This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
In order to impress upon his readers the seriousness of their willingness to show favoritism (and thus discriminate), James connects this misdeed to the "royal law" of Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself". Jesus taught that this was the second most important commandment, now James adds to the weight given to this commandment by pointing out that breaking one of God's laws is akin to breaking all of them. Why? Because breaking the Law of God is not simply a trespass against the Law, it is also an act of rebellion against God. The Law of God reflects the nature of God, and tells us the will of our Creator, to ignore it is to reject God's authority over us.
In light of the gravity of breaking the Law of God, which all of humanity is guilty of, as a people who have been forgiven by God for our sins, it is incumbent upon us to live our lives now with mercy toward everyone, knowing that one day we will all give an account before God for the use to which we put the grace that he bestowed upon us.
Favoritism, and its ugly flip-side, discrimination, is a facet of life we all deal with. There are endless reasons why someone or some group of people might be shown favoritism or be discriminated against, all of which are unacceptable for the people of God. The basis of our relationship with God is grace, unmerited favor, given to us freely by God. How can we turn around and treat other people as if their poverty, race, gender, age, or any other factor makes them less deserving of the kindness we are supposed to show all people?
The example that James focuses upon is favoritism shown to someone with wealth coupled with disregard shown to someone who is poor. The passage reminds us of the false promises of wealth, fame, power, and other pursuits that pull us away from the fruit of the spirit by exalting pride and pushing people away from a humble pursuit of God.
In the end, the Church needs to be a place where favoritism and discrimination are unknown. The doors need to be open for all to come and hear the Gospel's call to repentance and promise of forgiveness, and everyone who walks through them needs to be treated like God treated us, as a lost child coming home to a Father's tear filled embrace.
The modern trend toward labeling oneself "spiritual, but not religious" is in many ways a rebuttal of the failures of organized religion. If the practice of our collective faith in Jesus, i.e. the Church, was pleasing to God, as James calls it, "pure and faultless", it would certainly be worthy of joining. What do we need to do, as a church locally and as a Church universally to earn God's favor? The answer is simple, although it requires much work. The way in which a church (or The Church) can be judged for its effectiveness is by how it treats the least among us. James refers to "widows and orphans", the most vulnerable segments of his society, in ours those in need may be different, but our imperative to help those in need remains the same. As individual Christians, as a local church, as a denomination, and as a universal Church, we must be seriously about the business of helping those in need. This is not an optional part of Christianity, it is the heart of the fruit that the Gospel produces in us. It is not simply what we do, it must be who we are.
The second indicator of genuine religion offered by James is for us to keep from being polluted by the world. Moral filth exists in every society, for all mankind is in rebellion against God. How do we, as Christians, avoid this pollution? It isn't by avoiding society, how can we be helping those in need if we're hiding from the world? That method is of limited value anyway, for temptation comes from within, we take it with us wherever we go. The only effective means of avoiding moral pollution is to fill one's life with acts of righteousness, which will become righteous habits, and not allow sin the opportunity for a foothold.
When we as a church, locally or universally, are truly living our lives together in service to those in need and free from the pollution of immorality, we will not only attract those who need God's grace to us to hear the Gospel, we will by God's power at work in us, change our world.
We have all experienced the distinction between listening and hearing. Parents and wives of husbands watching football are familiar with this phenomenon. How do we know if somebody is actually hearing what has been communicated to them? For James, regarding the Word of God, the answer is simple: those who hear are those who obey. If we don't do what God's Word tells us to do, our knowledge is merely self-deception. We must be a people who live in obedience to God.
Humanity has a tremendous capacity for self-denial and refusal to accept even patently obvious truths in our willful stubbornness. However, as Christians, we cannot put our will above that of God. When we walked in darkness we were incapable of obedience to God, our sin nature enslaved us, but now that we've been transformed by the Holy Spirit, not only is our obedience possible, it is necessary.
In the end, our own will is not freedom, it is merely slavery to sin, and obeying God may be self-denial, but it is also self-fulfillment, for in obedience to God do we find freedom and a life of purpose.
How much better would our world be if everyone followed the advice of James that we ought to be, "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry"? Sadly, the opposite is often the case for many people as they are instead, slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry. For the Christian, this path is not optional, as we are commanded to be disciples of Jesus Christ, ever growing toward Christ-likeness by learning to value other people enough to put our own impulses and desires aside. When we make progress toward that goal we will be able to listen to other people, because we care about them, hold on to our tongue to avoid saying things we shouldn't, because we care about other people, and keep our anger in check, whatever its cause, because we care enough about other people that we aren't willing to hurt them to indulge our anger.
Anger is the key to the point that James is making about our attitude as Christians. Anger simply does not lead to righteousness. We are not the righteous judge that God is, nor do we have our anger under control, so that even our "righteous anger" at evil tends to run away with us. It is better for us, as Christians, to not allow anger a place in our hearts, we're in far less danger of giving in to the temptation to sin without it.
