Pressure Points - October 5
Sermon Overview
Favoritism: The Sin We Overlook
James isn't writing to help us win Bible trivia contests. He cares deeply about us living out the truth we already know. As he famously says in James 1:22, we must "be doers of the Word, not hearers only." God doesn't want just a nodding head on Sunday; He wants a moving heart Monday through Saturday.
This brings us to an important question: What happens when the way we live doesn't match the faith we claim?
Why Does James Call Favoritism a Sin?
Early in his letter, James addresses something that might surprise us - favoritism. It seems small and harmless, but James calls it sin. Why? Because favoritism distorts the gospel.
Favoritism whispers that some people are worth more than others, while the cross of Christ declares everyone stands on equal ground. Simply put, favoritism is honoring status and dishonoring people. It's withholding love or honor based on shallow categories like appearance, wealth, influence, or status - none of which God uses to measure someone's worth.
What Does Favoritism Look Like in the Church?
In James 2:1-4, we see a vivid picture:
"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you 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,' have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"
Notice how James begins by calling Jesus "the Lord of Glory." This isn't accidental. He's reminding us that if we already have the favor of the Lord of Glory, why would we chase the favor of the wealthy or powerful? It would be like bowing down to a penny when you have a mountain of gold.
Favoritism not only mistreats people but downplays the majesty of Jesus by taking our eyes off Him.
How Is Favoritism Different from Discernment?
James isn't talking about approving of people's sin. He's addressing how we should posture our hearts toward people. Every person bears God's image and deserves to be treated with honor and respect, regardless of their actions, political beliefs, or other labels we might assign.
The gospel tension is this: How do we honor image-bearers without honoring their sin?
A Personal Story of Church Favoritism
I experienced this firsthand at a church my adoptive father pastored in Arkansas. As a fourth-grader, I invited neighborhood African American children to play on church property and invited my African American friend Antonio to church.
One evening, my father was called to a church meeting where leaders gave him an ultimatum: tell his son to stop letting African Americans play on church property and stop inviting them to church. My father, filled with the Holy Spirit, simply said, "You've made this an easy decision. Goodbye."
We left without having another job or home lined up, living in a travel trailer for six months. This is what favoritism in the church looks like, and it's not the gospel.
Why Does God Value Those the World Overlooks?
In James 2:5-7, we learn that the people the world pushes to the margins are often the first to realize they can't make it without God. They have nothing else to hold onto, so nothing gets in the way of their relationship with Him.
The poor and marginalized recognize "all I have is Jesus," and that dependent faith is priceless to God. James says God has chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom - not because poverty saves (salvation is always by grace through faith in Christ), but because their humble dependence positions them to faithfully walk with Him.
God's Pattern of Using the Overlooked
This is God's pattern throughout Scripture:
Why Is Favoritism Breaking God's Law?
James goes deeper in verses 8-12, explaining that favoritism breaks the "royal law" - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This command comes from the King himself and sums up the entire law along with loving God.
If you show partiality, you are convicted as a lawbreaker. James puts favoritism in the same category as adultery and murder because God's law is whole - break any part, and you've broken all of it.
But there's hope! The same Judge who declares us guilty is also the Savior who takes our penalty and declares mercy over us.
How Does Mercy Triumph Over Judgment?
James concludes in verse 13: "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment."
This isn't about losing salvation but about evaluation at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). There, believers will answer for how they represented Christ with the freedom He purchased. If we live without mercy here, we shouldn't expect it there.
Mercy doesn't whisper - it shouts! Our God delights in mercy (Micah 7:18), is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), and His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
What Is Mercy?
Mercy is never deserved. It takes what should happen and does the opposite. Throughout Scripture, we see God's mercy:
We live in a world addicted to labeling people, but the church should be where labels go to die. If mercy has reached you, it must now flow through you.
When you remember the mercy God poured out on you - the shame He covered, the judgment He lifted, the welcome He gave - you'll start to see everyone through that same lens. No one is beyond God's mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
This week, examine your heart for favoritism:
James isn't writing to help us win Bible trivia contests. He cares deeply about us living out the truth we already know. As he famously says in James 1:22, we must "be doers of the Word, not hearers only." God doesn't want just a nodding head on Sunday; He wants a moving heart Monday through Saturday.
This brings us to an important question: What happens when the way we live doesn't match the faith we claim?
