LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for August 2: Let’s be fair about it

Federal and local governments have enacted legislation to protect Americans from discrimination for such things as disability, health, race, religion and gender. In spite of legislation, many individuals and corporations remain prejudiced, unsympathetic and uninformed. Discrimination control invoked in the law is one thing; discrimination in the heart is another.

In the purest sense, the believer, transformed by faith in Christ, should act without prejudice, favoritism or preference. James gave the principle and insists Christians should abide by it in thought and deed.

Discussion is benefited by distinguishing between the word “favoritism” and “discrimination.” Can you have favorites without discrimination by treating everyone with respect? The Apostle John is noted in Scripture as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter, James and John, seemingly, were closer to Jesus than the other disciples (Luke 9:28). If they were favorites, Jesus did not treat them differently.

For example, there were jealousies over honors and leadership within the Twelve (Luke 9:46-48; 22:24-30) that created tension. Jesus used the occasion to teach them the least would be the greatest and that he came to them as a servant.  

The case in point is that one can have preferences without showing partiality to others. Every person with social and family interests has this issue and its attendant benefits and consequences. Preference can be set aside and ignored in order that everyone is treated with the same respect: given the same friendship and hospitality, the same loyalty and love, the same affirmation and appreciation.

Pastors should be very sensitive to this issue and make every effort to treat people the same. Common human psychological needs are to be loved, to be significant and to belong. These, the opposite of partiality, are driving forces in human need. When practiced, they will open up relationships that can make a difference and will change lives.

People can accommodate only a few close friends, favorites if you will, but have the responsibility of being fair and just with love and hospitality to everyone. Homeless people in filthy clothing deserve the same respect and treatment as the most holy and most affluent in the church family. Even disciplinary treatment flows out of love and impartiality. When ministering to the least of these, one is rewarded, ministers to Christ himself and may entertain angels without knowing it (Matthew 10:42; 25:31-46; Hebrews 13:1-3).  

Discrimination and prejudice are harsher words with a similar nuance as favoritism. They give favoritism a deliberate, negative, snobbish disposition against other personalities types, others less attractive, the down and out or poor, the rich and wealthy, those fallen in sin and selected ethnic groups.   

Realistically, favoritism, prejudice, partiality and discrimination can cause fellowship problems in the church family and the broader comunity.

Ignore externals (James 2:1-4)

Belief or faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is a covenant for loving conduct. Faith is trust, merged with a conduct commitment. In this passage, James instructs that the conduct commitment must include treating everyone with respect. Jesus is Lord of a believer’s behavior.

The key word of the paragraph is “favoritism” or “showing partiality.” The biblical word expresses respectful greeting by “lifting up the face.” From the word comes the sense of displaying preference or partiality to certain people.

Curtis Vaughn in his commentary on James says that the word, in the New Testament, “is always used in the sense of showing favor to persons on account of external advantages, such as position, wealth, or power.”

Motive is an issue in that partiality to the wealthy reflects self-interest, of wanting something in return, or dignifying the success of the rich over the humility of the poor.

The phrase, “discrimination among yourselves” (v. 4), would indicate the believing community was practicing partiality of the rich over the poor. Note the imperative, “Stop showing favoritism” (v. 1).

As an example, James gives a specific  illustration of the rich being given a prominent place at the banquet table in the Christian gathering while the poor sit on the floor or stand to the side, based solely on their dress. Even if such action was a cultural custom, partiality was considered inappropriate and wrong. A goal of faith is for a believer to treat everyone with the same respect and appreciation.

Note that James does not choose the virtue of “love,” or lack of it, as the basis for this instructive correction, but rather “faith.”  Faith is the focal point of man’s moral responsibility with love being a product of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This passage gives extra credibility to the Christian affirmation that without Christ’s standard and motivation, immorality will replace the good in human behavior.  

James makes the practical application of love expressed equally to anyone a matter of faith. Faith and impartiality are inclusive of one another. Faith that is genuine will produce a love that will not show partiality (see Paul’s similar statements in Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9 and Colossians 3:25). In fact, James declares that the person that discriminates is a judge who thinks evil thoughts (v. 4).  

The First Baptist Church in Waxahachie, while I was pastor there, helped start the Cowboy Church of Ellis County. That congregation quickly became the largest and key church in Texas to reach out  to the western culture throughout the state and beyond. To see its growth and influence was thrilling and awesome. Often making contact with people who attended there, I would ask them why they liked attending there. Almost to the person, the response was this: “I like going there because I can dress any way I choose and be accepted.” The casual dress or attire, along with the “cowboy” theme, became a very valuable means of reaching a group of people who might never enter the doors of a traditional church. Feeling accepted is essential to church outreach and evangelism. External appearance, either physical or dress, can cloud judgment and hide the needs and hurts of the heart.  

