James 2:1-13
2:1-7 – Once again, James rightly diagnoses one of the commonest
failings of human nature: our willingness to judge people at a glance, to treat
them better or worse based solely on outward appearances, or on such trivial
considerations as wealth and worldly status. The scene James describes is
entirely believable—a rich man and a poor man enter a church: the rich man is attended
to, given a comfortable and prominent seat, while the poor man is at best
ignored, or at worst, told to take a place of insignificance. While
contemporary American culture is not quite the same as ancient Greco-Roman
cultures in consideration of wealth and class, human nature has certainly not
changed. In our egalitarian, cheer-for-the-underdog mentality, we may well not
give the ostentatiously dressed rich man preference over the poor person in our
congregation, but we certainly do fall into the trap of giving more prominence
to persons of fame than is their due, and to ignoring those who are suspected
of addictions or mental instability in addition to their poverty. For instance,
if New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wandered into our church service,
it is almost guaranteed that he would receive far more positive attention than
a homeless man who, in his manner of behavior, seemed a little off. But James
wants to press us on this point: should we actually be acting in that way? Is
there anything intrinsic to the nature of Tom Brady as a human being that makes
him more valuable than the homeless man? The clear answer, from Christian
theology, is “No.” Now, our church members would of course want to give Mr.
Brady a warm welcome and to express our thanks for the innumerable sporting
heroics that he has achieved for our little corner of the world; but if we do
so, we must take great lengths to ensure that the homeless man too is also
given a warm welcome and granted the loving attention that he deserves, simply
because he is a fellow human being, created in God’s image and lavished with
God’s love. But James doesn’t even stop there: he goes so far as to suggest
that, in terms of moral virtue, there’s a good chance that the poor man will be
more laudable than the rich. As we already covered in the commentary on 1:9-11,
poverty gives one more opportunity for the pursuit of virtue than does wealth,
so it’s a decent bet that poorer people will be more virtuous, on the whole,
than richer people (a stereotype that modern social science appears to
support). So, James says, if you’re going to show special favor to anyone, you
should show it to the poor man—such are the ones that God has “chosen…to be
rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom,” whereas the rich are more likely to
magnify themselves rather than God, and to greedily sue for even more wealth
than they already have. James describes our natural behavior of making
assumptions about people based on these appearances of wealth and class as
discrimination, and he says that we have “become judges with evil thoughts.”
But we are not in the office of judge over anyone else, and it’s a good thing
we’re not: we make a rather poor job of it. God alone is the judge, for only he
truly sees beyond appearances, to the heart of the matter. The bottom line is
this: God does not show favoritism among his children, and so neither should
we.
2:8-13 – James continues his point by quoting one of Jesus’ favorite
Old Testament commands: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which the Lord had
called one of “the greatest commandments,” and which James describes as “the
royal law.” James then makes clear the seriousness of showing favoritism. Many
Christians would simply shrug off this behavior, claim that it’s just a natural
human instinct to show a little bit of favoritism, and that it’s not really a
big deal, as long as we are at least trying to work on overcoming our failure
to love all of our neighbors to the fullest extent. After all, it’s not like
ignoring the weird homeless guy who makes us uncomfortable is the same as
murdering him, right? Hold on there, James says. In a certain sense, it is
exactly like murdering him. Loving our neighbors is a law of God in the same
way that the commandment against murdering is a law of God. Breaking either one
leaves you with the status of a lawbreaker, in exactly the same way. Here James
agrees with one of the principles of Paul’s theology: everyone has broken the
law, and thus stands in need of God’s grace. But James has a slightly different
focus: while Paul immediately shifts from the problem of our status as
lawbreakers to the grace offered through Jesus Christ, James shifts to a
slightly different point, but no less true: we really ought not to keep
breaking the law! So, now that we know that favoritism turns us into
transgressors of the whole law of God, one of the things we must do (in
addition to accepting God’s grace to right the internal wrongs that we can’t
right ourselves) is to stop breaking the law. We must remember that God’s good
law is there for our protection, for our freedom, and that our life stands
under the judgment of that law. Thankfully, of course, we have the mercy of
God, demonstrated through the cross, which “triumphs over judgment.” Though we
are lawbreakers, we will not bear the full punishment of our deeds, since
Christ has already borne them for us. But because we have received mercy, we
too need to be givers of mercy, not of judgment. As Jesus says in the Sermon on
the Mount, “As you judge, it will be judged to you.” If we are being judgmental
against others, we need to realize that our own lives will be analyzed in a
similarly harsh light one day. James agrees: “Judgment without mercy will be
shown to anyone who has not been merciful.” Though the New Testament is clear
in many places that our status of salvation will not be in question at the
Judgment, because we are saved by God’s grace through the faith of Jesus
Christ; but it is also clear that we nevertheless will also face a judgment of
sorts, a weighing of our lives, and a believer who had lived their lives in a
spirit of harsh judgmentalism toward others cannot expect to receive a
favorable hearing on that day. James reminds us at the very end of the fact
that we are recipients of God’s lavish mercy, which triumphs over judgment—should
we not then also be merciful toward others?