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For those who may have had a hard time seeing or a hard time reading what was going on in this video.
This video showed a little girl who was dressed in two different ways but placed alone on the streets and they monitored how people treated her.
The first clip they show she was dressed nice and people come up to her and check to make sure she is okay.
But then in the second they make her look dirty and look possibly homeless and people ignore her.
then they do the same thing in a restaurant, however at the restaurant when they made her look homeless people actually asked her to leave.
It is amazing how just from looking a certain way, people will actually treat you completely different.
And this is a huge issue in our culture because wether we think we treat someone different or not, based on how they look, sound, how they act, social class, money, or their reputation we often do treat them differently.
And if you are like me you immediately think I don’t have an issue with this but I think as we discus this passage a little deeper today you will realize that this is something that all of us need help with.
So we will be in today
and James recognized that this issue was huge back then because if you look at the culture the rich and the poor had a huge divide and even some of the rich people were trying to take the little that the poor had.
and I think if James was still around he would tells us that it is still an issue today.
So once again the passage is and it says:
The New International Version Chapter 2
2 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” d you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” i also said, “You shall not murder.” j If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James in this passage is pretty direct in this passage because look at verse 1.
James is basically saying look do not show partiality or favoritism because your identity is rooted in Christ.
If you were here last week you will remember that we were talking about viewing yourself in light of Christ.
and James uses that mirror illustration where when we look in a mirror we see our selves in light of Christ.
And James takes it even a little further because by him saying you cannot show favoritism because your identity is rooted in Christ and did Christ show partiality for you when He died on the cross?
He did not go well he’s rich or she’s poor or they have their life together and they do not, they identify as this group, they do not.
But he said look you are created in my image and I want to pursue you because of that.
and James is going look since Christ did this for you and because you are in Christ why are you not living that way?
And look at the next few verses becasuse in the next couple verses James paints a picture of how this is happening in the Christian communities.
He basically goes look there are people walking in your places of worship who look pretty nice. they have the nicest clothes and a golden ring and you guys treat them amazing.
But then you are looking at people who are poor and treating them differently. Your telling them to sit at your feet, or stand.
As I was reading that I could not help but think about how 5 years ago I shaved my head and I debated showing this picture but I decided I was going to.
You would not think I would not look to bad with a bald head but I looked like a sketchy person.
And back then I wore sweats all the time.
So I remember being in gas stations at night and people would actually double take me to make sure I was not going to rob the gas station.
But James in our passage today knows that people tend to judge people based off externals.
and once we see the way a person looks, we make a quick judgment, and because we show favoritism we change our behavior to treat a person the way we think they should be treated instead of the way God wants them to be treated.
And your probably going well thats good stuff Brendan but I don’t know if I have that issue.
But i think it is much more common then we think.
There was a chapel speaker at Olivet (the college I went to) who actually was telling us how he decided he was going to live homeless for a full year.
And during this time he ended up outside a church and he wanted to come in the church because they were having a pancake breakfast. and the person actually told them he had to leave their property.
Well the guy left but he actually came back to this church on Sunday.
and he made eye contact with the man that kicked him out and the guys started running over to him.
so this guy is going well I am in trouble...
But when the guy got to him he said look I am so sorry and he went on to explain that he was actually a pastor at the church and not just any pastor but the pastor that dealt with homeless people within the church.
But how common is that with in our own life where we might do something like that.
Maybe not to that extent but maybe by just giving someone a look or glance.
But what I like about this passage is that the first half of the passage James is kind of negative, but the second half (starting in verse 8) he flips it from saying do not act this way to act this way.
In verse 8 he actually says to them to love their neighbors as themselves.
and God loves you so it is good to love yourself.
God created you.
But that also means we need to love others the same way.
Taking care of them, watching over them, loving them.
It does not matter what they have done, if they cuss, if they do drugs, or anythings but we are to love them as ourselves.
But hears where the issue comes in because this verse leads into James breaking down the people reading this letter.
Dont worry… he is still leading them to a positive ending but he is tearing them down for the next few verses.
Because he goes look if you have shown favoritism you have broken the law of God
but then he adds on a couple more things and goes you know also if you have murdered someone you broke the law
If you have commited adultrey you have broken the law.
and I am going down the list going okay I’m good there, good there...
But then really in verse 10 he basically ends up saying if you have broken any of the laws of God you have disobeyed everything.
And there were hundreds of laws in the Old Testement and that is not really what I want to get into today.
But a good translation would be if you have ever rebelled against God you have broken the entire law and our basically guilty of everything.
And I get to that point and go aww man maybe I am not good.
A good illustration which I actually heard another pastor use is imagine you are golfing on a beautiful golf course and you hit the ball and you see the gold ball go through a window in a house.
So you walk up to the house and you realize you hit this beautiful window that spans the entire back of this huge house.
and there is this small golfball sized whole in this window
And so naturally the guy comes out of the house and chews you out but you go its fine that why I here I will take care of it.
so you pull out your wallet and give him $10.00
But this gets the guy upset because he just bought the window for thousands of dollars.
And all you can think of is why I just broke a small part of the window.
Its just a small area.
but you have to replace the entire window because of that small whole.
So James goes because you have rebelled against God you have broken the entire law.
says “for all have sinned ad fallen short of the glory of God.”
We all have messed up in some way
we all have had some sort of temptation, issue, some sort of brokenness in our life.
For some it might feel like we were forced to into the decisions or grew up in it, for others we have chosen them.
And sin causes issues in our life and whether you can feel the impact of sin in your life or not you will at some point because our lives are meant to be in communion with Christ and sin separates us from Him
But here is the good news. says “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: Wile we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
While we were in our mess while we were bathing in our sin. Christ died as a sacrifice for our sin.
And that is really where James end the passage today because at the end of verse 13 he says “mercy triumphs over judgement”
And thats what Christ did for us. He could have come and said you messed up and are guilty of sin.
But he said no I want to be with you and I am going to show mercy on you because you are my child, created in my own image.
I always like to put this out there but if you have never commited your life to Christ or are deciding you would like like to recommit your life to Christ today would be great day and I would love to pray with you after the service.
Because you do not have to live with sin in your life but you can accept Christ in your life.
James at the end there he is going look dont let sin rule your life but allow Christ Mercy to rule your life.
Because that mercy will will overflow.
Because when we experience Christ Mercy it is not stagnant but it overflows in us into the rest of the world.
And when that happens our relationships thrive and we do not show partiality or favoritism in our life.
But our life is evidence of Gods grace.
Will you pray with me.