I have a friend back in Texas who told me an unforgettable Texas story
about ten years ago and I've never been able to get the thing out at my
mind because it is so true. There was a young attorney with a law firm in
Dallas, a bachelor about twenty-eight or twenty-nine-years-old who lived
alone in an apartment. It was customary every Thanksgiving for this particular
law firm to distribute turkeys among the employees and this man could never
figure out what to do with his. Being single he really didn't want to cook
the thing and he could never consume all of it anyway. So every Thanksgiving
it was a problem to know how to dispose of this bird. The distribution of
the turkeys was always with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. The president
of the firm would line them all up on a table, and each person would have
to file by and get his turkey.
One particular Thanksgiving some of this young man's friends decided they
would do him in. So they stole his turkey and replaced it with a bogus one
made of paper-mache. They wrapped it with brown paper and had just the neck
and tail of the real turkey showing. It looked for all the world like the
others. The time came to distribute them and when the president gave him
his he took it home on the streetcar.
He was sitting there with this thing in his lap when a man came down the
aisle and sat down with him. He was obviously down an his luck, a little
shabby and run down at the heels. They struck up a conversation and the
man told what had happened to him. He had been hunting for a job all day
but had had no luck whatever. He had only a dollar or two in his pocket
with which to buy something for a Thanksgiving meal for his family. He was
quite concerned because he knew his children would be disappointed.
So the light came on in this young attorney's mind. He thought, "Here's
where I can do my new friend a service and can also get rid of this bird."
His first thought was to give him the turkey but then he thought, "No,
that might offend him. I'll sell him the turkey." So he asked the man
how much money he had with him. The man said, "Two dollars." He
said, "I'll sell you the turkey for two dollars." So they made
the transaction and both were very satisfied. The man got of f the street
car with his turkey and the attorney went home with his money.
Well, you can imagine the scene when this man arrived at his home. The children
gathered around the table, all excited, and they unwrapped the turkey and
there was this phony bird. You know what he must have thought. "Of
all the dirty, low-down, no-good blankety-blanks, that guy takes the cake!"
To make a long story short, the young attorney went back to the office the
day after Thanksgiving and discovered what had happened. He was appalled,
and he and his friends rode the streetcar for a whole week trying to find
this man again. They walked the streets and knocked on doors. They would
have done anything to set this matter right but they never found him.
That story keeps coming back to me because it depicts so vividly the impossibility
of judging the motives of other people. We simply do not know their hearts.
Our tendency so often is to cast judgment on a person because of something
that he does, or because of some outward appearance, or some other external
factor, when we simply don't know what is going on inside. James addresses
a word to us in this regard in the first thirteen verses of his second chapter
where he deals with the problem of prejudice, or the making of superficial
judgments.
Chapter 1, you remember, concerned suffering -- how to utilize it in your
life and some of the hindrances to its utilization. In chapter 2 James takes
up the question of partiality. It is a very easy section to outline. The
first verse is a statement of the principle, a word of exhortation. Verses
2 through 4 is an illustration of the principle. Verses 5 through 11 is
an explanation of the principle wherein James tells us why it is so important
that we heed it. Then the last two verses are a word of conclusion. Let's
look at the principle as James states it in verse 1:
My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
The word translated "show . . . partiality" is a Greek word
that means "to receive by face," i.e., to judge on the basis of
some external or superficial factor--to judge a man by the color of his
skin, or the length of his hair, or the kind of clothes he wears, or the
sort of academic credentials he carries, or his economic status. This is
what James is talking about when he says, "Do not show partiality."
"Do not receive a man by face." We cannot judge on the basis of
externals. This word is used a number of other times in the New Testament.
But in every other case God is the subject of the sentence and it is ex
pressed negatively. "God does not show partiality." "God
is not a respecter of persons." "God does not receive people by
face." God doesn't judge by externals; he judges the heart.
There is a vivid illustration of this in I Samuel 16. There was a time in
the history of Israel when God rejected Saul as king and commissioned Samuel
to anoint his successor. Samuel was led by the Lord to the family of Jesse.
As he was looking at Jesse's sons, his eyes alighted upon Eliab, the eldest.
Eliab must have been a very big, impressive, handsome young man, and Samuel
thought, "Surely this must be the Lord's choice. He has all the marks
of kingship about him." He should have learned from Saul that such
was not necessarily the case, for Saul certainly had a stature befitting
a king. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge this man on the basis
of his appearance and stature, because I have rejected him." God does
not see as man does; man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks
on the heart.
You see, the people whom God draws to himself are not necessarily the tall,
dark, and handsome. Many of them are the short, shot, and shapeless. He
is not impressed by external features or factors but by the condition of
a man's heart. That is why James says it is in consistent to hold the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ and, at the same time, to judge a man on the basis
of some external. We just can't do
it. God does not judge that way, and if Jesus Christ is Lord in our life
then we cannot judge that way either.
