Trailblazin Ministries

Favoritism: Part 2 - James 2:2-3

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, 14 August 2007

When we left last time, we were starting to take a look at the issue of favoritism creeping into the church and the lives of believers. We started off with James telling his readers very plainly that they should not be showing any kind of partiality, as a believer in the faith of Jesus Christ. We took a little time to see just how impartial the ministry of Jesus Christ was, and went on to show how this is to be the mark of any true follower of Jesus. Basically, if Jesus didn't do it, then why should we? In the passage that we're going to look at today, we are going to see an illustration of partiality put into action in a church setting. For many who have been in church for any significant amount of time, they have undoubtedly seen this kind of behavior take place, much to Christ's dissatisfaction. Let's begin by taking a look at our passage for today in James 2:2-3.

James 2:2-3 (NASB) - 2 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,3 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,"

Okay, so here's the picture: a rich man and a poor man enter the assembly, and the rich man with his fine clothing gets preferential treatment (basically getting a front row seat), while the poor man is relegated to the demeaning status of either standing or sitting on the dusty floor. In a modern context, we see this kind of thing happening all the time. When a homeless person comes into the church, most people choose to not pay any attention to them, avoid them altogether, and/or seat them in the back of the church where they are out of sight for most to see. On the other hand, let a famous preacher, politician, musician/singer, or prominent business person come in, and we immediately surround them with all kinds of attention; often times, we even give them a seat on the front row, let them say a word or two, or even sit in the pulpit. You get the picture, the poor man gets treated like dirt and the rich man gets the royal treatment, all simply based upon external appearances.

Before we get further into the rich and poor man, I want to take a moment for us to look at some pertinent vocabulary, in regards to helping us further frame the context of this letter in terms of both its date and audience. If you notice in verse two, James uses the word "assembly" as the location that these men are entering into. This is very important for us to take note of. The word used here for assembly is synagōgē (Strong's #G4864), and is generally translated as "synagogue" (55 times) elsewhere in New Testament Scripture. This is in direct contrast to the Greek word ekklēsia (Strong's #G1577), which is generally translated as "church" (115 times and only 3 times as "assembly"). By the use of the of synagōgē, we can get an estimation that these Jewish converts were still fellowshipping and having their services in the Jewish synagogues; we cannot assume, however, that the word "church" wasn't a common occurrence at the time of this letter's writing, considering that it is used later in this letter (5:14). Again, the use of this vocabulary helps us to get a clearer picture of what was going on, which we will look at in further detail tomorrow.

Getting back to the rich and the poor man, we will spend the rest of today's study looking at more vocabulary and getting a picture of what this looked like in Bible times. We see first that the rich man is adorned in a gold ring and fine clothes. Starting with the man's ring, we see that it comes from the Greek word chrysodaktylios (Strong's #G5554) and literally means "gold-fingered," giving us an indication that this person was wearing multiple rings, as was the custom of the time for those who were wealthy and wanted to offer a visual display of such. What about his fine clothes? The word for that is lampros (Strong's #G2986) and can mean "bright, radiant, or magnificent." When this word is used elsewhere in Scripture it refers to the robe that was placed on Jesus by Herod and his soldiers (Luke 23:11), and also of an angel who appeared to Cornelius as he was praying (Acts 10:30). At the very least, we can see that this man is dressed very finely and is very wealthy, at least as indicated by his outward appearance. It is as a result of this fine dress that the believers in this assembly give this man all the best treatment, as if he were royalty, including the best seats that were generally in the front and were taken by the Pharisees and scribes of the day, as physical seating was very limited.

What about our poor man? We are told that he comes in dirty clothes. The word for "dirty" is rhyparos (Strong's #G4508) and can also mean "filthy or vile." If we use a bit of imagination, remembering biblical times, you could very easily picture a person who was smelly and unbathed, with dirty, worn, and tattered clothing. Knowing that cleanliness has always been desirable, it is understood that he would not have the opportunity to bathe very often, or even wash his clothing, which would presumably be of the cheapest variety. It is as a result of all of this that the poor man receives unthinkable treatment, as if he were the scum of the earth, per se; he is told to either stand (probably in the back, away from everyone else) or sit by someone's footstool. If you think about it, this is a very demeaning response to give to a visitor, homeless or not. You are telling them that they either have to stand in the back or sit on the dirt floor, and that they aren't even good enough to sit on a footstool (a double insult). Why is it a doubled sign of disrespect? Because the person saying this is not willing to give up his seat or even his footstool for a visitor!

That is the picture I want to leave you with today; the poor person left to sit on the floor, beside someone who won't even give up something that their feet is resting on. Take some time to think about that today; is that the way a Christian should be acting towards someone? Certainly not! So, just let that marinate in your spirit today, and let the Word of God convict and change you if you are characterized by these actions. Tomorrow, we're going to deviate a bit from the actual text of James and look at Acts to pull in some history and understanding to help further clarify this picture; this is a necessary step because we know that there had to be a reason for James to write this, and it is something that we are able to see in Luke's historical narrative on the early church. Until tomorrow, walk in the Light!