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February 2, 2014 |
| Favoritism | ||
Each person can have many attributes such as tall, smart, or
happy. Some of these attributes are indicators of the person's character. "For
example, if I behave rudely; if I manifest a hateful attitude, I insult people,
take advantage of people and lie to people - this relates to character. I've
made some wrong choices, and those choices reflect my basic selfish character.
"But I'm talking now about ‘character-neutral' attributes [, such as] color of
skin, genealogy or ethnic background, geographic location, level of education
and income, health, age, sex, popularity, etc."1
This lesson focuses on a sin that Christians can easily commit and not be aware of it – favoritism – treating one person better than another based on character-neutral attributes.
1My brethren, do not hold the glorious faith of Our Lord [Jesus] The Messiah with acceptance of persons.
"Acceptance of persons", which is "respecting of persons" in other translations, is a phrase that appears in other places in the New Testament to indicate distinguishing one person over another, which is favoritism. So James is saying: do not hold on to the faith of Jesus and at the same time favor one person over another. In fact, as we will see later, he is saying the two are incompatible.
Unlike Paul, who might provide one reason after another and so work his way up to his point, James starts directly with his main point. He provides the reasons that support his point in the following verses.
2For if a man will enter your assembly with a gold ring or fine clothing and a poor man enters in dirty clothing, 3and you have regard for him wearing fine clothing, and you say to him, "Sit well here", and you say to the poor man, "Stand over there or sit here before our footstool.", 4behold, are you not divided in your souls and have you not become expositors of wicked reasonings?
James' support of his main point begins with an example using the church's assembly place. At that time churches met in homes. Just as our houses in this time can hold more people than we have chairs to seat, some people in those meetings got chairs while others had to stand or sit on the floor. From the text it appears that some of the attendees are new to the church and that there is an usher to help with seating.
The problem comes when the person seating the people chooses who gets a chair based on apparent wealth. A person who does so divides his soul between following Jesus and attempting to gain the favor of a person. Such a person also displays the evil in his thinking.
5Hear, my beloved brethren: Is it not the poor of this world, however, who are rich in faith? God has chosen them to be the heirs in that Kingdom which God has promised to those who love him.
James asks them to think about what they are doing by treating the wealthy better than the poor. Wealth is a poison to faith. Wealth teaches the wealthy that they need nothing, are self-sufficient, and their future is secure and so it pulls them away from God. This makes it very difficult to be both wealthy and rich in faith.
6But you have despised the poor. Behold, do not the rich have dominion over you and drag you to court? 7Behold, do they not slander The Worthy Name by which you are called?
Here James says that, by favoring the rich, we would be despising the poor, who are promised the Kingdom of Heaven. Then he goes on to say, why would you favor the rich anyway. They rule over you and drag you into court because they have the money to do so. They are also the ones who slander the name of Jesus. How does it make sense to favor your oppressors and mistreat the children of the kingdom?
8And if you fulfill The Written Law of God in this, as it is written: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself", you are doing well. 9But if you show partiality, you are sinning, and you are reproved by The Written Law as violators against The Written Law.
James is saying that we are doing what is right if we follow the law of God in this matter. But if we show partiality or favoritism, the law of God shows us that we are sinning. His reference is to Leviticus 19:18 which says " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." But James could also have referred to Leviticus 19:15 which says " 'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly."
James is making an important connection here. He is saying that favoritism is a violation of one of the love commandments, "love your neighbor as yourself." But that can be a difficult connection to understand if we don't understand the wording "as yourself". Jesus said it in a different way, in what we now call the Golden Rule, "do to others as you would have them do to you", or in its negative form. "don't do something to someone that you wouldn't want them to do to you."
When we see it that way, we see that James' point is that we wouldn't want to be treated like second-class people if we were poor and so we should not do that to others. Doing so is a violation of the Golden Rule which is the love commandment.
10For whoever keeps the whole Written Law and slips in one thing, he is condemned by the entire Law. 11For he who said, "Do not commit adultery", also said, "You shall not murder." But if you are not committing adultery, but you have murdered, you have become a violator of The Law.
Here James is saying we should not consider the sin of favoritism a small thing. There are no great laws or lesser laws, just the law. If we break the law in any way we have broken the whole law. If we break the law in any way it is as serious as any other way. This is a fundamental difference between the laws of God and the laws of man. If we are arrested for a speeding ticket, the penalty is not the same as it is for having stolen a car.
