By Mercy Found

Resurrection Wisdom in a Perishing World – Part 3

Mercy Triumphs

(James 2:1-13, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 23, 2014)

[2:1] My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. [2] For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, [3] and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” [4] have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? [5] Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? [6] But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? [7] Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

In the church, preference for the rich, the famous, the popular, the strong, and the beautiful stinks to high heaven. Our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ who was despised and rejected by men. Our joy is in the fact that we are acceptable through His merit and mercy rather through our own self-recommendation. How can we treat people in the church based on their own merits? We sit at the feet of others. We don't ask people to sit at our feet as if we are better than them.

The Lord is the Judge. If He has chosen the poor, who are we to despise them? If a poor man is an heir of God through the blood of Jesus, why would we treat him as wretched based on how he is dressed or the way that he speaks? Anyway, is it not the rich, the powerful, the educated, and the beautiful that have been persecuting us and who speak ill of the Name above every name?

[8] If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. [9] But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. [10] For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [11] For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. [12] So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. [13] For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

God has given us a perfectly good law that prohibits this behavior. It is a law for someone who was once in bondage but is now free: Love your neighbor as yourself. If we have received mercy, we must be merciful. When we violate that law we break the whole Law of God. How will we stand before Jesus if we are worldly-minded judges of those despised by the world?

How easily we make judgments about people with nothing more than a first glance. For recipients of the Lord's mercy to treat others that way is dangerous. Would we boldly kill the innocent? Would we shamelessly make a plan to seduce someone's spouse? Of course not! That would be murder. That would be adultery. But partiality and lack of mercy is also a breech of God's commandments. Have we failed in this? Our only hope is God's mercy for us in Christ.

Put the Word to Work: James writes, “So speak and so act.” Our conviction that mercy triumphs over judgment must restrain and inform our speech and our lives. Our faith demands that we care for those that we might have once scorned as beneath us. But where are they?

By mercy found, now I will find the poor.