Respect all people (James 2:5-7)

James moves beyond his example (2:2-3), to bolster his position by appealing to the highest authority: “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?” (James 2:5, also Luke 2:18-19). It may seem that the passage infers: Do not show favoritism to the rich when God has shown favoritism to the poor. God is impartial to the rich, but in his foreknowledge, he understands the poor are the ones most open to the gospel’s good news.   

God’s wisdom and ideal allows us to highlight a major fault of churches. Baptist churches have moved up the socio-economic ladder and, consequently, less and less identify with the lower socio-economic segments of society. Culture can become an insurmountable barrier. Real or not, perception is that the poor are unacceptable, unwelcomed and not invited. The poor cannot see Christ because of the affluence of Christians. An humble and upright heart is necessary to minister to the poor and to act responsibly toward the down-and-out. Instead of recalling the parable of the good Samaritan, we tend to recall “the poor you have with you always” to justify our sinful discrimination.

Social issues were a major concern for the early church. The early church established a fellowship in which all people held all things in common and the church earned the “favor of all people” while adding “to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47). When they broke bread together, we can surmise the slave sat with the slave owner, Gentiles sat with Jews, women sat with men, and the poor with the wealthy.

Favoritism by class, dress, race, position, wealth, education or otherwise would make the church less attractive to the outsider and unsaved. Jesus ate with the publicans, drew water with the adulterous woman, welcomed the lepers, fed the hungry, and healed the sick and diseased. His work was consistent with his words. The early church assumed the attitude and inclusion of all into its fellowship. It is without question that current churches must do more to reach out to the poor people of the community and neighborhood. However, to be fair, people, generally, prefer to go to church with people in their own social, economic and educational class.  

Discrimination is one of the greatest detriments to evangelism. Every church must open wide its doors and God’s people open their arms to the world, congregationally and individually. Not to do so is an insult to the poor (v. 6).

James furthermore preached that the church people were giving honor at the banquet to those who were evil—the wealthy who exploited them, forced them into court and slandered the name of Jesus. Invite them to the banquet, but treat the poor with the same respect as the wealthy. The poor, who were enthusiastic toward Jesus, were being ignored and treated with disrespect.  

In 2000, on a trip to China, our tour group was introduced to a delightful Christian Chinese lady who was genetically deformed. Her tiny undeveloped legs would not allow her to walk. Her mobility was limited, but she could get around by scooting on the floor, using her arms and hands. Because of her deformity, she was a throw-away child, discriminated against by her parents because of her physical disabilities. She grew up surviving in the streets of Xian. Befriended by Christians, she was converted and began to study art, becoming an accomplished artist. Her testimony of her faith in Christ was awesome. Some in our tour group bought paintings from her.  

When she came to our hotel, having learned to ride a motor scooter, to deliver the paintings, the doormen refused to let her in the hotel. The assumption was that she was a beggar because of her physical deformity and her external appearance. She called for my assistance, and I entered the lobby and insisted she was my guest and should be allowed in the hotel. Though exposed to that kind of treatment all of her life, she held her head and heart high as a child of God. She knew believers treated her differently from the treatment she received in her secular world.  

Extend love (James 2:8-13)

Not only were the poor the focus of God’s message of hope, but favoritism would not fit within the freedom of the royal law, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 8). Favoritism and discrimination are sins, (v. 9) and the law of neighborly love convicts of the wrongness of this thought and behavior. God is no respecter of persons and every believer should think and do likewise (1 Peter 2:17). James intends for the reader to understand that to slight the poor is to break the royal law of God. The royal law is the summary of the believer’s responsibility to lovingly respect every individual and minister to his needs.

Frequently, the Christian will be selective of the laws and principles of God that are observed enthusiastically, but look over others that are more difficult. Paying people the same respect, apparently, was being ignored. James says, stop and think. Like breaking one link in a chain, breaking one law of God makes one a lawbreaker of all of the law (vv. 9-11). The believer should know he will be judged by the law of freedom, the law that gives mercy to those who show mercy. “Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:13).

One of my dearest friends in the Lord was an African-American man named Jess. Jess, born before the turn of the 20th century, lived to be almost 100 years old, though he did not know his exact age. He told me that some of the African-American church members would ask him, “Why do you go to church with those white folk?” He would tell them, “Because they love me up there.”

Conclusion

Favoritism may or may not be superficial. It can be self-fulfilling, or it can be snobbishness.

External  appearance is no way to evaluate a person. I once met the author of Black Like Me. He administered a chemical that turned his white pigments dark and he lived like an African-American. The book described how differently he was treated because of the color of his skin. He was the same person inside but looked different externally. Discrimination breaks the law of God in the same manner that murder does.  

The churches of America, for the most part, have discriminated long enough and need to lift their eyes to the fields already white unto harvest.