Sermon 4/04/04 pm

Jim Huskey, Respect of Persons

We continue our look at the book of James, as James deals with some

practical everyday matters regarding christian living. The book of

James is not primarily doctrinal, although it does touch on some

doctrine, as we talked about it this morning, but the basic premise of

the book of James is applied christianity. He deals with things that

affect us in everyday life. For instance, we noted in the first lesson

from that book that temptations are a common lot. He talked about

temptations, trials and being tested, and the fact that we're going to

be faced with those things and the fact that we can be made better by

it if we overcome it. Then he talked about prayer, praying in faith.

This morning we studied how he said to be doers of the word and not

hearers only, putting into practice the things we learn, because he

say otherwise it's no benefit to us.

In chapter 2 James begins with these words. "My brethren, have not the

faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of

persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring,

in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

and he have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto

him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou

there, or sit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in

yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my

beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in

faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that

love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you,

and draw you before the judgment seats? Do they not blaspheme that

worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law

according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,

ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are

convinced of the law as transgressors." James 2:1-9. Respect of

persons !! We are confronted with that in one way or another probably

about every day, because there are so many ways that principle can be

applied. Now keep in mind an awful lot of the early christians were

poor. Many of them were slaves. Yet, they faced, I suppose, a common

problem, common to mankind, not just to them. If two people came in

to one of their assemblies, one of them well dressed and prosperous

looking, and the other one looked like he didn't know where his next

meal was coming from and looked like maybe he'd slept in his clothes,

James asked, What do you do? Well, the tendency was to say to that

man in the goodly clothing "Come on up here and sit in a good place",

but to the other one "Now you get back out of the way, we don't want to

spoil everything for us and everybody else. You set back yonder

somewhere, or you can sit here at my feet if you wish." Very

realistic !! I've noticed something over the years in a lot of

congregations. Sometimes when it comes time to appoint men for

positions as elders or deacons, one of the common tendencies of a lot

of congregations is, "We want to select these successful businessmen."

Well, that looks good for us. However, there may be some fellow there

who works in a factory, or just barely gets by who has a whole lot

more spirituality. That practice was then and it continues even until

today. It's not always one-sided, either. I remember one incident in

particular, not mentioning any names or places, but I remember one

fellow who was always having a hard time. Some of the well-to-do

members of that congregation just ran over themselves sometimes to

make sure we helped him. But he go on his feet, became a successful

business owner and was making more money that some of the others, and

they couldn't stand that. They didn't have anything to do with him

then. I've seen him stand at the door of the chuch building after

services on Sunday morning or Sunday night and beg people to let him

take them out to eat, or go home with him and eat with him. They

wouldn't have anything to do with him then.

Respect of persons !! It can take a lot of different flavors, can

come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, in colors, in nationalities,

in degrees of prosperity. It can come in a lot of different way, but

the basic problem is the same, whether you color it black, white,

rich, poor, Jew, Gentile, Mexican; it doesn't matter what flavor you

color it in, you get back to the same underlying problem. James says

"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord

of glory, with respect of persons."

Now one of the things that is rather interesting about what James

said is that it really presented a hard to understand picture when

they would show such favortism and go out of their way to put one who

had the appearance of being wealthy, was well dressed, in a position of

honor, as compared to a poor person who might come in. You see, it

was oftimes the wealthy who would in turn oppress those very folks.

They may be just waiting on them to miss a payment on their house so

they could foreclose on it. So it did present a rather interesting

picture. But that's what James said. "But ye have despised the poor.

Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seat?

Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?"

It took a little different characteristic when it involved the apostle

Peter. In Galatians 2:11 beginning, Paul wrote, "But when Peter was

come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be

blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the

Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself,

fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews

dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carrid

away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not

uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter

before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of

Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to

live as to the Jews?" Gal. 2:11-14. You see, Peter was putting

himself in a precarious situation. When some of the more prominent

Jews were not around, Peter would associate with the Gentiles; but

when those prominent Jews were around, Peter wouldn't have anything to

do with the Gentiles. Paul said he withstood him to the face because

he was to be blamed. It's the same principle. It doesn't matter

whether it's rich or poor, Jew or Gentile; the principle is the same.

In the Old Testament, during the days of Hosea and Amos, there was

that same problem. The people had a tendency, it seems, to want to

take advantage, for lack of a better term, of those who were in

difficult circumstances. Here would come a poor man in to sell his

wheat. He wasn't what we would all a big farmer like some of the Jews

were, so he didn't have a lot of wheat to sell. So both Hosea and

Amos make reference to the fact that the people would take advantage

of the farmer. They would give him almost nothing for his wheat and

then they would in turn make a big profit off it for themselves.

Amos 8, Hosea 12. They were showing respect of persons. I mean,

wheat is wheat. It doesn't matter if a poor man grows it or if a rich

man grows it, if one of them has a bushel and the other one has a

bushel, they ought to be worth the same thing if the quality is the

same. But they didn't work it that way. The poor man was always

needing as much as he could get for his and they knew he had to have

something for it, so they'd offer him as little as possible; whereas

the wealthy man would get a better price for his. A lot of it had to

do with the fact that he was wealthy. He was a BIG farmer.

