“My brethren, have not faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shown no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” (James 2:1-13)
MY BRETHREN
The opening words of these verses at once remind us that the message is directed to Christians. There is no message here for unbelievers. The message is concerned with the believers’ faith, the foundation of which is the Word of God. It is by this Word we will be judged, regardless of what our claim of faith might be.
HOLD YOUR FAITH IN PURITY
We have just seen God’s estimation of pure religion, which touches character as well as conduct. Now a very searching word of instruction and warning is set before us which tests the very sincerity of our dedication as children of God. The rich and the poor are once again brought before us. How do they strike us? What influence will they have on our conduct? What is our estimation of the persons we meet, and what determines that estimation?
In the first chapter of James, verses 9-11, the rich and the poor were addressed directly and the message there has to do with their estimation of themselves. The conclusion was that their social status would neither impress God (in the case of the rich), or hinder God (as in the case of the poor). Also the rich and the poor in these verses had clearly become Christians and so the message could be addressed to them. However, here the message is addressed to Christians in the church, where no social distinction should now exist. It has to do with our estimation of the rich and the poor coming into our assembly. There is no indication that the rich man and the poor man coming into the assembly are as yet brethren, rather it is understood by the text that they may not be. Whether or not they are, they are at least potential Christians, and this is what makes this message so very important. It not only has to do with our own spiritual health, but just as important the salvation or loss of the souls of those with whom we have dealings.
WITH RESPECT TO PERSONS
Do we estimate the rich to be of more worth than the poor? Is there more rejoicing over the conversion of a businessman than a common laborer? Do we feel a “bigger fish” has been landed? Are we more anxious to introduce ourselves to the man of importance who has shown interest in the message of the Gospel than we are to the seemingly unimportant poor man? These are very searching questions in many places today. A yes answer to any one of these questions would indicate that we have become the victim of an evil spirit of partiality.
JUDGES WITH EVIL MOTIVES
It is also important to consider the many strange twists this spirit of partiality and evil judgment may take. There is a tendency in some circles to make great ado over the conversion of the notoriously evil as well as the notoriously rich and famous. The drug addict, the prostitute, the bank robber, the murderer, when they come to God through Jesus Christ, are by unwise church leaders drawn aside from the true and important issues and made prominent in the church for “their testimony.” Meanwhile there are others sitting by who also come to God, but because in their former life they were not very important, or very rich, or very evil, they are hardly even noticed.
How quick some people are to get those “very important” ones up in the front of the congregation to “tell their story.” What horrid wrong this is against these who have come to God out of a life of sin and shame. They may have been experts in their respective fields in the past but when they are converted and are born again they become babies in Christ. They have no message for the church, but the church should have a message for them. They must be taught to be hearers, and then doers of the word. They must be taught that as new-born babies their desire must be for the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. Any call to public ministry must come from heaven and be implemented by the Holy Spirit and all in God’s own time. We must take heed to the revelation of the mind of God from the apostle Paul, when he declares that “it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” (Eph. 5:1-12) He is speaking of those “unfruitful works of darkness” done by “the children of disobedience” who were “of darkness.”
PARTIALITY IS ALL WRONG
The subject here is the sin of partiality, by which we make ourselves judges with evil thoughts. In other words, such practice proves our thinking and our attitude by which we estimate the value of men is all wrong.
IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
The opening words of James 2:5 constitute a call to hear and understand. Understand what? That such partiality is even contrary to common sense or sound logic. Those to whom God, in a special way, has extended His hand of mercy because of their handicap of poverty, we have despised. And to those who have no handicap but have the wherewithal to do and seek what they want, we give special aid. The poor, who are in no position to do us harm, we despise; but the rich who because of their position can take advantage of us and oppress us and make demands of us, we show favor. This displays not the Spirit of God, but the self-seeking spirit of sinful man. “God is no respecter of persons,” (Acts 10:34) and neither should His children be.
THE RICH HAVE ADVANTAGES
Perhaps a word of caution is in order here. We must be careful not to interpret these verses and like passages in scripture as showing God as being partial to the poor. Any special effort of God toward the poor, such as, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor”, (Luke 4:18) is only an equalizing effort to give the poor the same opportunity that the rich already had. The rich have the wherewithal to go and seek here or there for whatever they desire, but the poor do not. There are examples of this truth is scripture, and many modern day proofs as well.
The Queen of Sheba traveled far with expensive gifts in order to hear the God-given wisdom of Solomon. A poor man could not do that. But One greater than Solomon came on the scene, (Matt 4:4) the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, and He saw to it that the poor had the gospel preached to them. He also commissioned the church to see that it was done before he returned to the right hand of the Father. Yet in many places the strong appeal is to the “better off.” In James 1:9-10 we saw how the poor should rejoice in that he has been exalted, but the rich in that he is made low. Both have been brought together on a common level of approach to God.
