Condemnation of favoritism

James chapter 2, 1-4, verses 1-4. The condemnation of favoritism is what I guess Macaulay called it, right? So it's, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, And you pay special attention to the one who is wearing 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. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? I think this, can you see that? I think it's better titled this lesson the temptation to show partiality. Because that's the word we're dealing with.

And so let me, let's just briefly look at these 15, how, how Maloy divided up the book of James and maybe he got that from somewhere else. But there's 15 temptations expressed in James. So it's, we, and we studied number one, Temptation to express a swift or negative response and verbalize wrath, having a hair trigger in chapter one, 19 through 20.

Temptation to be, and I spelled that wrong, to be hearers only of the word and not doers of the word. Cover that in verses 22 through 25. Temptation to criticize others. Today, we're looking at the temptation to show partiality or favoritism. Chapter 2, 1 through 13 is where that's covered. Temptation to boast of our faith without works. And you can read those. Temptation to misuse and not restrain the tongue. And it goes on and on. And I looked at these, and it lines up really nicely. So you can divide the Book of James by these temptations. which kind of line up nicely. Have you looked at those, Roger? I think I have. I had just, now that I see it, I do remember about this, but I had forgotten. Yeah. Pushed off someplace and I, you know. Yeah.

And it's a nice thing because it opens up with temptations. And then if you fall into it and you sin, you can sin in these things. So we can sin by showing partiality today to people. So verse one, my brethren do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

Do not hold is a present active imperative command. So it's a command and it's to hold is to have and to hold. You could like when you get married, that's the type of holding that you have to have and hold to possess is the word there. I think the word is echo, E-C-H-O in the Greek. And then do not hold your faith. Faith is a pistis. It's personal faith. That's the aspect here.

It's rest, reliance on and trust in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, right? And so you're resting, you're relying on his person and his work and the reality of who and what he is. and the sum total of all his essence. And when you put those together, how mysteriously he exudes light and glory and splendor and brightness is his essence.

God is light from 1st John 1.5. So when you, I think because when you have these, when all of his Who he is, is all together compact in one place because God is everywhere. Jesus is everywhere, but he's also in one place. So when you put them all in one place, all the infinite glory of who he is, that it can't contain itself. So it just, it manifests itself in light, right?

So it's a really neat thing, that glorious Lord Jesus Christ phrase. So do not hold your faith in Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. The Greek is, one word for this whole phrase, it's prosopolepsia, prosopolepsia. And that means partiality, and that's why I kind of think that the better title is temptation to show partiality. And it's respective persons. And this word is used only three times in the New Testament.

It's Romans, here they are, Romans 2.11, for there's no respective persons with God. And it uses that word prosopelapsia.

Ephesians 6, 9, and you masters do the same thing, things unto them. Forbear threatening, and it's talking about to your slaves, forbearing threatening to your slaves, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither is there respect of persons with him, with God. And then Colossians 3, 23 through 25, whatever you do. do your work heartily as if for the Lord, rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you receive the reward of the inheritance. It is Christ, it is Lord Jesus, whom you serve. For he who does no wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he hath done, and that without Partiality. No partiality with God. There should be no partiality with us.

Here's the definition. Partiality or respect of persons. It's the fault of one who, when called to give judgment, has respect for the outward circumstances, and that's key, the outward circumstances of man, and not their intrinsic merits. And so this person prefers as more worthy one who is rich, one who is highborn or powerful. They prefer them to another who does not possess richness and a powerfulness and being highborn or someone being lowborn.

And that's Thayer's definition of this prosopolempsia. Let me spell that just for the sake of the internet recording. P-R-O-S-O-P-O-L-E-M-P-S-I-A. That's the transliteration. So continuing on in verses two and three, two, three, and four. And here it gives this hypothetical situation, and we'll just do the whole thing.

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes a poor man in dirty clothes, and then you pay attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and you say, sit. You sit here in a good place. And then you say to the poor man, you stand over here or sit down by my footstool. And then the question is in verse four, have you not made distinctions among yourselves?

Come judges with evil motives. So this, if for, if a man it's a subjunctive, so it's a probable mood, it's a mood of possibility. And it's a hypothetical situation, right? It may happen. It may not. But it's a third class conditional statement for if a man comes into your assembly. And that's a third class is a more probable future. So it's likely, more likely than not to happen in the future. It can easily happen. It's likely to happen.

So that the idea is to be on guard for this mental attitude when this situation occurs. Maybe today, Brian and Bob used to see people for the service. So they have to, as ushers into the 10 o'clock, 1030 service, they have to make sure that they don't fall. One of the commentators called it something, a temptation of the ushers or something. That's good, that's good. I wish we had more. We've had more people that would be more tempted. And everyone is dressed similar. There's this, yeah.

