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Hi, I want to welcome you back to our study of James and daily drive-time
devotions. Chapter 2 this week, this is day 1 of our look at that chapter, we're
going to be looking at verses 1 to 8 today. You might remember last week we
began our look at the book of James, at this look at how faith works, how faith
makes a difference in our lives.

We should never put up with a faith that doesn't work. It's meant to make a huge
impact and have huge meaning in our daily lives. And last week as we walked
through James chapter 1, we talked about how faith works to help us to deal with
trials and doubts and temptations.

And we talked about how faith works to change our actions. In fact, this week
we're going to focus on faith and actions. Where James ended last week, he
begins this week.

Let me just give you a quick overview of chapter 2. He really talks about two
things, James in chapter 2. He talks about the rich and poor and he talks about
faith and works.

He talks about the rich and poor and he says you shouldn't show favoritism. He
talks about faith and works and he talks about the fact that you shouldn't fool
yourself into thinking you have faith when you don't. In both cases, if we walk
through these, you're going to see that he gives examples of what he's talking
about.

Suppose someone comes into your church and this happens, or suppose someone says
this and walks through how genuine faith acts in our daily lives, how it makes a
difference. This is the chapter that talks about faith without works is dead. So
towards the end of the week, we're going to be talking about what that means and
the power of that statement for our daily lives.

But at the beginning of James chapter 2, he talks about the rich and the poor
and favoritism. In fact, James chapter 2 verse 1 says this, "My brothers, as
believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. " That's as
clear as a bell.

Don't show favoritism. He's talking about prejudice. Favoritism is the action
that results from prejudice.

And as you think about favoritism, we're going to talk about one certain area in
a minute, but there are common areas of discrimination that we have that cause
us to show favoritism towards one group or another. It could be appearance or
ancestry or age or achievement or affluence, any of those. It could be
appearance.

We can show favoritism sometimes because of how a person looks. They look more
like me, and so I favor them. They dress more like me.

It could be ancestry. They grew up in the same place that I grew up in, race,
nationality, ethnic background, and we can have favoritism because of that. It
could be age.

I can favor someone because they're young or favor them because they're older.
Usually it's because they're more in my age range that I tend to favor someone.
It could be achievement.

Sometimes we show favoritism because of achievement. In fact, we live in a
society in America that loves winners and hates losers, and so we tend to favor
the winners. That's a type of favoritism.

Or it could be affluence. It could be their economic status. The questions here
are what attitude do you have towards people who make more money than you do?

What attitude do you have towards people who make less money than you do? You
see, this last one, affluence, is the one that James is going to go after
because they were struggling with it in the early church. Listen to what he says
in verses 2 to 8.

"Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and
a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the
man wearing fine clothes and you say, 'Here's a good seat for you,' but you say
to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or 'Sit on the floor by my feet,' have you
not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen,
my dear brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world
to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom that He promised, those who love
Him?

You have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they
not the ones who are dragging you into court?

Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of Him to whom you
belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor
as yourself. You're doing right.

" He talks in these verses about prejudice towards the rich. There were a couple
of reasons why the church in that day had prejudice towards the rich and it's
pretty much the same in our day. The two reasons were these.

First, they felt that the rich had God's blessings and even more than that,
secondly, they felt that the rich could share God's blessings with them. There
was a strong belief in that day, probably even stronger than in our day, that if
somebody was rich it was because God had blessed them, that God had somehow seen
some holiness in their life and that's why they had this material affluence. I
think we have a better understanding in our day that people get rich for all
kinds and it's not always the blessing of God.

Sometimes it's their own selfishness. Sometimes it's just their own good
fortune. Sometimes it's just they happen to be in the right place at the right
time.

But in that day they felt if somebody was rich they must have God's blessing and
James says, "No, that's not true at all. You shouldn't show favoritism. " The
other reason that they favored the rich, they were prejudiced towards the rich,
was a selfish reason.

They felt they could share God's blessing. Here's a rich person. This rich
person could meet my needs.

If I could just get close enough to them they could meet our church's needs.
Just think of the offering they could give. Just think of the missions that
could happen.

Just think of the new people that we could have involved in our church if just
we could reach this person. And James writes to say, "Why do you favor one more
than the other? " God favors both.

God wants to work in the lives of both and God also wants both to grow. He gives
this illustration of a rich man and a poor man walking into church and it's an
illustration that challenges our thoughts. It makes me think, I hope it makes
you think, "What would I do?

What would I do in that circumstance? When have I favored someone for one reason
or another? " Now you may not favor rich or poor but we all tend to have one
area of favoritism in our lives.

When am I favoring people? Favoritism. James says when we do that we've done a
couple of things.

