We are all probably very familiar with the word ministry. It’s often used as a synonym for the church. It’s derived from the root word minister, which often is used as a title or job description for a pastor. But ministry is really just another word for service. Depending upon the translation you use, you will see either ministry or service used in vs twelve.

Vs12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, or ministry.” I think I prefer the translation as service. Because ministry is a word that has connotations of something pious, perhaps a little lofty, sort of out of the realm of mundane day to day things, and indicating something religious and spiritual. And of course, ministry should be religious and spiritual, but that can sometimes lead us to think of it as detached from the realm of day to day life.

But when you say service, that has an altogether different connotation. That is something that borders on the mundane, the practical, even, God forbid, duty. We sometimes speak of our men and women in uniform that they are in the service. And we know what we mean by that, don’t we? It means they are in one of the armed services of our country. They are in the service of our country. They are under the authority of the Commander in Chief.

But that word service can have an even lowlier connotation. It is very much associated with the word servant. To be a servant is to be someone who is in service to someone else. He is at their command. Sometimes in old houses, you would see a sign around the back indicating “service entrance.” That could mean the servants entrance, or it could mean those that serviced the house for whatever mechanical needs there might be.

So in the original language, the word translated ministry does not indicate some high, pious position, but it simply refers to working for and serving someone. And to that extent, we are all called to serve Christ. In this new life, we have been given a ministry, we have been called to be servants to the kingdom of God. Not all have the same position in service, but all are called to serve, even as soldiers in spiritual warfare. Not all soldiers are given the same rank, the same responsibility, yet they all serve the same King.

Paul said he was grateful for this ministry which he had been given. I would say that gratefulness was his primary motivation in ministry. And that was because God had saved him from a person dedicated to destroying the church, and by God’s grace and mercy had made him someone who would establish the church.

So how are we put into the service of Christ? The answer is, the same way as Paul was entered into service. Now what follows in vs 12-15, is a sort of resume by Paul. And as is typical of most resumes, the job title you are presently in is listed first, and the order that follows goes backwards in your career. So most resumes usually read from the greatest to the least. You list that at present you are working as a graphic designer for some big design firm, and then the job you had before that, and so forth until way down at the bottom of the page, the first job you had, which was a French fry cook at McDonald’s.

Paul’s resume sort of follows that pattern. But I would like to look at it in reverse. Let’s start with vs15, because this is where we all start as well. This is one area that we all have in common. Paul says in vs 15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost [of all.]”.

This is all of our condition prior to salvation. There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us were enemies of God. All of our righteousness was as filthy rags before God. None of us were any better than any one else, or more deserving of heaven than anyone else. Paul said he was the chief of sinners. I said last week, that was until I came along. But the fact is, there really isn’t any difference between you and me or Paul, for that matter when it comes to the matter of sin. We all were enemies of God under the condemnation of death.

Paul said he was a former blasphemer and persecutor and violent aggressor of the church. In Acts 26:9 Paul said of himself and these activities against Christ and against His church, “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”

So Paul was indeed the chief of sinners, in that he not only persecuted the church, but he tried to get them to blaspheme Christ and deny Christ. But as great as his sin was, God’s grace was greater. He says, “Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.” That phrase ‘more than abundant” is the idea of super abundant. As Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

But what I like about Paul’s confession here is that he says he was “formally a blasphemer and so forth.” When Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, he was changed, converted. What he was formerly, he was no longer practicing. What he was ignorant of, he now knew. What was done in unbelief, now he by faith believed the truth. The point is salvation is conversion. It’s like the line in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” A change in belief results in a change of behavior.

When I was a kid growing up in church, we used to have an evangelist named Billy Kelly who would come do a series of nightly meetings every couple of years or so. Billy Kelly probably weighed 400 pounds, and was a freckled face red haired giant of a man from the hills of West Virginia. And as a preacher’s kid I had to sit through many a long night of preaching as I was growing up, but when Billy Kelly came to our church he was one preacher I looked forward to hearing. He played the piano as well, and he was known for singing one song in particular, which is called “Thanks to Calvary.” He always sang it after giving his personal testimony of being the town drunk and how some men dragged him to a revival meeting one night after sobering him up with coffee and he was saved after listening to the message. He used to sing that song with tears rolling down his face, which told the story of his little boy hiding behind the door when he would come home drunk, but now that he was saved, he said, “Son, have no fear, you’ve got a brand new daddy now. Thanks to Calvary I’m not the man I used to be. Thanks to Calvary things are different than before.” After he got done singing that song, he had the whole church in tears.

But the truth is that when God saves you, he changes you. And in Paul’s case, he who was the foremost persecutor of the church, was made the foremost establisher of the church, as a testimony to the super abundant grace of God. And so Paul explains in vs 16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

What we can learn from Paul’s salvation, is that no matter how great your sin, God’s mercy is greater. There is no degree of sin that you can sink to that God cannot save you from. There is no depravity that God cannot redeem you from. As much as you have descended into depravity, God is able to raise you up to greater heights than you can imagine. He is able to make the lost, found. The blind to see. The lame to walk. The dead to live. There is no sin that is beyond His ability to save you from.

But there is just one caveat to His mercy and grace. And that is, you must recognize and repent of your sin. When Paul was confronted with the truth, when he saw his sin, he repented of it and was forgiven of it. He didn’t try to excuse it, or to cover it up, or to say that it wasn’t really sin. No, he said my sin is worse than anyone else’s. I am the worst of sinners! And that is the key. There is no sin which is confessed and repented of, that cannot be forgiven. Christ came to save sinners. That is a trustworthy statement. You can bet your life on that statement. But you better recognize you are a sinner if you want Christ to save you. Because He came to save sinners, not the self righteous.

That realization brings Paul to express a confession of faith in Christ and praise Him for His mercy towards sinners. He says in vs 17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, [be] honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Paul said in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

That confession is what Paul states in vs 17, “the King” is Jesus Christ the King, the Lord, our Sovereign. To confess Jesus as Lord is to confess Him as your King, as the One to whom we owe our lives, to whom we honor and serve and obey. We lay down our lives in service to our Lord and King. And this King is eternal, immortal, He was raised from the dead and now stands at the Father’s right hand. To Him deserves all honor, all glory, as we give our lives in service to Him forever.

That comprehension on Paul’s part was the impetus for his ministry, his service. And God would use him and enable him and strengthen him and equip him to do what he called him to do. So that all the praise and glory go to God, and not Paul. But Paul’s gratitude for what God had done for him, was the motivation for his service to the church.

