Trailblazin Ministries

Favoritism: Part 1 - James 2:1

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Wednesday, 08 August 2007

As I stated in our overview of James 2, this chapter is a continuation of the point that James was making in the last two verses of the first chapter. In those two verses, James was making a distinction between what it means for us to have a worthless religion versus having one that is pure and perfect. This train of thought is carried over into chapter two as James now begins to further define the contrast between the two types of religion; he begins by first looking at the issue of favoritism. Let us start our multi-part study on favoritism by looking at James 2:1.

James 2:1 (NASB95) - 1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

In this verse, James gives us the thesis for the first half of this second chapter: as believers, we are not to have or maintain an attitude of favoritism. This is is the subject that we will spend the next couple weeks looking at as we slowly develop what it means for us to have this kind of attitude, how we acquire it, and ultimately how we are able to overcome it by looking at the Scriptures. As always, there is more to this opening verse than simply meets the eye, so let us begin to break it down piece by piece and get a working understanding of what we are dealing with here.

For starters, James again addresses his audience as "my brethren," which reaffirms that they are fellow believers in Jesus Christ, instead of a group of unbelievers. This is an important distinction for us to make, because this becomes applicable to us, as well, because we also fit into that audience of those who are believers in Jesus Christ. This is not to say that we merely interject ourselves into the text, but what is being spoken here is practical truth that can be applied in the life of any and every Christian, both in antiquity and our modern age. With a reaffirmed knowledge of the audience, we can move forward to the next piece of this verse.

The next phrase that we want to take a closer look at is "your faith." You see, there are several different kinds of faith mentioned in the Scriptures, therefore it is important for us to make a distinction between them and figure out which one we are talking about. When we look at this passage in its context, we realize immediately that James is not speaking of the saving faith of salvation. How do we know that? First, we go back to the audience, which is a group of believers, and also knowing that we have eternal security and are unable to undo the saving work of God in our lives. After a bit more deduction, we realize that what James is speaking about when he says "your faith" is the Christian faith as a whole; in other words, he is referring to our entire belief system of Christianity, which is the faith.

Now, this is the faith of "our glorious Lord Jesus Christ," of which James further elaborates on with the rest of this verse. Knowing that we are dealing with the issue of favoritism or partiality, Jesus Christ is important for us to make note of. In every way possible, it was Jesus Christ who was the most impartial person who ever walked the face of this earth; and if we are walking in His faith, then we are expected to do the same. And since we know that Jesus is God, we are able to pull out more than a handful of Scriptures that show us how God is impartial towards man, both in blessings and judgment. For instance, we can take a look at Romans 2:11; Colossians 3:25; 1 Peter 1:17; or Acts 11:17, all of which give us a clear picture of just how impartial God is. With Jesus we see that His genealogy was both great (Abraham, David, etc.) and lowly (Rahab, Ruth, etc.); even His entire ministry was all about impartiality as He ministered to everyone, including those in Galilee and Samaria. The ministry of Jesus Christ is the firming cement that solidifies our faith and gives us the indication that this is the characteristic of pure Christianity.

The final aspect that we want to take a look at today is the word "favoritism." For this, we want to take a look at the Greek first, and we see that it is the word prosōpolēmpsia (Strong's #G4382) and literally means "respect of persons" or "favoritism/partiality." A further study on this word and its root shows us that it refers to raising someone's face or elevating a person, especially based upon an external and superficial basis (i.e. appearance, race, wealth, or social status). At its heart, that is what this passage is all about, which we will see as we get further along in our study.

It is commonplace for us to base our own personal biases and show partiality towards someone based upon these prejudices we have, and that is very far from what Christianity is all about. Thus, this is what James is saying in this verse; he is telling us that a true Christian should be known by their equal treatment of people, regardless of who they are or their status. This was one of the defining characteristics of Jesus' ministry, and it should be for us as well. I will be honest and say that it is not an easy task to accomplish, but if we are to have that pure religion of James 1:27, then this is the kind of faith that we need to have and esteem. Again, to summarize this verse: Christians should treat everyone equally, and not show favoritism. Tomorrow, we will dive into this more as James gives us an illustration of how this is played out in the church and in our lives. Until then, meditate on His Word and glory in His presence!