James goes on to give us an illustration of something that was taking place
in the meetings of the believers at this time:
For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "Have a seat here, please," while you say to the poor man, "Stand there," or "Sit at my feet, " have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
One of the indications that this book is a very early book, perhaps the
earliest of the New Testament, is the fact that in the Greek James refers
to the "assembly" as a "synagogue." This was before
the Christians had been ousted from the Jewish places of worship. They were
gathering on the first day of the week and worshiping in the synagogues.
James depicts a scene that apparently was occurring week after week. Two
men might enter they synagogue, one obviously well dressed and wealthy,
the other quite shabby. The well-dressed man was given preferential treatment.
He was very politely, cordially ushered to one of the best seats in the
synagogue while the shabbily dressed man was forced to stand or to sit under
the footstool of someone else. James says that when you do that you make
distinctions with evil motives.
We need to distinguish here between what the Scriptures say about judging
with proper motives and judging with evil motives. When we judge with evil
motives we are condemning a man. But when we judge with a good motive our
desire is to correct. There is a judgment that takes place within the body
of Christ when believers are sinning. The Scriptures say that if you see
a brother sinning those of you who are spiritual, who are walking in the
Spirit, are to go to that man and, in a spirit of meekness and patience
and love, you are to restore such a man. If we see a man violating a specific
commandment or scripture then the most loving thing we can do is to go to
that man and correct him, restore him. It is the redemptive thing to do.
And we must carry out that sort of judgment. But the sort of judgment that
James describes is wrong because we are judging with the wrong motive. We
are trying to exalt ourselves, trying to further our own program. We want
to associate with the wealthy, with people of status, because of what it
does for us. But James says that we cannot carry on that type of judgment.
James explains why we are not to judge superficially and provides us with
three clear reasons. The first in verse 5, is that it is not in accord with
the choice of God. The second is found in the latter part of verse 6: it
is in accord with the conduct of the godless. The third is in verse 8: it
is contrary to the command of Scripture. Let's look at them in more detail:
Listen, my beloved brethren. 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.
"God has chosen the poor man," James writes, "but yon
have dishonored him." Isn't it obvious that God has chosen the poor?
There are many among us who are poor. They are part of the family. God has
brought them to himself. The Greek verb James uses is in the middle voice.
It means "to choose for yourself." God has chosen them to sustain
a loving relationship with him. He does not merely tolerate the poor. He
has chosen them in order to pour himself out to them, to love them. And
James says that we can do nothing less.
Do I have the right to reject someone whom God has chosen? Can I bar him
from my church, exclude him from my home and my table and my friend ship
and love? I cannot. God has chosen the black people. He has chosen brown
people. He has chosen white people. Can I exclude them? He never asked me
whom to include in the church. He just chose them on the basis of his mercy
and grace. He never inquired as to what I thought; he just chose them. Do
I have any right to exclude them from my love? God chose hippies. Can I
exclude them?
I was speaking recently on the passage in 2 Corinthians 4 in which Paul
characterizes his own ministry as the proclamation of "Jesus Christ
as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake," and I was
describing what is meant by servant hood--that we submit ourselves to people--all
kinds of people. Not just the kinds of people that we would normally respect,
but all kinds. A lady at the back of the room raised her hand and asked
this question: "Isn't it true that God hung
the first hippie?"
For a moment that didn't register with me and I asked her what she meant.
She reminded me of the Old Testament story of Absalom, David's long-haired
son. He rebelled against his father and later on accidentally hanged himself
in a tree by his long hair as he rode through the forest. Frankly, I was
appalled, because God doesn't hang hippies -- God loves them. As a matter
of fact, God hung his own Son for hippies and for street people. God loves
these kids. He chose them for himself. Can I exclude them? Am I going to
bar them from my home and my table? I don't have that right. To dishonor
the poor man, James says, is to reject God's choice. God has chosen the
poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. They are
brothers.
The second reason James says that we must not judge on the basis of superficial
factors is that to do so is to ally ourselves with the conduct of the godless:
Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name by which you are called?
It is a matter of historical records that wealthy Jewish overlords were
oppressing the poverty-stricken Christians of this time, as I mentioned
earlier in this series. People had lost their jobs, their businesses were
being boycotted, some had lost everything and were destitute, and they were
being hounded by the wealthy Jews in the community. James says that if we
oppress the poor or if we judge them by their poverty we ally ourselves
with those who blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ. Because that is the way
the world, the unbelieving world, looks at others. They oppress them, they
exploit them, they are guilty of injustice. But James says that we can't
do that. We can't oppress them; we must serve them. We must not drag them
into court; we should be willing to be defrauded, if necessary, rather than
to do that. We must glorify the name of Jesus Christ by our charitable actions
toward them.
The third reason that we cannot judge superficially is that it is a violation
of the command of Scripture:
If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well,
The royal law is the law of the King, the law of love, and if we are fulfilling the royal law then we are doing well. That is, if your preferential treatment of a wealthy man is because you really love him and are seeking to meet his needs, then you do well.
