Well, good morning. It's Friday. It is Memorial Day weekend, and there's a holiday. So I don't know with this lockdown if you remember these things. We do look forward to, Lord willing, Sunday meeting together. And again, if you haven't, if you would touch base with the deacon that's over your particular care group, that would be helpful so that we can make sure we have enough space and rooms All that to make all this work together. We are in James chapter two starting today and I'm not sure if I'll make a video Monday depends on how things go. As far as the holiday goes and all of that. But today is not Monday. So let's do James chapter two. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? James has given us two tests of a living faith so far. We've seen that in the midst of difficulty, a living faith is a faith that puts full confidence in the goodness of God, the God who is working to bring about eternal good in my life. He's my creator and my recreator, my restorer. The second test of a living faith is related to that. It involves the reader's response then to that word that makes us spiritually alive. And James has explained that as believers, we must be eager to have God's saving truth, the word, shape and fashion our every thought, and we need to apply it to everyday life. And in doing so, we'll find that we have to fulfill the law of Christ, just to love God and love our neighbor. James now moves forward, not dismissing what he's previously said, but moving the argument forward to a related then third test. And that is, so how do you treat others? God doesn't show favoritism based on external considerations, and therefore we shouldn't either. That's James' point. And he illustrates that by a simple illustration of a rich man and a poor man. and condemns the practice of showing favoritism based on wealth as something that God hates. So let's just work through the text as we've been doing, and we'll start in verse one. My attempt to summarize it would be this. Don't play favorites. You can't judge people's value according to this world's standards. The king gives this command, and it is a command. It's a command from our Lord, who is our King. He gives us then an illustration following that. So again, he identifies his brothers and it's not insignificant. He calls them my brothers. Often all of, I shouldn't say often all, often the commands throughout this letter have this identification, you're my brothers. And that's not just saying, well, this is only for believers, although he's intending that as his audience. What he's saying is, you're my brother. We share the same father. And we should therefore have the father's characteristics and traits in our lives. We should have the family resemblance. And even though we may face suffering at different level and different ways, the character that shapes us is God's gospel character working its way out in our life. And we go to the word of God and we're made into the image of God through Jesus Christ. So as he, don't just pass over those words, my brethren, they're significant for James. He repeatedly uses them to remind them of their standing as those who are adopted children of the heavenly father, who are to have the traits of the father. So the command then is a negative command. It's a prohibition. Do not hold your faith impartiality. Stop holding is a possible translation. And it seems like probably there is some of this going on in light of just the general tenor of the book. To hold your faith is to lay claim upon redemption in Jesus Christ. To say my disposition is that I believe in God. In other words, it's to make a claim to be a believer, to say, I trust God, I'm committed to God, my life is for God. James says, you can't make that claim and then live in partiality. You can't have, the term partiality literally means to receive someone according to the face. In other words, it's to make judgments about people based on external appearances or external factors, such as in this context, it's dress. For others, it's color of skin. For others, it's physical beauty or physical appearance. It's unjust to make distinctions between people treating one person better than another and showing favoritism based on external standards. Scriptures roundly condemn this. God is not a God of partiality. Deuteronomy 10, 17 and 18, Acts 10, 34, Romans 2, 11, Galatians 2, 6, Ephesians 6, 9, Colossians 1, 25, 1 Peter 1, 17, all say this about God. And if he's our father, then we should reflect him. And furthermore, there's one other indication, a phrase I skipped over intentionally, Don't hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Lord. He's our Master. He's the one we owe allegiance. And our Master, our Lord, is also Jesus, our Savior, the one who delivers us from the power and the presence of sin. And our Master, who is our Savior, is also our King. He's the Christ. And in all of this, James says that our Lord Jesus Christ is glorious. That's not just, you know, hey, he's wonderful. We got the best king. That's true. But to be glorious is to be brilliant or bright, to be shining. It is to reflect, in other words, the glory of God. Jesus is the full glory of God revealed on the earth, according