One Sunday you decide you will attend a different church in your neighborhood. When you arrive, the usher leads you to a seat in the back corner, despite there being plenty of other seats, and even though you had asked to sit towards the front. As you wait for the service to start, you see the usher leading other people to seats further to the front and center. You notice that they are dressed in fine suits, fur coats, designer dresses and jewelry. Now you know, as you hang your head, why you were seated in the back far corner. Though you are clean, your clothes and shoes are several years old, plain and worn. Your hair is combed, but not styled, your hands rough from work. The affluent members here don’t want anything to do with you. We may think that this doesn’t happen in today’s churches, but I know that it does. It was a problem in the early church, as well, and was something that was addressed by James in our Scripture for today.
As James opens the second chapter of his Epistle, he immediately confronts the church with a problem that seemed to be going on for some time, and that was showing favoritism among members and visitors to the church group he was writing to (vs. 1-4). James describes a scenario quite like the one I opened with. Two people, a wealthy person well dressed in expensive clothes, the other a poor person in clothes that may have come from the charity drive. The poor person is ignored, treated as invisible, while the wealthy person is fawned over, queen of the social scene.
God tells us quite plainly in His Word that we are not to show favor to someone on a superficial, external basis, such as appearance, race, wealth, rank, or social status. Throughout the whole Bible, the poor are objects of God’s special concern. The sin that James points out is not the actual act of dressing in expensive clothes or jewelry. It is when the people of a church show favoritism to the rich over the poor, in catering to the rich and socially prominent, while shunning the poor, common people. In an honest assessment, does your church do that? We should never make appearance more important than character. We should also never cater to rich people just because they are better able to financially support the church and its programs. Jesus never showed partiality to anyone, and neither should we.
James continues by quoting the very familiar verse of loving your neighbor as yourself (vs. 8). We are to see to the physical health and spiritual well-being of our neighbors to the same intensity and concern as we do for ourselves. That includes everyone, not just caring for the wealthy or beautiful (vs. 9). We may think we’re doing good if we are obeying some of the things God says in His Word, but James responds by reminding us that we can’t pick and choose what to obey or not obey (vs. 10-11). We may view our sins as not being as damaging or heinous as others, but if we have broken any part of God’s Word, no matter how small, we need Jesus to pay for our sin.
Next our passage speaks of something that is so important, and that is mercy (vs. 13). A person who shows no mercy and compassion for people in need shows that he has never responded to the mercy of God. The person whose life is characterized by mercy is ready for the Day of Judgment, because he shows he knows God’s mercy. I need all of the mercy from God that I can get. So if I want mercy for myself, I had better be a dispenser of mercy to everyone I meet!
Our passage closes with some words that some people have felt contradicts other parts of Scripture (vs. 14-18), but if we look carefully, we see this is not the case. James is not saying that works save us, rather than faith. He is saying that right actions are the natural by-product of true faith. A profession of compassion without action is phony.
True faith should transform our conduct. If we continue sinful practices, do we truly believe the truths we claim to believe? True faith always results in a conviction against sinful acts and desire to do good deeds. Our actions don’t save us, but they will show our commitment to God is real. If one’s faith is truly rooted, there will be fruit to show.
James gave us a lot of food for thought in our passage today. Things to take home and really think over. And not only to think over, but to take action in our lives.
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