So maybe we don't have that temptation. So you have to be on guard for this situation. Is it according to the faith in our Lord, glorious Lord Jesus, risen Lord Jesus Christ, in whom there is no respect of persons, as scripture says, Or are we going on with our inner temptation to show partiality? So this is interesting, this word, sunu goge, sunu goge is the Greek word.

It's a synagogue, and it's a gathering in of people. So they're gathering in, that's what that means, are coming together. And so being this was in the first center, This is just in the 40s, 40 AD. So these Jews were still gathering in synagogues, but they were believers in Christ, but they were still part of the synagogue. So I just noticed this difference between the two words, synecdoche and the word for church, which is ekklesia, right? And ekklesia which is out. So the churches are calling out or called out ones versus, so you call them out into a gathering or a meeting and they're called out from, the church is called out from the mass of Jews and the mass of Gentiles and you call those two groups out into a special third group, the ecclesia, the church.

So that's an out-calling instead of an in-gathering, which is sunukuge. And I thought that was really interesting. And James uses the word church in Galatia in chapter five. And I don't know why he uses sunukuge here, but in chapter five, he switches to church. So, you know, But I'm sure these people are still meeting in synagogues.

So I just don't know the reason that he switched that up. It took back before they were believers, maybe, and that was more the practice in the gathering for the Jews or something like that? Yeah. Or maybe the word, well, Paul hasn't come along quite yet. And he started really using the word ekklesia, and he described that. He's the one who defined that and the mystery of the calling out of the Jews and the Gentiles into one body. So that wasn't a thing, I think, yet when James wrote this.

If this man comes, if the rich man comes in with gold and dressed in fine clothes, fine clothes is lampross, which is splendid, magnificent, gorgeous, and bright clothes, versus dirty clothes here, which is rupross, which is cheap, shabby, sort of what I'm wearing today here. Shabby clothes are vile raiment. So those are those two men, two types of clothes. Maybe the man in dirty clothes really hasn't bathed. Yeah, he's vile.

You can see how easy this temptation is. Certainly. It's hard to get close and personal with people that don't smell too good. And yeah, and it's easy if, you know, one of the Kardashian sisters comes to church. Okay. Just put them in a good place in the, you know, the left-hand side, front row, because, you know, they look fabulous and they smell great. And yeah, it's, I was just thinking of how easy this little thing is to to fall into. So if these two men come in and you pay special attention to the fine clothes one and you say sit here in a good place and the poor man stand over here down by my footstool this has allusion to Psalm 110 the Lord says to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a place of dishonor, a place where undesirables are placed there. Let's see, we should have that, oh, it's, we should have, Jean, can you mute your phone? I'm getting wind from my phone there. Yeah, okay. Yeah, from Jean there, I think it's her phone.

So, and you put the rich man, the splendidly dressed one in a special place, more likely, as I said, in the pews in the first row on your right side. And that's where the bride's family will sit right there. Well, you've made a judgment call based on appearances and not on what you do not see, the intrinsic things. their spiritual condition or person's heavenly position.

God clearly sees these things and you don't. So how do you know if it's a, if you're the man in the vile clothes, just by appearances, he could be a brother in Christ or That verse in Hebrews, what is it? Chapter 13, he could be an angel that you're unaware you're entertaining. I think it's 13, one or two, entertaining angels, unaware.

So that phrase, paying special attention is epiblepo, and that you're gazing on this person, kind of admiringly, The one with the brilliant, bright, gorgeous clothes and the one with the gold ring. That's what paying attention is in the Greek. And blepo is a gaze, you know, they have your gaze.

So I say, after all, this is true in what the Lord says in first Corinthians 1, 27 through 29. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God.

It's a wonderful way to say, and I just I thought of that that verse or that that section of scripture because of the base things and Isn't this man in the vile raiment? One of the base things, right? So and this this man can be chosen before God You just don't know So This making distinctions, have you not made distinctions from among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

It's an if-then, a third class conditional proposition, as we've said. And it's a logical conclusion based on the premise. You know, if you've told the rich man to sit in the good place, the poor man to sit in the at your footstool, then logically it follows that you've made a wrong judgment or an evil motivated judgment. And this is clearly showing in the Old Testament as well in several places. And here they are, such as Proverbs 24, 23. These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

First Peter 1.7, if you address the father as the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves with fear during the time of your stay here on earth.