THE ROYAL LAW
Next we are reminded of the royal law, or the law of the Kingdom of God: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” There are two things in this “royal law” that we need to consider. First, who is my neighbor? Second, in what way do I love myself?
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR
The answer to the first question of course was answered by our Lord himself in connection with the “royal law.” Jesus answered the question by way of a parable. (Luke 10:25-37) In this parable we refer to as the “good Samaritan”, a couple of things are made clear. First, our neighbor is anyone we might encounter in the course of our day’s activities. Secondly, race, religion, or social status in no way affect the conclusion that this is my neighbor. The providence of God—the fact that our paths have crossed—has made it so.
THE BIBLE KIND OF LOVE
In what way then, do I love myself? The answer to this question is vital to the under-standing of our responsibility toward our neighbor. Immediately we realize that this love the Bible speaks of cannot be anything like that which the world usually calls love. That which the world usually calls love is basically emotional and is aroused by the way the object of that love strikes our fancy. The problem with such love is that it can change with our moods. That which is attractive and precious to us now, we may soon find ourselves becoming disinterested in, and even resenting or hurting. Feelings can change depending on how things strike us, or our particular mood.
Emotions are involved in the Bible kind of love, but it is not basically emotional. Biblical love is basically intelligent; secondarily volitional; and only thirdly emotional. This is why true love doesn’t “fly out the window” when our moods change. We choose the objects of our love, and our choice should be based on intelligent thought. That is why God could give commandment to love. If love was a state of emotion or feeling it could not be commanded. People who “fall in love” can fall out of love too.
Our love for God is based on intelligent thought. There is plenty of reason for loving God. It is as the scripture says, “we love Him because He first loved us.” (John 4:19) It is not the purpose of this study to pursue these thoughts to any depth. It is sufficient to say here that many of the world’s ills are caused by false notions about love.
HOW DO I LOVE MYSELF
With these thoughts before us we can better see the way we love ourselves. Surely it is not in an emotional way. We are not stirred by pleasant feelings at the thought of ourselves. No, that is not the way we love ourselves.
Let us note here that love itself is never directly beheld. It is invisible, yet it is real. It is beheld only in its evidences. For the sake of brevity we will discuss what I believe to be the one dominant and ever-present evidence of love. That evidence is best described by the word care. The proof of our love for ourselves is shown in the many ways we care for ourselves and about ourselves. This care is displayed in two tenses, present tense, and future tense. Our care for ourselves in the present tense is shown by the many ways we look after our own present good. That we care for ourselves in the future tense is proved by the many ways in which we plan and provide for ourselves for the future. (It is interesting to note that the “good Samaritan” not only looked after the immediate needs of the wounded man, but he gave instructions that his future needs be looked after too.) As far as feelings go, we may feel we are a failure, and possibly even disliked ourselves; but, the fact that we love ourselves is proven by the way we care so much what happens to us.
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF
Now we have had to say all of that to show this; we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. This does not mean we are to feel a strong attraction to our neighbor, or even that we are to believe that he merits our love. Things that we commonly feel about ourselves we may also feel about our neighbor. We may feel he is not right in what he does, or we may even dislike him. Yet we can and must love him. That is, we must care about him. The care we show for our neighbor will prove our love. We should care for his present welfare, and we must care about his future welfare as well. If we care about our future destiny, we should care about his. How searching! And let us be careful not to confine our thoughts to material things only. These are important and necessary, but if we fail to recognize the needs of the soul and spirit we are short sighted and blind to the big picture.
IT’S THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM OF LOVE
The connection here with what has gone before is obvious. We are told that if we fulfill this royal law we do well. That is, there is no danger of our treating one person as being more important than another if we conscientiously live by this law or rule; the royal rule of the Kingdom of God.
EVERY LAW OF GOD IS IMPORTANT
If we have respect of persons, we commit sin and are convicted of the law as lawbreakers, or transgressors. Verses ten and eleven remind us of the well known truth that though we are obedient to His commandments, if we refuse to obey one, we become as guilty of being a law breaker as if we had broken them all. This reminder is important at this point for we have a tendency to feel as though some commandments are more important than others. Consequently, we are very careful and meticulous in some areas of our life, but become very careless in others.
Surely this point is well driven home when we see the commandments that are compared in importance to this royal law and the sin of partiality; “Thou shalt not kill;” “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Many who would never think of committing murder or adultery think nothing of esteeming one person as more important than another. We may be willing to take time with one we think is important, but we think our time is too valuable for someone else. As we have seen in verse four, this makes us judges with evil thoughts. And we ourselves become transgressors of the law. For after all it is not just the law we sin against; but more important, we sin against the One who gave the law. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
In verses twelve and thirteen we are directed to always speak and act with the consciousness that we will be judged by the law of liberty. If we show no mercy to others, we will be judged without mercy. A very sobering thought! For mercy too is caring, and mercy will triumph over judgment. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matt. 5:7)