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Good Morning!
Something occurred to me as I was mowing the grass and thinking about the passage for this week, and more specifically, the focus of this series.
It is a truth that we learned in our study of Hebrews, and I will reference that message today.
The focus of our study of James is to develop and understand True Faith.
I’ve repeated each week in various ways that true faith never stops growing.
In thinking about James chapter two, it occurred to me that there is another aspect of faith that we haven’t talked about yet.
Today James is going to point us in that direction, and actually, we began talking about it over the past three weeks.
Not only does True Faith continue to grow, but also, it always reveals itself.
We’ve talked a lot over the last three months about faith, but what is it?
Actually, we talked about this on January 2 of this year.
Here is what we said.
Biblical faith is the certainty that it will happen, not based only on hope or hard work but on the revelation of God’s truth and character.
I was listening to a podcast this week titled “How do you know”.
It was a discussion on the way we learn things and where knowledge comes from.
They were talking about it from a philosophical stand point, but what I gathered is that there are only a couple of ways we learn things.
Someone teaches us.
We learn it through life experiences.
In reference to our faith, I would contend that our faith can be established or increased by someone teaching us, but the growth is minimal when compared to us experiencing God doing a work in our lives.
I can tell you that God is a provider and you can believe it, but it doesn’t hold the same weight as God revealing Himself as provider when you need it most.
Our faith grows the most as we experience God working in our lives.
The knowledge that comes through those kinds of experiences radically changes our understanding and trust in God.
One of the main points of that message in Hebrews was that it is time for us to put our faith into action.
I even referenced James 2:14, which is the anchor of this section.
I went back and read through that message and was shocked when I read the next part of that message on faith, and I saw that the Holy Spirit was already working us toward this idea.
I literally copied and pasted this from the other message on Hebrews 11 the faith chapter.
“It (Hebrews) was written to remind them that true faith moves the person from belief to action.”
Do you see the journey that God has had us on for the last eight months?
God is continuing to speak the same message.
It is by allowing God to work in our lives that our faith is grown and that faith will reveal itself to the world around us.
As we discussed last week, we have all, individually and corporately, been called to action.
We have been called to make disciples.
I want all of us to realize that as our faith grows, it will be revealed to the world by virtue of itself.
Let me say it another way to make sure we get it.
If you grow in faith as God works in your life, you cannot hide it.
Think of the examples that we saw in Hebrews 11:
Noah
Abraham
Moses
And consider as well some New Testament guys.
Paul
Peter
James
All of these people changed the world around them, not by their cunning and power, but as they let God work in their lives.
God directed, they obeyed, and due to their faith, they altered history.
God’s desire and intent is that the world would come to know Him as He transforms you into his likeness.
In the same way that True Faith reveals itself, the inverse is also true.
The lack of true faith is revealing.
The world may or may not notice when we are not growing, but you sure do.
This can take many forms, but often, you are aware that your faith has become stagnant.
I am purposefully not going to quantify that with examples, but I would be willing to bet you know or have experienced that before.
As we are about to see, the lack of true faith has gotten the church into some trouble over the years.
Let’s jump back one verse before we get into chapter two.
James ends the last section by describing a person of true faith.
The kind of religion that God desires to see is one that is focused on the needs of others and on becoming more like God.
In chapter two, he describes what happens when we try to live out this Christian life apart from a growing faith.
In this next chapter, he deals specifically with the results of a church that DOES let itself become stained by the world in how they treat people.
Take a look at the first four verses with me.
There are a couple of important things that we need to understand as we break down these verses.
James is using a process called “intertextuality”, which is a fancy way of saying that he is using the OT (written Torah) to help us understand the NT (oral Torah given by Jesus).
He will show through his use of the OT and Jesus’ teaching that there is no place for partiality in the church or kingdom of God.
We will look at several of those passages in a moment.
Verse one is the instruction, and the following verses are the illustration.
James is most likely using an example of something that actually happened in one of the churches.
The sad reality is that the same problem still exists today.
Our goal today is to understand what James means by favoritism, or as it is translated in other places, “partiality,” and then make personal and corporate applications.
To get to the application, we need to see that this idea of not showing partiality is not just James’ idea.
It is not in God’s nature to show favoritism.
Look at some of the verses and experiences that would have shaped James’ teaching on this issue.
We could go on and on, but you get the point.
God does not show favoritism.
As followers of Christ, who desire to be made more like Him, we should adopt the same attitude.
If you go back and look at the Greek word for favoritism/partiality, it says, “don’t receive the face.”
This literally means to accept someone based on their outward appearance.
He is telling the church that as they “hold” to the same faith as Jesus, we should act as he did.
We should love as he did.
This sin of partiality or favoritism that James is addressing falls firmly under the “love your neighbor as yourself” category.
James is not making a request of the church but rather instructs them to stop showing favoritism.
When the church shows favoritism to one person over another, it teaches the world that God does the same.
It is teaching false theology to the world around us.
It convinces us and the world that being wealthy or popular makes us more loved by God, which isn’t true.
I’ll be honest, at first thought, I felt like I and we have a pretty good handle on this.
But then I asked Jesus...
As I prepare and study for each sermon, one of my requests of God is that he would show me how the passage applies to my life personally.
I always get one of two things, or sometimes both.
He shows me something as it happens that week, or he reminds me of something from my past.
This week he brought up a story from my past that I've tried to forget.
It certainly isn’t one of the worst things I’ve done but isn’t one I’m proud of either.
The boys in the blue jean jackets.
When I was in eight grade, enjoying youth group life at my church, two new boys showed up at church one Sunday morning.
As an eight grade boy, who was still trying to find his place in the YG, I felt threatened by them.
Not for any reason other than the insecurity that comes with being an eighth grader.
That evening when we gathered for youth group, they came.
They seemed to be nice enough guys, but they dressed a little weird.
(Thought the guy who dressed like a cowboy.)
Both of them were wearing denim jackets and for some reason that made them strange to the group and to me.
As I have thought back through that night, I can only remember two things that made them stand out as someone that I didn’t want in “My YG”.
First, was the way there were dressed.
The second was that they didn’t understand the rules of the game we were playing and they messed it up.
Without spending a ton of time going into all the details, I can sum it up to say that I spent my evening messing with these two guys with purpose of making sure they didn’t want to come back.
It is also important to know that I was a believer and I was not alone in this endeavor.
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