V.1- A complete switching of gears. James moves on from the trials of a Christian’s life, the general description of what sin is, and who God is to a warning of how ‘not’ to live the Christian life. In other words, at the very beginning of our Christian experience, pride and favoritism (partiality) must not exist. This is not to say that they will never exist, or this warning would never have been given. But it is to say that if it does exist in anyone in this room, the Scripture is calling you to repent of that sin, and turn from it. James gives us good reasons as to why we must be in the business of doing that.
The Warning
The action that befits the warning is “do not hold your faith.” What does James mean by this? In 1:3, James says that faith will be tested, this faith that the Christian already has. James does not give a rendering as to how to obtain this faith in chapter 1. He presumes that the believer already has this faith, and that is because he does. Consider Peter’s greeting “To those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). Therefore, the warning to not hold your faith with favoritism is rooted in the fact that the believer possesses this faith. I say all this to set up what is to come through verse 4. Consider the negative. If the believer were not to possess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom or what would the Scripture be warning us about? This entire argument rests on the fact that faith is possessed by the believer in Christ.
Jesus Christ is glorious
The gloriousness of Jesus Christ is not for the purpose of adding adjectival truth to Jesus alone. Although this is descriptively true, it points to something deeper, especially in the context of verses 3 and 4. Here is that depth. Jesus Christ shows His majestic glory in that He has the capability to save a wretched and vile human being with no strings attached. Yes, Jesus Christ is glorious, He is most wonderful, He is supreme in all of His being, He exercises dominion over all the earth, these are all true. Yet, Jesus has so chosen to show His glory and incredible power in the radical transformation of a depraved human being. Hence the hymn writer (Fanny Crosby) writes, “Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, To every believer the promise of God; The vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” This is the glory of Jesus Christ, he saves “the vilest offender.”
Partiality- forever hated by God
It might seem that partiality is emphasized here, or maybe this is your most familiar biblical reference point. However, partiality, and God’s hatred of it, are throughout the Scripture. Several examples will come to light. The first is from Leviticus 19:15… In this passage, Yahweh God is giving Israel commands, statutes, and laws as a means to separate them as His chosen people from the rest of the world. This passage, by itself, is clear that Yahweh God hates partiality. This is seen implicitly through the Creation mandate. God did not create Adam and say “I like you better than Eve.” If God does not tolerate this, neither should we. What is most interesting about the Leviticus passage is Yahweh God does not stop at the partial judgment of people, but He goes on further to judge righteously. He flips the sin of man on its head and points people to live righteously because God is righteous. The second passage is Deuteronomy 1:17… When court cases came before the judges they were to “judge righteously” and “not show partiality in judgment.” In other words, the judges were to hear both or all sides of the story before pronouncing judgment. No personal vendettas were permitted. No grudges were to be held against another. God had even given them Himself as the judge of the most difficult of trials. God’s mercy is shown to them in that the judges did not have to go it alone. Consider the penalty for making an unjust judgment in Proverbs 24:23-24… Does God hate partiality? You better bet He does! For the one who judges impartially, severe consequences are brought down against him. Verse 24 says that a curse and national anger will be against him. The last text comes from Matthew 22:16-22… Here, the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus to see if He will choose one side or the other. The Pharisee, in malice, tells Jesus that He is not partial (which is true). But the Pharisee is blown away by the impartiality of Jesus. Verse 22 says that “hearing this (that is Jesus’ impartiality), they marveled.” Now you might say, ‘wait a minute, none of the examples given are judging between a rich and poor person as it is in James.” Yes, you would be right about that, however, this judgment as told by James is not isolated from the other texts mentioned above.
V.2- The contents that are written in verse 2 pertain specifically to the assembling of the church. The Greek word for assembly is the word that we get the word ‘synagogue’ or what we would call ‘church’ from. Of course, what follows could be applied to any such gathering. But the emphasis was toward the local church gathering.
Rich or poor, whatever the circumstance
In no way does James isolate judgment to those who are rich or poor. This example that James gives would have been relevant and easily understandable. For example, if there were to be someone that would come in tatted up from head to toe, have cotton candy colored hair, and have a bullring in his nose, the crowd would have wondered what kind of phenomena this may have been! Remember, the Scripture is written to the relevancy of the day, yet it is applicable to every day. The lesson (and circumstances) are quite similar to our day. For some people seeing someone enter the church with expensive clothes and accessories, or maybe even the sight of a very expensive car, might bring forth the thought that he is well off and could be a generous giver to the church. Now, this is not true of everyone. But the perception, nonetheless, is obvious. What is amazing about this text is that we see, once again, that human beings do not change. The partial judging and favor that is given today was just as much an issue in the days of the early church. Why? Because man is evil. Now you may say that is harsh. No, it is true. Man is evil and man looks out for himself. In this way man looks out for his ‘church’ by favoring one who could contribute financially to the programs and operations of it.
The Scripture sets the stage for every facet of man-centered favoritism that would come. The Scripture does not speak to rich and poor alone. It speaks of favoritism to the one who could potentially be elder material contrasted to the one who is not even close. Or someone who is seen as particularly useful to a ministry need and someone who is not. Similarly, to the one who has been a Christian for years and the one who is a new convert. It also speaks to age. As humans we tend to favor conversation with those who are in the same season of life or on the same theological level as we are. But this favoritism, intentional or not, can greatly damage those who feel or are even treated as inferior.
