17. Beware Favouritism

Today we pick up again the meditations in James

Meditations in James: 17 :  Beware Favouritism

Jas 2:1-4 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

When we speak about the ‘world’ in Scripture we sometimes refer to the earth on which we live, sometimes the people of the earth, but more often in the New Testament at least, to the godless, self-centred attitudes of so many in the world.  ‘World’ is equated with a bad attitude.  John in his first letter wrote, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 Jn 2:15-17).  There, five times, John refers to the godless, self-centred, materialistic, atheistic attitude that prevails in so much of life.  John sums up those things as sensual desire, covetous desire and pride. All of those things are greatly stimulated by the eyes, by what we see.  The world goes on what looks good: smart cars, latest designer clothes, special hair cuts, sensual beauty, macho handsomeness, these are the things the world looks at.  Not so James!

The focus of the verses today, says don’t look on the outward side.  Samuel had to learn that: “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7).  Our tendency, so often, is to sum up people by their appearance and if they don’t conform to the expectations of the ‘world’, we write them off. There are many, many people who feel demeaned by life, put down by people and who now have a low self-esteem as a result.  The ‘world’ is a hard place that exalts the glorious few and put down the many.  James is aware of this tendency and says this should not be how it is in the church.  Tragically it is.

Our family once went to a big well-known evangelical church in Wales while we were on holiday.  We were camping and, having three young children, we went to church in jeans.  The looks we were given and the obvious avoidance of us, would have had James denouncing them loudly.  My wife and I were on a caravanning holiday only a few years ago.  At the last minute she decided to ‘go to church’ in the beautiful village in the West Country where we were staying.  Jeans again were her attire.  She wasn’t looking scruffy; to the contrary, she looked good, but she was wearing jeans.  The vicar purposefully avoided having contact with her because she stood out from his garden-party-dressed ladies in hats.  One of my sons and daughters-in-law were away at a wedding and stayed overnight.  Walking around the town next morning they wondered about going to church.  As they walked towards the building they realized that every person going in was either suited or dressed to a high degree.  Their smart but casual clothes seemed out of place and they were put off and didn’t enter.  But large majorities of the population don’t have suits or smart dresses, and so would be put off going into such establishments.  Such ‘nice’ people don’t realize how exclusive they are and if you aren’t sure what that means, they don’t realize how they exclude people from encountering God!  As my younger son commented, “Suppose I had been someone at my wits end and came seeking God and found I wasn’t dressed properly!”

Do you see the point?  James rather labours it but it is just the same. Favouritism, as he describes it, is just the same as looking down on people because they aren’t dressed as well as we are.  A young man came to our church several years ago wearing a coat of many colours that Joseph would have been proud of.  I confess I thought, “I like that! I wish I had the courage to wear something like that!”  He carried on wearing it, went through a phase of wearing a lot of ironmongery and black leathers but is remarkably straight today and is still with us.  Clothes aren’t an issue.  Neither is whether someone is a street cleaner, or a bank manager.  Jesus didn’t make distinctions and neither should we.  This is what James is on about, that’s why he starts off referring to us as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the all-glorious Son of God, but “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Phil 2:7).  It was the Pharisees who made themselves look something and in doing that they drove a wedge between themselves and the ordinary people. Jesus gathered to himself fishermen, tax collectors and the like.  He made no distinction between the great and the humble.  When a Jewish leader, Nicodemus, came to see him, he treated him just the same as anyone else.  This is the truth of what James says.  We neither exalt rich and influential people nor demean poor, uneducated people.  Each and every person stands before God in their own right and we accept them as they are.  Now, be honest, is that really how it is with you?  If not, it’s time to read this meditation again.