Chapter 2
Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Favouritism Forbidden
1-4. My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Questions:
- What actually is favouritism and partiality?
- What is the problem with this?
- Why does faith in Christ preclude partiality? Galations 3: 26-28
- What example of partiality does James give?
Commentary:
Distorted sense of reality.
God’s chosen poor
5-7. Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
Questions:
- How does God view the rich and poor?
- Why the seeming preference for the poor?
- How can they lead others to God? Clear dependence on God. No self-sufficiency.
- What did Jesus say about this? Matthew 25:31-46
Commentary:
The Royal Law
8-13 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Questions:
- What is this “royal law”? Why “royal”? It is the law of the New Covenant given by the King of Kings (sermon on the mount) Matthew 22:37-40
- Why is partiality a sin against the royal law of love?
- What else is required of us?
- How does this relate to partiality? Matthew 6:14-15; 18:21-35
Faith & Deeds
14-19. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
Questions:
- What is the central message of James? Verses 14, 17, 18, 20, 26
- How would you describe the faith here? Intellectual, dead, incomplete
- What did Jesus say about faith and works? Matthew 7:21
- Is belief in one God enough? Deuteronomy 6:4 #1814-1815 A plant that is continually stripped of its leaves will die. So it is with faith apart from charity
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Questions:
- What is the challenge made here?
- What two examples of “living faith” does James give? Abraham (Israelite) and Rahab (Gentile)
- How was Abraham’s faith made complete?
- Abraham was called “the friend of God”. When are we considered JEsus’ friends? John 15:14
- How was Rahab’s faith made complete? Hebrews 11:31
- Explain the analogy