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Sunday, January 24, 2010

God’s Test of a Church’s Faithfulness (James 2:1-7)

Many centuries ago, a medieval theologian named John Scotus was visiting Rome, and was escorted by the Pope into the Vatican’s treasuries. Pointing to all the money and assets, the Pope said, “No longer does the church have to say, ‘Silver and gold have I none.”

Scotus quickly replied, “That’s true, but also no longer can we say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ…rise up and walk’.”

In 2,000 years, the church has moved from the catacombs to cathedrals, from prison cells to worship centers, from upper rooms to arenas.

These days, celebrities accept awards with diamond crosses dangling from their necks, and drug-enhanced athletes give thanks to Jesus for the ability to hit a ball.

We’ve come a long way, but have we come in the right direction? Is it possible that in our efforts to pack our pews and build our buildings, we have misunderstood the kingdom of God completely?

In James 2:1-7, Brother James deals with an issue that was as contemptible in the 1st century as it is common in the 21st century.

[James 2:1-7]

1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
2 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,       
3 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,”       
4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?       
5 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?       
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?       
7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?    


James warns the people of God NOT to live out their faith while practicing a sinful favoritism toward society’s elite. He says in verse 1, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”

This text calls for us to see if our pride and prejudices might be blinding us to the kingdom of God at the very doors of our church.

Let’s look at this passage together, and follow Brother James as he points us to some failures that may be realities in our church, or in our lives. First of all, notice that James describes for us:

1. A Timeless Scenario
Beginning in verse 2, James sets up a hypothetical situation that does not require all that much imagination to connect it to reality.

The setting is what James calls in verse 2, “your assembly.” This is what amounts to a typical Sunday morning service.

On this particular Sunday, two very different visitors attend the service. Based on the contrast between them, they are greeted and treated very differently by the people of the church.

Church should be the one place where everybody is somebody; but as James’ story reveals, and as is all too often the case, the church can be as segmented and segregated as the sin-sick world around it.

Notice a couple of things about this scene that James describes for us. First of all, notice:

A. Three Actors
Look beginning in verse 2. James says, “For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes…”

The first actor in this story is Mr. Goldfinger. The original language actually describes him as a “gold-fingered man.” His gold rings were his status symbol in the first-century.

If this story were told today, perhaps the man would step out of a chrome-covered SUV, and walk in wearing a three-piece tailored suit, while checking his Rolex to see if he was on time.

Look again at the text, and notice a second actor in this story. Continuing in verse 2, James says, “…and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.”

This man walked up to the church from off the street, and his clothes look as if he had slept in them, and smell as bad as they look.

These are the two visitors, but there is one more actor – the greeter who meets them at the door. Notice verse 3. It says, “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.’”

This socially-savvy, seeker-friendly usher leads the man in the suit to a comfortable and prominent seat, while he tells the poor man to stand in the back, or else sit on the floor.

These are the actors described in this scenario. My prayer is that we would not see ourselves playing out this scene in our own church.

Notice not only the three actors described in this scene, but notice also:

B. Their Actions
You don’t have to know Greek or understand systematic theology in order to see what is going on this scenario that James describes for us.

This scene is an illustration of the conduct that James condemns in the first verse. It is the sin of showing partiality and favoritism toward a particular group or person.

It is holding your faith in Christ, while showing personal favoritism. It is claiming that you believe Christ died for all, while only proclaiming that Christ died for all to a select group of people.

If we are not careful, this hypothetical scene will become a practical reality in our church. We will consciously or unconsciously target a certain class and kind of people.

We will witness to and welcome in only those who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, think like us, and act like us.

We will become a cookie-cutter fellowship that better resembles a club than a congregation. We will have socio-economic uniformity, but not a genuine Christian unity.

Though 2,000 years old, there is something definitely and disturbingly familiar about this scene that James paints in this text. Notice a second thing we draw from this passage.

Notice not only that we have here a timeless scenario sadly common in the church of God, but notice also secondly that what James describes is:

2. A Troubling Sin
This favoritism for a certain class or kind of person is something that goes completely against the character of our God.

In Acts 10:34, Peter said, “…God is not one to show partiality…” In Leviticus 19:15, God commanded his people to do the same. He said, “…you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.”

The favoritism of the snooty usher in verse 3 is something that the Word of God soundly condemns. It is an ungodly and unholy practice.

There are two aspects of this sin that I believe James is specifically confronting in this text. Notice first of all, this sin involves:

A. A Shallow View of People
In verse 4, James asks two questions. The first is this, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves…?”

The word “distinctions” is translated from a word that literally means to create divisions. James’ question is literally, “Have you not then divided people into two categories?”

By seating the rich man, and slighting the poor man, the usher had distinguished between two people in a way that was wrong and unwarranted by the gospel.

What caused this distinction? It goes back to verse one. Notice there the phrase, “attitude of personal favoritism.”

That phrase is translated from one word that literally means “to focus on the face.” The usher had judged each of the two men by what he saw of them on the outside. He viewed them superficially rather than spiritually.

We too are tempted to size people up by what we can see of them on the outside. Their apparel and their appearance too often form our opinions of them.