And hopefully that stay here on earth is short for all of us. Amen. Yeah, maybe. Maybe before I have to drive back to the mainland of New York, we'll be raptured. OK. Sounds good to me. Because the traffic is awful out here. And aggressive drivers. Oh, yeah. Our progress 22-2.

The rich and the poor have a common bond. Look how apropos this proverb says, the rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all. So it's really interesting and kind of wonderful how James ties these things in, all these proverbs and these Old Testament things into his letter. But to these new believers in Christ, It's really interesting.

Malachi 2.9, so I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping my ways, but are showing, and there's that partiality in judgment, or partiality in the instruction. He's probably talking to the priests there, or the teachers of the Jews back in Malachi.

Malachi 2.10, Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?

And Psalm 82.2, how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? The issue of judging partiality is also addressed in the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew chapter seven, one through five. Christ says, do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way that you judged, you will be judged. And by your measure of standard, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye and not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye. You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly and can take the speck out of your brother's eye.

So, oh, this will be short. So conclusion, there's this one section of scripture, Colossians 3, 1 through 17, that really encapsulates how to, what our resources are in this very subtle temptation. And that is, here's one Colossians chapter three, one through 11.

Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you shall also be revealed with him in glory.

And that's really our resource there. Therefore, consider your members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you were also once walked, and you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abuse of speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self, to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created them, a renewal in which there's no distinction. And here's the key part. There's no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all.

So I think that that last little section there is what we're studying here. here in James, this separating out of the man outwardly in fine clothes and gold ring and the other man in dirty clothes and vile raiment. And look at that. And I learned this, when we taught Colossians the last time, a few years ago, I don't think I got this fully, but then since then, When Roy and Bob were teaching this, then I got it.

I didn't notice at first, but since you laid aside the old self, there in verse nine of Colossians three, that's an heiress, right? It was done. So that's all done. And you have put on the new self. That's also heiress. Middle voice is done. It's a point in time fact. So it's all complete. And I probably didn't quite understand. I was thinking that you put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off. But now, it's really hit home what that heiress does, right? Right.

And it's permanent. Being renewed, there you see it. That's a passive voice. So who's doing the renewing? It would be the Holy Spirit. So we can be renewed and that's almost the word for recreated in our spirit to a true knowledge according to the image of one who created them. So that's the key of how, and James doesn't go into all this, but Paul, who's the explainer in chief, right? Always sets it out. And then I was going to stop there, but it goes on 12 through 17 of Colossians 3.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness. Now we can benefit from this by correctly not falling into this temptation of the two men. having a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, you should also forgive others. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you indeed were called into one body, with and be thankful with all, well, I'm skimming here. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing each other in spiritual songs, hymns, and with thankful hearts to the Lord.

And it goes on to verse 17 there. But look at that word chosen. And that's the same word as 1 Corinthians 27 through 29. chosen word. So in that first Corinthians chapter one, 27 through 29, God has chosen the base things, the weak things, the shame, the wise and the strong. That's the same word as we have been chosen of God, holy and beloved. So he's doing both the choosings here and put on a heart of compassion and kindness and humility.

That's that Greek word, you see it in blue, and it's really hard to pronounce because it's shwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha your second brain or something. There's a lot of motions in there, in your bowels and you feel, and you know, when you get nervous, you feel it in your stomach or in your joys, you feel right in the gut is what that word is. And you should have these bowels of mercy and compassion and kindness. That's the word heart, which is really interesting.

And how about that in, um, down in the middle there. And again, we're in Colossians 3, 1 through 17. I don't have the verses written down there, but that put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And that's where you should have love for the vile one and the rich one alike.

We are called into one body, rich and poor alike, and let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. The same is what James has taught us in chapter one. He uses the word, a word of truth or the word implanted. And Paul uses, it says that you should have this, the word of Christ richly dwelling within you. And so. That, I think, is our resources in all this little hypothetical situation that we can fall into and that's judging others based on only outward circumstances or appearances. So I'll stop there. And any questions or comments? I have a story that J. Vernon McGee tells.

He went to a church to speak, and when he went inside, the usher was kind of rude to him and said, well, where would you like to sit? And he said, well, wherever you'd like to put me. And I think he put him at the back somewhere. And then, of course, he gets up, and he's the speaker. And he can see how embarrassed the usher is. And I guess afterwards, he just kept apologizing to him and everything.

But anyway, so that was an example story there. Was he giving that example based on this? I think so. I think so. I think it was right around these verses. Yeah. I wonder if he was giving Usher a test, you know? But he didn't tell him, of course, that he was the speaker. He kind of, I think he just wanted to see how he would be treated. Yeah. Right. Right.

