The Law of Liberty • James 2:1-13
Notes
Church is different from any human institution on the planet, or should be.
It is a direct, visible, testimony to the existence of God. It shows that the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and raised Him from the dead three days later. The church testifies that Jesus is coming again to judge the world in righteousness, and to flee from the wrath to come.
How do you know that is all true? Because the church can do something that no other group of people in the world can do. We love one another and all men.
When love is not in a church it is a total disaster. James wants to make sure we avoid that.
So we are to take our own faith in Jesus and bring it into the church, not seeking our own pleasures and displeasures, but seeking God’s pleasure.
Let’s read in James 2.
1. Faith in Jesus and personal favouritism cannot exist together in the church.
A. James here calls Jesus, “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory.” And he means that Jesus is the visible glory of God.
1. Jesus said when you see Me you have seen the Father.
2. He makes the invisible God visible to us. When you see Jesus you see how God acts, how He speaks. He visibly defines who God is.
B. When you see Jesus you see that God has no personal favouritism.
1. Favouritism is the unfair practice of accepting some people and excluding others. These people are useful to me, I like them. Include them in my group. But these people are useless to me, I don’t like them. Exclude them from my group, keep them out.
2. Look at the men that Jesus picked to be His twelve apostles and you realise that there is no personal favouritism there. He chose blue-collar workers, fishermen. He chose a tax collector, basically a traitor to his people, and rich. He also chose a radical political nationalist. All of them would naturally hated the tax collector. Then Jesus even chose a traitor, knowing he would betray Jesus. There’s no favouritism there.
C. When you look at the early church you see that they had to reject favouritism.
1. One example is from Acts 6 where the Grecian Jews noticed their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. What the apostles said to do was to choose seven men of good reputation and full of the Holy Spirit whom they could appoint to oversee this distribution. They chose men whose names were of Greek origin. They avoided favouritism.
2. Another example is Acts 10 & 11. The Holy Spirit arranged to have Peter preach the gospel to Gentiles. And the Gentiles believed and were filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter says, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears God and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” What a bombshell: God accepts everyone in the Gospel!
3. And that means everybody. Paul has a list of people God has accepted in Christ in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” God didn’t say, you’re all useless to Me! He said, “I want you and you and you. I can save the most lost person there is.”There is no partiality with God!
D. None of us are an advantage to God because we are all sinners, all useless, all fruitless. There is no one righteous, no, not one.
2. Favouritism is selfish and wicked because it is about me and who is most useful to me.
A. Rich men are useful to me, at least, they might be.
1. They wear nice clothes. Gold ring means disposable wealth.
2. This guy might turn out to be a good tither!
3. So we make a fuss over him. Give him a seat of honour! Maybe I can get a good relationship going with him. Maybe something good will come of it, his approval, some money, a good connection, some advantage to ME.
B. Poor men are not useful to me.
1. They wear dirty clothes and probably smell, too.
2. That is embarrassing to me. What if someone sees him with us and then says, “Oh, you associate with that?” Then that person brings down our value as a group. We are no longer fashionable, respectable.
C. James says I have become a wicked judge with evil motives.
1. Judges are supposed to be impartial. They are only supposed to look at the person on trial and look at the law and ask: did this person fulfil the law, or did they break it? Were the votes counted correctly, or were they falsified? The law doesn’t favour who wins and who loses, the judge must uphold what the law says.
2. But if a judge shows partiality, then he sets the law aside and decides on his own personal likes and dislikes. I like you, so I’ll say you won the election. I don’t like you so get out of here. That judge sworn to uphold the law has just destroyed the law. Law is no longer in effect. It’s just whoever has the power gets to do anything they want until they lose power. So the rule becomes, get power, maintain your power, get more power.
D. If a church allows partiality and personal favouritism then it destroys that church.
1. It becomes just like the world, because that’s how the world acts. If I judge that you are useful to me, you’re in. If you are not useful to me, then you are out. Who needs you?
2. There is no testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified, the risen Lord, who is coming again to judge the world.
3. Here is a reality check from James about poor people and rich people.
A. There are going to be a lot more poor people in the church.
1. Because God has chosen them to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.
2. Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
3. Paul explains God’s purpose in this. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.
4. That is, God deliberately chooses poor people, the things that are not, and saves them and enables them to do something that the rich, beautiful, intelligent, creative, cannot do. They can’t love one another. With all their brains, beauty and brawn, they can beat each other up, but they can’t lay down their lives for one another.
5. When you associate with the lowly, you find that they are humble and you can share with them. They have received the love of God, they have been accepted by God. So they accept others and love them as well. It is fabulous to be loved and accepted by a humble person. When you associate with the arrogant and the proud, you find they reject you because you are ordinary. Not worth hanging around. They are looking for the people who will lift them up, raise their level, make them seem better.
