James 2 - Worldly FavouritismSýnishorn

Christ’s glory and our glory

The reason we are to avoid favouritism toward the rich is that we believe in the “glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” We believe in the one whom God has exalted to his majestic right hand. When we truly know this, all criteria for measuring our relative glory vanish. Christians should know better than to measure their relative importance when meeting in the presence of Jesus Christ. ‘Gold rings’ and ‘shabby clothes’ are meaningless compared to the riches of Christ’s majesty.

Wealth at the expense of relationships

A wealthy man comes into church and is shown a good seat; a poor man enters the building and is told to sit on the floor. The ‘good seat’ mentioned in verse 3 is not the seat with the best view (like the box seat at football); it is one of the ‘seats of honour’ reserved for people of higher social standing. Christian congregations must not emulate the world in this way. They must avoid all such worldly pollution.

James’ assessment of favouritism is pretty strong: “have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (2:4). We tend to reserve the word ‘evil’ for really, really bad people; not for those who just favour the rich. But, for James, few things are more repulsive than valuing wealth at the expense of relationships. And ‘favouritism’ is an example of just that. 

The irony of mistreating the poor

The first rhetorical question about God choosing the poor to inherit the kingdom almost certainly is reflecting on the words of Jesus: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” (Luke 6:20). With a few notable exceptions, the first Christians came from among the relatively poor—the artisans, farmers, fishermen and so on. God chose to reach the world from the bottom up. How ironic, then, that believers would favour the rich and “insult the poor” (verse 6).

The irony continues through verses 6-7 as James points out that it is the rich who were exploiting Christians, dragging them into court and slandering the name of Jesus. Favouring the rich, then, is just plain ridiculous as well as being evil.

Favouritism today

In our culture we are always showing “special attention” to the wealthy and well-dressed. Open any page of any lifestyle magazine—it is the rich and famous that we admire and aspire to. Consider the social platform contemporary society gives to musicians, actors and sport-stars. 

The issue raised by James cuts to the heart of what it means to believe in “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” Some people are wealthier, more educated, better dressed and generally more impressive than others. But as soon as we understand Christ’s majesty over all, and begin to view the world from that lofty perspective, making distinctions based on wealth or clothes or status—or anything else—becomes farcical and a betrayal of the only truly Glorious One.