12So be speaking and acting as a person who is going to be judged by The Law of Liberty. 13The judgment is without mercy against him who does not practice mercy, but with mercy, you have dominion over judgment.
James implores us to speak as, and act as, and be a person who is going to be judged by "The Law of Liberty" which he portrays as a better law, a law where mercy practiced is mercy obtained. "What would that law be? This is answered by […] our finding that James' thought is thoroughly saturated with the teachings of Jesus. These teachings are clearly on James' mind throughout the letter, and they would be the natural referent of his term [Law of Liberty]. The teachings of Jesus have become for James this new law, not repudiating but rather fulfilling the Old Testament law, not replacing the Old Testament law but rather claiming Christ's authorship of it as his own […] law. That makes it legitimate to conclude that, even with the command from Leviticus 19:18, James is probably remembering Jesus' own quotation of the command, as in Mark 12:31.".2
The author in the quote above refers to Mark 12:31 which quotes Jesus saying " 30'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
"James begins with the Old Testament command Love your neighbor as yourself because it is the specific command being violated by favoritism, and because Jesus used it to summarize the Old Testament teaching regarding our treatment of each other. The law for people of faith is the law of love, taught in the Old Testament and now delivered personally by Christ as his royal law for his followers. Favoritism is sin because it violates Christ's law of love."3
"Early Jewish Christians grew up in the Jewish heritage which did, in fact, honor the wealthy. The Jews were God's chosen people and He promised them wealth if they would simply follow His laws. (Deut 7:12-14) Now James is saying that because of Christ, everyone is […] suddenly equal, a tough concept to accept by both rich and poor."4
James lists six things wrong with favoritism:5
1. It is inconsistent with faith in Christ (v.1). When you consider what Jesus did, what Jesus taught and how Jesus behaved - there is no justification for favoritism. It is not compatible with faith in Christ.
2. It makes us "judges with evil thoughts," (v.4). The kind of favoritism James describes doesn't come from good thoughts, but evil. The treatment we give to people depends upon our thoughts about them. This kind of insulting, dishonoring treatment stems from wrong or evil thoughts.
3. It is wrong because God makes no such distinctions (v.5). God is not a respecter of persons (see Acts 10:34; Eph. 5:1; 1 Pet. 1:17). When we engage in the kind of behavior James describes, we are not acting as God's children.
4. It dishonors the poor man (v.6). Why should we dishonor someone, simply or merely because of their income, their financial status. The answer is, we shouldn't. 1 Peter 2:17 says we are to honor all men.
5. It makes no sense when you consider, as a class, the rich were those who oppressed Christians (vss. 6b,7). What a strange spectacle. Some of those who were rich and powerful oppressed Christians (see Jas. 5:1-6). Now someone of that class appears, he is honored and the common man is shunned!
6. It violates the law of love (vss. 8-13). The royal law of love for God and neighbor is ignored when this kind of prejudice is practiced. "…if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors."
James' words should not be viewed only in the context of treatment of rich and poor but in the context of all character-neutral attributes, wealth, fame, skin color, hair style, piercings, or any of a host of other attributes that Jesus would not care about. The context also should not be limited to James' example of places where Christians meet, but to everywhere a Christian goes.
While our society recognizes the wrongness of discriminating against individuals based on race or religion, there is no prohibition against discriminating in favor of individuals based on wealth or fame. In fact, many people in those groups have come to expect special treatment. James tells us this should not be so.
Is James condemning the wealthy and exalting the poor?
In verse 5, when James says "Is it not the poor of this world, however, who are rich in faith" he seems to be describing a relationship between wealth and faith where one cannot have both. Does this mean that all poor people are rich in faith and all rich people are poor in faith?
If Kobe Bryant were to come to our church how should he expect to be treated?
After church would he be fawned over while other guests are ignored?
Is it wrong for an usher in the church to ask strong, healthy people to move to another seat so that a crippled person can sit by the aisle and near the door?
If there was a previous time when a group was treated unfavorably, when this is stopped, is it ok to treat another group unfavorably?
1 http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-james-2-1-13.htm
2 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Jas/Favoritism-Breaks-Law-People
3 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Jas/Favoritism-Breaks-Law-People