Now there were other ministers in the church. Paul’s office as a minister was an apostle. These were other offices or positions. As I said, in the service not everyone has the same office or position or area of duty. The next one mentioned in Paul’s letter is Timothy. Timothy is a minister, a servant of the gospel. I suppose we might call him the pastor of the church in Ephesus. I think he was perhaps more like a regional pastor, but we can’t be dogmatic about such things. But my understanding is that there were more than one church in Ephesus. They were house churches, each with their pastors/teachers. And Timothy was acting as an agent of the apostle Paul, as overseeing the churches in Ephesus. I can’t say that for sure, but that’s what I pick up from reading between the lines.

But nevertheless, we do know that Timothy was in service to the church at Ephesus, and he had a position like a senior pastor over the church or churches there. So Paul says to him in vs 18 “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, [my] son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”

So what is this command, or this charge to Timothy that Paul refers to? It is the charge given in vs 3-11 of this chapter, the command to stay on at Ephesus, and to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths or endless genealogies that give rise to speculation rather than faith, to instruct them not to teach a twisted version of the law, about which they make confident assertions, but which they don’t know what they are talking about. So in short, Timothy’s ministry to the church is to teach the teachers, to correct them, to rebuke them.

Paul gives a similar command or charge to Timothy at a later date in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Now one more thing to note about this command to ministry that Paul gives to Timothy, is he says it’s in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you. What exactly Paul is talking about we’re not sure, but he speaks of it again in chapter 4 vs 14 “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” He goes on to say, persevere in your teaching, pay attention to it, take pains with it, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” So we can surmise that preaching and teaching is the spiritual gift that was given to Timothy by the Lord, and was confirmed by the laying on of hands by the elders, presumably the elders of the church in Jerusalem, which is a reference to the apostles. He was commissioned as an evangelist, a preacher of the gospel, by the Lord and confirmed by the apostles. So that was Timothy’s ministry.

But there is one more category of ministry that is alluded to in vs 19, and then the perpetrators named in vs 20. Let’s pick it up again in vs 19, “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.”

These are ministers that have suffered shipwreck in regards to their faith. That’s a pretty scary thing to say about teachers in the church. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a shipwreck, or been involved in one. From the little I know about boats, things can go wrong pretty quickly on a boat and yet at the same time seem like they are happening in slow motion. One problem is that the boat is in motion due to the wind or current or even from the motor, and there are no brakes on a boat. So once something is in motion it keeps on going even though it is destroying itself. If you want to have some fun, search for ships hitting the dock on YouTube and you will see what I’m talking about. They can’t stop, and they just destroy more and more until they sink or are absolutely ruined.

Paul had been on a few shipwrecks in his life, real ones. There is a really frightening description of one in particular in Acts where they end up having to grab a plank of wood and try to swim ashore in the middle of a fierce storm while the ship is stuck on a shoal being torn apart by the waves. So Paul knew what a shipwreck looked like and the damage that can happen from losing your bearings.

These men, Hymaneus and Alexander, have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. That means that they had abandoned or abused the truth in favor of another gospel, a more speculative gospel, a more dramatic gospel that was not founded on the truth. And the thing that Paul is very concerned about was they were teaching that false doctrine to the church and leading others astray.

Isn’t that what he said about these men in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

There was another element to their false teaching which was it had become blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking evil of Christ. I would think that somehow their doctrine had deviated from the truth to the point that they attributed some sin to Jesus. There are people today that teach that Jesus had a wife, usually saying it’s Mary Magdalene. That’s the sort of speculation that these teachers seemed to be guilty of, contriving myths and speculation from some vague reference in scripture. The point of such blasphemy though would be to excuse their own sin.

And so Paul says he is handing these men over to Satan so they will be taught not to blaspheme. I think a lot of people don’t like to consider the reality of what Paul is saying there. But he speaks of the same sort of thing in 1 Cor. 5, about a man who was committing immorality with his father’s wife, and was blatantly unrepentant about it. And so Paul says there in vs “5 [I have decided] to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

What that means is for the person that continues in sin, there may be a time when God releases you from His protective care as a child of God, to suffer the consequences of sin. And the devil is free to destroy your flesh through that sin. Because that is what the devil does. He is the destroyer. He goes about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The sin that so easily besets us will eventually destroy us.

Paul indicates these men are saved, but they have returned to their sin like a pig that has been washed returns to the mire. And the key is that they are unrepentant. They claim that God doesn’t care about this little peccadillo. What I’m doing isn’t really bad. God made me this way( there is where the blasphemy comes in) or God made this and so it really can’t be wrong. And so God allows Satan to destroy the flesh, though the spirit is saved in the day of judgment. That’s why in the verses that talk about the sanctify of taking the Lord’s Supper, Paul says many of you are sick and a number sleep. Sleep there refers to the death of the believer.

Listen, if you became a servant of the King through conversion, then you have been set free from the captivity of sin and cleansed from sin. But when you return to it, you trample underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ, you regard it as worthless. And God will discipline those who are His. If you’re not His, then you are already condemned to death, and under the captivity of Satan who will destroy you. But if you are a child of God, and you choose to go back into sin, and are unrepentant of it, then you are given over to the control of Satan by your own free will, and God gives Satan permission to sift you like wheat, with the goal of destroying you. God’s purpose in allowing that is not to destroy you, though if you persist that may happen. But God’s purpose is to restore you, to use suffering in the flesh to bring you to repentance.

We that are saved have been given a ministry, we are servants of the King. Our life is not our own, we are bought with a price. Therefore, we cannot return to our prior captivity without suffering the consequences of that dominion of darkness. But as Paul has pointed out so clearly in this passage, God is merciful and gracious and desires to restore us and make us the polar opposite of what we were by nature, if we will just repent and surrender to the Lord, confessing Him as Lord of our lives.

Let us make this Psalm of David our prayer this morning as we examine our heart before God. David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

As a general, overarching theme in this epistle, James has been contrasting the wisdom which is from the world, with the wisdom which is from above.  He has shown that contrast in a variety of ways.  For instance, James spent a great deal of time talking about the use of the  tongue, or our speech, as the evidence of which wisdom you follow – whether it’s the wisdom of the world or the wisdom from above.  You can tell by one’s speech.

But he really begins this epistle by talking about wisdom. And in those opening verses, we get some clues that I believe will help us properly understand the passage before us today in chapter five.  Notice in chapter one he talks about having faith through the trials of life, and the wisdom to do so which he says comes from God.  But then he contrasts that wisdom with the one who doubts.  The one who has faith has the wisdom from God, the one who doubts doesn’t really believe the wisdom of God and is instead following the world’s wisdom.

He then continues that contrast saying in vs 9, speaking of the brother of humble circumstances  and he contrasts him to the rich man.  Once again, we can assume that the humble follow the wisdom from God, the rich man follows the wisdom of the world.  And I think in that passage James sets the rich man as an example or illustration of one who lives by the wisdom of this world.