Respect of persons !! You see, the bottom line of all that is

this. Practicing christianity, using that phrase real losely to say

this, practicing christianity with respect to persons shows a lot more

about YOU than it does others. It shows a whole lot more about YOU as

a person than it does a rich man, poor man, black man, white man,

green man, whatever his color, whatever his stature in life, whatever

his nationality, whatever. It shows much more about us than it does

the other person. The reason I know that is because of what James

said. "If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou

shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well." Now you remember

one time Jesus was in conversation with one who asked 'Master what do

I need to do? What's the first commandment? What do I need to keep?

Well, Jesus, you remember, told him to love the Lord God with all his

heart, soul, strength, and his neighbour as himself. But he, trying

to justify himself, ask Who is my neighbour. Jesus then told the story

of the man who was beaten, robbed, left for dead. A priest came by,

a Levite came by, but neither of them had time or compassion for him.

But a Samaritan came by, stopped, bound up the man's wounds, took care

of him, took him to an inn, left money for the innkeeper to see that

he was cared for until he was well. That had to be a slap in the face

to the Jew, because the Jews looked on the Samaritan as a dog. In fact,

a prize dog stood higher in their eyes than the Samaritan did.

What was Jesus saying? Who was the neighbour? The neighbour was

someone with whom the Jew had nothing to do. Now put that principle

in practice. Love thy neighbour as thyself. It has to do with all

our fellow-beings - rich, poor, yellow, red, white, oriental, it

doesn't matter.

Respect of persons !! It can take so many different shapes and flavors.

I've seen it sometimes in the church take another turn - old and young.

The young don't have any time for the old folks and the old folks are

fed up with the young folks. But isn't it the same principle? We

don't like them because they're old and they don't like us because

we're young. But isn't it the same principle? Respect of persons !!

Not because of money in this case, or politics, or color of skin; but

because of age. But the principle is the same. I've heard "What's

the church going to do for the young folks?" Then they'd get a youth

program started and someone would start, "Well, now what's the church

going to do for the old folks?" Well, I have a different slant on

that than a lot of folks have. My question is What are the young folks

doing for the church; what are the old folks doing for the church?

You see, if we concentrate more on that question the other will take

care of itself. We worry about the wrong thing sometimes. It gets

back to the same basic principle - respect of persons.

Notice how James phrases this at the beginning. "My brethren, have not

the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of

persons." The bottom line is the fact that you're not reflecting

much of the Lord of glory when you try to do that, and that's the very

point he makes. Sometimes we don't even realize it. I remember being

in a campaign in another state years ago. This was several years ago,

perhaps back in the 70's. We had done a lot of door-to-door work and

a lot of publicity. One night some hippies came in. When they came in,

they LOOKED LIKE HIPPIES !!! You could almost see it - there were a

few went over and sort of timidly introduced themselves to them with

"We're glad to have you." They would have liked to have said "But we

wish you'd dress better than that." Now they didn't say it but you

could almost see it in their expressions. "Wish you'd put some sock'

on instead of just those sandals, or bare feet. It wouldn't hurt if

you'd cut a foot or two off that hair." But there were some who

showed a genuine interest, bvt it was immediately visible that when

those folks came in there were expressions of "I don't know if we

want them here, or not." But you know, they have a soul just like I

have and it's going to be somewhere in eternity just like mine will.

Now we have to take folks from where they are and then try to get them

where they need to be. It was an interesting thing back in that

period of time. I lived through it. I didn't know a time or two if

I would, but I did. But it was interesting to see the reactions,

because of all these folks with long hair running around then. But

you could look at the other set of folks and they had flat-tops. I

suspect a lot of the reasons a lot of them had flat-tops was because

they didn't want to be identified with anybody who had longer hair

than that. It was a peer pressure thing on both sides. What did it

do? It opened the door for a good bit of dis-respect for people.

That's what we all are, like it or not, but we're people. We sometimes

don't act like it, but we're people. We're all different.

So James says, 'Brethren, don't try to by a christian and at the

same time show partiality based on superficial things.' Notice some

of the things James didn't say. He didn't say we had to like what a

person did, he didn't say we had to like his ways, his language, but

it's that old thing of loving the sinner, and we're all sinners.

So James says 'love your neighbour as yourself.' That's what he calls

the royal law. But in order to do that, we must view them just as

people, regardless of their circumstances in life, regardless of their

problems, regardless of the color of their skin, the way they were

raised. They're still people, and people have problems, whether they're

rich, poor, young, old, American, Hindu, people have problems, and the

biggest problem they have is the sin problem. That reflects itself

oftimes in this very thing of which James was speaking - respect of

persons. If we treat all like people, as we would like to be

treated, we wouldn't have these problems. I want those who have a

little bit to treat me with a degree of respect, but I want those who

don't have much also to treat me with a degree of respect. It shouldn't

really matter, because how I look at other people and how I approach

other people says far more about me than it does them. That's why

James says a christian can't afford to act that way, because the

christian is supposed to be showing the world the way God is, and the

way the Lord Jesus is. You see, he loves us in spite of what we

were and are. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

Son, that whosoever ever believeth in him should not perish."

"Whosoever" covers a lot of territory. I think sometimes about our

brethren down there in the Philippines. They've got some rascals

down there, but they have a lot of folks who are trying to be what

they ought to be. Remember the attitude the Americans once had about

the Russian nation? Brother Barvicks is over there dealing with a

lot of those folks now and a lot of them are christians. It doesn't

matter if one is Russian, Philippine, American, he has a soul and it

needs saving. A lot depends on the way we act toward others. "...have

not respect of persons" where your faith is concerned.