Our Lord Jesus Christ of Glory - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on James 2:1-7 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/28/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







Today’s passage calls us to consider sinful partiality as something that should have no place within Christ’s church. This builds from last chapter which called us to live out God’s Word so that our Christian faith is not merely lip service. James here teaches how there are ways we can discriminate against certain people that would transgress God’s law which demands love for our neighbor. Instead, James would direct us to show righteous honor toward others. As our modern society offers us all sorts of worldly wisdom on the topic of discrimination, we are refreshed today with some Biblical wisdom on the topic. And even more than that, we’ll see that James’ discussion here about sinful partiality ultimately lays before us an even bigger picture of the hope of glory that is ours in Christ Jesus.







Let’s begin then by considering the sin of partiality. I will walk us through the passage and see how James specifically develops this point. We begin verse 1 with the language of “brothers”. Right away that should remind us Christians that while sinful partiality is wrong in general, it is especially problematic when it happens among Christians, because we are “brothers”. We are spiritually family and should especially embrace each other as such.







Verse 1 then goes on to command us to show no partiality as those who hold the Christian faith. The word here for partiality is literally “respecter of persons.” It describes showing respect and favor to someone based primarily on outward appearance. James then gives an illustration of the kind of partiality he has in mind. He imagines a church assembly or gathering. He imagines two different people coming into the church. One looks rich. The other looks poor. Maybe they are visitors or new converts, but don’t overthink it because it’s just an analogy. But he envisions in the analogy how the rich person could be honored and the poor person dishonored. And why is the one honored and the other dishonored? In James’ analogy, it is because the church had been a respecter of persons, in other words, this idea of showing partiality because of outward appearances.







Verse 3 further explains this idea with the language of “if you pay attention”. If you pay attention to rich man over the poor man, you are doing this sinful partiality. This language of paying attention uses a word about sight. Paying attention here means to look at, consider, and care about. What an interesting contrast with last week’s passage that called us to visit widows and orphans because we had said that the Greek there was also a word of looking. James said Christians are to look into and after widows and orphans in their need. It’s a different word here but a similar enough meaning that it contrasts well. And so, if anything we should be paying special attention to the people with needs, like a poor person, because they have needs. But this analogy from James speaks of how the church might instead be tempted to give the special attention to the rich person. James surely is giving this example here because this was a temptation that the church had been facing. We would be wise to recognize that it is a temptation that is still alive and present today – that we could be tempted to give special attention to the people of outward status and means.







Verse 4 goes on to describe this sin as making “distinctions” and becoming “judges”. These are judicial words. They are so legal in nature that some have even wondered if James was envisioning here a lawsuit between believers where the rich is favored over the poor. But, given the language in verse 2 that it describes an asse...

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