James Chapter 2
Greetings of peace to everyone, today I’ll be sharing on James 2. Elder James specially tells us in verse 1:
“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.”
James 2:1 NKJV
I reckon Elder James may have noticed this issue in church, that some believers were not impartial in treating the people around them. Hence, he specially illustrates a situation in verses 2 and 3:
“For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,””
James 2:2-3 NKJV
This is a form of partiality and it is unbecoming. As Christians, we must be careful to not commit this mistake. No one likes to be unfairly treated, but do we show partiality towards people in our daily lives?
For example, after parking, we would be careful not to hit the neighboring cars as we open our car doors. And we would be extremely careful to avoid hitting the neighboring car at all costs, especially if it is very expensive, because we know the driver of such a car is a wealthy man. But if the car next to ours is an ordinary car, or even a very old car, most of us wouldn’t care as much if we hit it by accident. This is actually a form of partiality because we view the driver of an ordinary car as a poor person, or at least not a wealthy person, and so we do not fear this person. But we view the driver of an expensive car as a wealthy person and so we treat such a person with more respect. This is showing partiality as described by Elder James.
Elder James continues in v8-9:
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
James 2:8-9 NKJV
Showing partiality is actually a sin according to the Bible. As Christians we have to be very careful to not transgress the law with our bad practices. May Jesus give us wisdom and strength to carry out the words of God. Amen.