The text this morning is from the Epistle of James, the second chapter:
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
James belongs to a group of books in the Scriptures that have been debated about for some time. It’s a little bit of inside baseball, but the basic idea is this: some of the books of the New Testament were debated as to whether or not they could be considered Scripture; they were disputed. It’s not that they were false or heretical, it’s just that there was some issue with it when the books of the Bible were being collected together. It might have been because the author wasn’t known, like with Hebrews, some others claimed authorship, like in Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation, or, like James, some of the teaching seems… what? Legalistic?
And it really does seem that way. Luther himself once called James an epistle of straw and thought it should be removed from the Bible. Of course, he changed his opinion of it later in life, once he realized its value. The thing is that James, if you make it about justification, the way that we are saved, is wildly legalistic. But if you realize that James is about how we grow in that salvation, like a child grows in their ability to hear and understand and do all of their life, James is wonderful, beautiful, and even freeing.
Take the first part of the passage today: James is telling us that showing no partiality is what those who are redeemed in Jesus Christ do. The poor are made wealthy in their poverty through the faith of Christ, and the rich tend to be abusers of the poor anyway. Therefore, whether one is rich or poor, we treat them all with the highest honor. There is no distinction between persons.
Some say this is like an early form of socialism or communism, but nothing could be further from the truth. This isn’t the government telling us that everyone is equal and we must all have equal possessions or opportunity. This is the Lord Jesus Christ telling us that there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Greek nor Jew, rich nor poor in His kingdom for He has died to redeem each and every person the same. Every single person is deserving of the same love and respect that any other person would get because every person is a person for whom Christ died.
This actually is quite freeing when you think about it, because then it doesn’t matter if it’s the worst President of these United States or the best homeless man, whether it’s the hardest-working prostitute to the heroin user with the most track marks, if it’s the CEO of Amazon or the head baker of a restaurant, every person gets treated the same. You don’t have to worry about showing a person the right deference, because, especially between these four walls and even outside of them, every person is treated as the dearly beloved child of God they are.
I mean, who are we to try to figure out whose most important in the world? Isn’t that God’s business, to figure out who is rewarded for what action and when? All we are to do is give up ourselves in service to one another. I don’t care who it is or where you are, every person should be shown deference. We should defer to every person, giving up our needs before theirs. That’s where the hard part of this comes down, because it’s hard to sacrifice our selfishness for the sake of others, but we must. The freeing thing in this is you don’t have to spend any time trying to figure out who to defer to since the answer to that is: everyone.
That’s why this isn’t any kind of political system: no one is more equal than another, no one is more saying to make anyone more equal that another. This allows you to take what the Lord has given to each individual, honor it, and then honor your neighbor by helping them take care of their possessions while treating them just the same. And what’s the purpose for treating everyone the same? To tell them about Jesus.
The rich and the poor, the Black and the Asian, the tall and the short, the White and the Native American, the servant, the master, all of them should be served by us that we can tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ, that He has bled and died for them, that He has risen from the dead for them, that they are heirs of His kingdom, which cannot be won by riches or ability or power, but only be given by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. In this, we show no partiality but reach out to all with the love of Christ. It’s the same for all people, it’s the same as it’s shown through us.
But you see, this isn’t legalistic, it’s telling you what you, as a saved and redeemed child of God, should be doing. The world treats people by their class, by their skin color, by their profession. Christians see people in one way: sinners redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And again, this is freeing; you don’t have hoops to jump through, you don’t have mysteries to figure out. This is wonderful as it is so simple even a child could understand it.
Or let’s look at the second part: faith and works go together. Works do not dictate whether you have faith, faith dictates that you have works. That’s how it goes. A faith without works is a faith that won’t save you. Faith without works is dead, it’s not from Jesus, it damns you. Faith and works go together; you must have and, as a Christian, will have both. You must and will seek to do good; you also will just fall into good works by fulfilling your vocations. If you are a Christian, you will do these things.
And again, this is easy. It’s beautiful, it’s freeing. There’s no need to worry about how any of this affects your salvation because it doesn’t. You salvation has been won for you by Christ Jesus; what you do cannot change that. And when you mess up, when you sin, when you fail to seek the good, or when you fail to fulfill your vocation, there is also a good work in repentance and the forgiveness of sins. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you are turned from evil and toward the good. This is a glorious things, for it serves to bring back into fellowship with Christ and with others, as well as serving as a witness to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, delivered to you.
When we break the Law, we are guilty of breaking the whole thing. In conjunction with that then, when the righteous deeds of Christ come to us, they bring all of righteousness with them. As sinners, we are guilty unto death. But as the righteous ones of Christ, we repent of our sin and are welcomed unto everlasting life.
This is what James is bringing out in his epistle. It’s not hard to understand. Instead, it’s freeing, beautiful, wonderful, for this work is easy and it comes to us without even much trying. It comes to you because you belong to Christ already, and you are already about His business. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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