon it.

And they will press until they get it. I tell you, I constantly marvel at the evangelical church's fascination with celebrity converts, rock stars, athletes, academics, industrialists. Man, it's like we crave some sort of authentication of the gospel by seeing someone who is rich and powerful in this life.

They became a Christian. There's no greater miracle than that. It doesn't make the gospel any truer that some billionaire now embraces Christ. I pray that that be true. Some movie star, some athlete, you know, let's get an athlete to speak at our gathering here, and he'll give us a braggamony.

I mean, a testimony. Yeah, and, and, and, and. We're in love with this stuff. To tell you in the third century, he said, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

In other words, what does the center of worldly philosophy have in common with the center of, of biblical revelation? And in the words of Tertullian, they got nothing to do with each other. And yet we crave the, the approval and applaud of the, of the academy, right?

We want intellectual recognition. We want to be liked. We want to be well thought of. It's a fool's errand. It's a fool's errand. Christianity is abhorrent to those whose kingdom is of this world. And it'll never be any different.

Never any different. You remember, it was Jesus who said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Those who think they are righteous, they got no need for it all.

But people are hurting. People are hurting. People in this community are hurting. They have, there are neighbors around us. Who have suffered serious economic setbacks and they're hurting. There are people who are undergoing severe relational strains and they're hurting.

There may be sudden loss, the death of a spouse or a child or a close friend, parent even. And it's when these things happen that the American dream kind of goes up in smoke for them. And it may well be that that's the right time when they're receptive to hear the gospel.

Because God generally chooses those whom the world rejects. It would seem likely that those that do embrace Christianity and come into the local fellowship are going to have all kinds of sin baggage. That shouldn't surprise us.

Again, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11, such were some of you. People bring the, you know, old sin casts long shadows. It's, it comes. What if God were to pour out his spirit on this community and there were a, there'd be a real harvest of souls.

And what if they looked and talked differently than we do? What if they have different ideas about hairstyles, dress codes, body piercings, and tattoos? What would that be like? Should we insist that they get cleaned up before they come?

I mean, if you want to come here, you got to, you got to adapt. I mean, after all, isn't the adoption of a middle-class lifestyle and standard, isn't that the measure of Christianity? Sarcasm. I mean, we would never vocalize these kinds of thoughts.

Never vocalize these kinds of thoughts. Of course not. All are welcome. Yet, and yet, I think James would say that all too often we do act that way. Three bedrock statements regarding the sin of partiality.

Faith and favoritism are incompatible. God chooses those whom the world rejects. And third, heaven is deeply offended when we refuse to welcome strangers. Heaven is deeply offended when we refuse to welcome strangers.

The Royal Law of Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Verse eight, if however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 22, the entire Old Testament law can be summed up in two commandments.

The first is a vertical love, right? Where it's expressed there in the Shema, in Deuteronomy 6, 4 to 5, hero Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

This is the commandment. In Leviticus 19 in verse eight, the horizontal love, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am Yahweh. The entire law, Jesus says, is summarized in this. And I would argue that this is really just two sides of the same point. One cannot have a vertical love for God that does not manifest itself in a horizontal love for those made in his image.

One cannot have a true love for those made in his image without it being rested upon the foundation of a true and vertical love for the God who made them. They're inseparably intertwined. Now, who is our neighbor?

Who is our neighbor? Yeah, Jesus is like, who is our neighbor? Oh, I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you a story. In Luke 10, I'm going to tell you a story about a guy who's going down to Jericho, falls among thieves, is beaten and left to die.

And the religious authorities all cross over to bypass him without getting their garments soiled. You remember this? And then the Samaritan, that despised class of people, is the one who comes and ministers to him.

So, who is our neighbor? Our neighbor is anyone who is in need and comes across our paths. That's our neighbor. Anyone in need who comes across our path. Jesus would say, that's your neighbor. So, James says, again, notice James is so influenced by his older brother here, but James says, when we welcome the stranger in our midst, we fulfill the law.

He calls it the royal law, or I might say the sovereign law that is rules over all. Love of God and love of man. Conversely, when we refuse to extend ourselves to the poor and the outcast, and instead, we have undue preference to the wealthy and the powerful, James says, we're convicted as lawbreakers.

