If you’re not already there, I want to invite you to open up to James chapter two, verses one through 13. That last song we just sang in Christ’s alone, such a beautiful song. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from his hand. Beautiful words, and no matter how long you’ve been saved, it’s always good to be reminded of that beautiful, beautiful truth.

So we’re back in James, James chapter two. I haven’t preached in a while, so hopefully I remember how to do it, but we’ll see. Now, excited to be able to preach to you from this beautiful book this morning, James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. Pastor Pye had already read it, so I’m going to go ahead and pray for the preaching of the word, and then we’ll dive into the text.

Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for your word. I want to thank you for the book of James, and I want to thank you that we are able to be here this morning to learn from it. I pray the Holy Spirit speaks and moves through me this morning as I preach and that the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts of everyone sitting here so that their hearts are softened to hear the words of your word, your holy word. And if anyone here does not know you, they will come to know you today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

When I was in high school, the summer between my junior and senior year, I was selected among about 500 other Juniors going into the senior year, 500 other boys in Florida to go to Florida State University for a week. It was called Boys State. Every state in the United States does it. They take about 500 or so of supposedly the top and best and brightest boys of the state, and they send them to the state capitol for a week. And what they do is they house them in a campus, and for that week we learn about civic civil government. We learn about state government. We do mock legislation. We even vote in a mock governor. We vote in, you know, senators and representatives. It was there I learned how politics worked.

For instance, my roommate was running for mayor of our little community. Our community was our hall that we were staying in. So I said to him, said, hey, I’ll support you for mayor if you make me fire chief. I became fire chief. That’s how I learned a little bit about politics.

But from Boys State, what they would do is they would pick one boy from each state and send them to Boys Nation. So that would be in D.C., and you’d have 50 boys in D.C. where they learned about more federal government, and they would go to the state capitol. But they ended up picking two boys from each state. They picked the main one and an alternate. And the day, the end of the week came where they, it was time for them to pick who’s going to Boys Nation, who’s going to be those special guys. And they picked the first guy and we all clapped, you know, congratulations, all that. And then they picked the alternate.

And if they would have had a video camera on all of us there and the video camera would have panned our faces, you would have seen all of us just kind of rolling our eyes. because the alternate who was picked to go to Boys Nation happened to be the son of one of Florida’s state representatives. In fact, that state representative had been there earlier in the week. He had spoken, and they’d made a deal, like, here’s the state representative and this is his son. Now, maybe this one particular guy was the right choice to go. But we all just are sitting there, couldn’t help thinking like, this seems like a little bit of nepotism. It seemed as if partiality had been shown. And I’m sure many of us can think of numerous instances in our life where we’ve seen that or witnessed that.

In today’s generation, there’s a term that’s come around called nepo babies. meaning nepotism babies, usually used for celebrity kids. Oh, I’m an actor, this is my child, and that’s how they got this acting position, or that’s how they got this record label. So we see these things all around us, even in jobs, maybe. You didn’t get the job that maybe you were qualified for because somebody else knew somebody, or maybe it was for some other reason.

But partiality, sadly, is a part of life, from jobs to college admissions, or even sports teams. And unfortunately, As we’ll read today, and even as I’m sure we’re all aware, it can happen in the church as well, in the church of Jesus Christ as well. The church is not immune to sin.

And as we come to James chapter two verses one through 13, we see that Christians are not to show partiality. But before we dive in, I just want us to remember where we are. Remember that James is a book where he has a lot of imperatives. He’s saying do this, don’t do this, do this, don’t do this. He’s telling them how to live as a Christian in an ever-changing, pagan, godless world.

And he’s just finished in chapter one introducing some of the topics that he will expound upon in the rest of the book. He talks about trials. He talks about not being tossed to and fro. He brought up the topic in chapter one of the rich and the poor. And at the end of chapter one, we’ll remember, he talks about being a doer of the word. That’s how he ends chapter one. That don’t be a hearer only, we are to be doers of the word.

And he finishes chapter one with that, and then he goes into chapter two, and that’s an important ending for chapter one, because he says, be doers of the word, this is what you are to do. And the rest of the book he’s explaining, this is how you are a doer of the word. And that’s what we see when we get to James chapter two.

