James 2:1-4 – “Glorious”

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?

Well, I’m back. Took a break for a while to do some OT study in the book of Ruth. Will study a chapter or two of James and then go back to Ruth, Lord willing. Studying the Bible is like buying several hundred acres of land to mine for gold, then discovering it doesn’t matter where you dig – there’s gold everywhere!

God’s Word utterly amazes me. For nearly 35 years, I have been reading it from cover to cover and studying one book or passage after another. There isn’t a nook or cranny anywhere with which I’m not familiar. Yet when I slow down to study any particular book or passage, the Lord just floors me with truths that rock my world. He promised that when I knew the truth, the truth would set me free. And so it does. Week after week after week He shows me truth that explains life, why things are the way they are, what is truly good and best. Again and again, His truth dispels some aspect of the fog of confusion I live in and reveals to me my petty selfishnesses that ruin my life. But He doesn’t do any of it in a way that like “beats me down.” It’s always in a way that totally lifts me up. He’s so awesome.

“More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me.

More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus …”

Such is the case before me. This is another passage that I would have said is not one of my “favorites.” It’s James 2 and the whole thing about being “respecters of persons.” I don’t know why but way down deep in my heart I always found the passage kind of boring. It’s the story of the usher who’s impressed with the rich man and gives him a good seat, then despises the poor man and makes him sit on the floor. I don’t know if it’s the pettiness that bothered me or maybe it’s just so obviously wrong, it didn’t even seem to need explaining? I don’t know. But, here I sit, again, having been studying down through verse 4 for a couple of weeks, and I’m just floored. What a treasure chest – of course! I will try to enumerate some of the treasures I’ve found.

The greatest treasure of all, of course, is Jesus Himself, and we meet Him right away in verse 1. Even the Greek itself is a little unusual and causes one to pause and ponder. It calls Him “our Lord Jesus Christ” then adds something like “of the glory” or simply “the Glory” or perhaps “the glorious One.” So it might be translated, “our Lord Jesus Christ of the glory,” or “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory,” or perhaps “our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious One.” I chose to translate it, “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the point, I think, however one translates it – He is glorious!

But then note what the Lord has done here. He sets this glorious Christ in direct contrast to the problem of favoritism. “Have not the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism.” His point is that, in the light of the glory of Christ, it doesn’t even make sense to be playing favorites with people. In the light of His face we are all in the same boat. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Like the old saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” Rich and poor meet alike at the foot of His Cross. But then it isn’t even just in our sinfulness that we are all the same in His eyes. We all have been made in the image of God. In the light of His glory all human beings have dignity and deserve to be treated with respect. All believers are counted His children, all are loved.

In the light of His glory, who could say to a poor man, “You sit here on the floor?” It just doesn’t make sense.

For myself, I would suggest that therein lies our problem: “In the light of His glory.” What that means is that we must be seeing the world “in the light of His glory.” It is a choice we must make to be living in His presence, aware of His presence, aware of that glory, seeing the world through His eyes. It is a choice we must make. And for me it is something I easily forget. When we are not living in the light of His face, we are left to measure others by whatever standards our minds may concoct, and those fabricated standards invariably lead us into a very faulty view of others. We are then too much like our father the devil, murderers from the beginning, and too prone to value our world through the lens of the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes, and our love of applause. That is precisely why we would offer the rich man “the best seat” and make the poor man sit on the floor – without the glory of Christ, we live driven by our lusts, by what appeals to our twisted desires.

The only escape – and a glorious one at that – is to live in the light of that Glory.

I am finding in my life that “doing right” is not so much something I must focus on any more. Instead, I must stay “God-connected,” I must “practice His presence,” and constantly strive to see the world through His eyes as I live in His presence. If I can keep myself mentally in His presence, then I find the “doing right” is much easier, much more natural, and hopefully I can practice it in ways that bring Him glory, whether I realize it or not.

Back to verse 1, I think that is exactly James’ point, that favoritism is simply and logically inconsistent with having the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus. It is quite possible to be a person of faith and yet live inconsistently. But the answer, I would suggest, is not so much to say to ourselves, “I must quit playing favorites,” but rather, “I must live more in the awareness of the glory of Christ.”

Isn’t it interesting that here in one simple little verse James would remind us that the foundation of true religion is “the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” – that to be enamored with Jesus is the foundation of true religion?

“Let us run with endurance

the race that is marked out for us,

having our gaze fixed upon

Jesus,

the Author and Finisher of our faith, …”

(Heb 12:1,2).