We're now lawbreakers. Again, Leviticus 19 and verse 34, the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

I am Yahweh, your God. Or Matthew 9 and verse 13, where Jesus says, but go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Verse nine, but if you show partiality, you're 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.

Now, here's where James is kind of funneling down here to the final point. And this point is that the sin of partiality is not a small matter. This is not a small matter. I mean, we might think it's kind of lamentable thing to do, right?

It's in poor taste. It's in poor taste. Or maybe it's just kind of a holdover from my old days. No, James says heaven sees it as deeply repugnant, deeply repugnant, and something for which we will be judged.

Now, how does James do it? He does it by making the point that the failure to keep the whole law makes a person into a lawbreaker. They're guilty not of breaking every law, but guilty of picking and choosing which laws they will obey.

They have made themselves out to be God, and heaven is deeply offended by this kind of unbelieving arrogance. The notion that we can pick and choose what laws apply to us and which don't. All commands of God are united by this very simple principle.

Here it is. God gave them. God gave them. So, if we decide to follow the command about murder, but ignore the one about adultery, we're not simply breaking the law of adultery. We're rejecting Yahweh as both Lord and lawgiver.

That's James' point. That's why he chooses, by the way, adultery and murder, right? You think, well, wait a minute. How do we go from partiality to adultery and murder? He's grabbing to the extremes for the purpose of illustration.

Listen, God's commands are not like a salad bar. That's not God's commands. We don't get to choose, to pick, to decide what to obey, what not to obey. Morality is God-given. It is God-given, and it's like a gourmet meal that the divine chef has prepared for us for both our health and our enjoyment.

So, the only proper response would be to what? Pick up your fork and eat. Pick up your fork and eat. Verse 12, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment, kind of as a summary in light of all that James has said here. He's basically saying that we need to speak and we need to act in accordance with the gospel that we believe, which in effect sits as a judge of us.

At the same time, it's our salvation. In other words, the gospel will judge us in the sense that if we are true believers, it has, and it will continue to change us. It will be the judge by which all of our thoughts, all of our attitudes, all of our behaviors need to be evaluated.

I mean, it's simple. Because we have received mercy, we now will be merciful. Because we have received compassion, we are now to be compassionate. Because the gospel is not a respecter of persons, therefore we are to be open and gracious and welcoming towards strangers.

Because in the gospel, that's exactly what God has done. He's extended himself in an open, gracious, welcoming way to us, strangers, aliens, hostile, and invited us to eat at the table with him. Something that we commemorate every month.

Who's welcome to the table? Anyone who has received Christ. Now, does that mean that we are perfect in mercy, perfect in compassion, perfect in graciousness and a welcoming spirit and attitude, loving towards all strangers?

No. No. James is a realist. We're not perfect in this. We're not perfect. But here it is. Surely, steadily, and observably, we are changing. We must change. The gospel produces change, or we've never truly embraced it.

My beloved, we are all guilty of this sin. Even this morning, I'm going over the notes, I'm praying, I'm thinking, oh Lord, I'm guilty of partiality. And it shows up all the time. And I know I'm not alone.

This is a real thing. It's something that we need to battle in faith by the gospel. And we need to go to the cross and receive that cleansing grace. When the spirit says, you know what? Right there. That attitude, that response, that betrays the reality of what I have done in your heart, in your life.

And you must change. Oh, my beloved, aren't we glad James is so direct. Let's pray. Our Father, we are guilty. We are respecters of persons. And I think we're respecters of persons far more often than we're willing to admit.

And yet, it's clear. There's no place for that. And so we pray you would forgive us. Forgive us for our faithlessness. Forgive us for our desire for comfort, for security, for a comfortable life even, an unwillingness to extend ourselves.

And yet, our Father, don't leave us wallowing in this. There's guilt enough for all. And yet, all of that guilt was consumed in the cross. We can lift up our heads, see Christ there. It's your right hand, as it were.

And in seeing him, we see that he has lived the perfect life that we can't. That he has purchased a perfect redemption for us. That he did love without partiality. That he has fulfilled the law on our behalf.

And then, may that glorious vision of the resurrected Christ be used by your Spirit to empower in us a desire, a longing after him that would change us. That we would be a compassionate people. That we would be a merciful people.

That we would be a people who do not, out of partiality, pick and choose whom we would share the gospel with. But give us that kind of boldness. For the glory of Christ we pray. Amen.