Racism Is A Sin
Text: James 2:8-13
Introduction
1. Illustration: I heard about an African-American who tried to attend a church. Sadly, the church wouldn’t even let him attend a service.
The pastor said, "You just need to pray about it."
About three weeks later the pastor saw him and asked, "Did you talk to the Lord about it?"
The man said, "Yes, and God said, `Don’t worry, I’ve been trying to get into that church for 20 years and I still can’t get in.’"
2. The recent events in Charlottesville, VA and others tells us that racism is alive and well in our country. Any historian can tell you that it has always been that way. From the institution of slavery, Jim Crow laws, the internment of Japanese American's during WWII, and the list goes on and on.
3. What is even sadder is that this racism is also alive and well in the church. And this should not be! Of all the places that racism should never raise it's ugly head is in the church!
4. James makes this clear by telling us about...
A. Keeping The Royal Law
B. Breaking The Royal Law
C. Being Judged By The Royal Law
5. Let's stand together as we read from James 2:8-13.
Proposition: We must love regardless of a person's race, creed or socio-economic status.
Transition: First James tells us about...
I. Keeping The Royal Law (8).
A. Love Your Neighbor
1. In the second part of his treatment of discrimination James shows how it goes against the greatest of all commandments.
2. In v. 8 he says, "Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
A. Love is the source from which our attitudes toward others should flow. This royal command is a law from the King of kings.
B. This law is God’s will for his followers: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
C. James was calling his readers to obey the royal law of love that would forbid them to discriminate against anyone who entered their fellowship.
D. We are to show favor to everyone, whether the person is rich or poor. We are to be kind, overlooking other superficial trappings.
(Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 1078).
E. James begins with the Old Testament command Love your neighbor as yourself because it is the specific command being violated by favoritism, and because Jesus used it to summarize the Old Testament teaching regarding our treatment of each other.
F. The law for people of faith is the law of love, taught in the Old Testament and now delivered personally by Christ as his royal law for his followers.
G. Matthew 22:36-40 (NLT)
36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
H. Favoritism is sin because it violates Christ's law of love.
I. James would have us look carefully at the content of this law.
J. Loving your neighbor as yourself requires an openness to friendship with any neighbor—regardless of that neighbor's wealth, position, status, influence, race, appearance, attractiveness, dress, abilities or personality.
K. Every Christian operates in some social group—a school, a neighborhood, a workplace. And most social groups have their social misfits—the ones who are looked down upon, ostracized or neglected.
L. The royal law absolutely prohibits the Christian from joining in the favoritism. The follower of the royal law will reach out to any neighbor (Stulac, 102).
B. Great Commandment
1. Illustration: A first grader went on her first day to a newly integrated school at the height of the segregation storm. An anxious mother met her at the door to inquire, "How did everything go, honey?" "Oh, Mother! You know what? A little black girl sat next to me!" In fear and trepidation, the mother expected trauma, but tried to ask calmly: "And what happened?" "We were both so scared that we held hands all day."
2. Racism is in direct opposition to the Law of Christ.
A. John 13:34-35 (NLT)
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
B. Jesus taught us to love and not to hate.
C. He taught us to not to look at someone from the outside, but rather to look at them for who they reall are on the inside.
D. The gospel teaches us that what God has called clean we should not call unclean.
E. The gospel teaches us that we are all sinners in need of God's grace regardless of race or nationality.
F. To discriminate based on race or nationality is to go against the law of Christ, and anyone who does so is not following Jesus!
Transition: Next James talks about...
II. Breaking The Royal Law (9-11).
A. Guilty Of Breaking The Law
1. Now if the Royal Law is to love your neighbor as yourself, then if we don't the logical conclusion is that it is sin.
2. That's what James tells us in v. 9, "But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law."
A. Giving special attention to the someone is not a minor transgression or an unfortunate oversight; according to James it is sin, and those engaged in this action are guilty of breaking that law noted in 2:8.
B. Discrimination against anyone on the basis of dress, race, social class, wealth, sex, etc., is a clear violation of the royal law of love.
C. We must treat all people as we would want to be treated. Our attitudes and actions toward others should be guided by love.
(Barton, 1078).
3. In vv. 10-11, James goes even further, he says, "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. 11 For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law."
A. The point of emphasizing the whole law is that the whole law is to be kept.
B. The status of the royal law, then, is that it is indispensable. If we are believers in Christ, then we must follow the teachings of Christ.
C. We must bring our relationships under the lordship of Christ. That is why, in 2:8-11, James elaborates with repetition on the fact that favoritism makes one a lawbreaker.
D. The message is, Don't think you are keeping the law of Christ while you are practicing favoritism.
E. It is as much a contradiction as if you claimed you were keeping the law just because you were not committing adultery even though you were practicing murder.
F. James's language is stark and emphatic in 2:9: If you show favoritism, you sin (Stulac, 103).
G. We cannot excuse the sin of favoritism by pointing to the rest of the good we do.
H. Sin is not simply balanced against good—it must be confessed and forgiven.
I. If we’ve broken just one law, we are sinners. We can’t decide to keep part of God’s law and ignore the rest.
J. If we have broken it at all, we need Christ’s payment for our sin (Barton, 1078).
B. Racism Is Sin
1. In 1963, my grandfather was serving as the Senior Minister of West End United Methodist Church in Nashville. West End is situated right across the street from Vanderbilt University, and has always been a wealthy, predominately white church.