And again and again as we read this epistle, we see James characterize those who live by the wisdom of the world as being the rich.  In chapter 2, for instance, James contrasts the rich man with those whom he says are the poor of this world.  And again we see the parallel;  those who are poor in this world he says are actually rich in the faith, whereas the rich man oppresses the poor.  So in a broad sense, I think James is using the rich man as a metaphor for those who follow the wisdom of the world and treasure the things of this world, and he uses the poor as a metaphor for those who are rich in faith but poor in the riches of this world.

There are other examples of that as well, but I think I will let you study that out for yourselves and we will work on chapter five from that perspective; that the rich are illustrative of those who  follow the wisdom of this world, that live for the pleasure and the things they can get from this world.  That’s the default wisdom of this world, that if you work hard, if you do this, or do that according to the wisdom of this world, then you can enjoy all that this world has to offer – you can be content, satisfied, and live a comfortable, happy life. You can be rich in the things of this world.

And so we follow the wisdom of the world and we tell our kids to get good grades, send them off to a good college, to get a degree in a field with high paying jobs, and to pursue the American dream and promise them fulfillment and happiness.  Now, just to be clear,  the “American” part of that dream is not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s the same dream in Europe or Asia.  They just call it by another name.  However, in America we seem to have a better chance of accomplishing it.  We are told that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.  And here we have enough freedom to be able to come closer to making that a reality than they might have in other countries.

So as we delve into chapter five and James rails against the rich, we need to understand that he is not necessarily pronouncing some horrible judgment on those who happen to end up with a lot of money at some point in their life.  But he is proclaiming judgment on those who live by the wisdom of the world, who have set their sights on acquiring material things as a means of finding happiness and fulfillment in life. 

Now one more difficulty this passage has is we can’t know for sure specifically who James is speaking to.  He doesn’t address the rich as brothers, or brethren, so some commentators see this as only applying to the unbeliever. But I’m not so sure that Christians can opt out of this criticism so easily.  Because I believe number one, that we have a default mechanism in our behavior even though we may be believers, which is to rely on the wisdom of the world more often than we realize.  And number two, I think all of us qualify as being rich by the metric that most of the world goes by.  Even those who live below the poverty level in America would be considered rich in many other places in the world.  But it’s not so much the amount of money or possessions that James is talking about, but the perspective of the world that believes in and follows the wisdom of the world, a wisdom that has materialism as it’s goal.

So James is condemning the world’s wisdom, the world system, while at the same time rebuking the same tendencies within the heart of the believer. He is exposing the materialistic perspective of the world, but he also knows it’s possible for believers to be just as materialistic and self-centered and indulgent and guilty of the same sins. 

So he begins with a scathing rebuke to anyone who has adopted the world’s wisdom saying in vs 1, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.”  On the one hand, he is calling for repentance from those who hold to that false wisdom, and on the other hand, he is warning of impending judgement upon those who hold to such a world view. James says, you may think you are rich, that you have obtained happiness and fulfillment in life by living according to the world’s wisdom,  but you should be mourning for what you have lost, and crying out for the misery that God’s judgment will bring upon you.

It’s the same sort of rebuke that James offered in chapter four when he called out those who sought friendship with the world, but ended up becoming the enemy of God. To be rich is to be a friend of the world, to live in agreement with the world system which is engineered by the devil and produces every kind of evil.  

James speaks of a coming time when God will judge the world. He says in vs 3, it is in the last days that you have stored up treasure for yourself.  He goes on to speak in vs 7 and 8 saying that the coming of the Lord is at near.  So the misery that is coming upon the rich is the judgment of the Lord at His second coming.  The first coming of the Lord He came bearing mercy, the second coming He comes in judgment.  And James says that the day is near.

So James goes on to speak of four sins of this materialistic, worldly wisdom in this passage that will bring about the judgment of God. The first sin is what might be called the sin of hoarding.  Wealth was held in those days in three primary forms, and he says that in all three areas, they were guilty of hoarding it. 

One form of riches was corn and grain.  We find that example in the parable which Jesus gave concerning the rich man who built more barns to store, or hoard his crops.  There’s nothing wrong with storing corn or grain— the problem James points out is the fact that because they stored more than they could ever eat— James writes, “your riches have rotted” . . . literally, they’ve spoiled.  You didn’t use it for good, for the glory of God, and so it has become foul and putrid before the Lord.

Another form of wealth was clothing. There are many examples of clothing in the Bible being used as money.  For instance, Samson gave changes of clothing as payment for whoever solved his riddle.  James is talking here about people who had so many garments they could never use them all, and so they stored them away. They can only store them away in bigger boxes; bigger garages; bigger attics; bigger rental units; bigger barns.  It’s amazing to me to see how they keep building more and more storage units.  People have huge houses, sometimes two houses,  big garages, and yet they need to rent a storage facility to hold their excess.

Notice what James says next in verse 2. Your garments have become moth-eaten.  Again, the point made is that in storing it away and not using it, the moths ruined it and destroyed it.  I remember once years ago when I was an antique dealer.  I was at these people’s house trying to buy some things, and they told me that they also had some Navajo rugs.  We went back into a bedroom and under the bed the pulled out some boxes in which they had stored these Navajo rugs which today would be worth a good bit of money.  But when we pulled them out and unfolded them, it became obvious that moths had gotten into the rugs and laid their larvae which then ate the wool.  There were large gaping holes all throughout the blankets.  They were completely ruined because they had not been stored correctly.

That’s what James is saying here, the garments that the rich had accumulated and stored away, had no value anymore because they had been ruined by moths. Jesus said that if you had two coats, you were to give one to him who had none.  Garments that are used for the Lord’s purposes do not get moth eaten. But these selfish rich people who stored up their wealth in garments found they were worthless in the day of judgment.

The third way of storing wealth was gold and silver. He writes in verse 3, “Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!”  One of the things that makes gold and silver valuable is that they don’t rust. What James is probably referring to, since the judgment is the context here, notice the last phrase of verse 3 where James says that they have stored up their treasure in the last days – what he is referring to is that it will be as if their gold and silver have turned to rust.  In the judgment, the world’s gold and silver will be as worthless as rusted iron.  When iron rusts, it becomes like the moth eaten garments – it just denigrates in your hand.

