accept everybody…

james in the second chapter of his nt book deal with people in the church and their showing favoritism.it’s unCHRISTian, it’s unreasonable, it’s unloving to show favoritism – to be a snob.  so how do your treat people?

first of all accept everybody.  accept everybody.

have you ever been in a church of spiritual snobs?  we got it and you don't.  do you know why people have a hard time accepting others?  it's because they confuse acceptance with approval.  there is a big difference between acceptance and approval.

you can accept somebody without approving of his lifestyle.  he may be doing something totally contrary to the word of GOD, but you can accept him as a person without approving of the sin they are involved in.

romans 15.7 (niv), accept one another just as CHRIST accepted you.  that’s a start – acceptance.

some religious people are not going to like heaven because it’s not exclusive enough.  if we can’t learn to get along together here on earth, what makes us think we’ll get along together in heaven?  accept everybody.

just a thought from the front porch…

it's serious business...

james is saying, people think favoritism is such a small sin but he says, if you break GOD’s rule, you break GOD’s rule.  be careful, it’s serious business.

james 2.11 (niv),  for who said, “do not commit adultery” also said, “do not murder”.  if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

what is he saying?  he is illustrating his point about being unloving.  if i come to your house and say, “i really respect you a whole lot.  the way i’m going to prove how much i love you is i’m not going to commit adultery with your wife.  however, i reserve the right if you tick me off i’ll murder you.”

are you going to thank me for that?  will you appreciate my love?  of course not, how absurd.  it’s ridiculous.  “i don't smoke or cuss or chew or run around with girls who do.  what does GOD care about if i’m partial to certain kinds of people?”  no.  GOD says it’s all the same; it’s all important.

james 1.12 (niv), speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will not be shone to anyone who has not been merciful.  mercy triumphs over judgment.  love treats people with mercy.  love gives people what they need, not what they deserve. 

james here is probably thinking about his half brother JESUS who said in the sermon on the mount, blessed is the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

that’s the problem.  it’s unCHRISTian, it’s unreasonable, it’s unloving to show favoritism – to be a snob.

just a thought from the front porch…

how you relate shows how you love…

then james gives his primary reason for the problem with favoritism in chapter 2 verse 8 (niv), if you really keep the royal law found in scripture, “love your neighbor as yourself.” you’re doing right.  from this you see that favoritism is unloving

why is it called the royal law?  because if we obey that one we wouldn’t need all the rest.  galations 5.14 (niv), all the law is summed up in one sentence, “love your neighbor as yourself.”  if i play favorites i’m being unloving.

the bible says that how we relate to other people shows how much we really love GOD.  1 john 4.20 (niv), if anyone boasts, “i  love GOD,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar.  if he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love GOD he can't see?  how i relate to you proves how much i love GOD.  favoritism is unloving.

few of us know how to love unconditionally.  most of us are like this poem.

paul’s girl is rich and haughty

my girl is poor as clay

paul’s girl is young and pretty

mine looks like a bale of hay.

paul’s girl is smart and clever

my girl is dumb but good.

would i trade my girl for paul’s?

you bet i would!

we don't know how to love unconditionally.  all we know is how to show favoritism.

james 2.9&10 (niv), if you show favoritism you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.  for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

how many laws do you have to break to be a lawbreaker?  one.  how many crimes do you have to commit to become a criminal?  one.  how many links do you have to break to break a chain?  one

have you ever been in a china shop that has the sign, “you break it, you've bought it”?  they don’t care if it’s broken in one place or a thousand pieces, if you broke it, you bought it.

just a thought from the front porch

it doesn’t make sense

favoritism is unreasonable.  in chapter 2 verses 3-7 (niv), james says favoritism is illogical, it doesn’t make sense – in the first place, he says, GOD has chosen the poor, has not GOD chosen the poor to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom?

he is not saying that it’s good to be poor and bad to be rich.  he’s not saying that only the poor will be saved.  no.  it doesn’t make any difference to GOD. 

and aren’t you glad that GOD doesn’t check your wallet before he saves you? aren’t you glad your salvation isn’t based on your savings account?

wealth in itself does not deserve any special treatment.  maybe the person got it dishonestly.  your value is not based on your valuables.  don’t confuse your net worth with your self worth. big difference.

i have a $20 watch.  it tells me the same time it tells on a rolex.  i don’t wear a watch to impress people.  i wear a watch to tell time.  i could afford a lot of neat things, but that’s not my priority.  my net worth and my self worth have nothing to do with each other.  i don’t get my strokes by impressing you by wearing certain kinds of clothes or driving a certain kind of car.  it doesn’t matter where you buy your clothes or what you drive; you're welcome here.

it’s illogical he says.  don’t confuse where you get your self worth from.  GOD doesn’t expect you to be wealthy in order to be saved and on top of that he says, the rich could care less about you so why worry about catering after them.  he says, is it not the rich exploiting you? 

in nt times it was the roman nobility who were feeding the CHRISTians to the lions.  it was the upper crust (a bunch of crumbs held together by their own dough) that were persecuting the CHRISTians, judging the CHRISTians, throwing the CHRISTians to the lions.  james says, “why worry about impressing them.  they’re certainly not worried about impressing you.  they’re doing the opposite.’

do you know why we like to kiss up to people who are affluent?  why we like to cater to people who are celebrities?  because we hope they’ll do something for us. 

folks, you don’t have to know the key men if you know the man who holds the keys.  he has a way of opening and closing doors regardless of your network or your contacts.  james says, “don’t show favoritism.  it’s unCHRISTian, and it’s unreasonable; it’s illogical, it doesn’t make sense.

just a thought from the front porch…

it is unCHRISTian…

james says there are some problems with favoritism.

one is that favoritism is unCHRISTian.  if you want to be like JESUS you can’t play favorites.  james 2.1 (niv), my brothers, as believers in our glorious LORD JESUS CHRIST, don’t show favoritism.  faith and favoritism are incompatible – we’re a family. 

 now this word, “favoritism” is used only four times in the bible and every time it’s referring to GOD and it says, “GOD does not play favorites”.  romans 2.11, GOD does not show favoritism. 