Contrary to this, the Lord told Samuel, in 1 Samuel 16:7, “…God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

There’s a little poem that goes like this:

“Full many people go to church,
As everyone knows;
Some go to close their eyes,
And some to eye their clothes.”

Somewhere, we have got learn to stop viewing people in such a shallow manner, based on their appearance. The man with the tie may be no more spiritual than the man with the t-shirt.

This sin that is condemned by the Word of God is not only the sin of a shallow view of people, but it also involves:

B. A Selfish View of People
Look at the second rhetorical question James asks in verse 4. He asks, “…and [have you not then] become judges with evil motives?”

When we distinguish between people, based on their outward appearance, James says we become judges whose thoughts or motives are evil.

What are these evil motives? Well, based on the story James used, it must be greed.

The rich man is schmoosed while the poor man is shunned, and it must be because the rich man had money to give.

One writer commented on this passage and said, “One of the great dangers of the church is to look for people who can help us instead of looking for people we can help.”

When we are worried more about budgets than baptisms, and more about finances than faithfulness, we fall into the trap of viewing people selfishly.

I read about a poor, cleaning lady who tried to join the fashionable, up-town first church. The preacher was a little concerned about how his wealthy, influential members would feel about this meager, little woman sitting on the pew with them.

He met with the woman and told her to go home and talk to God about it, and then let him know later what God had said. The little woman never returned to the church again, and the preacher began to wonder about her.

He ran into her one day as she was scrubbing the floor of a building he entered, and he asked her why she hadn’t come back.

She told him, “I talked to God about it, just like you said, and God told me not to worry about it, that He had been trying for twenty years to get into your church too.”

It is a sin to view people shallowly and selfishly. If God is no respecter of persons, then we cannot be without disobeying Him.

There is a third thing we find in this text, and it is what I feel to be the real heart of this passage. James points us not only to a timeless scenario and a terrible sin, but we see also finally:

3. A Terrible System
Look closely at verse 5, James says, “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?”

Now look at the first part of verse 6. James says, “But you have dishonored the poor man.”

In verse 5, James calls for close attention, and then he explains the nature of God’s plan in this world, and the make-up of His kingdom.

Then in verse 6, he condemns the church for working in a way that is completely counter to that plan and that kingdom.

At the heart of this passage is an indictment against a church that would follow the values of a sinful culture, while forgetting the truth of what God’s kingdom really looks like.

Notice with me a couple of reasons why this system that James confronts is counter to God’s plan for His church. Think first of all about:


A. Those Favored by the System
In verses 6 and 7, James points out an irony that was true of the first century church, and is still true today.

He says that while you are despising the poor and needy, the rich people you are courting are actually your strongest enemies.

He asks in verse 6, “Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” He goes on in verse 7, “Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”

The early church was made up of mostly poor peasants and servants. They were the bottom of the societal ladder, and they were often abused by the upper class and wealthy.

James asks, “Why are you so interested in the pleasure and approval of the very people who oppress you and oppose you?”

There is a temptation and a tendency for the church to try desperately to be cool and attractive to the mainstream of our society.

As a result, we try to appeal to the educated, upper-class, socially-stylish people. We target the Starbucks and sushi crowd, with their Blackberry’s and BMW’s, thinking their presence in our church will validate us in the world.

The only problem, is that so very often, this is the same crowd who resents the presence of the Church in the world, and scoffs at the message of the gospel we proclaim.

It is a sad and ironic system of operation when the church chases the very classes and culture that despise it.

We must realize that the Bible will never make Oprah’s book club, and the church will never be cool in a world that sees the cross of Jesus as silliness.

There is something further that makes this system so counter to the plan of God. Notice not only who this system favors, but notice also further:


B. Those Forgotten by the System
In this text, James is rebuking the church for misunderstanding the truth about God’s kingdom.

Look again at verse 5, James says, “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?”

While these church members were fawning after the rich, they had forgotten what their own Savior had said. In Luke 6:20, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

Not long before that statement, in Luke 4:18, Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. “

As much as it stings our egos to hear it, we need to be reminded of how Paul described the church in 1 Corinthians 1:26. He said, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble…”

If we are not careful, we will value the same select people and the same shallow principles of our sin-sick society, and we will forget that the kingdom of God is primarily made up of those whom the world overlooks and undervalues.

We need to be reminded that Christ is building His body, and the people who make it up probably look less like the CEO in the new convertible, and more like a single-mom in an old minivan full of kids.

We need to recognize that the Kingdom of Christ will more likely include a calloused-handed mechanic with his name on his shirt, than a well-dressed executive with his name on the office door.

James is not saying that no rich man ever gets saved, or that every poor man is saved already. No, but He is reminding us of the overall plan of God.

The plan of God for his church is for us to, as the parable in Luke 14 says, “…Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.”

While social standing and wealth may offer some advantages in a world where those things are valued, they should make no difference whatsoever in the church of the Lord Jesus.

Pride and prejudice at the house of God are sure signs that the church has missed the truth of the kingdom of God.

D.L. Moody hung a sign over the door of his church in Chicago that I believe would have pleased Brother James. It said, “Ever welcome to this house of God are the strangers and the poor.”

May that be true of this church as well, and may we never hold the faith of Christ with favoritism.

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