One communion Sunday, a black family happened to be worshipping at West End, and like the rest of the congregation, they came forward to receive the meal. Without a sidelong thought, my grandfather served them the bread and juice just as he did the rest of the congregation.
Now, as you know, the Southern U.S. in 1963 was caught up in the height of the Civil Rights movement. And as soon as church dismissed that day, the Administrative Board went into a meeting. A few hours later, they called my grandfather into the room, and though my grandfather was greatly liked by all the people of West End, they asked for his immediate resignation because he served communion to blacks. My grandfather told the gathered group that if that was really the way they felt, then he was not the right minister for them anyway. In stunned silence, the members of the board said nothing more. They knew my grandfather was the right pastor for West End at that time, and they knew that he was right.
My grandfather stayed at West End for many more years, and in that time, other blacks came to worship there as well. Here is a light that illumined a darkness of our world.
(From a sermon by Clair Sauer, A Signpost and a Dash of Salt, 2/2/2011).
2. Racism is a sin because it degrades someone who is made in the image of God.
A. Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
B. Each and everyone of us is made in the image of God.
C. We were created to love not to hate.
D. We were created to show compassion.
E. We were created to show mercy.
F. We were created to forgive.
G. Racism makes all of those things impossible.
H. Racism is the opposite of love.
I. Racism is the opposite of compassion.
J. Racism is the opposite of mercy.
K. Racism is sin because it is contrary to everything that we know about God.
Transition: James also tells us about...
III. Being Judged By The Royal Law (12-13).
A. You Will Be Judged By The Law
1. James concludes his teaching on favoritism by telling us we will be judged by the Royal Law of love.
2. In v. 12 he says, "So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free."
A. Obedience must also be a lifestyle, a habit. Whenever you speak and whatever you do covers all human behavior.
B. The believers would be judged on the basis of their obedience to God’s will as expressed in his law.
C. Judgment requires meeting a standard, living up to a law. Christians are covered by the blood of Christ and so will receive mercy instead of condemnation in the final judgment.
D. Nevertheless, Scripture speaks of the divine judgment as a reality that should deter all people, most of all Christians, from sin.
E. For all people, including Christians, will give an accounting of what they have done. Specifically, we will give an accounting of whether we have lived by this royal law, Love your neighbor as yourself (Stulac, 103-104).
F. Although God has accepted those who believe in him, we are still called upon to obey him. But his law is not a burden; instead, it sets us free because we are obeying out of joy.
G. We are grateful that God has given us freedom from sin’s penalty and the Spirit to empower us to do his will (Barton, 1078).
3. James then takes it a step further when he says, "There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you."
A. Mercy is precisely what the believers were not showing when they insulted poor people.
B. If they continued to discriminate, they would be in danger of facing their own judgment without mercy.
C. This is an excellent statement of New Testament ethics: What we do to others we actually do to God, and he returns it upon our heads.
D. We stand before God in need of his mercy. We can’t earn forgiveness by forgiving others. But when we withhold forgiveness from others after having received it ourselves, we show that we don’t understand or appreciate God’s mercy toward us.
E. Not showing mercy places us only under the judgment of God, but showing mercy places us under God’s mercy as well as his judgment.
F. We will always deserve God’s judgment because we can never adequately obey God’s royal law. But our merciful actions are evidence of our relationship with Christ. And it is that relationship that vindicates us.
G. We stand before God, from whom we know we deserve judgment and upon whom we are depending for mercy. Because of God’s character, his mercy . . . will win out over his judgment against us.
H. The world is looking for evidence that God is merciful. Being people who have experienced mercy and who express mercy will catch their attention (Barton, 1078).
B. Living Out Your Faith
1. Illustration: As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
2. Rather than we expressing the hate of racism we should express the mercy of God.
A. Matthew 9:13 (NLT)
13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
B. James tells us that we will be judged by whether or not we show mercy to others.
C. How can you show mercy while you are trapped by the hate of racism?
D. God showed his mercy to us regardless of who we are, what color we are, what nationality we are, or how much we own.
E. And that is exactly how he wants us to treat others.
Conclusion
1. The recent events in Charlottesville, VA and others tells us that racism is alive and well in our country. Any historian can tell you that it has always been that way. From the institution of slavery, Jim Crow laws, the internment of Japanese American's during WWII, and the list goes on and on.
2. What is even sadder is that this racism is also alive and well in the church. And this should not be! Of all the places that racism should never raise it's ugly head is in the church!
3. James makes this clear by telling us about...
A. Keeping The Royal Law
B. Breaking The Royal Law
C. Being Judged By The Royal Law
4. THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
A. JESUS HAS COMMANDED US TO LOVE NOT HATE.
B. WE ARE TO LOVE REGARDLESS OF HOW SOMEONE LOOKS.
C. RACISM IS A SIN AND GOD WILL JUDGE US IF WE LIVE BY IT.