to John 1, 14, and Hebrews 1, 3, and 2 Corinthians 4, 5, and 6, and John 17. He is the full reflection of God in his actions, in his obedience, and in his lack of partiality. Jesus didn't treat the poor with some sort of disdain, and he didn't treat the rich as somehow being favored. He treated people as people. He showed care for all of them. So if you're going to be like God, and if you're going to be like Christ, you have to look at people differently than the way our lost world does. Our lost world evaluates according to the thing that somebody values. It could be brains. So I have high IQ, and I pass standardized tests, and I have a job where I use, OK, brains are from God, and we're thankful for them. but they're not the measure. For others, it's beauty. It's a body style or shape. It's a youthfulness, or at least a youthful appearance. It's this or that. Being thin, being big, whatever. For others, it's money, or being famous, or you can fill in, athletic. James says you can't evaluate people like this if you're going to be truly like God, because those things don't matter to God. So there's the command, prohibition. You can't be like that. What do you mean? That's the second question. Well, what do you mean you can't you know, show favoritism. Help me understand what you're talking about. Well, treating people differently based on how much money they have is his illustration. And so he gives those who are valuable and those who are worthless, according to the world's estimation. You see, our world values those with money. If a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and then he puts a contrast with the worthless guy, but then what do you do for the rich guy? You pay special attention to the one who's wearing the fine clothes, and you say to him, you sit here in a good place. So James, in illustrating this, what they're supposed to stop doing is he says, look, let's take a hypothetical. A hypothetical that probably is connected to the circumstances and the things that are going on, but a hypothetical, somebody. Somebody comes into your assembly, This is literally the synagogue, which we said is probably a Jewish, primarily Jewish readership early on here. They would have still gathered in the synagogue to worship. But it's the gathering of the church, not a gathering to judge people in the law, although those things did happen at the synagogue. But this is a gathering of God's people for worship. And somebody comes in. It doesn't say that they're a brand new visitor. It could be. It's just dealing with different kinds of people. This guy has a gold ring on his finger. Now, they would wear, on the left hand particularly, except for the middle finger, rings. They're wealthy. And they would do that to show their status, their wealth. It's kind of like wearing a Rolex or wearing a particular type of clothes. And not only do they have this jewelry, But they have fine clothing. They have bright, literally clean, well put together, beautifully colored, luxurious clothes. They are shopping at the finest stores. They're elegant. They're luxurious. They are put together. They look good. There's nothing wrong with sometimes a better piece of clothing lasts longer. James isn't saying you can never have a good piece of clothes, you only have to buy cheap rags, wear paper bags. James' point is that you're evaluating people because of these things. And so what do you do? You pay special attention. You fawn over them. You offer them special help and service. Can we park your golden chariot? I can't believe, look how awesome this car is. Notice them, you desire them. And the you here is emphatic. You emphasizing the hypothetical person trying to make home the application. You single out the person. And so you speak to them and you say, here, come over here. Here's a place for you to sit. A place of distinction, a place of honor. It's a good seat. It's a seat, not a bench. It's a place for the honored guests. How different that is from Jesus. Remember Jesus describing the Pharisees and the scribes who somewhat comically caricatures them as they have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues. And they like to be greeted with respect in the markets and have people call them rabbi or teacher. Jesus subverted the social rank evident in meals and in the synagogue. You can see that in Luke chapter 14. But here, this community is not like their master. They're like, oh, awesome, this person is so great. See, this still happens today. If this actor just comes out as a Christian, if this musician is just, you know, if this vice president, the vice president's a Christian, that means we're gonna have, if this athlete, for some reason, those people somehow mean more. And James says, no. Well, in contrast, there's the worthless guy. There comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, not just lower on the social stratum. Here's a destitute man. Think a beggar who hasn't had a shower, doesn't even have a homeless tent to put on the street. He's a person who's dependent on others for his basic daily needs every day. He has virtually nothing. And he comes in and he has dirty clothes. They're probably worn out, but they're