Friday, August 1, 2008

"Do not hold the faith … with partiality"

Continuing in our study of James, the author next addresses the subject of partiality. In their assemblies, men with "gold rings, in fine apparel" and men "in filthy clothes" (James 2:2) were coming in. This is not an unusual demographic for God's people. Still today people from diverse economic backgrounds come to worship God. The gospel is for all. James does not bring up these things to discuss the two types of men coming into their assemblies, but rather how these men are received.

The Christians had begun to "pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'You sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or, 'Sit here at my footstool'" (James 2:3). This is something that still exists in our assemblies today. Some people's "Sunday best" are not as good as others. The seats of honor no longer exist, but often those who do not look as nice as everyone else are not asked to wait on the Lord's Supper or to lead prayers, etc. Outward appearance, provided the person is modest, should not be a factor.

God shows no partiality (cf. Romans 2:11). God is perfectly just. He rewards those who do His will and punishes those who do not without any regard to anything other than His Word and their obedience to it. This lesson was learned the hard way by Jonah.

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down to it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord" (Jonah 1:1-3). Jonah fled because he did not want to preach repentance to those in Nineveh. Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria, the enemy of the Israelites. As we read through the account, Jonah eventually does go and preach to those in Nineveh. The entire city repented and dressed in sackcloth and ashes. This displeased Jonah and made him very angry (Jonah 4:1-3)! Jonah did not want them to repent and obtain forgiveness. They were his enemies! God taught Jonah the same lesson we must learn from James 2: not to show partiality with God's word.

Sometimes when we are taking the gospel to the world we show partiality. As we pass by our fellow man we pick and choose those whom we talk to. Often we only talk to those we are most comfortable with, people from similar backgrounds, ethnicity, culture, etc. In the parable of the soils we find four kinds of soil: wayside, thorny, stony, and good. As we read this parable let us take note that the sower did not stop and try to discover the type of soil on which he was sowing; he just sowed the seed. From reading the parable in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 18, the only deference between the soils is the end result. The birds only came and ate the seed after the seed was sown, the thorns grew up around the plant, and the stone was buried below the surface and could not be seen from above the soil. All four of the soils would have looked identical upon first glance. With time and application of the seed, the soils revealed their characteristics. The same should be applied to teaching God's word.

Upon first seeing someone, no judgments can be made. No one can look at anyone else and read their heart. We must take the word to everyone. With time and the introduction of the seed, we can tell what type of soil the person is, but it takes effort and time to find this out. Only with time can the cares of this world snatch the seed from one's heart, choke them spiritually, zeal to wear off, or hopefully, roots to take hold and that person blossom. Each individual and God are the only ones that can determine the results of the word in their lives.

God promises that His word, "shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). As Paul wrote concerning his and Apollos' teachings, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). Let us all be zealous and take the word to the world without worry of the type of soil the person may be! May we all use God's righteous judgment when it comes to dealing with others and not stereotype them and destroy our souls.

Jeremy Ferguson

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