The point James is making is that the currency of the world is worthless in heaven.The things that are valued in the world’s wisdom have no value in the kingdom of God.  At the judgment, those things that you hoarded, you valued, which you sold your soul for will have no value whatsoever, and in fact James says they will be a witness against you and will fuel the fires of hell.  It’s an echo of what Jesus taught in Matt. 6:19-21 saying “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I don’t know if you remember a few years ago some mortuary company had these billboards that promised you could be buried with your motorcycle or car or whatever it was that you treasured or which defined you while you were living.  I don’t know how that worked out for that funeral home.  I haven’t seen any of their billboards lately.  But I read a story not long ago about a man who had a similar ambition. His chief purpose in life was to get as much money as he could. He not only loved money and everything it could buy, he hoarded it all for himself.

In fact, this guy wouldn’t let his wife spend any of it. He made her promise that when he died, he wanted her to have all of his money buried with him in the ground. It was his and he wanted to keep it all for himself. And unbelievably, his wife promised him she would do what he asked. When he died he was enormously wealthy. At his funeral, attended by his wife and just a couple of her friends, just before the casket was lowered, the wife put a large box on top of the casket before it was lowered into the ground. The wife’s close friend said to her, ―”You’re not foolish enough to keep your promise to him, are you?” She said, ”But, I promised him I would.” Her friend protested all the more, ”You mean to tell me that you kept that selfish demand of his —you actually put all that money in the casket with him?” The widow said, “I sure did … I wrote him a check.”  

So following hoarding comes the second sin of materialism, which is defrauding.  James says in vs 4,  “Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, [and] which has been withheld by you, cries out [against you;] and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

In this case, James is describing those who in the wisdom of the world to use people, to take advantage of people, in order to climb and claw their way to the top.  The end justifies the means, and if that means I have to step on others then so be it.  That’s the wisdom of the world  that says “go for all the gusto you can get.”  “You can have it all if you’re willing to sacrifice everything.” 

James uses the example here of a day laborer, who was according to Jewish law supposed to be paid at the end of the day, instead, he says the rich man held back his pay, and he was in danger of never getting paid at all.  I once worked for someone many years ago like that who used me to paint a house in Greenwood.  I was in a pretty desperate place at the time and really needed the money. It took me several trips back and forth to finally finish the job, but the company who hired me kept finding fault in what I had done.  So I went back and redid a large portion of it. That happened again, until I finally realized that they were just putting me off not wanting to pay me.  Then when I finally confronted them and they gave me a check, I went to their bank to cash it and was told there was insufficient funds in the account.  Turns out, that was the modus operandi of this company, to hire people to do a job and never intend on paying them.

Now that’s an extreme example of what James is talking about.  Most people aren’t that crass and obvious about it.  But there is a wisdom of the world that values making a buck over treating people fairly. And that is what it means to defraud someone.  James says the Lord of Sabaoth hears the cries of those that were taken advantage of.  That title is also translated in some versions as the Lord of Hosts.  It means the Lord of armies.  God’s might is able to rectify and repay those that do injustice to others.

The third example of the materialistic worldly wisdom is self indulgence. That’s found in vs 5, “You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”  

James speaks of a life lived in luxury and wanton pleasure.  That’s the goal of the wisdom of the rich man.  These people are using their wealth to gratify their love of luxury and to satisfy their lusts for sexual gratification.

Back in James day, the Romans were notorious for gluttonous feasts and sexual orgies.  They actually had these latrines built into the temples where they indulged in these festivals so that when they had gorged themselves on food, they could throw up in the latrine and then eat some more.  In contrast to that, the Christians were displaced from their homeland, they had often lost their occupations in the process, and were probably wondering where they would get their next meal. 

From a human perspective, it looked like the rich, worldly wise people were living the best life possible, enjoying every pleasure in abundance, but James says that they are actually fattening themselves for the day of slaughter.  He likens it to the farm animal that eats and eats but doesn’t realize that it is only so that they might be slaughtered later.  He is speaking metaphorically about the judgment that will be greater because of their self indulgence. It’s interesting to think about how so much that we consider essential, that we work and spend our money on, is actually a luxury that would be inconceivable to people living a hundred years ago.  And we try to justify our lifestyle in the name of providing for our families, when really we have to have all these luxury items that we think are essential.

Just compare the average house of the generation that lived in the 50’s and 60’s in comparison with the average house today. You can’t even find a builder today that will build a house like that.  It’s not marketable unless it has a top of the line kitchen, walk in closets, a two car garage, and all the modern conveniences.  I’m not saying we have to live in a hut to be spiritual, but I am saying we have bought into the world’s wisdom for what is an acceptable standard of living.

There is a final characteristic James speaks of concerning the worldly wise rich man, and that is ruthlessness. He speaks of it ruthlessness in vs 6, “You have condemned and put to death the righteous [man;] he does not resist you.”  

More than likely James is speaking metaphorically here about putting someone to death.  But in Jewish legal terms, taking away the livelihood of someone was the equivalent of murder.  One rabbi a couple of centuries before Christ said it this way, “As one that slays his neighbor is he that takes away his living.” 

Having even a little experience in our legal system, it’s not hard to see that the rich are able to take advantage of the courts, whereas the poor are not able to afford to defend themselves.  I think using the legal system to their advantage is  what James is speaking of.  Remember back in chapter 2 vs 6 James said, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?”

What he is talking about is that the innocent man is personally abused, beaten down and ruined by a court, that instead of dispensing justice, is able to be controlled by the rich. And according to the wisdom of the world, all is fair in love and war and business, even if it means taking everything from the innocent to stuff the pockets of the rich. Those that follow the world’s wisdom are ruthless, taking advantage by every means possible to keep themselves rich and add to their riches.

Notice at the last part of verse 6, James says that the righteous man does not resist you.

This can mean one of two things: one,  that the righteous man doesn’t have the

ability to show up in court. He doesn’t have the  money to hire a fancy lawyer; he doesn’t even have the ability to photocopy the paper to file his complaint.  There is a man that I have befriended in prison that I’ve seen this happen to again and again.  He has lost so many court battles simply because he didn’t have access to a phone, or to a lawyer, or even able to get things photo copied.  The prison charges him money to make copies, and he has no money, so he can’t make the copies and loses the appeal.

The other possible option is that the righteous man doesn’t even try to fight back legally, and chooses instead to be ruined and leave his vindication up to God.  We can’t be sure, but that latter interpretation is very likely the one James had in mind, given the use of the word righteous as a description of this innocent person.  