Why Does James Call Favoritism a Sin?
Early in his letter, James addresses something that might surprise us - favoritism. It seems small and harmless, but James calls it sin. Why? Because favoritism distorts the gospel.
Favoritism whispers that some people are worth more than others, while the cross of Christ declares everyone stands on equal ground. Simply put, favoritism is honoring status and dishonoring people. It's withholding love or honor based on shallow categories like appearance, wealth, influence, or status - none of which God uses to measure someone's worth.
What Does Favoritism Look Like in the Church?
In James 2:1-4, we see a vivid picture:
"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you 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,' have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"
Notice how James begins by calling Jesus "the Lord of Glory." This isn't accidental. He's reminding us that if we already have the favor of the Lord of Glory, why would we chase the favor of the wealthy or powerful? It would be like bowing down to a penny when you have a mountain of gold.
Favoritism not only mistreats people but downplays the majesty of Jesus by taking our eyes off Him.
How Is Favoritism Different from Discernment?
James isn't talking about approving of people's sin. He's addressing how we should posture our hearts toward people. Every person bears God's image and deserves to be treated with honor and respect, regardless of their actions, political beliefs, or other labels we might assign.
The gospel tension is this: How do we honor image-bearers without honoring their sin?
A Personal Story of Church Favoritism
I experienced this firsthand at a church my adoptive father pastored in Arkansas. As a fourth-grader, I invited neighborhood African American children to play on church property and invited my African American friend Antonio to church.
One evening, my father was called to a church meeting where leaders gave him an ultimatum: tell his son to stop letting African Americans play on church property and stop inviting them to church. My father, filled with the Holy Spirit, simply said, "You've made this an easy decision. Goodbye."
We left without having another job or home lined up, living in a travel trailer for six months. This is what favoritism in the church looks like, and it's not the gospel.
Why Does God Value Those the World Overlooks?
In James 2:5-7, we learn that the people the world pushes to the margins are often the first to realize they can't make it without God. They have nothing else to hold onto, so nothing gets in the way of their relationship with Him.
The poor and marginalized recognize "all I have is Jesus," and that dependent faith is priceless to God. James says God has chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom - not because poverty saves (salvation is always by grace through faith in Christ), but because their humble dependence positions them to faithfully walk with Him.
God's Pattern of Using the Overlooked
This is God's pattern throughout Scripture:
- King David: The overlooked shepherd boy chosen over his impressive brothers
- Zacchaeus: The despised tax collector who became a generous follower
- The Samaritan woman: A social outcast who became the first evangelist in her village
- The disciples: Fishermen and tax collectors who built God's kingdom
- Jesus himself: Born in backwater Nazareth to a teenage girl
Why Is Favoritism Breaking God's Law?
James goes deeper in verses 8-12, explaining that favoritism breaks the "royal law" - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This command comes from the King himself and sums up the entire law along with loving God.
If you show partiality, you are convicted as a lawbreaker. James puts favoritism in the same category as adultery and murder because God's law is whole - break any part, and you've broken all of it.
But there's hope! The same Judge who declares us guilty is also the Savior who takes our penalty and declares mercy over us.
How Does Mercy Triumph Over Judgment?
James concludes in verse 13: "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment."
This isn't about losing salvation but about evaluation at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). There, believers will answer for how they represented Christ with the freedom He purchased. If we live without mercy here, we shouldn't expect it there.
Mercy doesn't whisper - it shouts! Our God delights in mercy (Micah 7:18), is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), and His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
What Is Mercy?
Mercy is never deserved. It takes what should happen and does the opposite. Throughout Scripture, we see God's mercy:
- Clothing Adam and Eve after they sinned
- Jesus touching lepers when everyone else ran away
- The father running to the prodigal son
- Jesus restoring Peter after his denials
- Christ dying in our place so we could be free
We live in a world addicted to labeling people, but the church should be where labels go to die. If mercy has reached you, it must now flow through you.
When you remember the mercy God poured out on you - the shame He covered, the judgment He lifted, the welcome He gave - you'll start to see everyone through that same lens. No one is beyond God's mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
This week, examine your heart for favoritism:
- Who do you overlook in your workplace, neighborhood, or church?
- Are there people you avoid because they can't benefit you?
- Do you treat people differently based on appearance, wealth, or status?
- How can you extend the same mercy to others that God has shown you?