And like I said, this passage is showing us that Christians are not to show partiality. And we’ll be looking at this main theme in two ways. And the first way is that partiality dishonors. And this is gonna cover verses one through seven. And right off from the very first verse, James gets right to the point. He says, or partiality. He gets right to it. He gets right to the heart of the matter. Don’t show partiality. It’s just that simple. Christians are not to do it. They’re not to partake of it. They’re not to show it.

I like it, my translation says, my brethren, other translations say, my brothers, and Pastor Pyatt mentioned this when he was reading the passage, but he’s writing to a church. He’s writing to Christians. This is a term of endearment. This is a term of love. He loves these Christians. He’s writing to them because he wants to see them lead godly lives, my brothers. He wants them to hear what he’s saying.

Now, in this passage, verses 1 through 13, James’ discussion is going to focus, the individuals he’s talking about, on the materially rich and poor. And this was probably, most likely, a real issue going on in the church at this time. He probably heard about this from certain churches, and that’s why he’s writing this. He’d heard about this partiality that’s being shown, and even maybe in these specific ways. However, and I want to make note of this, the sin of partiality is not only limited to wealth and poverty. So, you know, we don’t want to leave here thinking like, well, I’m never partial because I’m not partial to the rich or the poor. Partiality extends beyond monetary wealth or poverty. It’s just not limited to that. So though James is talking specifically in his passage about the rich and the poor, partiality is just not limited to that.

Now the word for partiality or personal favoritism has the idea of judging someone based off their external appearances. So you’re looking at the external, the outside. And now it can extend to just beyond appearance though, the influence or power or maybe the status a person has, which is part of the exterior as well, the job they may have, but sometimes partiality can be shown because a person has a certain status in a job or a certain status in the world. But that’s what we’re looking at, judging someone based off the external characteristics of the individual, or certain maybe power status they might have.

And James starts off this discussion by showing that the Christian faith has no place for this evil. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. It has no part in the Christian faith. If you’re a genuine Christian, you shouldn’t be doing this. One particular scholar noted how faith in the Lord, that phrase we see there, faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, deals with the genuineness of a person’s faith. Is this person actually acting like they’re a Christian? Is this person, if they are being partial, if they are showing personal favoritism, if there is, to use the word nepotism going on, are they acting like a Christian? And James is making the case, he’s like, that’s not how Christians act. If you are genuine in your faith, you should not be doing this.

As we go into verses two through four, we see that James begins presenting almost a hypothetical situation that is designed to get his audience to see the errors of his ways. So what he’s gonna do is he’s gonna explain this rich man and this poor man. And like I said, it’s hypothetical, but at the same time, instances of this were probably going on in the church. So this might actually be a specific instance that he’d heard about. But in verses two through four, James says, for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes. So he sets up a contrast immediately. You’ve got this poor man with rings and you’ve got this poor man, you got the rich man with rings and the poor man in dirty clothes. He already has a contrast set up.

Verse three, and you pay special attention to the one who’s wearing the fine clothes, and say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there, sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? So he gives them this situation to show them, you’re doing wrong. What you’re doing is not right. He’s giving them a very specific picture of their sin. The audience he’s writing to, they can’t walk away and think, ah, I’m not exactly sure what James is talking about here. I don’t exactly know what our problem is. They know what their problem is. He’s extremely specific, which is a reminder to us as Christians, when we’re talking and thinking about the sin in our lives, we need to pinpoint the sin in our lives. We need to be specific about what we struggle with. We can’t just say, oh yeah, I struggle with some things. What do we struggle with? What do you struggle with? What do I struggle with? And when we go to the Lord and ask for help and strength in fighting sin, say, Lord, help me with this sin of partiality. Help me with these specific things.

James is showing them the specific things they need to work on. It’s almost like he’s holding up a mirror to them and say, look what you’re doing. This is what you’re doing. They are favoring the rich in their worship services over the poor, and in the process, they are dishonoring the poor. And more specifically, they seem to be favoring those who look rich and not favoring those who look poor. It’s a simple case of, this guy’s got the nice clothes and the gold rings, this guy doesn’t, we’re going to favor this guy.