But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Everything that we do, James says, ought to be controlled by the law
of love. This is the law that sums up all the Old Testament laws: "You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind, and with all your strength . . . and your neighbor
as yourself." That ought to govern every action. That is the motive
which ought to distinguish us as believers.
Love is difficult to define. Scripture never tries to give us a text book
or dictionary definition of love. In the New Testament God directs us to
look at himself, or to look at his Son, if we want to see what love is.
John says, "This is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." That is what love
is--it is the giving of yourself. Paul says in Ephesians 5 that husbands
are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her". That is the nature of the love that we receive from Jesus Christ.
It isn't dependent upon the lovable ness of the people who are the objects
of that love, nor upon any external feature which would naturally draw us
to them. It is apart from all that.
One of my young student friends gave me a poem not too long ago. I don't
claim credit for it. It's called "Paul's Girl" and any resemblance
between this poem and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
That is the kind of love we too often display. If the object of our love
is young and pretty and clever then she just naturally evokes a response
of love. But what if the object looks like a bale of hay? Do you see what
James is saying? If we have truly received Jesus as Lord then there will
be a change in our life. He will be our source of love. And we will be motivated
by that source of love to reach out toward other people--even if they're
not "our kind of people", even if they don't wear the right clothes,
or don't wear their hair the way we like, or don't have the kind of background
we would prefer. We love then anyway.
Verses 10 and 11 are directed toward our tendency to rationalize:
For whoever keeps the whole law hut fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," said also, "Do not kill." If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.
Our tendency is to say, "But, James, I may be guilty of discriminating
against certain types of people, but I've never been a murderer or an adulterer.
How can you call me a lawbreaker?" James says that if you break any
of the law you become a transgressor of all of it. And in James' eyes it
is just as serious to be discriminatory toward others as it is to be a murderer
or an adulterer. It really makes no difference. The law is like a pane of
glass: if you break part of it, you break it all. And if there is in our
life this sort of prejudicial attitude toward people, if we are sitting
in judgment on people because of the way they look or because they don't
meet our expectations, James says we have broken the whole law, we are transgressors,
and it is really no different in God's eyes than being an adulterer or an
adulteress or a murderer.
James now comes to his conclusion:
So speak and so act as those who are to he judged under the law of liberty.
The law of liberty is the law of love. James says, "Speak and act as people who are judged by the law of love." God judges us on the basis of his mercy and his grace. It is not because we are clever or hand some, nor because we are the right weight or the right height or the right size, nor because we have the right IQ. That is not the basis upon which we are accepted by God. We are accepted solely because of his mercy and grace. That is what we are judged by, and James says we must act as people who are judged on that basis. He goes on to say,.
For judgment in without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment.
His point is that if we do not show mercy toward others, if we don't
accept people as God accepts them, then it is obvious that we have not ourselves
accepted the mercy of God. But it we are merciful and open hearted and responsive
and loving, and are reaching out to people who are not "our kind",
it is an evidence that we have received the mercy of God. Our mercy doesn't
have any purchasing power. That is not what gains God's favor. It is evidential
-- it shows that we fully under stand the basis of our acceptance before
God.
The parable of the unjust steward was Jesus way of highlighting this same
principle. A man owes $10 million dollars to his creditor. He is forgiven
completely. He walks out on the street and the first man he meets is one
of his debtors. He grabs him by the throat and tries to extract $20 from
him. So his creditor brings him back to face judgment because it is obvious
that this man does not understand the degree nor the quality of forgiveness
he has received. He doesn't understand the basis of his acceptance. That
is what James is saying to us. If we understand how much we have been forgiven,
if we see the infinite debt of which we have been forgiven1 if we understand
the basis on which the Father accepts us, then we will show mercy to others.
This is a very timely chapter for us in this period of our own experience
here together as a body of believers because we are discovering that God
is bringing together such a diverse and heterogeneous group. Jeff Squires
said recently that he looked down the pew and saw representatives of five
different cultures. This is especially true on Sunday nights--street kids,
straight people, members of the Establishment, students, executives, artisans,
blacks, whites, orientals, every type of person you could imagine gathers
. . . because Jesus is Lord. There are no distinctions. We can accept one
another in our homes, and give of our love and assistance and friendship.
But the enemy would like nothing better than to destroy the sense of unity
which God has built. So I leave you with James' final word on the subject;
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
Father, we thank you that we are accepted in the Beloved, that we are accepted not because of what we are but solely on the basis of your mercy and grace. We thank you that because you are an indwelling Lord and because we can lay hold of your resources, we can extend the same mercy, the same acceptance, to others. Teach us, Lord, to act and speak as those who are judged under the law of love. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Catalog #0473
Series: A Belief That Behaves
Message #3
May 30, 1971
David H. Roper