Sermon Text

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

You. Yeah you in the back, why don't you come up to the front. You, sitting toward the front, why don't you move toward the back because there are some in the back who are much more deserving of a seat in the front than you are. You would be surprised to hear that wouldn't you? The first thing that would cross your mind is "Why is that person more deserving of a seat of front than another?" You also would think that the last place that you would expect such favoritism would be in the church. This is exactly the point that James is dealing with in the text today. James urges us, especially as believers to flee from favoritism.

Favoritism: we like it when it works to our favor and we cry and complain about it when it works against us. One hears the cry of favoritism often, whether it is kids playing sports or advantages among siblings in a family. Whether favoritism is actually occurring or not is another matter. James has found favoritism in a most unlikely place and he has to speak against it. James writes, "Stop showing favoritism." He is aware that it is happening. It is happening in the meetings of the church. It is happening amongst "believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ".

Just so everyone is on the same page, James gives an example of what he means when he tells them to stop showing favoritism. He gives what seems to be a general example of a man who is obviously rich and a man who is obviously poor coming to the meeting of the church. The people drool and fawn over the rich man and offer him a favored seat in the meeting. They really want nothing to do with the poor man and relegate him to a uncomfortably bad seat in the meeting.

In this example James used money favoritism, but there are a lot of other ways to show favoritism. Someone may be favored based on beauty, or the color of someone's skin, or their social status. James uses a general example of money favoritism, but his wording shows that he doesn't care what the reason for the favoritism is, favoritism and the faith do not go together.

Doesn't favoritism flow from wicked thoughts? The outward favors are just products of the discrimination and judgment that were made in the thoughts, maybe even subconsciously. James shows that favoritism is a matter of the heart. The heart judges between the rich man and the poor man. It says, "Maybe if he joins our congregation he will be a good giver. I will talk with him." All the while this poor man has come seeking serious spiritual help and does not receive it because no one will talk with him.

Faith denying favoritism can show itself so easily, even in the Christian congregation and this is something that James urges us to stop doing. Most congregations have tight budgets and so the temptation is there to favor the good givers. Have you shown favoritism in choosing what members to get to know and which ones to avoid? Do you make judgments about a person based on the color of their skin? Favoritism is a personal, spiritual problem but it can also manifest itself in the larger church body. Congregations in urban areas dream of moving out to the more affluent suburbs. Church bodies plant churches in the suburbs and avoid urban areas because the churches can become self-supporting faster. In so many ways we can quickly become judges with evil thoughts and James reminds us that such thinking and favoritism doesn't go together with true faith.

All people in the world need the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Though the rich seem to have it made, their spiritual condition is often poor. James points out that they often exploit the poor. James says that the rich were regularly dragging the poor into court trying to take more of the little that the poor have. These things all show that the rich are also in need of God's grace in Christ.

God shows special attention to the poor and lowly to make his name great. "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." The point is that our salvation is based not on any human achievement, human wealth, or human power but on God's grace and mercy in the blood of Jesus. Look at Jesus himself: he was born to poor parents, born in a barn, spent the years of his ministry without a bed of his own, and died without even the clothes he wore to his trial.

Just as poor Lazarus showed a greater interest in the gospel than the rich man did, there is today a rich harvest of souls among the poor. Who better can love them than the Christian church? Who better can give them respect and a feeling of worth and value? Who better can reap and use the talents and treasures they bring than a congregational family of believers?

James calls partiality, prejudice, class arrogance, racism, and favoritism sins against the "royal law" of Scripture, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. These aren't just understandable attitudes and justifiable personal opinions but evil, sin. These attitudes infuriate the God who fashioned the entire human race from one couple, who redeemed the whole world with the blood of his Son, who wants all nations discipled. Stop the favoritism!

One might argue that favoritism is such a small thing. It isn't that big of a deal. James responds to that thinking with those famous words, "But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." Just as every sin is serious and makes a person guilty, so the sin of favoritism is serious and condemns us before God.

Find comfort in God's fairness. He did not show favoritism to his own Son, but piled the great heap of all of our sins upon him. If God were fair, we would suffer for our own sins in hell, but God provided his Son as our Savior. Jesus came and died for rich and poor, black and white, beautiful and average, man and woman, tall and short. He came and died for the sins of the world, no favoritism and not partiality. It is in God's fairness that we find comfort. He takes away even our sins of favoritism.

He also helps us to view people without making judgments in our hearts. He helps us to treat all people the same. Every person that we meet is another person for whom Jesus was willing to die. Look at them through Jesus eyes and you will no longer make wicked judgments in your heart. You are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus.

James closes out this section of Scripture with a couple more motivators to live in such a way that doesn't show favoritism. James says, "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!"

Let's take the second one first. One motivator in not showing favoritism is fear. If you choose to show favoritism then be prepared to receive judgment from God without mercy. As Jesus said right after teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer, "If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:15). God's warning of judgment helps to keep our sinful nature, which certainly wants to show favoritism in check.

The second motivator is God's promised blessing on those who do his will. As Christians God will not judge us by the law anymore because that has been fulfilled in Christ. But the law still stands as a guide for godly living. We don't follow the law because we have to, but because we are free from the law and want to freely give back to God with our obedience. We want our speech and actions to be consistent with God's guide in the law. Let mercy triumph over judgment! In other words, let your actions invite God's blessings instead of his anger.

In this section of Scripture, James comes down hard on any Christian who would show favoritism. He cannot tolerate it and for good reason: God doesn't tolerate it either. Brothers and sisters, fellow believers in our glorious Lord Jesus, God chose you to be his very own, not because of who you were or how much money you had or anything else. Show such love and mercy to all people, especially the family of God. Amen.