Favoritism (Part 4 of 6)

People with large bank accounts often get special privileges.

That's nothing new. It's been going on since biblical times. But what constitutes true wealth and what should our response to that be?

We're exploring the answer to these questions today with Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We're in the first seven verses of James chapter two. You don't have to go too far back in Anglicanism in the British Isles to find the situation where the wealthy in a parish paid an annual rent so as to secure a well-placed seat in the church. That seat or that pew often came with its own door and with its own key, so as to prevent anybody from sitting in Mrs. Jenkins' pew. After all, the rich who had secured their riches by whatever means were entitled, so it was thought, to that kind of thing. Those who were not wealthy, those for whom finances were insufficient, had to content themselves with finding a spot in the open seating.

In fact, the seating was identified in the parish churches as free seating. It's not very nice, but that's exactly how it would be. Or you say, well, we're a long way from there, far away from England and far away from that time. You won't run into anything like that over here in America. Oh, will you not? Will you not?

Why have you been walking around with your eyes closed? And some of us actually think we own the pew that we sit in every single Sunday. Some of you would like to have a door on the end of your pew.

In fact, the depth of your depravity is coming out in that, as I describe this situation, you're saying, now that's the kind of thing that we ought to adopt here at Parkside Church. Well, we may not have seen that, but I think most of us have seen the appointment of leadership in churches, not on account of wisdom, but on account of wealth. You see, money still does the talking far too loudly in Christian circles. Money still talks, and talks very loudly in Christian circles. And where it does, and when it does, the glory of Christ will eventually depart.

It will. The description, the illustration, and then he makes application of it. Verse 5.

And I won't take long on this. Listen, he says, my dear brothers, listen. And then he makes application of his illustration by means of three rhetorical questions.

Let me point them out to you without belaboring them at all. Question number one, he says, hasn't God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith? He says, I want you to listen, and I want you to think about this.

It's very, very important. Question number one, hasn't God chosen those who are poor in the world in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith? And of course, the answer to that rhetorical question is so clearly yes. We thought this morning about Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1, and we might equally well have gone to Mary's song in Luke chapter 1. As she sings of Jesus the Messiah, he has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. And there, in the Magnificat, we find the answer to the first of these rhetorical questions.

Hasn't God chosen those who are poor in the world in the eyes of the world? Now, we need to think this out, because it would appear extremely likely that James here is taking a leaf again from the teaching style of Jesus, his brother. I'm grateful to Mattia, again, my favorite Old Testament scholar, for so much of this insight.

Let me just make this clear to you. Luke chapter 14, don't look it up. Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said, If anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and his sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What? If anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his dad, hate his mom, hate his wife, hate his kids, hate his brothers and his sisters, hate himself, then he can't be my disciple. What does Jesus say? Is he really teaching there that we're supposed to hate our parents? No. That we're supposed to hate ourselves? No.

Or our siblings? No. What is he doing? He's employing a device in order to make a very strong point, isn't he? He's making it clear that devotion to him, Jesus as Lord, is of necessity in a class of its own. In fact, devotion to Jesus is to be so striking and so stirring that devotion to anyone else will appear almost like hatred by way of comparison. So in other words, in some situations where two sides of a truth exist, but one side outweighs the other, far outclasses the other, it merits stating it as if that was the only truth. In other words, we know from reading our Bibles that what James is saying here is generally true. It is not invariably true. Therefore, he is employing a device, a rhetorical device, a teaching device, and a device that Jesus himself used as his brother. Because when he says, isn't it the case that God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith? The answer is yes and no.

It's yes, generally, but not invariably. Because he chose Abraham, rich. Job, rich. Zacchaeus, rich. Levi, rich. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, rich. Joseph of Arimathea, rich. So you see what he's doing.

He's pressing and driving home a point by taking one side of it and stating it in a way that makes it so compelling in its impact. Because, as again we saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul is able to say, Not many of you were rich. The vast majority of society was poor. There were some who were rich.

There was no middle class. And so when a church assembly replicated society, it was inevitable that the preponderance of the assembly would be poor, and a few would be rich. Second question, isn't it the rich who are exploiting you and dragging you into court? And the answer to that, again, is this is generally the case, but not invariably so. James is now for a moment suggesting that the only litigation that was taking place, that the only animosity that was expressed was an animosity that came from people who were wealthy. But what he is pointing out is, and it is true in our culture, that it is only people who have access to finance who will be able to litigate things. That is why the poor and the downtrodden need public defenders.