You know, Pastor Pied is a fancy guy, he drives a red Corvette. You might need to ignore the for sale sign in the windshield, but you know, if say he were to come in in his nice shiny red Corvette and say he wasn’t the passenger here and I said, oh here, you take this pew, this is for you and then say I come in and I’m just visiting in my little old 2013 blue Ford Focus and you say, oh you, you go in the back, you don’t have a nice car. You know, that would be favoritism. Not to mention Pastor Pied’s car is actually older than mine. But that’s what was happening. And I think when we read this, it sounds so silly to us. But that’s what was really taking place.

And remember, before we say, oh, I would never do that, is that true? We may not do it with monetary wealth or something like that, but do we still show partiality? And James is showing him, this is what they’re doing. They were focused on judging the external. It reminds us of the old phrase, can’t judge a book by its cover. There’s a lot of truth to that. They’re literally judging the book by its cover. They’re literally judging people by what they see. And that is not right.

We see in verse three, it says, when they’re talking to the poor person, you sit here You say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. To sit at the footstool, to sit at someone’s feet was a place of dishonor. They’re basically saying the poor was of a lower status and not as good as the rich. So it’s not just, hey, the rich, you sit over here, we’re gonna ignore the poor. It’s the rich sits here in this place of honor and the poor sits at the footstool, sits at the feet where they’re purposefully dishonoring the poor, saying you’re not as good as this person. That’s the judgment that was going on.

They’re not recognizing that the poor was made in the image of God. And I think that’s something important to note here. They’re not recognizing the equal status of all people being made in the image of God. When you show partiality, when partiality is shown, you are dishonoring someone, which means you are not honoring them as God-image bearers.

In verse four, he poses a rhetorical question in which the expected answer is yes. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? I almost wonder when this letter was read in public in these churches if some of them audibly went yes, recognizing like oh yeah, we are doing that. Because he wants them to see like this is what you’re doing. They have discriminated against Christians and are focused only on themselves. He says, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

Rob Plummer, a New Testament scholar, says this. The discriminatory behavior is nothing more than a greedy, self-centered attempt to enrich their own coffers or status through flattery. And that is probably what is meant by evil thought slash motive.

So why were they engaging in this partiality? Why were they doing it? It seems to be motivated by selfishness. This rich guy’s coming in. He’s got money, he’s got power, he’s got wealth, he’s got status. This can benefit me. The poor guy, he can’t help me, so he’s gonna go over here. We don’t care about them. So they’re motivated by their own selfishness. They’re motivated by their own desires for their own gain. And this is probably what is often the root cause of partiality. Maybe not always, but often, it probably is a desire for selfish gain. to see yourself promoted and moved up in whatever the situation is.

In verses five through seven, James is posing a set of rhetorical questions, and every rhetorical question is designed to get a yes response from his audience. Verse five. Listen, and the word listen’s important. He’s trying to grab their attention. Listen to what I need to say. You need to hear what I’m saying. Listen, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? Yes, that’s the expected answer. And verse five has clear echoes of the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.3, and also Jesus’ words that are found in Luke 6.20. And I’m gonna read those real quick.

Matthew 5.3, Jesus says this. And remember, real quick, James has a lot of echoes from Jesus’ teachings. on the Sermon on the Mount. We see all throughout James, we’ve looked at it some already, and we’ll look at it more, but there’s a lot in James where he’s pulling from Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, and this is one of those situations. Matthew 5, 3. And James is referencing the words of Jesus here and applying them to those who are financially poor. but also to those who are poor in spirit. That’s what we read in Matthew. It says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Luke chapter six, verse 20. Blessed are you who are poor. It’s talking probably again about those who are poor in spirit.

Verse five of James, going back and reading verse five of James chapter two. Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? The poor in spirit are those who lead humble lives and are dependent upon God and love him. which is what the end of this verse is talking about. So James is writing and talking about those in the specific verse, about those who are financially poor, but he says God chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith. So what he’s also talking about, they’re poor in monetary wealth, they’re poor financially, but he’s also, God’s chosen them to be poor in spirit, poor in spirit being those who depend upon God. The poor in spirit is the one who says, I can’t save myself. Not I, but Christ. And I need to depend on Him every single day.

Now, it should be noted that just because someone is poor doesn’t mean they will be saved and have a rich faith. You don’t want to walk away thinking some people can walk away and say, oh, well, the poor are the ones who are always faithful and godly. No, that’s not what James is saying here. He’s giving a specific example.

