James 2:1-4 – “Deeper”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹My brothers, do not with favoritisms have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²For if a man having rings of gold on his fingers should come into your synagogue in a magnificent robe and a very poor one should also come in a filthy robe ³and you should look upon the one wearing the magnificent robe and say, “You sit here excellently,” and say to the very poor one, “You stand there or sit under my footstool,” ⁴are you not distinguishing among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Okay, I have noted that this entire passage is set in the contrast to the glory of Christ and also that we should remember that whatever is said is part of James’ larger admonition to “keep ourselves unspotted by the world.”  So now I want to ponder what it is he’s saying.

The problem before us is presented as being a “respecter of persons” or “playing favorites” or “showing partialities.” As I noted before, such behavior is completely logically inconsistent with an awareness of the glory of Christ. The illustration we’re given is the unjust usher who gives a good seat to the rich man then makes the poor man sit on the floor. We’re told that doing so makes us “judges with evil thoughts.”

So what exactly is the problem here? First of all, I think we need to ponder what it is not. It is clearly not a problem that we should never show respect to people or “make distinctions” based on their position or statures of any kind. In the larger picture of life, that is exactly something we should do!

“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the king” (I Peter 2:17).

“Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:7).

“Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:32).

“Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Eph 5:33).

Clearly, the problem with being a “respecter of persons” is not a problem of showing respect to persons! And it is not a problem of “making distinctions.” That is exactly what wisdom allows us to do. Jesus Himself warned us not “to cast our pearls before swine,” which admonition presumes we figure out who the swine are! Clearly in the passages above, we do distinguish who is the king, who are the elderly, who is our spouse, and we are to “show proper respect to everyone.”

So what is the problem then? I would suggest we find it in the words, “Are you not become judges with evil thoughts?” The whole point of a judge has always been to make distinctions, to sort out who is and who isn’t, who’s right and who’s wrong, and then to render judgments based on those distinctions. When does he become an evil judge? When he makes decisions not properly based on those distinctions. If a judge rules in a man’s favor simply because he’s rich, we say that is unfair. It’s wrong. If another judge rules in favor of a poor man simply out of sympathy for his poverty, that is equally wrong. If a boss grants special favors to a girl in the office just because she’s pretty, we all know that’s wrong. If someone votes for a man simply because he’s handsome, we’re all disgusted. If a City awards a contract to a company just because they’re their buddies, we call that corrupt.

But what do every one of these examples have in common? In every case, we’re making distinctions, making decisions based on something other than the pertinent facts. If the rich man is guilty, he should be convicted. If the pretty girl doesn’t work hard, she has no right to favors. If the man is a crook, no one should vote for him even if he looks like Cary Grant. And contracts should be awarded to people who really do good work. In every case, the “judge” is basing their decision on “evil thoughts,” on standards that are not appropriate.

Such is the case in James’ example. The usher makes decisions on where to seat people totally on their outward appearance. I will take this one step further and note that these thoughts are not just inappropriate, they’re evil. God doesn’t just call them inappropriate. He calls them evil. Back in Lev 19:15, the Lord told us, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” And Jesus admonished us, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24).

Why do we do this? Why are we humans so prone to “judge by mere appearances?” Once again, I think we have to go deep. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, … All these evil things come from within” (Mark 7:21-23). The problem goes back to the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of life – our love of pleasures, possessions, and applause. Peter told us God gave us His great and precious promises “that we may escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (II Peter 1:4). When we don’t allow the Lord to guide our hearts, we surrender ourselves to be controlled by our twisted “wanter.” We’re drawn to that which appeals to us, perhaps not even realizing our “wanter” is broken. Even when it values good things, it will value them for the wrong reasons. And the end result will be poor judgment. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer 17:9).

We could just read all of this legalistically and say, “Oh. Favoritism is bad. I shouldn’t do it.” I would suggest it would help us far more to say to ourselves, if I catch myself playing favorites, showing partiality, making unjust judgments, it reveals the truth that I am not allowing the Lord to control my heart. Again, His Word is given in part specifically to help me “escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.” If I’m not escaping, I’m not letting the Word, His Spirit guide my heart. And I can say on my own, “That’s bad!” I don’t want to be living by my broken wanter. I want the Lord to guide my heart so I live a life of love and walk according to truth. An instance of “favoritism” alerts me I need to draw back to the Lord, cry out for His help, and by His Spirit, rise above who I am.

Such is what the Lord has shown me so far in James 2. As I said when I started on this passage, I’ve always found it “boring” because it seemed so petty and obvious. As always studying the Bible, when I slow down to study, what I find is that it all goes way, way deeper than I could have realized. I also find it way more helpful than I could have realized. A cursory reading simply gives a rule, “Don’t play favorites.” But the truth of the passage is way more helpful than that. It’s giving me one more way to “guard my heart,” one more red flag to help me see when I’ve gotten off track.

I love the Word. “And when you know the truth, the truth shall make you free. … For the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, … and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart!”