James 2:1-17 Sermon given at Thursday Night Worship on September 6th, 2018

The verses for the sermon in this week's Thursday night service came once again from the little book of 'James'.  This week we looked at James 2:1-17.  These verses contain the infamous words found in verse 17 "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.".  I chose to focus the sermon, not upon this line but upon the directive found earlier in this scripture selection that concerned making distinctions, or in our modern way of speaking 'stereotyping' other people.

Making distinctions about people, pre-judging them if you will, stereotyping, or outright discriminating against others for any variety of reasons, is a very real and very difficult thing to deal with.  Today we hear all kinds of cries about discrimination from those who themselves are indeed very guilty of discriminating or pre-judging people in very real and tangible ways.  We just can't seem to shake this need, desire, or what-have-you to divide people up into groups, classes, cliques, etc...

Here James (who I believe to be the brother of Christ) chastizes us all for judging others because they are less affluent or impoverished.  He scolds us telling us that we must love our neighbor as ourselves and that if we show any partiality that we have sinned... he goes on to relay that any sin is as if we've committed all sins... these are hard and frankly frightening words...

So what are we to do?  Is this teaching too hard?  Well, it apparently is very hard, because even James himself couldn't live up to it... for immediately before authoring the passage I just quoted, he himself has pre-judged and discriminated against those who are wealthy.  Is judging, diminishing, discriminating against those who are affluent any better than judging, diminishing, discriminating against the poor?  NO!!!  So, what do we do... do we just give up and go ahead and divide...?

James' words and his own response to these words clearly illustrate the great difficulty that we humans have in resisting what is clearly (to me anyway) a trait which has literally been bred into us as a survival mechanism in our species ancient past.  But, we who are now called to be a reflection of God in this world, must try to abandon what was once a necessity upon the neolithic plains and try and embrace our brothers and sisters who are different from us in a multitude of ways.  We must understand that it is incredibly difficult and that we must forgive ourselves when we fall short, for even James within his writing about this... commits the very sin he warns about... we will all fall short... that's okay, we just need to daily brush ourselves off and try harder... but, never stop trying!

Be a blessing to someone today!!

In Christ,
Roy

James 2:1-17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Warning against Partiality
2 My brothers and sisters,[a] do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?[b] 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”[c] 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.[d] Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters,[e] if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Footnotes:
a) James 2:1 Gk My brothers
b) James 2:1 Or hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus 
c) Christ without acts of favoritism
d) James 2:3 Gk Sit under my footstool
e) James 2:5 Gk brothers

f) James 2:14 Gk brothers