Favoritism Forbidden

Written by Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted by Teresa Han
22nd March, 2009

Jame s 2:1-13
Main Idea: To teach that as God is very concerned about the poor and so must we.Objectives: a. To teach against favoritism against the poor. b To teach that helping the poor is a spiritual act. C. To mobilize the whole church to help the poor.

1. Introduction
- Some of us may have prejudice against the poor like we may underestimate them in all ways; we may not want to mix with them; we are scare that they may take advantage of us; we treat them differently from the rich because they cannot repay our kindness; we think they are dirty; they may harm us, etc.- We pray that God forgives us for all the prejudices because we neglect Jesus teaching and we may have even forgotten about Jesus’ teaching on love.- Matthew 22:39, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Also found in Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”)- Let us turn to the passage today to learn how the word of God teaches against prejudice.

2. Context of Prejudice in the days of James.
- The opening verse of chapter 2 says, “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.”- This immediately sets the context for the Christians then, it includes the author, James himself, that they were all servants of God but also of Jesus Christ. The term Lord, Kurios in Greek, is used 11 times in this epistle of James, it refers to Christ primarily as the resurrected Lord.- The author James is trying to show the readers then, and of course all of us today that in view of the return of the resurrected Christ who is going to judge us, we must not practice favoritism, or prejudice against the poor in the passage.- This is because God has elected the Christians and the poor. This is found in 1:18, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” Then, in the passage today, 2:5, “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”- There are very strong teachings in the Old Testament with regards to the poor. Take for instance, in the book of Psalm, you can find 2 pictures about the poor. The first picture is in Psalm 72:1, 2, “Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice.” The first picture about the poor is this: The ideal king will act like God and defend the rights of the poor.- The second picture about the poor is this: The poor call boldly upon God and he can assume his help because they are poor. Psalm 69:32, 33, “The poor will see and be glad – you who seek God, may your hearts live! The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.”- In the New Testament, Jesus in Luke 5:20, He even says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The poor people can be holy people not because they are poor but because they have total dependence in God.- No wonder the author James says, in verse 5 in today’s passage, “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”- You can see from the book of James that he clearly believes that the poor have a very important place in the church because of the strong teachings by Jesus.- One of the implications of Jesus’ teaching about the poor is this: True faith has no place for social distinctions of the world. An example in the passage today is prejudice against the poor as stated in verses 2-4 where Christians in James’ time discriminated against the poor stranger and showed favoritism towards the rich stranger who came into the church. They invited the rich to sit on a good seat and only asked the poor to sit on the floor.- The Old Testament also teaches against favoritism or partiality. Deutronomy 10:17, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.”- If God does not practice partiality or favoritism, then, Christians must not do so.

3. How not to practice prejudice.
- James helps us not to practice favoritism. See how he charged the readers and the Christians then verse 6 and 7, “But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the one who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?”- You see favoritism towards the rich is equal to insulting the poor. And by practicing favoritism, you could end up slandering the noble name of Jesus as the rich people may sometimes tend to do. It must have happened to the rich people who entered the church. They must have done it.- Let us see how James helps his readers and the Christians then and all of us today how not to practice prejudice and favoritism.- James gives us a very important principal to help us not to practice favoritism.- The principal is very precious and simple. It is simply this: You break one law of God, you break the rest of all the laws of God. Have you ever thought of it? I find it very enlightening. It really dealt a blow to all of us who sin against God in so called big way or small way. You commit one sin, your body and whole being sin against God. You break one law of God, you break all. Praise the Lord for this enlightenment.- No wonder, James says in verses 8-11, even if you love your neighbor as yourself, but if you show favoritism, you sin and you are convicted by the law as law breakers. Verse 10 clearly says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumble at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.- So, do not practice favoritism and pronounced judgment on people without mercy.- Verses 12 to 13 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 any one who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!- The dictionary says the definition of mercy is “A kind or forgiving attitude towards somebody that you have power to harm or right to punish.”

4. What do you have more than others?
- Sometimes we are in that position that allows us to punish people, James says you need to be merciful. You do that, then, you can do more than others.- You know in life, we tend to take people for granted, we may be indifferent to others. At the end of the day, we may have nothing more than others. What do you have that others do not have? As disciples of Jesus?- 1. I pray that you will not practice favoritism by helping the poor. Helping the poor is something very spiritual as it is God’s desire for us to do it. When you do it, then, you have something that others do not have. This family of Rose whom we identify we can continue to help by giving money to buy material for the building of her home in May. We welcome used material of all kinds like woods, sinks, doors, windows, toilet bowls. After your house renovations, you may like to donate the usable items to the BM ministry to help other poor brothers and sisters in Tudan Preaching point.- 2. You must change your attitude towards the poor. To help yourself, you need to tell yourself that Jesus loves them and that you must love them willingly. Then, you will be able to overcome the barriers of bad smell, untidiness, and all the negative thinking about the poor. The best way to help yourself is to go and visit them; or, just simply talk to them.- 3. Stop practicing favoritism against other races. Remember Jesus loves you as much as He loves other races. You overcome this barrier, then, you enjoy doing mission.

5. What is your stand now?
- Do you want to remain where you and continue to practice favoritism? Or, you will like to repent and show mercy towards the poor people? Repent from practicing favoritism?

6. Conclusion
- You need to develop a merciful heart, then, you stop practicing favoritism.