V.3- The crux of the matter lies in verse 3. James offers a scenario that resonates. What follows is an unashamed and blatant exertion of favoritism. Amazingly, the flattery and favoritism is not done in a subtle manner. This is done in the open, not in secret.
The Audacity
What is most striking in verse 3 is the audacity of the partiality going on. The Scripture notes a particular paying attention to. In this scenario, real or not that is up for debate, the striking claim of paying particular attention to one who is well off is not far off from being a legitimate problem in the church either then or now. Sometimes this attention paid is that of internal murmurings. That is, when the congregation murmurs within about such a well dressed individual. There is a physical aspect that the Scripture points out and that is the elevated or demoted placement of people. What is amazing about this text is that just a short time ago, Jesus spoke in an exalting way concerning the poor. His words in Matthew 25:34-40 tell us… Now in this text Jesus associates Himself with the poor. For He said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” Therefore, it is the treating well of the poor person (and the rich) on a similar playing field that beholds joy in the eye of the Master. Christ came to save the poor and the rich. Because Christ was and is concerned greatly about salvation, so must we be as well. And having salvation in mind takes partiality away, for every man is in need to be saved from the penalty of sin and the wrath of God!
How favoritism plays out on the spiritual side
It must be noted that favoritism is not played out in the physical realm alone. But it is played out in the spiritual realm as well. Consider the call and the warning that Paul offers in Romans 12:14-17… Notice the way in which Christians are called to live. If we were to interject partiality and not heed the warning given to Paul, here is what verses 14-17 would look like. First, in verse 14 if we were to be partial, we would act like everyone else did. We would go and curse those who curse us or be nasty to those who are nasty to us. We would not see them as created by God and in need of love and compassion. No, we would look to our own feelings being hurt. In other words, we would be partial to ourselves. Verse 15 would play out this way. To be partial of verse 15 means that you are a heartless, uncaring, unsympathetic person. It would not be proper to even be associated with Christ. For Christ did not act this way! Similarly to verse 14, there would not be a care for those who rejoice or weep. Favoritism would lead us to favor ourselves and our needs above other people. Verse 16 would play itself, again, in self-favoritism. We would be unable to be “of the same mind toward one another” because we would all be favoring ourselves with our own motives and desires. In other words, for the one who is partial it is impossible to live out verse 16 as the Scripture commands that we do. Instead of heeding the wisdom to be humble in mind, we would look to our wisdom as that which is better than others. Finally verse 17 would be, maybe the grossest form of favoritism, that is, a heart that seeks revenge. This goes completely against verse 19 that tells us that “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” Favoritism on the spiritual side of the matter always leads back to ‘self.’
What if God were partial?
I think it is fair to ask at this point, “What if God were partial?” Well, if this were the case we would all be in trouble. For starters, the pool for those who would be saved would be nil. This goes beyond the doctrine of election. Beyond the choosing of Israel as His chosen people. It goes back to the foundation of who God is. And because God is holy, He does not have to save anyone and if He were truly partial, He would not save anyone. Remember, before man was created and before the world was created, God enjoyed perfect triune fellowship with the Godhead. There was nothing better! But, in His providence and plan, He so chose to create human beings to worship Him and enjoy Him forever. If God were partial, He would be partial to His own holiness and have every right and measure to back that claim up. God would not have to answer back to anyone for any of His partial choosing because He is holy in and of Himself. Praise be to God that He has so chosen to bring man unto salvation and all who are His will be saved. The fact that God so chose to save anyone proves that He is not partial. This is why every Christian must have a “big view” of God.
V.4- The indictment that the Scripture gives in verse 4 is right and just based on what was shown in verse 3. For those who are practicing partiality, either in mind or physically as James speaks of, you are practicing evil and living in sin. There is no way to get around this truth. The Scripture asks the question “have you not become judges with evil thoughts?” But this question could be rightly declared, because you have been partial, you are judges with evil thoughts. Quite the indictment!
What they were really doing
The Scripture boils down the actions of partiality by plainly stating that distinctions were made and evil thoughts were the motives that brought the distinctions and actions to fruition. The Greek emphasizes that the actions were motivated by the mind. In other words, it was set in the mind of those who were acting partially to act that way. This is not a spur of the moment action, but a mental cultivation to make distinctions or to judge in this way. Verse 4 equates partiality with improper judgment. This is what is spoken of by our Lord in Matthew 7:1-5. Further, by bringing these two verses together we see that there is a wrong way to judge as it is founded upon evil. Now, I do believe that we are permitted to judge. As in we are able to judge or discern between truth and error or we can judge between real soda and diet. But what is said of James is not this kind of judgment. The simple way that this can be summarized is that if you are living a life of partiality, then you are living a life of open sin.
A word of caution
In no way does this text in James bring forth the belief that a person can never judge. Sometimes, depending on the translation, people will use this text to say that all judging is wrong (much like Matthew 7:1). But this is, simply, not the case. What we need to understand is that God has given us minds to discern and judge the world around us that He has made. That is why we know the difference between a cat and dog or why we can judge between who is a man and a woman! So, it is not the art of judging that is wrong, but the evil motives that come behind the judging that is wrong. And that is what James is touching on in these first 7 verses of chapter 2. I would say this as a boundary, if you are able to judge without sin, do it, but be wary that it is always done viewing through righteous lenses.