Craig Blomberg, another New Testament scholar, points out that it is the poor who love God. just like it is the rich who love God. What’s the key to being faithful? Or one of the keys, loving God and serving Him. Those who love God will have a rich faith and be in the kingdom, a part of the kingdom of God.

And as we move into verses five and six, or analyzing them a bit more, we see a contrast. Verse five, listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? Verse six, but you have dishonored the poor man. It’s not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court.

In verse five, we see what God does, but in verse six, we see what man does. In verse five, we’re looking at what God chooses, his plan, but then as James moves into verse six, he says, but look what you’ve done. We’re looking at what God does, his plan for the world, his plan for saving people and making those who are rich in faith godly, but in verse six, this is what you’re doing. You’re dishonoring the poor.

And this is what this church is doing, and James is leveling an indictment against them, and also showing them that they are to view the poor as God views them. He’s showing them that their perspective is off. This is how you are viewing this group of people, but this is how God views them. You need to view them as God views them, not as you view them. So he’s teaching them so much here in this passage, showing them your perspective is way off. It needs to be corrected.

He goes on, James goes on to say, I already mentioned this, but they have, this church has dishonored the poor. Partiality dishonors. When they show partiality, this is what they’re doing. They’re not treating them as fellow God image bearers, and that’s important. They’re not treating them as they are designed to be treated. And he then goes on to describe what the rich do to them.

In verse 6, but you’ve dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? So James up to this point has been saying, what you’re doing is wrong. It’s ungodly. You’re not viewing the poor right. You’re not viewing them as God views them. You are to not show partiality.

But then we get into verse 6 and he’s saying, hey, these people that you’re putting on a pedestal, these people that you’re saying so great, they are oppressing you. And when you think about these local churches that would have been hearing this letter from James, you wonder, some of them would have been sitting there like, oh yeah, he’s right, they are oppressing us. It’s almost like a duh moment. Like they’re putting the people on pedestals, they’re praising the people who are not treating them rightly, correctly. And he’s using president’s verbs here to indicate that this is what is happening. He’s showing like this is what you are doing. You are praising and upholding these people who are like oppressing you, currently doing this to you. It boggles the mind, the rich are really doing this. These rich individuals are oppressing these Christians. And these Christians are favoring the ones who are oppressing them. Now this oppression, it could vary depending on who you read, but this oppression could have been rich landowners granting large loans to poor farmers, and when these poor farmers’ crops failed, the landowner would come to collect, and if the farmer could not pay, they would be taken to jail.

So you have some rich landowners who aren’t really being fair or just or loving with their dealings, and they’re in these churches. along with probably the poor individuals who they’re throwing in jail. And these rich landowners are oppressing some of the people in the church, but the people being oppressed are like, well, we’re gonna put them on a pedestal. Maybe it’ll help me in the long run. And James is saying like, this doesn’t, he’s essentially saying this doesn’t make sense. What are you doing? You’re praising and lifting up those who are oppressing you? And he’s really trying to show them the ludicracy of what they are doing. and show them what they’re doing is just wrong.

It reminds me of in World War II, when the Nazis invaded France in about 1940, there was a group of French politicians who got together and negotiated with the Germans and said, We’ll work under you, we’ll support you in what ways we can, but we want our own kind of separate government under you. And what was formed was called the Vichy government of France, or Vichy France. And it lasted from about 1940 to 1944. And what it was, it was essentially a puppet government of the French under the Nazis. And they had their own little president, and they were allowed to do certain things, but everything they did was monitored and really regulated by the Nazis. to the point where if the Nazis said, hey, you gotta ship these Jews out of here, this vichy French government did that.

What a lot of people don’t know is that when the Allies first, when some of the first battles they fought, some of the first battles the Americans fought were actually against this vichy French government. It wasn’t against the Germans or the Italians, it was actually against French people. So you had this sort of puppet government that was trying to act like they were their own thing and trying to do what’s best for the people, but in reality they were authoritarian and an awful government And really, at the end of the day, they were seeking to just show partiality to the Nazis.

