Introduction
James is my favorite book of the Bible. I have always been drawn to its practical approach and straightforward method of approaching the subject of living one’s faith. James doesn’t spend a lot of time discussing doctrine, though the book is full of doctrinal concepts. Instead, James concisely proclaims how believers are to respond to various people and situations and in doing so truly demonstrate a superior faith.
2:1-6 Riches Still not the Measurement of Superior Faith
James uses a hypothetical situation to condemn those who would show favoritism based on wealth. However, we can almost guess that this was going on in some of the churches that James was writing to. Picture if you will a modern day church meeting in the home of a member (remembering that the early church normally met in someone’s home). As each person comes to the meeting he is assigned a seat based on his economic status. The rich man gets the recliner, the middle class fellow manages a comfortable seat on the couch and the homeless man is given a place to stand or asked to sit on the floor. This is exactly the hypothetical, but likely very real situation that James uses to make his second condemnation of all those who make judgments of people based upon their economic status.
The fact that James spends so much time in his letter condemning rich folks indicates that there must have been those who were seeking social/spiritual standing within the church based on what they had accumulated rather than their spiritual walk. It is even sadder that there were people who were inclined to accept that people must have had a superior faith if they were wealthy or had attained a social position in the world.
It wasn’t just those who were flaunting their wealth that is condemned by James. Such favoritism is condemned because it shows both that those who expected or demanded such honor and those who freely offered it up were using not just a flawed value system, but one based on evil.
This value system was evil because it was based solely on how a person was dressed. The world constantly makes snap judgments based on how people are dressed. Years ago, a con man named Frank Abagnale, Jr. ran around the country passing bad checks. One of the reasons that he was able to do so in such an easy manner was that he had purchased uniforms that matched those of flight crews for various airlines. People looked at the uniform and assumed that he was really an honest and hard-working airline pilot based on his uniform. Hotels extended him great courtesy based primarily on the uniform he wore. He even managed to get on airline flights without payment based on his uniform. This very basis (outward appearances) was used to judge those coming to worship.
This value system was evil because it despised good people based solely on their impoverished economic status. If they arrived wearing worn or dull clothing they were looked down upon. Perhaps the next time you are tempted to look down your nose in disgust at a poor or homeless person you should take a moment and recall that Jesus spent thirty-three years living a life of poverty. Some thought that following Jesus would bring them wealth. Jesus declared that foxes and birds have a place to live but that he literally had no home.
The second reason the value system was evil was because it honored the wealthy without regard for their evil actions. James goes on to point out that some of these rich folks were the very people oppressing members of the church. In fact, some of them were even speaking evil of the Lord. Their value system ignored the evil that these men were doing in hopes of affecting the manner that they were being treated.
2:8-13 Lawbreakers
The churches are reminded of the need to demonstrate love to their neighbors. The very strong implication (when we look at the context) is that when they were discriminating against the poor they were not showing love. Superior Faith always demonstrates sacrificial love. When these church members honored these unrighteous rich people while rejecting the poor, they had failed to keep that royal law.
James tightens the screws as he clearly states that this spiritual discrimination based on economics was sin. He reminds his readers of the importance of following God’s law and avoiding anything that was not in keeping with God’s law.
There were three dominant sins that caused God to judge both Israel and Judah in Old Testament times. All of us remember that idolatry was a major issue in this period. However, the other two major sins leading to the exiles of both Israel and Judah from the Promised Land and repeatedly condemned by the prophets was mistreatment of the poor and perversion of justice. The rich men (and those who chose to honor them) were guilty of all three of these sins. First, they chose to honor these men based on materialism. Second, by honoring these men they condoned the mistreatment of the poor. Third, they ignored the injustice that these men were bringing into the lives of the poor. They were guilty of violating Old Testament principles.
James doesn’t stop there, however. They also were guilty of blaspheming the name of Christ. The church was allowing rich people to become part of their fellowship who were living in complete contradiction of the Word, both Old and New Testament.
Some of those who had chosen to honor these rich men probably were doing so out of a sense of self-preservation. Some of the rich wore gold rings, symbols of authority and social status. Perhaps some of these men were government officials and those inclined towards favoritism were honoring them to avoid further persecution.
James wanted his readers to understand that they could not separate the sin of favoritism from the other parts of the law. He lumps this blatant favoritism and discrimination with other sins like adultery and murder. Sin is sin.
It is interesting to note as we read New Testament writings from Paul, James, and Peter that some of the sins we would want to excuse ourselves for are often lumped in with sins that we would definitely avoid. Gossip and slander are often lumped in with sexual immorality and drunkenness. Anger is frequently placed in such lists. Yet we often excuse ourselves from sins of gossip or anger. Yet God is concerned about such sinful behavior just as much as he wants us to overcome those things that even the world recognizes as unrighteousness.
Whatever reasons they might have had for honoring the rich above the poor, James declares that they are wrong. Further, he commands them to begin to act with the knowledge that God is going to judge us based on the law. He reminds us that when we are not merciful we will not obtain mercy. This echoes Jesus’ preaching on the Sermon on the Mount. We must demonstrate mercy to others if we want God to grant mercy to us.
When James declares that mercy triumphs over judgment he is saying that it is greater. In fact, the Greek word (Kauchaomai) means to rejoice. Mercy gives us something to cheer about. Mercy has bragging rights over judgment because it is so much greater. A merciful person is demonstrating superior faith.
2:14-26 Superior Faith Leads to Action
A faith that does not lead to a changed life is not faith at all. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul made it clear that we don’t work to get saved but instead we get saved to work.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:1-10 (New International Version)
James is not declaring that a bunch of righteous acts will save anyone, but rather pointing out that a faith that does not produce good works is not a superior or even a saving faith. The person who claims salvation but continues in his wicked life surely has not had a conversion (salvation) experience. It is Worthless faith.
The illustration of a worthless response to a brother or sister in Christ is offered to demonstrate the worthlessness of workless faith. Note that James is not referring to someone outside of the church, but a member of the church family. He makes the illustration into a large enough mountain to see it. He refers not to the worthless response to a stranger, but the response to a member of our local church family. How can we claim to be superior in faith if we lack concern over the needs of those in our local fellowship? Obviously, in such a case our faith would not be superior.
Works don’t combine with faith to equal salvation. Faith produces works that demonstrate salvation. Therefore, faith without works is really faith without fruit.
James attempts to demonstrate this by providing two examples from Scripture. First, he uses Abraham, the great patriarch of the faith. He believed God. How do we know he believed God? He obeyed God. God called him to take Isaac up and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham’s act of obedience was a dramatic demonstration of faith and God counted it as an act of righteousness.
However, James doesn’t just use the illustration of Abraham, an example of righteousness. He adds the Biblical example of Rahab, a prostitute. The prostitute protected the spies, an act of faith and an act of belief.
Chapter two concludes with one final example. He states that as the body without the spirit is dead so is faith without works also dead. The word that is translated as spirit is the Greek word pneuma which may look familiar to you. It literally means a current of air, but is usually used figuratively to refer to man’s spirit or soul being present in the body. What James is saying is that faith without works is as certainly dead in the same way a corpse has no life in it. Such faith isn’t a crippled or a wounded faith. A faith that lacks works is not a faith that is on life support. Instead it is a faith that has already been pronounced dead--- a lifeless corpse.