definitely disgusting. There's a stench about them. You're revulsed by them coming around. And to just allow that person in the building seems like a generous thing. And again, James emphatically says, you, you say to them, hey, go stand over there. Get as far from me as you possibly can. You stink. I'm not giving you a place of honor. You're not even gonna get a seat. You can stand. Or if you're gonna sit, you can sit down by my stinky, dirty feet. That's your alternative. Not the speaker has both a comfortable place to sit and a comfortable place for his feet. The poor person is made to be below his feet in value. not just at the location. In other words, the attitude reflected is that we don't really want you around here. We'll allow it, but we don't really care for you. And we want that to be known. Wonder who you don't want around and why. Now, there's sometimes legitimate, you know, somebody who's a murderer, not just Repentant murderer, but I mean like an active murderer. Yeah, we shouldn't probably want them around or somebody who's a sexual predator Probably shouldn't have them as you know the babysitter We're not talking about that we're talking about this inconvenience they there's They annoy me. They don't have value. They don't add anything to our church or to our life That's pretty close to home at times isn't it You evaluate people and you make valuations like, I don't want them. They're hard. They're difficult. I'd like them. We really get along. We have the same interest in underwater knitting. OK. James says, ultimately, in verse 4, that's bad. Treating people by such standards that the world would have shows that you have an unbelieving heart, a divided loyalty. Notice. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?" Basically, James is saying two things in this verse. You're bad. You have made distinction among yourselves. He's not saying you divided up the congregation, and you've got the good people and the bad people. No, he's not even saying you divided the rich and the poor. It's within. You have become divided. It's a passive verb. You've become divided in your own heart and mind. In other words, you become that chapter 1, verse 6, a double-minded man who's unstable in all his ways and who shouldn't think he's going to get anything from the Lord. You have loyalties that evaluate according to the world, but you say you love God. You're at church. You're worshiping. You've become divided in your own heart. In other words, a person with two loyalties isn't a genuine believer. No, we may sin, but our loyalties belong to the Lord. God and loving your neighbor aren't just mottos. This is the work that Jesus has come to do. This is why we were created, and this is the work of the recreation of the gospel in your heart. So you're bad if that's the way you're gonna do that. But not only are you bad, what you do is bad. You've set yourself up as a judge. You have not only made distinctions in your own heart and life living By these false standards, you become a judge with evil motives. You've become, this is your conduct reflected in your actions, a judge. You determine who's right and who's wrong. That's what judges do. In other words, you make the evaluations. And the standard of your evaluations is based on not what God values people. Why does God value people? Because he made them in his image. And when you become the judge, you usurp God's role and his right to evaluate human life based on that standard, and so you set up some sort of other standard. And to do that is evil, it's injurious, it's destructive, and it's vicious. And that's motivated by your own thoughts, your own reasoning, your heart. You're regulating your life by false principles and false standards. You see, when you don't value others, when you don't live according to the law of our king, whether rich or poor, whether it's those you like or you don't like. When you don't evaluate according to the image of God that those people have, it's just a reflection of a lost mindset and a reasoning that will ultimately injure and destroy other people. So why is James writing that at this point in his letter? Well, he's moved from, you know, you're gonna face difficulties and those will be hard. Trust God, have confidence in God God's trying to work in your life and in working your life, understand that a person has to respond to this gospel and live it out and be changed by it. And you can't look at others and value and devalue them, honor and humiliate them. If you're going to live according to the law of our King. It's not hard to live by fake standards like our world has. It's easy. but it's not godly. So the worth of your fellow Christian, the worth of your neighbor, the worth of others is that they're God's image bearer. And therefore, irrespective of how much money, how stinky they are, how clean they are, how athletic they are, how brilliant they are, how dumb they are, irrespective. We have to love God and so love those in his image. Well, Lord willing, we'll see you Monday. I hope we'll see. Lord, before that, hope to see you on Sunday if you're able to make it, if you feel comfortable with that. But have a great weekend. Enjoy Memorial Day. Bye-bye.