B. Another reality check from James is that rich people are nothing to expect anything from.
1. The rich are arrogant. They are used to getting their own way. I’ve got money, so I can do what I want. They can threaten going to court because a poor person can’t afford to defend himself. Maybe the rich man can control the judge as well.
2. This rich man’s attitude toward God stinks. He blasphemes the name of Jesus Christ, the glory of God.
3. Rich people are not going to heaven. Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. A rich man asked Jesus what do I do to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, sell all you have, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me. And the rich man said, “No.” He disobeys Jesus but he obeys his wealth. Rich people are idolaters. They worship wealth, and you can’t serve wealth and God.
4. James’s attitude is, why do you expect any good from a rich man? That’s a false place to put your expectation. Be rich in faith and dependence upon God. Be an heir of the kingdom that is coming.
4. James puts down wicked judges.
A. That royal law is most likely what Jesus said in Matthew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Do you want to be rejected? Then don’t reject anyone. Do you want to be loved and valued? Then love and value everyone. That is according to the scripture here: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
B. But if you are showing partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
1. You love some, but reject others. You don’t love everybody! You are breaking the royal law, in everything treat people the same way you want them to treat you.
2. Wicked judges think, hey, I haven’t committed adultery, I haven’t murdered anybody! I haven’t done anything wrong! I’m no sinner! I’m okay, just a few problems!
C. The principle here is that if you break one link in the chain of the law, doesn’t matter where, you have broken that chain, you have broken the law.
D. Here is the greatest link of the chain of the law, and everyone breaks it! You don’t treat everyone in the same way you want them to treat you! You love some and reject others. You break the royal law of love.
5. James upholds the royal law, and he calls it the law of liberty. We need to see what the law of liberty means.
A. The law of liberty is the gospel. The gospel sets you free from slavery to sin. Freedom means having nothing more to do with sin, judgment, and condemnation.
B. At the very same time you become free from sin you become a slave of righteousness. Now Jesus is the Lord of your life, not sin.
1. That is what Paul says in Romans 6:16-22 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
2. He teaches this again in Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
C. God created us as slaves.
1. A slave is one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another. Whatever happens in your life, you are a slave. That is your nature. Your will is going to be swallowed up in the will of another. There are only two possibilities. One is God, the other is sin.
2. The ultimate proof of this is Jesus. When the Son of God came into the world, Philippians 2:7 says that He took the form of a bondservant. A slave. He prayed, not My will but Yours be done. That is being a slave of righteousness. This is in the Old Testament. The Messiah is called the Servant of God.
D. The apostle Paul found that to be free from sin he had to become a slave of righteousness.. That’s all in Romans 7. He said, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! He would rather be a slave of righteousness than be a slave of sin.
6. If we uphold the law of liberty and are slaves of righteousness then we will show mercy, not favouritism.
A. This is a command: so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
B. We are not judges over others. We don’t look at people and pick the ones we like and reject the ones we don’t like. That’s breaking the law of liberty because that is sin.
C. We fulfil the law of liberty by depending upon Jesus to save us. He has freed us from sin and enslaved us to God. Our goal is no longer what pleases us, it’s what pleases God.
D. God wants mercy. We have been accepted by God, therefore we accept others in Christ. We’ve been shown mercy, therefore we show mercy.
E. Favouritism and partiality is merciless. Rejecting people that the Lord Jesus has accepted is sin. If we are merciless, then we will receive judgment without mercy for breaking the law of liberty. We used our liberty for evil and not for righteousness.
F. Mercy does triumph over judgment. Remember Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
7. So what?
A. The church is made up of people who understand that they are slaves of God. Do you understand that you have been freed from sin to become a slave of righteousness?
B. If you understand that, then you want to be pleasing to your Master. You are not a judge, you are under His judgment. It’s about pleasing Him, not yourself.
C. His will is forgiveness and mercy. Have you found mercy with God? Has He accepted you in Christ? Over and over and over again? Then Jesus wants you to turn around and have mercy on one another. Accept one another. Forgive your brother or your sister seventy times seven in a single day. If you show favouritism you stop it. You call it sin and ask Jesus to forgive you. Then when you have received mercy, you give mercy to those you have rejected. Accept them to the glory of God.
D. The church is not a group of people who compete to establish who is better than who. It is not proud, cliquish, arrogant, merciless.
E. The church is about love, acceptance, mercy. Each one esteems the others better than himself. There is unity and belonging. It is like being in heaven. That should be what we are like.
F. That means that anyone walking into our church should be able to see God, because they see people who do what only God can do. Then they know that Jesus is real. That’s what God wants.
Let’s pray.