That is why they need people within our culture who will be able to stand up and represent them, even though they do not have the finances themselves to go out and hire their own attorney in order to protect their own interests. And so when he asks the question, again, it is generally so. And of course, this isn't theoretical.

It's intensely practical. And we won't be tedious and go through the acts of the apostles, but we recognize that that is exactly what we find in acts, that where wealth is on the side of power, power and wealth combine to grind the poor into the dust. And the temptation is always for those in the position of power, wealth, and influence to treat in a disparaging way those who do not have the wherewithal to defend themselves. And so many of these Christian people were on the receiving end of that thing. Now, you see, of course, what he's doing here.

He's going to make the point in conclusion. If you know this to be true, how in the wide world can you treat poor people like this when they come into your church? If you know that's the case, if you know what God has done in relationship to the poor, and if you know what the rich have done in relationship to abuse and to litigation, and third rhetorical question and final rhetorical question, aren't they the ones who slander the noble name of Him to whom you belong? Aren't they the blasphemers? The taking of a name—and you see this in the Old Testament, for example, in the account of Jacob, I think it is—now I just have to look this up for myself. You can wait.

Yeah. Then he blessed Joseph and said, This is Jacob. May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys. Now listen. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth. You see, to be brought under the auspices or the influence of a name was to describe a relationship which was both permanent and personal and intimate. And James is saying to these believers, to whom he writes, Remember in Chronicles, if my people who are called by my name, they were first called Christians in Antioch.

And he says, Think about it. Isn't it true that God has largely taken those who are poor in the eyes of the world and made them rich in faith? This is the era of the real riches. And are these rich people and wealthy people not the ones who are involved in abuse and litigation? And are they not the ones who feel free to blaspheme the noble name under which you march, the banner under which you move? Bottom line, he says, in verse 6, You have insulted the poor. You have insulted the poor.

And how have they done so? By treating them in a disparaging manner, causing harm to them, to those upon whom God has set his love, those to whom you will notice he has promised his kingdom. Verse 5. And for the readers of this letter to even approximate what James describes in the illustration is to find themselves on the wrong side of the equation. Now, enough.

We must stop. The challenge in this—and we're not anywhere close to the center of the chapter yet—but the challenge in this section is unavoidable, isn't it? And the correction to our misplaced affection, to our misguided thinking, to our insulting behavior, is to, number one, consider how Jesus came from a position of unassailable wealth and glory and moved graciously, kindly, quickly, and consistently, reaching out to the poorest and the lowest. To consider also the basis upon which God chose to save those to whom James writes. He didn't set his love upon you. He writes in Deuteronomy 7, because you were the most significant group, because you were the largest group.

He set his love upon you because he loved you. In fact, he came and redeemed you from Egypt when you were, frankly, just a bunch of slaves. He came and redeemed the slaves out of Egypt. He didn't come and redeem the intelligentsia. He didn't come and redeem the ruling class. He came and redeemed those with broken backs and bloodied brows and hands that were worn by the responsibilities given to them by their captors. So the correction is to be found in considering the coming of Jesus and his approach to the poor, the approach of God in his choice in verse 5, and in consideration of true wealth and what it means to be his heirs. He has chosen us to inherit the kingdom, a kingdom that he's promised to those who love him. If we're kids of the kingdom, we're supposed to act like the king. And the king took off his crown and didn't show any airs and graces, and didn't hang around just with a certain group who fit his framework.

It's very challenging. I finished with a quote from an old hymn that was in my mind when I wrapped this up for two reasons. And this song goes like this. Some of you who are old, like me, will remember it. We don't sing these songs anymore, and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad at the moment. Please don't write to me about that. If you think it's good, I think it's good as well. If you think it's bad, I think it's bad as well. I think it's bad, I think it's bad as well.

I just don't have time for those kind of debates in my own mind. Down from his glory, ever-living story, my God and Savior came, and Jesus was his name, born in a manger to his own a stranger, a man of sorrows, tears, and agony. And the refrain goes, oh, how I love him, how I adore him, and so on. And one of the following stanzas contains the phrase, what condescension. What condescension that Christ would condescend to come down here. And when I think of that, it condemns me at every point when I'm tempted to ride my high horse.