And there could be different perspectives on the motivations of some of these French politicians, but some of them wanted to keep their power. They didn’t want to lose what power they had. They wanted to say, I kept France together, when in reality, they didn’t. They had to do what Hitler and his government said. And what’s interesting is they showed partiality to the government, this French government showed partiality to the Nazis, the very government that was oppressing them. The very government that came in and took away their rights, took away their people, killed them. They were showing partiality to the very people conquering them and oppressing them. And I think that’ll help us see what James is talking about here. You are showing partiality. You are praising those who are oppressing you. What is going on? This isn’t right.

When we get to verse seven, we see it’s the last rhetorical question that he poses, and it actually links back to verse one. James in verse seven says this. Do they not blaspheme, do these rich people, these ones oppressing you, do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? Now the good name by which they have been called is most likely the name of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ in verse one.

Now some say it’s possible that some of these rich individuals were unbelievers, and that’s probably true. In a local church, you can’t say for certain if everyone there is a believer. And there were most likely some of these rich landowners and these local churches who were not believers. But I don’t know and I don’t think James is necessarily talking about just unbelievers. It’s possible, it may be even very possible that some of these people he’s talking about were believers who were sinning and were doing wrong toward their neighbors.

These rich landowners were sinning against the neighbors who were their farmers and working their lands. And this idea of the name by which you have been called refers to belonging to Christ. Verse seven, do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? Do they not blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ? They’re blaspheming it because of the sin they are committing.

And this idea of being the name by which you have been called echoes back to the Old Testament. In Amos 9, verse 12, Amos writes this. This is the end of Amos, the last chapter, where Amos is talking about a future for Israel. One day they will have a future where land will be restored to them. He’s reminding them, God has not forgotten you. In Amos 9, verse 12, he writes this. so that they may, that Israel, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name declares the Lord who does this.

So all the nations who are called by my name. That idea of being called by God’s name, that idea of the name by which you have been called refers to belonging to God, belonging to Christ, and that is a very comforting term. the name by which we belong to. And in Amos 9, 12, we see that God is explaining how we restore Israel, and not just Israel, but people from all nations.

So this idea of the name by which you have been called. So James is saying in verse seven, these rich people, they are dishonoring, they are blaspheming the name by which you’ve been called. They are dishonoring the name of Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. They are not honoring his name properly as it should be by their actions.

Oftentimes we think of honoring the Lord in what we say, but we also honor the Lord in what we do, and they are not honoring the Lord in what they are doing, these rich individuals who are oppressing. And it reminds us, partiality dishonors. And as we think of this idea of partiality dishonoring and thinking about it in our own lives, we need to remember, simply put, don’t be partial. And that’s true, we should not be partial. We should not favor the rich over the poor.

Do not favor anyone because of your own selfish desire for gain. Do not obsess being over the right friend group by rejecting friends you’ve had for years, whether that’s peer pressure, whatever it might be, in school or even in work. Do not obsess over that promotion and speak ill of other coworkers while making it your sole goal to please your boss. If your sole goal at work is to get that promotion to please your boss, that’s not right. Our sole goal in everything is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And there’s nothing wrong with promotions. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you are seeking that promotion at the expense of dishonoring other coworkers, then that is wrong, and we shouldn’t do that. We are to show honor to all by treating all the same.

And I’ve already mentioned this several times, but showing partiality slash favoritism dishonors fellow God-image bearers. And I think that’s important to recognize, because it really shows us the seriousness of this sin. I think oftentimes we look at sins, we’re like, murder, awful, adultery, awful, this sin, awful. And we get to partiality, we’re like, oh, that’s kind of bad, but not as bad as the others. But it’s clearly important, seeing how James is spending all this time to talk about it, but I think it puts in another light when we recognize that it dishonors God-image bearers.

If you’re saying, this person’s not as good as this person because this person has something I need, you’re dishonoring this other individual. You’re dishonoring someone made in the image of God, someone intentionally created for a purpose. And as Christians, we recognize that we’re all here for a purpose. We’re not just accidents. We’re to recognize that we’re all made in the image of God and that to show partiality is not to treat others equals. Partiality dishonors God because it dishonors his creation. Dishonors what he’s created.