In that case where I painted a house in Greenwood and the business that hired me gave me a bad check, I remember I called them and asked for them to pay me what they owed me.  The guy on the telephone became so vile, so filthy mouthed, he cursed me up one side and down the other.  It was actually unnerving to hear the hatred in his voice.  I was very upset and considered all the ways I could try to legally get my money.  Then later that night I began to pray about it and asked the Lord to show me what to do.  The next morning, I wrote this guy a letter.  I said I knew that they owed me the money but I had decided I was going to forgive them for defrauding me, and I wasn’t going to take any legal action against them. I said I had also owed a debt that I had not been able to pay, and the Lord had forgiven me, and by His example, I had decided to forgive them. I tried to use it as a means of witnessing to them their need of salvation.  I never heard from them again, and I don’t doubt but that they laughed over the idea that they thought  they got away with it.  But I know that the Lord will vindicate me, that he saw what I did, and I believe over the years He has restored so much more than I lost in that deal.

Listen, the wisdom of this world says that the end justifies the means, and the goal in life is he who dies with the most toys wins. The wisdom of this world says that there is no God, or that God doesn’t care, or even that if there is a God, He just wants us to be successful in the things of this world, and so we are justified in cutting corners, or we’re justified in being ruthless or stepping on people in our pursuit of the goal.  Of course, nothing can be further from the truth. God sees, and God will judge the world for every deed, and even every careless word that they have done.

Rather than trusting in the wisdom of the world, Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. [Instruct them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” 

Jesus told us how we are to gain that life in Matt. 16:24-27 and it is the opposite of the world’s wisdom.  He said,  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” 

I pray that if you are following the wisdom of this world today, if you are rich in this world, then you will repent, weep and howl, and ask God for forgiveness, for Him to transform your heart, so that you might escape that judgment which is coming on all the world.  Renounce the riches of this world, renounce the wisdom of this world, and in exchange the Lord will give you the next world, and the wisdom which comes down from heaven, that you might have life and have it more abundantly.  That you might obtain  an inheritance [which is] imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

I think that one of the greatest distinguishing features that separates man from the animal kingdom, besides having a soul, is man’s ability to speak, to communicate.  I’ve always been amazed at the inherent desire in people to talk.  I remember very well many years ago I used to work part time in the mornings as a lifeguard for the pool at the YMCA.  And they would have these exercise classes during certain times on certain days when all these old people would put on their floaties and then supposedly start exercising.  But the teacher was pretty lax.  She would just lead the class around in a big circle, bobbing around the pool.  And immediately the people in the class just started chattering away.  And  the sound of the chatter from all the people in the pool was almost deafening.  The pool tends to reflect the sound off the water and the walls anyway, but hearing the magnified sound of fifty old ladies bobbing around who were constantly chattering was enough to drive you crazy.  And I think that’s when I first realized just how much social interaction is essential to the human species.

The experts tell us that that the average person speaks about 16,000 words a day.  Some people have said that men speak 16,200 words a day and women speak 16,800 words a day. That’s statistically the same for women or men.  But the common perception of women being more talkative though comes more from timing, than from the total words spoken. The problem is that by the time the man comes home from work, he has already spoken his 16,000, but the woman hasn’t yet started on her 16,000.  She’s been waiting for that opportunity. But of course that’s a stereotypical statement that is probably not really true.

But what is true is that we need to speak, and to a large extent, our speech is one of the primary ways in which we are known and defined.  James is very concerned about our speech.  He has already brought it up in chapter one and talked about it there.  It’s apparent that James considers our speech to be a work, or an evidence of our faith.  And so he summarized that section about speech by saying in chapter 1 vs 26 that “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his [own] heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” Our words are one of the primary ways in which we practice our faith, and if our speech isn’t right, then it nullifies everything else.

So that naturally leads us to consider his next point, that teaching, which is the use of speech to convey truth, to convey faith, to practice our religion, is another aspect of speech that needs to be controlled.  So he actually gives a warning in relation to teaching,  saying in vs 1, “Let not many [of you] become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” 

Now that’s true on a couple of levels.  One is, when you teach, you open yourself up to criticism from those that hear you.  People are going to judge you on the basis of what you say, and how you said it.  I think one of the most common after church menu items is roast pastor. It’s pretty common for a lot of people after church service to have roast pastor for lunch.  And that pretty much comes with the territory.  That’s part of the job.  So you better think twice before you put yourself in that position. And to be even more explicit, you better make sure of your calling. Because if you’re teaching is designed to win approval from men then you will be a man pleaser and try to scratch the itching ears of your congregation.  But that’s  preaching something that does not find favor with God.

But I don’t think men’s judgement is the primary meaning of James in this statement.  I think he’s saying that as a teacher you will incur a stricter judgment from God.  God’s judgment is the judgment that we should be concerned about.  Because I have to tell you, when I preach, I preach not for the commendation of men, but for the commendation of God.  I don’t preach in a way that people will think what a wonderful sermon that was, or what a wonderful person I am, but I endeavor to speak in a way that is faithful to what God’s word says.  That’s what I need to be concerned about, not in pleasing men, but in pleasing God.  And I do that by being true to the word of God.

I also believe that the indication here in this verse is that James is speaking of the office of teaching, and not merely teaching as in sharing the gospel by the individuals in the church.  We are instructed to be teachers in regards to the gospel.  Paul says in Col. 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” So we are instructed to teach in regards to our faith on a personal level.

But it’s the office of a teacher that many people aspire to, and according to James, they do so to their own peril.  They will incur a stricter condemnation because they were not faithful to the truth, to the word of God.  I think James is thinking in particular of the Jewish rabbis who taught, who loved the seats of importance in the synagogue, who loved to make public prayers.  For instance, he is probably echoing Jesus rebuke to those who taught saying in Matt. 23:14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.”   Notice the similarity there in James warning and Jesus’s rebuke in regards to the judgment of a stricter or greater condemnation.

These are people that practice their religion by means of the tongue, and yet their speech is not in accordance with the truth of the gospel.  I believe that there is an especially hot part of hell reserved for false teachers who put a stumbling block before others.  So James gives a serious warning about the office or position of a teacher.

Now to that point of being a stumbling block to others, James says in vs 2, “For we all stumble in many [ways.] If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”  To stumble is to sin, to err, to wander away from the faith, to miss the mark.  And James says we do that in many ways.  But in this verse James seems to be saying that if you focus on the tongue, the rest of your body will follow suit.  If you can control the tongue, then you are a perfect man.  That does not mean a sinless man, but it means a complete man, or even better, a mature man, spiritually mature and as a spiritually mature man you are able to bridle the rest of your body as well.  The key to controlling the body is controlling the tongue.

To illustrate that point, James gives us three examples; the tongue is like a bit in a horse’s mouth, or a rudder on a ship, or a spark that starts a forest fire.  He says in vs 3, “Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and [yet] it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!”

Now these three examples speak for themselves. But let’s just consider them briefly. His statement about bits in horses mouths illustrates verse two exceptionally well.  In vs 2 he said the mature man who was able to control his tongue was able to bridle the whole body as well. The point of this illustration being that a small metal bit is able to control a large animal. So by controlling the tongue we will be able to control our entire body.