Maybe you feel that way, too. Father, thank you that the Word of God is alive and so relevant to us as we try and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Help us not to get this wrong. Help us not to make misguided applications based on our own preferences. Help us not to create little escape hatches for ourselves that we can slide down and away. Help us to stand face-on to the full impact of your truth, both as individuals and as families, and certainly as a church family. Lord, forgive us for everyone whom we have wittingly or unwittingly offered a bad seat or no seat, metaphorically, if not literally. Those who have been turned away by the absence of our condescension, by the absence of humility, by the presence of values which owe more to our contemporary society than they owe to the convicting truth of the Bible. And help us as we go forward so that we can get it right, so that we might do better, so that we might increasingly become the kind of place where all who enter will be welcomed in the way that Jesus welcomed those among whom He moved, irrespective of social status, resources, intellect. Help us, Lord, we pray for Jesus' sake.

Amen. Progress. It tells the fictional story of a character named Christian who navigates a host of challenges on his way to the celestial city. Well, you may or may not know that the author of that book, John Bunyan, wrote a sequel to his story. It's called The Pilgrim's Progress, Part Two.

And in the sequel, a character named Christiana embarks on her own journey. And her story has recently been adapted for children in a book called Little Pilgrim's Big Journey, Part Two. This book follows the same storyline as Bunyan's sequel, but it uses simplified language that's perfect for young kids. This is a great book to share with school-aged children or grandchildren. They'll meet the same colorful characters that Bunyan created in the adult version. And the book is illustrated with beautiful, engaging, colorful pictures. Your kids will love it.

It comes as a hardback and even includes a companion coloring book. Request your copy of Little Pilgrim's Big Journey, Part Two, when you give a donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. Now we have been greatly encouraged at Truth for Life by the enthusiastic response to Alistair's daily devotional released at the end of last year. It's called Truth for Life, 365 Daily Devotions. The book offers a passage of scripture each day, followed by a commentary from Alistair that expounds on the passage.

Well, we thought you might enjoy hearing a sample from that book read by the author. Truth you can trust. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. John 17 17.

Post-enlightenment, rationalist, materialist culture has cooked up all sorts of enticing solutions to mankind's greatest questions and dilemmas. We're told that science has already delivered a death blow to religion, and any talk of God or the Bible is dismissed as a superstition of a bygone age. Christian faith is regarded as a leap into the dark, a leap into intellectual oblivion. One of the great challenges to faith in Christ then is whether we will take God at his word and be satisfied with what he says. In our cultural milieu, it's good for us to periodically ask ourselves, do I believe the Bible?

Am I actually prepared to trust what it says? We can have confidence in the testimony of Scripture for all kinds of reasons. We can consider the undeniable integrity of its manuscripts, its historical reliability down to the details of its claims, or even the way it has engendered faith across cultures for nearly 2,000 years.

But there's actually a reason that's even more fundamental than these or other defenses we could muster. The most essential reason we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture is because it is a necessary consequence of our submission to the lordship of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ believed the Bible, therefore, so do we. He acknowledged the authority of God's word, therefore, so do we. In his high priestly prayer on the night before he died, Jesus prayed to his father, sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.

Notice there are no qualifications here. According to Jesus, God's word simply is truth. So then, the pressing question becomes, do I believe Jesus? And if I believe Jesus, then I believe the words Jesus spoke. Therefore, I accept what he taught about the Scriptures. Therefore, I embrace the Bible just as he did. If you have tasted and seen the goodness of Jesus Christ, then refresh your resolve to cherish God's word daily. In our confused and conflicted world, nothing will steady your life like the truth of the Scriptures. Doubtless, some will try to convince you that embracing the Bible is equivalent to taking a blind leap into the dark.

But the truth is that when you read the Scriptures in faith that it is God's word and that every word is therefore true, you'll find it to be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. That's great. Thank you, Alistair. The book is available on our website for just $9. You can also subscribe and receive these devotions each day in your email inbox. Purchase a copy, sign up for the daily email at truthforlife.org slash 365. I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you can join us tomorrow. We'll be unpacking God's core principle that overrules our inclination to show favoritism. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.