Partiality dishonors God and it also breaks the law, which moves us into the second way we’re looking at this passage. Partiality breaks the law and we’ll be looking at verses eight through 13. And in verse eight, James shifts the discussion a bit and begins talking about the law. And it can seem at first glance he’s moved on from partiality, that he’s moved to a different topic, but he hasn’t. In verse eight, he says this. If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbors yourself, you are doing well. Verse nine. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

So remember, James first mentioned the law in verse 25 of chapter one. Going back to chapter one, verse 25, James says this, but the one who looks at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. So he’s already mentioned the law, and he’s coming back to this theme. But in verse eight, he uses a phrase, he says the royal law. Not just the law, but the royal law. And this would seem to indicate the law that Christians are to live by as citizens of the kingdom of God. When we read in Matthew, we read about the kingdom of heaven that Jesus brought. When we read in Luke, we read about the kingdom of God. As Christians, we are a part of the kingdom of God. We are royal citizens. We have an eternal inheritance. So this royal law is the one set forth by Christ that we are to follow as citizens of the kingdom of God, the law of Christ.

And this law of Christ includes the Torah as it was fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who lived the law perfectly and kept it perfectly. And when we look at verse eight, it seems from this verse that James is quoting from Leviticus 19, 18, but he also seems to be alluding to verses 15 through 17 of this same chapter. So I’m gonna read all three verses. And Leviticus says this, you shall not do injustice in judgment. You shall not show partiality to the poor, nor give preference to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. So you see direct correlation to what we’re talking about here in James. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to jeopardize the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your hearts. You may certainly rebuke your neighbor, but you are not to incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor hold any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

So he seems to be quoting and also alluding to this passage from Leviticus. Remember, James seems to be writing to early Jewish Christians in the early first century. They most likely would have been familiar with the law, maybe familiar with this very passage. So it’s not foreign to them. James is quoting from the Torah. And what we saw in those very first verses, you shall not show partiality to the poor nor give preference to the great. Exactly what James is talking about here.

And this quotation, when we look at verse 8 and verses 8 and 9, or especially verse 8, echoes the words of Jesus from Matthew 22, verses 37 through 40. Jesus says this. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbors yourself. Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Famous passage. We’ve heard it all our lives. Many of us haven’t memorized. And James is referencing the Old Testament by quoting Leviticus and Jesus, and he seems to be showing that when he says law, he means the whole law as it was fulfilled through Christ.

And according to the scriptures, we read in verse 8, it says, the royal law, according to the scripture, refer to the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus. If you follow the law, you will be doing right. He’s quoting the words of Jesus. Once again, bringing back what Jesus says and says, this is how you are to live your life as citizens of the kingdom of God.

Verses nine through 11 demonstrate how breaking the law means you just have to break one part of it. Someone may say, well, I did this sin, or I did this thing, but I have kept these other things. I’m okay, I haven’t done the quote unquote big things. But what James is gonna say in these three verses, verses nine through 11, he’s gonna say, hey, if you break one part, you break it all. That’s what was amazing about Jesus and the life he lived. He upheld every aspect of the law.

Verses nine through 11 say this, but if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Whoever keeps the law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not commit murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. Those who break the law are transgressors and accountable before God. Whatever law you break, you are accountable before God for what you have done, for the sin you have committed. Whatever sin we commit, we are transgressors, and we all sin. If anyone comes up to me after the service today and says, I’ve never sinned, you and I are going to have a long conversation. Because we’ve all sinned. We’re all guilty. James is emphasizing that we are not to judge, but that we will, excuse me. James emphasizes that we are not to judge, but we will be judged one day and should live our lives in light of that future reality. We’re not to judge one another, but we will be judged one day by the King, by Christ.

Now, verses 12 and 13 are both speaking about how one day in the future, all men will be judged and they will be judged by their actions. Revelation 20, verse 12 says this. Now, we need to remember that, yes, salvation is from who? It’s from God. It’s a gift of grace. We cannot attain our salvation. We cannot do anything to get our salvation. It is of God and God alone.

But when you are saved, And you are called by Christ’s name. We already talked about this, but the name by which you’ve been called, you belong to Christ. You are changed. You have a new heart. You are to act differently. How are you to act differently? Well, one thing is you’re not to show partiality. You’re to act like a Christian. Galatians talks about the fruits of the Spirit. So you are to be a different person. You are to do good deeds. The Holy Spirit living within you gives you the strength to do so. We are to act like Christ.

