Recap 2008.02.13

Tonight we read James 2:1-13.

Favoritism Forbidden
1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5Listen, 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 he promised those who love him? 6But 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? 7Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself,"[a] you are doing right. 9But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11For he who said, "Do not commit adultery,"[b] also said, "Do not murder."[c] If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Some observations:
James is apparently writing to Jewish Christians who may or may not have actually been poor. There are thoughts that they may have been an upper Jewish class of people that were not the poor Jews nor the rich Romans effectively making them a middle class of sorts.
James tells his readers not to show favoritism. In this case the favoritism is shown based on outward appearance. Most of us read into this to mean that the man in the "shabby clothes" was poor and the man in the "fine clothes" was rich.
The point was made that it seems that God shows favoritism in some cases. For instance choosing Israel to be the holy nation. However upon further discussion it was noted that God has the authority to judge because his motives are pure and never evil as ours often are.


Some interpretations:
James appears to want his readers to abstain from showing favoritism because "if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers." It was also noted that he seems to draw a distinction between the "royal law found in Scripture" and the law by which people are judged as lawbreakers. James seems to be offering his readers the opportunity to live "as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom".


Some applications:
We talked a lot tonight about how this lesson would apply to the way we treat people asking for help on the street. It seems that the overall consensus is that it would be better to error on the side of too much mercy than to not help the person out for fear of being used or taken advantage of. It seems that God is not concerned with our being used, but is more concerned with us helping those in need. If this means getting more creative in the ways that you help the person (i.e. buying him/her lunch instead of giving them money) then we should be thinking of ways that this could happen.
Shannon brought up a good point toward the end of the lesson about the possibility that we were selling the passage short by just talking about homelessness and street beggars and suggested that the scripture recommends that we not show favoritism to anyone based on anything. This includes race, ethnicity, religious background, sexual orientation and a host of other ways to segregate or differentiate between people.