“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not them made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (Jam 2:1-4).
Showing partiality, I believe, is one of the greatest barriers to perfect unity in the church. Why do I say this? Because I have unintentionally participated in this sin in subtle ways, and I am convicted by it. It is the most natural thing to sit with the same group of friends who enjoy worship together, without noticing the poor or needy person who comes in a bit late and sits in the back row by himself or herself.
I don’t feel like a judge with evil thoughts about the poor, but until recently, I simply didn’t reach out quickly enough to a lonely soul in the back row. What James has to say is true, even if my situation is less harsh than some who might literally shun the poor:
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you have been called” (Jam 2:5-7)?
James’ distinction here seems to be broadly labeling the rich and the poor as two large classes within his setting in Jewish Jerusalem, which was much more polarized than the average community in America. On the other hand, my experience is mostly with suburban Christianity in America, not the “rich” churches and the “poor” churches of the big cities. James’ approach to partiality in the church, then, is to distrust the rich and to uplift the poor. Yet it is the rich who often keep the doors of the church open during hard financial times and who help support large projects that serve the community as a whole.
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (Jam 2:8-9).
The parallel in the modern church is when the rich use their large donations to dominate church government toward their own desires at the expense of others who cannot contribute as much. “Democratic” votes are often not democratic at all, but prearranged. This creates the same sense of partiality resulting in disunity that James describes in the ancient church. James draws the distinction perfectly between truly loving our neighbors as ourselves:
“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jam 2:10-13).
James’ harshness with respect to judgment is in the context of a strong ancient Jewish culture of long ago. His emphasis on fear of judgment does not address the grace afforded to us by the blood of Jesus when we fail and Jesus’ presence with us when we appear before God.
But it is good to look around your church and ensure that all are treated as “perfectly one.”