Sermon Tone Analysis

James 2:1-13

 

! Introduction

            One day you get to school and there are two new boys in your class.

One of them has a new pair of “skater shoes” and new clothes that are right in style, the other has a stain in his faded jeans and the shirt he is wearing looks a lot like one you gave away to the thrift shop last year.

Which of these boys are you going to want to make friends with?

As you approach your work area one day, you notice a new person in the work station next to yours.

He has dark skin and a beard and you learn from some of the other workers that he is Muslim.

Your boss comes and lets you know that you are going to have to help him get oriented to the job and work with him on a number of projects.

How are you going to feel about that?

One day you walk into church and notice that there is a young lady standing in the corner of the foyer.

She is with some of the other young people.

She has all black clothes, her hair is died black and she has three earrings in one ear, an earring in her lip and nose and one in her other ear.

How are you going to treat her?

            Several weeks ago we talked about loving one another and Larry challenged us to consider what that meant in practical terms.

In James 2:1-13 we come to a similar concept as we examine what it means to live by the royal law - the law to “love your neighbour as yourself.”

James 2:1-13 is written in the context of James 1:27 in which we discussed what “true religion” is.

The ideas we will look at today are an extension of that thinking.

If we are worshippers and followers of God, that will have an impact on how we treat other people.

Love for God and love for others always go hand in hand.

James 2:1 lets us know that this is about our life as “believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.”

How do we live as believers in Jesus?

How do brothers and sisters in Christ treat each other and others.

James gives us some challenging and practical things to think about.

In some ways, I am sorry I started this series on James because every week we hear hard hitting words that challenge us.

I hope that we will continue to listen to what God is saying and not become discouraged.

Today again, we have  an opportunity to examine our lives to see if we are really living as believers in Jesus.

!

I. Don’t Show Favoritism 1-4

            James says, “As believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.”

What is favoritism?

I like the Greek word that is used here.

It can be translated “laying hold of the face.”

In other words, it means that we should not treat people differently because of what is on the outside, what is the appearance of things.

James uses an illustration to help us understand what he means.

The rich man is obviously rich.

In fact, he is ostentatiously rich.

He has a gold ring on his finger and his clothes are shining white.

In those days, they did not have the fabrics, dyes or washing machines that we have today.

If you wanted to get your clothes really white, you would chalk it so that it would shine.

This is what people of means did to show that they could afford to take the time and spend the money to get their clothes looking really good.

They were probably wealthy enough that they didn’t have to work too much and get their clothes dirty through work.

The poor man, on the other hand sticks out because of his poverty.

The word for “poor” is a word that indicates a man who is desperately poor.

He is in abject poverty.

His clothes are shabby, probably dirty, smelly and perhaps even torn.

Both of these men stand out, one stands out as obviously wealthy and the other as obviously poor.

James is making it simple for us.

He is setting up two opposite categories.

When he mentions the potential treatment of the two men, our own thoughts condemn us because we know exactly what he is saying and we know that we do exactly what he says here not to do.

As we read this, we should know that we are meant not only to think about this illustration, but also all situations in which we fail to treat people equally.

Not only in our church assembly, but in our neighbourhoods, in our work places and in our school.

What do you think when you drive down Main Street in Winnipeg and see an unkempt Native person walking down the street?

Who would we rather not have as next door neighbours?

How do you treat the poor student who begins to attend your school?

Will you accept a person of another race or religion in your place of work?

What are the barriers we set up between ourselves and others in the church because they are different?

I have to confess that I stand condemned in my attitudes by this illustration and by this command.

!

II.

The Logic Of Mercy 5-7

            The purpose of James is to teach us why we ought not to do this.

In verses 5-7, he begins to do so by demonstrating the logic of showing mercy.

It doesn’t make sense to show favoritism, because it gives evidence that we have not adopted God’s values, but are still living by the world’s values.

What are the evil motives spoken of in vs. 4? We need to understand what he is saying here.

He is not defending all the poor just for the sake of their poverty, but the poor who have learned to depend on God.

Poverty in itself is not commendable, but when poverty drives a person to utter dependence on God, that is commendable.

The gospels do an interesting thing.

In Luke 6:20, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

In Matthew, the same beatitude is spoken by Jesus in a little different way.

He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

It is interesting because in Luke, it is the poor who are commended and in Matthew it is the poor in Spirit.

It seems to be two different things, but it is really the same.

It is often the poor who know that they need help who depend on God and are commended for their trust.

They are the ones who, as James says have been chosen by God to be “rich in faith.”

By the same token, he is not condemning the rich simply because they are rich.

He is condemning those who have not learned to put their trust in God and as a result, and because they have the power, are persecuting believers.

Why does he pick on the rich?

The unfortunate reality is that a large percentage of those with means reject faith.

Jesus himself said at one point, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again I tell you, 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.”

The rich are those who because they have everything they need, somehow do not learn to depend on God and often reject Him.

What we have here is a clash of value systems.

God’s value system is to bless those who know they need His help and therefore depend on Him.

The world’s value system is to bless those who have much of this world’s goods.

When we show favoritism for the rich, we are demonstrating that we hold to the world’s value systems rather than to God’s value systems.

To do that is evil.

In verse 6, he attacks directly when he says, “you have insulted the poor.”

One writer says, “The insult is created when we accept the idea that to be rich and important makes a person more acceptable in the eyes of God than to be poor and destitute.”

The first argument that James presents then is the logic of obeying this command.

It is a powerful logic which helps us see and live by the values of God instead of those of the world.

This is not an easy thing for us to do and we have a hard time obeying even this logic because we are so steeped in the values of the world.

May God help us to see things His way.

!

III.

The Law Of Mercy 8-11

The evil of favoritism is further demonstrated when we are told next that it is a violation of God’s law.

!! A. The Royal Law

            The law of love for others is the most fundamental law in the Bible.

It is found in the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18, “…but love your neighbour as yourself.

I am the LORD.”

It is found in the words of Jesus who said in Matthew 19:18, “love your neighbour as yourself.”

It is found in the words of Paul in Romans 13:9, “The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

The concept is also found in the writings of John.