And the same point is being made in the second example.  A rudder is very small in comparison to the overall size of a ship, and yet this small part is able to steer the entire ship in the desired direction. So he says, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.”  Such a small member makes such a great difference in the trajectory of one’s life. The emphasis there is this small member has the ability to say something that can set your whole life on a course that is not desirable.

And so the third illustration builds on that undesirable outcome. He says, “see how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!”  Again, this is not a desired outcome.  But the wrong word said, can set things into motion which can destroy a life.  You know, fire is a terrifying thing. I remember visiting my son when he lived in Santa Barbara a few years ago, and the forest fires were out of control there, burning hundreds of homes, and millions of acres of land from Ventura to Santa Barbara.  Once the fire gets going and conditions are right, it becomes something that is uncontrollable, and destroys everything in it’s path.  And to think it all starts with a spark.  I think they said that many of those fires started from an electrical spark from a power line, or a power box somewhere in the mountains.

James compares the potential devastation of a careless or angry word to that of a spark that sets on fire the course of a life.  There is tremendous power in a word.  There is power to comfort, or the power to destroy.  And unfortunately, it seems that far too often we use words to tear down, and not build up.

So James continues in vs 6 “And the tongue is a fire, the [very] world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of [our] life, and is set on fire by hell.”  This is the application then which we should apply from the lessons learned by the illustrations.  The tongue is like a fire that is out of control, doing widespread damage to everything in it’s path.  Consequently, the tongue sets our life on fire, destroying ourselves and  destroying others that we come into contact with.  And furthermore, James says that destruction accomplishes the work of the devil. An uncontrolled tongue is used by the devil to put a stumbling block in front of others, to discourage others, to even destroy others.  And instead of our tongue being used to bring glory to God, it is used for the purposes of the enemy of God.

Furthermore, he says the tongue defies the entire body.  It’s interesting that James sees the tongue as the culprit.  And yet the Bible teaches in other places that the heart is the problem – the heart being the defiler of the body. Jesus said in Luke 6:45  “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” So it sounds like Jesus says the heart is the source of evil.  And of course, that’s true.

Then why doesn’t James identify the heart as the culprit? Why does he lay the blame on the tongue instead?  Because as Jesus said, what’s in the heart comes out of the mouth.  So the evidence of the heart is manifested by the mouth.  The heart may be the engine, but the mouth is the instrument by which evil comes.  So James focuses on the tongue because you can’t see the heart, but you can hear the tongue.  So the condition of the heart is made evident by the tongue.

Consider what Jesus said about that in Matthew 15:18 “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person.”

So if the mouth is the instrument by which the devil destroys and deceives, then we must recognize the need to tame the tongue.  And James speaks to that need in vs 7, “For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.” I spoke earlier of the difference between the human and the animal kingdom at the beginning of this message, and now we see those animals contrasted with man again.  

As part of the original design in creation, God gave man the charge to rule over the planet, which included the animals and birds and every living creature. Gen. 1:28 says, “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  And as James said,  man has been able to do that.  I read recently about how the Navy has trained dolphins to participate in naval warfare, even to the point of detecting underwater bombs. Their headquarters for that, by the way, is in Point Loma, CA where my daughter goes to school. It really is amazing that they are able to train dolphins and sea lions to do the things that they do.  And when you consider all the animals that man has been able to domesticate, and breed, and train, then you recognize the truth of James’s statement.

But though we have the ability to tame every animal that has been created, yet we are not able to tame the tongue.  James says, vs8 “But no one can tame the tongue; [it is] a restless evil [and] full of deadly poison.”  I think what James is talking about is how we can blurt out things without thinking. That’s why he said in chapter one we should be slow to speak.  And another way that happens is that we sometime say things that hurt people and we don’t even realize it.  We may be making a joke, and yet to the one on the receiving end it’s one that cuts too close to the bone. We don’t think twice about it, we may even laugh while saying it, and yet the other person thinks about it again and again.  

You know, I hate mosquitos.  I guess everyone does.  Mosquitos are so small in comparison to our bodies.  You would think there was nothing they could do to hurt us.  But when the mosquito bites it releases a tiny bit of toxic saliva into our skin.  Such a small bite, and so small an amount of saliva, you would think it’s not a big deal.  But a mosquito bite hurts worse later than it does when it first happens. It soon starts to itch, and so you scratch it, and it gets even worse.  Before it’s all over you have a big welt that really stings for quite a while. That’s what it’s like to get stung by a harsh word. It shouldn’t really bother you.  But it starts to itch, and the more you scratch it the worse it gets.  

James uses the analogy of a snake bite to illustrate this fact.  It’s the same idea, the poison is worse than the initial bite. It takes time to find it’s way into the bloodstream, but when it finally does, then it destroys the body and can even kill.  I’ve heard of snakebites that months later finally caused death after destroying the organs from the inside of a person that had been bitten.  That’s what James says an evil word can do.

As Christians, our tongues should be under the control of the Spirit and as such you would think that the analogy of the serpent’s bite would not apply.  But James says that is not always the case.  He speaks to the Christian’s use of the tongue in vs 9, “With it we bless [our] Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;  from the same mouth come [both] blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.  Does a fountain send out from the same opening [both] fresh and bitter [water?]  Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor [can] salt water produce fresh.”

As Christians, our mandate from Jesus is to love our neighbor as ourselves. But when we curse our neighbor, we do the opposite of that. If we loved our neighbor as we should, then we are in effect bringing praise to God.  But when we curse them, we are condemning them to damnation, we are destroying them, bringing spiritual harm to them. James reminds us that man was made in the image of God, in His likeness, and so when we curse men, we are indirectly cursing God who make them.

If we have truly been reborn, if we have a new spiritual nature, then why do we resort again to the carnal nature?  Even as a fountain cannot send out both fresh and salt water at the same time, nor a fig tree able to produce olives, so neither can a sanctified person both bless and curse others.  I don’t think that James is speaking particularly here about using curse words, or swear words.  However, I don’t think that is an appropriate pattern of speech for a Christian.  But I think he’s speaking of hateful speech towards other people, in which you curse them, when we should be speaking words which will bless them, which will build them up, and which will help them.

Proverbs says “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  As our heart is made pure and righteous   before God, as we meditate on His word, our life is changed to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. And as our heart is conformed to Him, then our speech will be evidence of that change, so that our speech might result in the praise of God, and the edification of our fellow man.  