Yeah, we had some friends who didn't like to listen to Jay Vernon McGee because of his accent. They judged him on his accent. He has the doctorate and everything. I love his accent. His drawl, right? Which I like. I like it. I know that back, you know, in those days, people thought that if you had that draw, you were uneducated and you were unsophisticated. I mean, I remember that kind of reaction, even here in Colorado when I moved here. That's because you're from the South. Yeah, that's right. And we haven't covered that. I mean, We're talking about clothing, but what about, yeah, accents and things. I think it's all the same. I mean, you know, your clothing usually kind of reflects your upbringing.

Many times. Yeah. Although today, I think that's hard. Yeah. When people stayed in their hometowns, I mean, they didn't move around like we do today. Oh, yeah. It's a good point. Andrew, I have a comment. Yeah, go ahead. Can you scroll back to the verses, James 2, 1 through 4? James 2, yeah.

So if you turn this 180 degrees, and you say, if a man comes into your assembly full of the spirit of Christ and dressed in righteousness, and there also comes in a man who is not dressed in that righteousness, and you pay special attention to the one who is full of things that are of Christ, and you have him sit in a very good place because you want to be near him.

You want to listen to what he has to say. It just was kind of a curious thing. Are you showing precedent to that man who you want to hear what he has to say? In other words, it's kind of 180 degree. Yeah. Did you hear that? Yeah, I did. And that's a good point.

Because when I meet with Christians, I always try to find someone that has something really cool to share and learn, right? And so it's like, I want to sit next to you. It's not like what he looks like or she looks like or their personality is more of that Christ coming out of them and you know, yeah So you're saying? See things on the spiritual level on the spiritual level, but they're making distinctions, aren't you? You know? Okay, right? Yeah Yeah, I don't know Okay, well anyway, it's almost like a Additional point you know you you want to be around those who? Are doing the truth, but I?

Don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure to apply that this case is you're distinguishing upon their looks. That's kind of James point You're looking at them, and you can see him based upon their looks. This is a different That's a different issue, I think, about their spiritual level, or what they're saying. Of course you want to listen to the truth. I think there are verses that talk about listening to truth and not listening to error. You could go down that path. Listen to the truth.

I don't think it exactly fits with that. No, I don't. I just thought it was a fun distinction. Okay, that's all right. Yeah, a fun exercise. Yeah. And going back to Jay Vernon McGee, he had, you know, I joked about the Kardashian sisters, but he had, he said he had people from Hollywood, some old, you know, top actresses who he knew who were coming to his church. So he had to, yeah, he had to exercise. this with them. He probably treated them just the same as everybody else. And I bet he wasn't impressed at all with them. No, he wasn't. No. It's just, yeah.

But he did mention that, that he, you know, had these people in his congregation who were part of that glorious, you know, that industry that's all Brilliant and splendor, right? Yeah. Yeah ministered in Los Angeles, right? Yeah, yeah, right down the Actually and your dad actually attended there for some time period I think Yeah, yeah, right down right downtown.

I think the open door Church of the open door. I think so. Yeah I've got a comment that might help on J Vernon McGee When I went to Biola, got there on the bus, and that night was a Thursday night Bible study, and I went in and didn't know anything about Church of the Open Door and just sat in the back.

Well, J. Bernard McGee, he had a habit of welcoming visitors and having them stand up and give your name and where you're from. If you were, like I was, a student, you know, he welcomed you on that level and he treated everybody the same. It didn't matter where you were from or whatever, he just greeted you that way from the pulpit, just in front of everybody, you know, welcome, you're here to study God's Word, we welcome you.

I thought that was really impressive. And he didn't put you down by his footstool, I guess. You come over here. He had that open, that welcomed you're part of us because you're here. That's wonderful. That's great. Oh, so you have personal. Yeah. That's great. Oh, that's our, that's our model, I guess. Javerin McGee. Firsthand experience.

Yeah, and I bet he thought about that. I bet he thought about this passage of scripture often, right? Oh, yeah. When he was conducting his services. That's amazing. I would think so. Yes. Yeah. And yeah, that's so pressures on. Roger and Mike. We just want more people.

So I'll close in prayer here. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this tough passage of scripture, tough to not fall into this temptation. And we just pray that you'll bring this to our mind when this situation, this third class conditional, this hypothetical situation can occur at any moment in our lives when we're out in the world dealing with others and people and people we don't know. We just pray that the Holy Spirit will grab us and remind us of these words from James and we thank you for your word. In Jesus name, Amen.