And at this final judgment, our actions will demonstrate whether we have belonged to Christ or not. The standard by which we will be judged is the law of Christ of which we are to live by. And that final future reality, and it is final and it is future, it will happen, but we’ll be able to stand before Christ and say, I loved you and I loved people. We’ll be able to say that. I loved your father and I loved his creation, the people he made.

Now the law of Christ can be summarized by the two great commandments that we already read. Love God with all of your being, all of who you are is to love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. As yourself, indicating the selfless aspect of it. It’s hard to love each other. We’re called to do it and it’s important. And we are to do it, we are to love one another.

James tells these Christians they are to be merciful. They are to be merciful. Mercy in the sense of showing kindness, benevolence, and compassion. Oftentimes we think of mercy as in comparison with grace maybe. I don’t often get the comparison, right, but maybe not, or getting what you don’t deserve, or not getting what you don’t deserve. But mercy, in another sense, deals with kindness, benevolence, and compassion, and specifically a kindness that we don’t deserve. I think that’s what James is talking about here. He’s showing that, hey, partiality is not merciful. It’s not benevolent, it’s not compassionate, and it’s not kind. You’re not showing kindness to your neighbor.

Now this does not mean that we ignore justice. James saying here that we are to be merciful isn’t him saying we are to ignore justice and ignore crimes. Crimes still deserve to be punished. Christ’s atoning work was an act of mercy because he took our punishment. So one of the most merciful acts in human history, it was merciful, but it was also just. So James is saying we don’t do away with justice, but we are to be merciful. He’s saying these Christians are to be merciful and not to judge. He’s showing how partiality breaks the law. It breaks the law of Christ. This law of Christ being love God, love people, and how it’s all of what we read in the scriptures summarized in these two great commandments. And as we think about the idea of how partiality breaks the law in our own lives, we remember we are to obey the law. We still follow a law. I talked about this in one of my previous sermons in James, but oftentimes when Christians think about liberty or freedom, and we read about the law of liberty in chapter one, and actually in verse 12, James says, so speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to those to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

So we hear that term law of liberty and we think liberty from all rules and expectations and commands, but that’s not reality. That’s not how God has designed the world to work. That’s not how he’s designed the Christian life. We are to follow his commands, and if we follow his commands, if we follow this law of liberty, we do have freedom from sin. we will have a blessed and joy-filled life. There is joy and freedom in following His commands. And that’s what we need to recognize.

And we can only do this, we can only follow His commands, the commands we read about in the Gospels and James and even the Old Testament, if we have a personal relationship with Christ. If we have been saved from our sins and have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. To love and obey God, we first have to know God. We have to give our lives to Him and recognize, I need you, Christ. In Christ alone is salvation found, in nothing else, in no one else.

We are to love one another. Like I said, it’s hard, but we need to do it. Loving each other, forgiving and covering sins. We are to encourage and build each other up. When we ask someone how they’re doing, be sincere in that question. How’s their week been? How’s work going? I know you’ve had a hard time with this. How’s this illness been? I’ve been praying for you.

We just had the memorial service for David Marsteller. Dave and Shirley Marsteller have been a great encouragement in my life and my wife’s life, because for several years, even when we’d come back down from Louisville, Shirley would look in our eyes and say, we’re praying for you. And I knew that they were. I knew she wasn’t lying. I knew that just wasn’t something she said. I knew they were praying for me. And it was great, great encouragement to me.

Let us not slip into the easy temptation of favoring some over others, and in so doing, forget the words of Jesus, of loving one another, and the words of James. We are not to be partial to anyone, and this goes for all people, not just Christians. Christians are not to be partial. Partiality dishonors and breaks the law. We are to love God and love each other. We should be known by our love. and showing partiality is a failure to love properly.

We’re about to close with a, I think it’s an older, but a song we will know each other by our love, but I wanted to read two stanzas from it. As I read these and then we sing this song, I want you to think about us as the church, how we’re unified in Christ, how we’re one body, and how we are to love one another, because if we’re loving properly, we will not be showing partiality.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
We’ll walk together and we’ll be known by our love.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for today. I pray as we all leave here today, we are reminded to love you first and foremost, and to love each other. and that show impartiality in whatever form is a sin. And bless the rest of our days in this service. In Jesus’ name, amen.