The psalmist David realized that he could sin with his lips and he prayed that God would keep him from doing so.  Let us make his prayer, our prayer in closing today.  His prayer is found in Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”

James is a teacher who is concerned with practicality.  He doesn’t spend a lot of time dealing with lofty theological principles, though he does address them in his letter.  But he spends a great deal of effort to teach us how we are to apply such principles in every day situations.

As a result, James is rather blunt and to the point. If Paul is the general that deals with overall principles and strategies, James is the sergeant who brings them down to the level of the grunt soldier and gets them done. And he doesn’t waste a lot of words doing it either.

From James we learn that true religion is the practice of one’s faith. Faith is analogous to belief.  What we believe is the foundation of our faith.  But religion is how that faith is applied. One way we practice our religion is by going to church.  But of course, our religion is not limited to the church service.  Our religion is applied in daily life.  What we believe affects how we live.

As we finished up the last chapter, James said that our religion might be in vain if we did not practice certain things in regards to our speech.  Our speech then is another means by which we practice our faith.  He said if anyone doesn’t bridle his speech, then his religion is worthless. The idea of bridle there is illustrated by putting a bridle on the horse’s head, to control his movements.  If we don’t control our speech, then it nullifies our good intentions, and even our good deeds.

James then went on to speak about loving our neighbor as illustrated by orphans and widows. Providing relief to orphans and widows is another example of how we should practice our religion.  But as Jesus indicated, anyone who is in need is our neighbor.  

Now to elaborate on that law of loving your neighbor, we come to today’s passage.  In this passage, James tells us that we must guard against loving others with prejudice, loving those who might reciprocate towards us, or guard against loving those who we feel are attractive to us.  But that we should love like God loved us.  That love which Christ had towards us is described in Romans 5:8 which says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Christ loved us when we were unloveable. I think many Christians at least subconsciously think that God loves them because somehow they are a lovable person.  Talk to the average person for very long about their need for salvation, and they tend to end up saying that they really aren’t a bad person.  Oh, they may have messed up somehow, but deep down inside they are not really all that bad.

The fact is,  they are self deceived. That’s what James said was the case with the person who didn’t bridle his tongue.  He was self deceived. He wasn’t a good person.  His whole person was defiled by that little member, the tongue.  All kinds of wickedness comes out of the mouth, to the point that all your religion, all your “I’m not such a bad person” is absolutely worthless.  

We were saved when we were worthless, sinners, enemies of God,  We hated others, we lied,  we were jealous,  we were angry. Even when we thought we were not so bad and did something good, we actually had evil motives behind our good deeds.  But even though there was nothing good in us,  Christ loved us, and died for us.

Having bad motives, or wicked ulterior motives, is what James is addressing here in this passage.  He says in vs 1, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism.”  Notice that he addresses this to his brethren. In vs 5 he elaborates on that with “my beloved brethren.” That means he is speaking to fellow Christians, or at least, professing Christians.  In vs 2 he gives an illustration about attending church.  So we know that he is addressing people who claim to be believers. He is speaking to us who hold onto the faith.  But he says we must guard against holding onto our faith, or practicing our faith, or practicing our religion, with an attitude of personal favoritism. 

Now the principle, or the law, is that we are to love one another, especially those of the household of faith.  And what better place to manifest that love towards the brethren than at church?  But James is concerned that we are not loving the way God loves.  We are being discriminatory.  We choose to love those that we find attractive, those that we think are deserving, and more often than not, our motivation is that we want them to reciprocate in the same way towards us.

Jesus gave what is sometimes called the “golden rule.” It says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or at least that’s the common translation of it.  Actually, what Jesus said spoke to this very issue, this selective love that shows favoritism.  Jesus said in Luke 6:31-36 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is [that] to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same [amount.]  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [men.] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Jesus said don’t do kindness because you expect a return, don’t limit your love only to those whom you find attractive to you.  Don’t show favoritism.  But love the way God loves, which is when we are undeserving. Now James is expounding on that principle in this passage.  And he likens it to the way we treat others in the church.  He gives an illustration of that kind of selective love that shows favoritism in vs2.

Vs2 “For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”

By the way, the word translated assembly used there can actually mean a synagogue.  The synagogue was not the temple, nor did it serve the purpose of a temple, but it was a meeting place for Jews on the Sabbath and other religious holidays where they worshipped God and were taught the word, and for prayer.  James has ascribed the characteristics of the synagogue to the church meeting, or the assembly of believers.  That’s significant as a template for the church, but I am not going to take the time to expound on that right now, other than to point it out.

The illustration though is one with which most of us are probably familiar.  The church assembles.  People tend to sit in the same chairs, the same tables, week after week.  If someone sits in your spot, you probably wouldn’t say anything out loud, but inwardly you’re probably thinking, “hey, he’s in my seat!”  But in any case, it’s evident in most church services when someone new shows up.  For one, they don’t know where to sit.  Everyone recognizes that they haven’t been here regularly.  

James makes the distinction in his illustration that the person who shows up is rich.  He says you could tell by the gold ring and the fine clothes.  And the church people responded as if he was an honored guest and gave him the choice seat.  You know, in the synagogue, as well as in early churches in Europe and in America, there were specially made seats that were up front that were for the wealthy, or for the church elders, or for the nobles or town officials. Many times those people had paid for those special pews to be made.  Then the rest of the seating was in a sort of economic order as well, with the higher class people up front, and the commoners in the back.

We don’t have that sort of thing today, for the most part.  In fact, nowadays, it would seem that the preferred seating is in the back. But we can understand what James is saying.  He’s saying that the church gives preferential treatment to some people based on certain things, such as their attractiveness, or their financial status, or a host of other possible outward signs that they are like us, or that they are what we would like to be, or because we want them to think well of us. We judge by outward appearances, and we love accordingly.

But God doesn’t love like that.  Remember the story of how David was anointed to be king by the prophet Samuel.  Samuel looked at all David’s brothers, all big, handsome young men, each one capable of being king, at least in appearances.  But God said, Samuel, don’t look at the outward appearance, for God looks at the heart. 

And so consequently, God tends to call the poor and the weak, and the unattractive, and the unsuccessful to salvation.  So Paul says in 1Cor. 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;  but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God.”

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” The principle that Jesus wants to emphasize is that true riches are spiritual riches, to be rich in faith has eternal reward.  But too often we look at the physical, instead of the spiritual. James speaks of this principle in vs 5, saying “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” 

When we surrender our lives to the Lord, we surrender our hold on the world.  Jesus said in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  So when we become disciples of Christ, we usually end up poor in the things of this world.  Because our purpose in this new life is not to accumulate treasures on earth, but treasures in heaven.  But in forsaking the riches of the world we gain riches in heaven, we are rich in faith, and because of our faith, we have an inheritance in the kingdom of God which is far above any riches this world could ever offer.  