We've discriminated amongst ourselves in the church. When you bring favoritism
into the church, it's saying that one believer in Christ is somehow more
important than another believer in Christ. Or one person who's come to hear the
gospel in church who's not yet a believer is somehow more important to be saved
than another person who's come to hear the gospel.

And neither are true. You've discriminated among yourselves. When the church is
to be a place of unity, you've made it a place of discrimination.

And he says the other thing that happens is this, you have become judges with
evil thoughts. God's the judge and we're not. And yet somehow you've made
yourself the judge and the problem when we try to judge is we have evil
thoughts.

God is the judge because he always has good thoughts but we're selfish. And so
for us to try to judge, our selfishness is always going to inject itself. Now
what's the problem with favoritism?

As you walk through what James has to say here, he says there's really three
problems with favoritism. He says it's unchristian, it's unreasonable, and it's
unloving. First he says it's unchristian.

He talks about the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ, our glorious Lord
Jesus Christ, we should not show favoritism. As believers, as Christians,
favoritism should not be a part of our lives. Jesus did not show favoritism.

Jesus did not show favoritism towards any. And so for us to be like Jesus Christ
means that we do not show favoritism. It's unchristian.

We'll come back to that in a couple minutes. It's also unreasonable. Look at
what James has to say here, these verses we read a few moments ago.

He says it's unreasonable to favor rich over poor because God has chosen the
poor. And favoritism is an insult to those whom God has chosen. He's chosen the
poor in the eyes of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom
that he promised.

So why would you not favor them as well in the same way? And he also says, James
just says, let's just think about this for a minute. It's also unreasonable
because in your society, the rich are the ones who are mistreating you.

You're fawning over the people who are suing you, he's saying. It's interesting.
Sometimes we cater to the rich because we hope they'll do something for us.

But in the end, they take something from us. And here they were exploiting the
church. They were slandering Jesus' name.

Not every rich person is not a Christian. Not every rich person exploits the
church. There are some who are rich, who see their riches as a gift from God.

And they take those riches and they give them back for God's glory. But James is
pointing out here that there are many people who are rich. The reason they got
that way is because they're selfish.

And the idea that somehow if you get close to them, you're going to get
something from them, it's going to happen the opposite way. So he says it's just
unreasonable to show this kind of favoritism. He's not recognizing who the rich
and who the poor are.

We're all in need of God's grace. It's unchristian to show favoritism. It's
unreasonable and it's also unloving.

At the end he says, here's the answer. How do you make all this work? The answer
is you love your neighbor as yourself.

You don't love the rich more. You don't love the poor more. You recognize that
we're all neighbors of one another and you love your neighbor as yourself
because of the power of God in Jesus Christ.

I love that old story about the person who was a little down on their luck. They
didn't have the kind of material wealth that many other people in their
community did. And they were trying to get into a church.

And every time they went to the church, they were rebuffed. They were told,
well, there's not really a place for you here. Maybe the church down the street
would be a better place.

And this person went and prayed about it and said, God, why won't they let me
into that church? And the answer they heard back in prayer was, don't worry
about not getting into that church. Jesus answered, I've been trying to get into
that church for 20 years and they haven't let me in.

You see, when we let Jesus in, when his love comes into our lives, that's when
favoritism goes out the back door. And the solution is not to just love the
poor. The solution is to love everyone, to love our neighbor as ourself.

James calls that the royal law. Now why is it royal? Because it rules all the
others.

I love the question someone on our research team asked about this, this loving
without favoritism. They asked, can anyone really do this besides Jesus? I've
tried so often and failed.

That's such an honest question and we've all faced that. No one has ever done
this but Jesus, I would say. So how am I going to love like this?

Ask and trust Jesus to love through you. Don't try to do it on your own. Let the
love of Jesus Christ come into your life.

Let the love of Jesus Christ come into our churches. That's when we begin to
love in this kind of way. That takes us back to where we started, as believers
in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

That's why we love like this and that's how we love like this. It's out of our
belief, our trust in him to do this through us. We have to ask him to strengthen
us to love.

So let's do that right now as we pray together. I want to encourage you to pray
this simple prayer. Jesus Christ, show me where I show favoritism in my life and
then strengthen me to love, to love my neighbor as myself.

Give me the wisdom to not try to do this on my own energy and power. Jesus, I
need you to teach me how to love but I need more than that. I need you to
personally empower me to love like this.

So I pray through the day today that I would rely on you. Love through me, Jesus
Christ, and teach me to love like you. I pray this in your name, amen.

Well join us tomorrow. We're going to be talking about the power of mercy as we
continue our study of James chapter 2.