Being Partial Against Partiality

Being Partial Against Partiality

I am boldly going to try and make an argument from James 2:1-13 fresh off an hour of comparing and contrasting Melchizedek, King of Salem, with Jesus Christ, King of kings. We’ll see how it goes! (If you didn’t get the humor in that, don’t worry…it’s for geeks like me)

I did it again. I made the mistake of opening my Bible to the Book of James. What was I thinking? Reading through James is just asking for trouble. It’s like stepping into a boxing ring with Muhammad Ali. In any case, you’re going to come out battered and bruised. While fighting Ali leaves your body swollen and sore, reading James cuts way beneath the skin, through the tissue, right to your heart of hearts.

Since Saturday, I’ve been in a cage fight with James 2:1-13 and I’m losing badly. I’m against the ropes just hoping that the bell will ring to end the round. But, I’m afraid that this round isn’t going to end. The conviction that I’m experiencing isn’t going to go away this side of glory. This is a fight to the death. I’m woefully unequipped for this fight, and yet, by the grace of God alone, I am in the ring standing toe-to-toe with sin. Thanks be to God, the Referee has already judged me victorious. So I fight on knowing that Jesus is the ultimate Prize Fighter who has defeated sin once and for all.

Sorry…I got a little carried away with that boxing reference. It’s kind of like the beating my brain took thinking about Melchizedek and reading John Calvin.

So, back to James 2! What I hope to accomplish in this writing is to explain what James is trying to say in these thirteen verses and then show how we are all guilty of partiality. I then will share how God has convicted me and what I believe He has called me to. And, I just might tie it all up in a big Gospel bow at the end and present it to you as a sacred gift.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

James 2:1

James is all about being a doer of the word (1:22). He dares anyone to share his/her faith apart from his/her works, because James knows that true faith is made visible through one’s works (2:14-26). James is so insistent on this that he goes so far as to say that faith without works is dead faith that cannot save a man from his sins (2:17, 26).

It is in this context that we find the above verse. James grew up with the King of impartiality. Jesus loved his parents, siblings, friends, and enemies with equal measures. He was perfectly impartial. And James noticed. I imagine James was probably aware of his half-brother’s talks with Samaritans and lepers and tax collectors and prostitutes. And I imagine that, as a Jew, James was appalled by Jesus’ “rebellious” behavior.

Time and time again, we see the Jews showing partiality. Consider the Pharisee in the temple thanking God that he is not like the pathetic tax collector. Or how about Peter in Galatians 2 who had to be rebuked by Paul because he wasn’t showing honor to Gentile believers. What about Paul himself who was so zealous for his Jewish faith that he persecuted and killed Christians?

But something happened to James. Something happened to this Jew who would push against this command from his own pen with great fervor and displeasure. He heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and encountered the living God. And everything changed instantly.

I would imagine this to be a typical response to James’ words “Show no partiality.” “What do you mean ‘no partiality’? Don’t you remember what those dogs say about us? Don’t you remember what the Law says about engaging with lepers or dining with tax collectors? They are unclean and we are to have nothing to do with them!”

But in verse 4, James pleads,

Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James realized that the Gospel levels the playing field. All are unrighteous and have no merit of their own. All need the life-saving blood of Jesus Christ in order to be forgiven of sin. And since God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, how ought we to act toward those whom we judge to be different? Are we to show favoritism? Are we to put expectations on others? Are we to grant favor to some while banishing others?

All of these are excluded by the Gospel. Ephesians 2 tells us that we were by nature creatures of wrath. All of us, by our very nature, deserve judgment. Jews don’t receive God’s favor because they practice the Law. Modern day “Jews” don’t get to Heaven by practicing good works, donating money to charities, going to church every Sunday, volunteering at the animal shelter, and putting their kids through college. These are all good things, but they don’t achieve salvation!

Neither do Gentiles get a free pass to Heaven because they weren’t God’s chosen people and didn’t know any better. Why? Because what can be known about God is plain to them because God has made Himself known through creation. And modern day “Gentiles” don’t get a free pass because of the age of enlightenment and dead religion. Why? Because they prove that the Law of God has been written on their hearts by demanding justice and striving for equal rights and individual freedom.

So if we are all in the same boat, how can we still compare ourselves to others? How can we still value one person’s life above that of another? And yet we do! If we claim to know the Gospel, isn’t this a huge contradiction? The Gospel is freely extended to all people who would repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It doesn’t matter what race, creed, sex, childhood religion, credit rating, golf handicap, net income, stock portfolio, or sexual orientation they have. Any who turn from their sin and believe in Jesus Christ will be saved.

So why do we still judge others and condemn them while crying out so that we might receive mercy? “Treat everyone else according to justice, but treat me according to mercy, God. I must deserve mercy because I’m really sad about my sin, but they should be judged because they sinned against me!”

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 accountable for all of it.

James 2:9-10

It’s easy to be partial, isn’t it? It comes naturally. I like my friends because they are nice to me and do nice things for me and talk to me on the phone when I’m perplexed by the hilarity of life. It’s easy to like them and show them favor and offer them grace.

But how about those people who, after trusting them, hurt me? Am I as willing to show them grace as I am with my friends who are nice to me? Heck no! In fact, I am quick to pronounce judgment on them. “How dare they…!” I rant. It’s much easier to just wish these people out of my life as a matter of convenience and sanity.

Or what about those people around me in this community who are different? Do I treat the black people in my neighborhood with the same kindness I would my mother? Do I respect and value their lives as much as I do the life of my pastors at church? Am I as quick to do kind things for them even though they appear to need an attitude adjustment before I’ll even smile in their direction? No. I don’t treat them as well.

What about those who seem to be having a bad day or are failing to be friendly to me? Do I seek to care for them? No. I don’t because it takes more effort than I’d like to extend.

How about those slow moving people pushing their shopping carts at negative speeds? Or those drivers who aggressively cut me off? Or the “not going to hold the door open for you in a million years” apartment neighbor? Or the fast food worker who messed up your order again? Is there mercy or is there judgment? Is there complaining or is there heart-felt compassion?

James has got me on the ropes, and he knows I’m going down, but he isn’t finished with me yet.

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:12-13

There it is…the knockout punch.

The Gospel will always slay any and all of my “most-reasonable” arguments. When I am tempted to justify my disposition towards another, Christ obliterates my argument.

Show no partiality. Why? Because you, my brother, have been judged under the law of liberty. You have been freed from judgment through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. God no longer deals with you according to your sin! Mercy has triumphed!

And because mercy has triumphed, we must be impartial. We must view all others as our equals. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Equals. And are justified by His grace as a gift. Equals. No one does good. Equals. Not even one. Equals.

Having met the risen Lord Jesus, I cannot justify any attitude, action, or speech toward another person that fails to build up and give grace. If I am thinking of another in a way that causes apprehension or fear or prejudice, I am wrong and guilty of breaking God’s law. I must reject all attempts to justify this type of attitude or behavior.

What Good News we have heard in Jesus Christ! And what an opportunity we have to live out the implications of the Gospel when we treat others as equals instead of judging them or writing them off as different and inferior!

Who in your life do you need to begin seeing in a different light when the reality of what Christ has done for you is shone on your heart? Who would have an opportunity to see Christ in you if you would only change your attitude toward them? And who would take great delight in watching His followers loving people with sincerity and compassion?

Because Christ has triumphed over judgment, we ought to live as those who have been transformed by the Gospel, which requires counting others as more significant than ourselves. This is the mind of Christ that has been given to us.

For the glory of the triumphant King, Jesus Christ…