Show Love, Not Favoritism (James 2:1-13) Series

Let's start today by reading James 2:1-4:

(1) My brothers, don't, with partiality, hold the faith of our glorious Lord, Jesus Christ. ["w/partiality" =focused]

(2) For suppose someone should enter your assembly with a gold ring on his finger, with fine clothing.

Now, also a poor person enters with filthy clothing.

Now, you look favorably upon the one wearing the fine clothing, and you say,

"You sit here rightly/fitly,"

and to the poor one you say,

"You stand, or be seated there by my footstool"-- [Psalm 110:1]

(4) haven't you become waverers among yourselves,

and judges with evil thoughts?

Imagine that you have two visitors come to your church on a Sunday morning. Now, in most churches, having visitors is kind of exciting. We see new faces, and we find ourselves really happy, and we go out of our way to meet them, and make them feel at home.

But James says, imagine that you get more excited about some visitors than others. You see someone roll up in a luxury car, and step out in a perfectly tailored suit, and we think, "Here's someone who is wealthy. Imagine what he could do for our church budget. Imagine what a great brother in Christ he could be." When a rich person joins your church, it's like marrying into money.

So that's one newcomer. Then, the city bus pulls up, and out someone walks who wears modest, slightly dirty clothes. Who maybe doesn't smell as nice as the rich person. And we think... what?

We find ourselves less excited.

If this is your response, what has happened to you? In verse 4, James says two things:

The first, is that you've become a "waverer." We saw the same word back in James 1, when James told us that when we ask for faith, we can't be waverers. The word can mean "to make distinctions," but probably James

means "waverer" (so Ropes, Hort, Mussner, Johnson, Moo, Blomberg; against Davids).

The idea here is something like this: As a Christian, you live with a single-minded focus on God, and people. Your faith is in God alone. You desire to please God alone. God is everything to you.

If you leave this high place of being single-minded, and find yourself using worldly wisdom, and worldly standards, to get through life, you've become a waverer. There's some part of you that's waffling, and shifting, and moving from the this high place. And we all understand that this is unacceptable. We can't let anything get in the way of our single-minded focus on God and people. So favoritism is ruled out.

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On the verb "waver":

BDAG:

? to be uncertain, be at odds w. oneself, doubt, waver (this mng. appears first in NT; with no dependence on the NT, e.g., Cyril of Scyth. p. 52, 17; 80, 10; 174, 7) Mt 21:21; Mk 11:23; Ro 14:23; Jd 22. ?? ?a?t? in one’s own mind Lk 11:38 D; Js 2:4; GJs 11:2. W. e?? Ro 4:20 µ?d?? d?a?????µe??? without any doubting Js 1:6; hesitate Ac 10:20.—DELG s.v. ?????. M-M. TW.

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Craig L. Blomberg and Mariam J. Kamell, James, vol. 16, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 109:

“The passive of diakrino demands being taken as internal dividedness … they are trying to live by two measures at once and are ‘divided in consciousness.’ ”

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Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 104:

The verb frequently refers to an internal attitude of doubt in the NT (e.g., Matt. 21:21; Mark 11:23; Acts 10:20; Rom. 4:20; 14:23; Jude 22). More importantly, James has already used the verb with just this meaning (1:6) to introduce a key motif in his letter: the warning to Christians not to have a divided heart in their relationship to God and to one another. “Among yourselves” would then be translated “in yourselves,” James’s point being that the discrimination exhibited in the community is another manifestation of a wavering, divided attitude toward God. The improper “division” being made between rich and poor reflects the improper “divisions” harbored in the minds of the believers. Consistently Christian conduct comes only from a consistently Christian heart and mind.

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Let's reread verse 4:

(4) haven't you become waverers among yourselves,

and judges with evil thoughts?

So the second thing that has happened, if you show favoritism, is that you've become judges with evil thoughts. You've evaluated the rich and the poor on the basis of their wealth, and make a decision about them on that basis.

If you've spent any amount of time in the OT prophets, you will find yourself horrified about this. Near the very top of the list, of the things that make God most angry, is an unjust legal system. Judges can't pervert justice. They have to be impartial, and focused on the truth.