Devo 1 – Living Out God's Word
Devotional
Have you ever found yourself nodding along to a sermon or Bible study, only to walk out the door and continue life unchanged? It's easy to collect biblical knowledge without allowing it to transform our daily lives. James challenges us to move beyond mere intellectual agreement to active obedience. God's Word isn't meant to be a collection of interesting facts or theological concepts we mentally file away. It's meant to be lived out—to change how we treat others, how we make decisions, and how we view the world around us. When we only listen to God's Word without putting it into practice, we deceive ourselves into thinking we're growing spiritually when we're actually standing still. True spiritual maturity isn't measured by how much Scripture you can quote, but by how faithfully you apply what you know. The transformation happens not just on Sunday mornings but in Monday meetings, Tuesday errands, and everyday interactions. God's truth is meant to be experienced, not just understood.
Bible Verse
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22
Reflection Question
What is one truth from God's Word that you've heard repeatedly but haven't fully applied to your life? What specific action could you take this week to begin living it out?
Quote
James isn't writing some information so you can win a Bible trivia contest. Like, good for you. If you win one, that's awesome. James cares a lot more about you actually living out the information you are already or you already have. He cares more about you experiencing the truth of God's Word than just simply knowing it.
Prayer
Lord, forgive me for the times I've been content with just knowing Your Word without letting it change me. Help me to be not just a hearer but a doer. Transform my heart so that Your truth flows into my everyday actions. Amen.
Have you ever found yourself nodding along to a sermon or Bible study, only to walk out the door and continue life unchanged? It's easy to collect biblical knowledge without allowing it to transform our daily lives. James challenges us to move beyond mere intellectual agreement to active obedience. God's Word isn't meant to be a collection of interesting facts or theological concepts we mentally file away. It's meant to be lived out—to change how we treat others, how we make decisions, and how we view the world around us. When we only listen to God's Word without putting it into practice, we deceive ourselves into thinking we're growing spiritually when we're actually standing still. True spiritual maturity isn't measured by how much Scripture you can quote, but by how faithfully you apply what you know. The transformation happens not just on Sunday mornings but in Monday meetings, Tuesday errands, and everyday interactions. God's truth is meant to be experienced, not just understood.
Bible Verse
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22
Reflection Question
What is one truth from God's Word that you've heard repeatedly but haven't fully applied to your life? What specific action could you take this week to begin living it out?
Quote
James isn't writing some information so you can win a Bible trivia contest. Like, good for you. If you win one, that's awesome. James cares a lot more about you actually living out the information you are already or you already have. He cares more about you experiencing the truth of God's Word than just simply knowing it.
Prayer
Lord, forgive me for the times I've been content with just knowing Your Word without letting it change me. Help me to be not just a hearer but a doer. Transform my heart so that Your truth flows into my everyday actions. Amen.
Devo 2 – The Sin of Showing Favoritism
Devotional
We all have biases—often unconscious ones—about who deserves our attention, respect, and time. Maybe we're drawn to people who dress well, speak eloquently, or have impressive job titles. Perhaps we give preferential treatment to those who can benefit us in some way. James confronts this tendency head-on, calling out favoritism as incompatible with faith in Jesus. When we show partiality based on external factors like wealth or status, we contradict the very gospel we claim to believe. At the cross, everyone stands equal—the CEO and the janitor, the influencer and the unknown, the wealthy and the struggling. Favoritism essentially says some people are worth more than others, which directly opposes the message of Christ who died for all. It honors status while dishonoring the image of God in each person. When we extend warmth to those who can enhance our reputation but coldness to those who can't, we're not reflecting the heart of Jesus who touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, and spoke with social outcasts. God never measures people by their appearance, wealth, or influence—so why do we?
Bible Verse
"My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism." - James 2:1
Reflection Question
In what situations do you find yourself most tempted to show favoritism? How might recognizing the equal worth of all people in God's eyes change your interactions this week?
Quote
Favoritism distorts the Gospel. See, favoritism whispers some people are worth more than others. But we know the cross of Christ says everyone's on equal playing field.
Prayer
Father, reveal to me the ways I show favoritism without even realizing it. Help me to see others as You see them—equally valuable and worthy of love and respect. May I honor You by honoring all people regardless of what they can offer me. Amen.
