Pastor Dan Eddy
James 2:1-13
Pride and Prejudice
1-15-12
I.
Introduction – victim of prejudice
About 12 years ago, I fell
off the roof of my home and crushed my heal. After an extensive surgery and
recovery at home, I returned to work ˝ days using crutches to get around.
I rented a wheelchair
since it was easier to move around the office with many files than to carry
them with crutches.
While it was a good idea,
I soon learned that co-workers treated me differently because I was in a
wheelchair. I didn’t notice it at first but then I discovered, and others
observed, that it was easier for people to turn and walk away if they disagreed
with me. I noticed others talking down to me who otherwise wouldn’t. Some who
normally respected me simply ignored me just because I was in a wheelchair.
For the first time in my
life I experienced what many confined to wheelchairs often experience…prejudicial
behavior coming from other’s pride of feeling they are superior, simply because
they can walk on two feet.
I was the victim of
discrimination, certainly like not African-Americans were in Martin Luther King
Junior’s day as we observe his birthday today. Nevertheless, I was being
treated with partiality, something forbidden in this morning’s Epistle reading
from James 2 verses 1-13.
Please pull out your
bulletins and follow along with the text, and as you’re hearing the Word of God
ask yourself how you are the victim of other people’s discrimination, but also
how we sometimes display our pride and prejudice to others.
II.
What is partiality?
Verse 1: “My brothers” (that means male and
female believers in Christ), “show
no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory.”
The half-brother of Jesus,
James, most likely wrote this Epistle to the
James is showing the
fundamental incompatibility of holding faith in Christ and showing partiality
to others.
The original text’s Greek
word for partiality,
προσωπολημψίαις,
has the idiomatic understanding of someone turning their face away from you (turn face) to another…like if you’re in a wheelchair and
someone turns (turn face) and walks away. In other
words the prejudicial behavior comes when you’re ignored because you’re
considered less and another is paid more attention to, because they are
perceived as more important.
The back story to this text
is Jewish Christians were kissing up to the rich and powerful Sadducees, while
ignoring the poor and powerless among them. The Sadducees were politically
powerful Jews who sold out their faith to the
We’ve probably all
experienced discrimination, but how many of us admit to prejudicial behavior?
In verse 4 James says “have you not then made distinctions” (i.e.
discriminated) “among yourselves and
become judges with evil thoughts?”
Thoughts here is more of
the sense of “opinions,” drawing
conclusions based on bad information. The sin here was they were making
judgments about others using their prideful, selfish standards, instead of
using God’s Word.
How many times do we
practice partiality on others? Maybe it may not be based on race or gender…but
how many times do we discriminate against others by thinking we’re more
intelligent, more economically well off, healthier, taller, more righteous, or
that we support a better football team.
Oh, I’ve seen football
fans harass others beyond being good natured to insultingly thrusting their
team and their pride in the face of their opponents to the point of hurtfulness.
It’s tempting for Packer fans to do that with Bear’s fans.
But even then…what starts
as good natured ribbing can turn others away from you.
Regardless of how it’s
done…our prejudicial, bigoted words and actions discredit Christ in their
minds. They think, “Is this how
believers in Jesus act?”
How many times do we walk
away or ignore others who need our help because they can’t help us get ahead in
life? We look to that which we think will give us more and turn away (turn face) from those who need more.
The result of prejudicial
behavior is we aren’t listening well, because we don’t care or think we know
better. And that causes strife, promotes gossip, and creates animosity or worse
indifference. Bigotry causes a power
struggle between siblings, spouses, students and teachers, employers and
employees, citizen to government…us with God.
We
turn our face away (turn face) from
those who we think are inferior and look to others we think are superior. And as a result we ignore the needs of others
because we don’t consider them worthy of our time and effort…let alone Christ’s
love.
On August 28, 1963 Martin
Luther King Junior, gave his most famous “I
have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
Interestingly…at the cross…God the Father showed
partiality to His Son in order to show no partiality over humankind because of
our sins. God does not prejudge us…but judges us only through the eyes of
Jesus. If Jesus sees you, since He is in your heart, because of the faith given
you by His Word, at your baptism and in His Supper, then God the Father will
not turn His face away from you on Judgment Day. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus
gives you and me the godly content of our character so we don’t show partiality
to others.
III.
Love your Neighbor as yourself
All prideful and
prejudicial behavior comes down to one simple edict from Jesus mentioned here
in verse 8: “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.”
Neighbor is any fellow
human being regardless of race, gender, religion, life-style, economic status,
intelligence, occupations, or even whatever sports team or political candidate they
like. Christ died for them all. The Epiphany season reminds us that our Lord
Jesus is the God of all people, regardless of who they are. And if you don’t
want people turning their face away from you, (turn face) then don’t turn your face away from them.
Think of how you have been
treated in the past. How people have hurt you by saying or thinking you are
inferior to them.
And there’s hatred out
there against Christians. Pull up any number of articles about Denver Broncos
Quarterback Tim Tebow and read the comments after the article. Here is part of
one comment posted after an article called. “Anti-Christian Bigots Prey on Tim
Tebow,” Poster James Lott wrote, “– only
a weak-minded fool turns to religion because you don’t have all the answers or
because you become overwhelmed.” It’s both regardless and patronizing.
IV.
How Christ and His believers are treated with
partiality
In his Epistle, James
stated that believers in Christ face bigotry. In verse 5 he says, “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God
chosen those who are poor” (i.e. victimized, the discriminated) “in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those
who love him?”
We live in a world where many prejudge Christ to be something He is not, and yet if we follow
their bigotry it could ultimately be at the expense of our faith.
Instead,
God has chosen you and me, called you and me (as I mentioned to the children
this morning), to disconnect us from the worldliness and connect us again to
Christ. James is emphatic on this point made in verse 7.
And yet our response to those who look
down on Christians is not to look down on them. We don’t respond to bigotry
with bigotry. Or as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Let us
not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred.”
If anyone had
a right to do this it was Jesus. He was discriminated against. His teachings
were rejected; He was spat upon, whipped, struck; a crown of thorns was placed
on His head, and nails driven into His hands and feet. But was He bitter? No.
Jesus through the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write the following
from Ephesians 4:32 ESV. “Be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
You never
know how your non-prejudicial behavior can be a witness to a non-believer.
Another person posted after a Tim Tebow article that he used to hate Christians
and speak belligerently about them in posts. Then one day a friend invited him
to an event. He soon found out it was Church event and he was so mad at his
friend…but then in the presence of God’s Word his hatred toward Jesus and His believers
changed to love, because he was given grace.
Jesus accomplished what we
can’t. He kept the whole law perfectly…never being bigoted, never thinking more
of Himself than others. As Philippians 2 says Jesus, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant...he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The
result of Christ’s death and resurrection is He sets us free from the effects
of prejudice, oppression, and exploitation. Because Jesus died for you His
mercy triumphs over judgments we make against others or the judgments made
against us. He is here this morning to forgive you and me when we have thought and
spoken of ourselves as better than others. His body and blood is here to assure
and renew your faith so it is not incompatible with your words and actions.
V.
How to live without pride and prejudice
He forgives you with His
mercy so the results of our faith are to do what verse 12 say…speak and act
as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty…not the law of sin.
In practical terms living
without pride and prejudice is lived in the way the Apostle Paul spoke from
Romans 12:12-16 “Rejoice in hope, be
patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the
saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and
do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the
lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
There will come a day where all
prejudice, bigotry, and oppression will end. It will be in the next life, in
Heaven. Or as Martin Luther King Junior said, reflecting the prophet Isaiah
(Isaiah 40:3-5): “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be
exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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