I really don’t think that is the attitude of the average Christian today though.  I’m afraid that the average Christian has not really forsaken anything of this world.  Most so called Christians have just attempted to add some Christ to their  lives, but He is not the source of a completely new life. If anything, a lot of people expect that adding Christ to their lives will make them more prosperous, more successful, and more wealthy.  And there are many false prophets that encourage such a belief by preaching what we is called the prosperity gospel. But the Bible teaches the exact opposite. That we become poor in this world that we might be rich in heaven.

However, I don’t think that God necessarily wants us to take a vow of poverty anymore than I think in light of the earlier passage about holding the tongue, that God wants us to take a vow of silence. But I do think that if Christ is in first place in your life, then the pursuit of wealth or retaining wealth, or admiring wealth, is going to take a back seat.  Jesus said it is better to give than to receive. And so if you really believe that, then you spend less energy trying to hold onto money, and more energy trying to use money for the kingdom of God. At the very least, God controls your money, rather than your money controlling you.

But I get the feeling that James doesn’t like rich people very much.  He doesn’t admire riches.  He sees riches as a hindrance rather than a blessing.  The rich young ruler is a good example of that.  Jesus told him to sell everything he owned and give it to the poor and come and follow Him.  The young man went away sad because he had great riches.  We are so conditioned to think that riches are a blessing from God, aren’t we? But in reality, riches can be a hindrance to God.  Riches can be an obstacle which keeps us from truly surrendering to the Lord.

But James doesn’t have much pity for rich people.  Notice what he says about them in vs 6, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?  Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”  In honoring the rich man, simply because of his status on earth, they are in effect dishonoring the poor man.  But then James seems to generalize and say that the rich are the ones who oppress and take to court those who are saved. 

Now I don’t know if James knew of some particular event or incident that he was referring to.  But it’s quite possible that his predominately Jewish audience were being oppressed by the Pharisees and the Jewish rulers.  These priests and Jewish officials were notoriously rich, and they made their fortunes by taking advantage of the poor.  A good example of that is seen in the incident when Jesus went into the temple and drove out the money changers.  That was a direct attack by Jesus on the money making business of the high priests. They were taking advantage of the poor, charging them extra for currency exchange that only they could provide and that they required,  and then selling them officially clean animals after they told the poor person that his animal did not meet the criteria. They were taking advantage of the poor, and then in many cases, they were the source of persecution against the church.  James said they blasphemed the name of Jesus.  But yet because of the church’s admiration for riches, they were willing to overlook all that and treat the rich with preference.

But James said this wasn’t just a matter of a mild indiscretion, this was actually a sin, what he called “evil motives.”  And so to show that such attitude is a sin, and a grievous sin at that, he turns them to the law.  The law defines sin.  And the law James chooses to quote is the law of loving your neighbor.  He says in vs 8 “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are convicted by the law as transgressors.” 

James refers to it as the royal law; the law of the King, we being His servants. We tend to think of the law as things which we are not supposed to do.  But the law James speaks of is a law of what we should do. When Jesus was asked what was the foremost law, He said,  ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.  This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

What Jesus indicated there is that if you are guilty of breaking the law of loving your neighbor, then you are guilty of all the law because all the law depends upon these two laws. So James says if you are keeping the second part which is to love your neighbor then you are doing well.  But if claim to love your neighbor, but you show favoritism, then you are actually sinning, and guilty of breaking the law.  You cannot love your neighbor and show favoritism to the rich, or towards anyone that you find attractive, or hope to find some reciprocation from.  If you do so, then you are sinning. 

Furthermore, we need to understand that this is the royal law, the King’s edict for the kingdom of God, and that if we are a citizen of that kingdom then we have an obligation to obey the King’s laws.  James calls it the law of liberty.  But the liberty we have is freedom from sin.  The Holy Spirit enables us to keep the law.  But still we may choose to do so or not.  We are not controlled by sin any longer,  and we are supposed to be controlled by the Spirit, but we still may choose to sin. But let there be no mistake, we are not to think lightly of the grace of God and trample underfoot the blood of Jesus so that we think we can sin without impunity, without any consequences.  The law was given to us to keep.  And when we choose not to keep it, we do so to our own peril. We lose our liberty.

So James is going to go on to teach us how we are to think about the law.  He says in vs10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one [point,] he has become guilty of all.  For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

The Jews of James day made distinctions concerning the law, that some laws were more important than others.  They put the law of the Sabbath, for instance, above other laws as to importance.  The same is true of the Catholic Church today.  They call some sins moral, and some sins venial, as if there are some sins more serious than others.  But notice what James says, he puts the law of loving your neighbor on the same plane as murder and adultery.  And he says that if you break the law on one point, then you are guilty of the whole law. 

Within the boundaries of God’s perfect law of liberty, we have freedom. My son has several aquariums in our house that have all kinds of fresh and salt water fish.  For the fish the water is his natural habitat.  And as he stays within that boundary he has liberty and will thrive.  But if he leaves that water, then he will suffer.  One day my son could not find a particular fish in the aquarium.  Finally after a long time of looking, he found the fish on the floor.  The fish had jumped out of the aquarium and landed on the floor. The fish left his natural habitat in search of freedom, but found only death. That’s a picture of the law of liberty.  The Christian’s natural environment is within the law of God. We have life, we can thrive, we have liberty within the law of God, but if we chose to go outside of it, we lose that liberty.

James says that we are to “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by [the] law of liberty.”  That’s not an accommodation to sin that James is giving there.  But notice that he says you will be judged according to the law of liberty.  And the law of liberty requires that we stay within it’s boundaries.

So he concludes with this summary about judgment.  He says in vs 13,  “For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”  Jesus gave a parable once in response to Peter’s question about forgiveness.  The parable told the story of a man whom the king forgave a great debt because he cried for mercy.  But then the man went out and choked another man who owed him a small sum of money.  When the king heard about it, he called the man to court and said, “ You wicked servant, I cancelled all the debt of yours because you begged for mercy.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had towards you? (Matt. 18:32)

The point being that God freely grants us mercy when we ask Him, even when we ask Him again and again and again.  So in the same way, God expects us to show mercy to others, again and again.  But when we refuse, or neglect to show mercy, then God will withhold mercy from us and instead will judge us according to how we have judged others. Jesus said in Matt. 7:2  “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”  That’s pretty scary, when you really examine how you treat others.

But in closing, we are left with a safeguard against such judgment from God. And the safeguard is that mercy triumphs over judgment. If we show mercy then we will be shown mercy. Let us then show mercy towards one another, and love one another without prejudice, that we may be like our heavenly Father who showed mercy to us.