JESUS treated everybody with dignity.  GOD loves everybody.  if there is one place in the world where there shouldn’t be any kind of discrimination it ought to be in the church.  there is discrimination everywhere else in the world but there ought to be one place no matter who you are or what your background is that you’re welcome.

just a thought from the front porch…

the ultimate putdown…

we judge people by their wealth – whether they are rich or poor – their economic status.

what attitude do you have toward people who make more money than you do?  what attitude do you have toward people who make less money than you do?

now this is the area that james picks out of all the areas we discriminate in.  he talks about economic distinction. 

james 2.2 (niv), suppose a man comes to your meeting wearing gold rings and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.  if you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “here’s a good seat for you” but say to the poor man, “you stand over there” or “sit on the floor at my feet”, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?  one guy called this the case of the near-sighted usher.

two guys are strangers.  they arrive at church at the same time.  we know they are strangers because they didn’t know where to sit.  the first guy walks in and he’s dripping with wealth.  everybody knows they don’t fit because in nt times all of the CHRISTians were poor.  most of them were slaves.

but it says, he has gold rings – literally in greek, “he is gold fingered.”  now in nt times you could rent rings to prove how wealthy you were.  they would cut jewels and sew them into their clothes.  real gaudy.  but james didn’t criticize the guy for being wealthy; he criticized the members for being partial to him.  it doesn’t say there is anything wrong with having wealth.

it also says, he has “fine clothes”.  in greek, it literally meant the roman toga the politicians would wear when they were running for election.  this is rich goldfinger.

then comes the guy who is poverty stricken.  this is bum poorboy.  he is destitute and shabby.  he has holes in his levis and doesn’t have any shoes on.  he doesn’t have any deodorant so he has b.o. and his hair is unkempt.  he looks bad and the usher has to make a decision.  where will he seat him?

now the usher takes the rich guy to the front row and seats him.  “take this nice place.  we want everybody to know you’re here.  we want to take care of everyone of your needs.”  then he says to the bum, “you can stand over there in a corner or you can sit on the floor.”  literally, in the greek, it's “under my footstool.”  it’s the ultimate putdown.  he treats him carelessly.

just a thought from the front porch…

a common area of discrimination…

now in this matter of not showing favoritism in order to deal with it we need to look at some common areas of discrimination.

one is appearance.  appearance – we discriminate often because of appearance. 

beauty is everything in our world.  if you’re a cute kid, you’ve got it made.  if you’re plain, tough luck.  we judge people on their appearance – how thy look, how they dress.

i heard about an experiment with some hitchhikers.  they dressed them up in different ways and the more dressier the hitchhiker was the more likely he was going to get picked up.  how you dress definitely influences how you relate to people.

how do you judge people?  do you judge them immediately by how they look?  if somebody has long hair and a beard do you walk up to them and say, “JESUS saves and shaves”?  do you judge them immediately?

even CHRISTians get caught up in this dress for power, dress for success, dress to be cool.  we’re so concerned with what’s in and what’s out, what’s hot and what’s not.

have you heard of the gild radner philosophy of dress:  “i make my fashion choices based on what doesn’t itch.”  folks, i dress for comfort.  that’s why i don’t wear a suit and a tie anymore – it’s just more comfortable.  i dress to be comfortable but some people have problems with that.  you’re a preacher.  you should wear a black suit and a tie.

just a thought from the front porch…

our biggest problems…

james here in the latter part of chapter one is saying that the blessing of the bible comes when we start living it….and here are the three ways in a nutshell to apply GOD’s word to your life and see the results:

* read it! – set a time and territory and select a translation.

* remember it! – reflect in what you’re reading and

* respond to it! – apply it, do something with what you’ve read and heard.

now james in chapter two changes direction.  your biggest problems and my biggest problems are people problems – getting along with other people.  someone said, “to dwell above with those you love, that will be glory.  but to dwell below with those we know, well, that’s another story.”  so we are going to see what james says about how to get along with people. 

james 2.1 (niv) says, my brothers, as believers in our glorious LORD JESUS CHRIST, don’t show favoritism.  the principle he gives here is don’t show favoritism.

now whenever james starts a sentence with my brothers then you know he’s getting ready to nail you.  you can count on it!  what he is talking about here is prejudice, partiality, favoritism.  the new english bible calls it snobbery.  he says, “don’t be a snob.”

a snob is someone whose nose turns up when their eyes look down, somebody who always thinks they’re better than everybody else.  the greek word is a compound word that means “to receive” and “to face.”  it literally means “to receive somebody’s face.” – to receive somebody at face value, on the basis of how they look, superficial judgment.

james says, “don’t do that”.  don’t accept people just on superficial judgments.  the new english bible says, never treat anybody in a different way according to their outward appearance.  it is a common social disease.

just a thought from the front porch…