We all have biases—often unconscious ones—about who deserves our attention, respect, and time. Maybe we're drawn to people who dress well, speak eloquently, or have impressive job titles. Perhaps we give preferential treatment to those who can benefit us in some way. James confronts this tendency head-on, calling out favoritism as incompatible with faith in Jesus. When we show partiality based on external factors like wealth or status, we contradict the very gospel we claim to believe. At the cross, everyone stands equal—the CEO and the janitor, the influencer and the unknown, the wealthy and the struggling. Favoritism essentially says some people are worth more than others, which directly opposes the message of Christ who died for all. It honors status while dishonoring the image of God in each person. When we extend warmth to those who can enhance our reputation but coldness to those who can't, we're not reflecting the heart of Jesus who touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, and spoke with social outcasts. God never measures people by their appearance, wealth, or influence—so why do we?
Bible Verse
"My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism." - James 2:1
Reflection Question
In what situations do you find yourself most tempted to show favoritism? How might recognizing the equal worth of all people in God's eyes change your interactions this week?
Quote
Favoritism distorts the Gospel. See, favoritism whispers some people are worth more than others. But we know the cross of Christ says everyone's on equal playing field.
Prayer
Father, reveal to me the ways I show favoritism without even realizing it. Help me to see others as You see them—equally valuable and worthy of love and respect. May I honor You by honoring all people regardless of what they can offer me. Amen.
Devo 3 – God's Upside-Down Kingdom
Devotional
Our world operates on a clear hierarchy: the wealthy, powerful, and influential receive the most attention and respect. We're naturally drawn to those who have achieved success by worldly standards. But God's kingdom functions differently—almost like an upside-down version of our world. James reminds us that God often chooses those the world overlooks. Throughout Scripture, we see this pattern: David was the overlooked shepherd boy before becoming king. Jesus' disciples weren't religious elites but ordinary fishermen. The poor widow's small offering was valued above the rich man's abundance. Why does God operate this way? Perhaps because those on the margins—those without wealth, status, or power to rely on—often recognize their need for God more readily. When you have nothing else to hold onto, you grasp God's hand more tightly. This doesn't mean wealth or success are inherently bad. Rather, it's a reminder that God's value system differs radically from ours. While we chase crowns—status, recognition, and applause—God values those who chase crosses—humility, sacrifice, and selfless love. The world dismisses certain people, but God delights in using them for His glory.
Bible Verse
"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?" - James 2:5
Reflection Question
In what ways have you been pursuing worldly crowns rather than carrying your cross? How might God be calling you to embrace the upside-down values of His kingdom?
Quote
The world chases crowns. This is what we do. We chase status, we chase wealth, we chase recognition. I'm not saying those things are bad, but God values people who chase crosses. God values people who have humility, who sacrifice, who love and love by putting Their life, even down if needed.
Prayer
God, forgive me for being captivated by the world's value system. Help me to see worth where You see it—in humility, faithfulness, and love. Use me in Your kingdom, not because of my status but because of my surrender to You. Amen.
Our world operates on a clear hierarchy: the wealthy, powerful, and influential receive the most attention and respect. We're naturally drawn to those who have achieved success by worldly standards. But God's kingdom functions differently—almost like an upside-down version of our world. James reminds us that God often chooses those the world overlooks. Throughout Scripture, we see this pattern: David was the overlooked shepherd boy before becoming king. Jesus' disciples weren't religious elites but ordinary fishermen. The poor widow's small offering was valued above the rich man's abundance. Why does God operate this way? Perhaps because those on the margins—those without wealth, status, or power to rely on—often recognize their need for God more readily. When you have nothing else to hold onto, you grasp God's hand more tightly. This doesn't mean wealth or success are inherently bad. Rather, it's a reminder that God's value system differs radically from ours. While we chase crowns—status, recognition, and applause—God values those who chase crosses—humility, sacrifice, and selfless love. The world dismisses certain people, but God delights in using them for His glory.
Bible Verse
"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?" - James 2:5
Reflection Question
In what ways have you been pursuing worldly crowns rather than carrying your cross? How might God be calling you to embrace the upside-down values of His kingdom?
Quote
The world chases crowns. This is what we do. We chase status, we chase wealth, we chase recognition. I'm not saying those things are bad, but God values people who chase crosses. God values people who have humility, who sacrifice, who love and love by putting Their life, even down if needed.
Prayer
God, forgive me for being captivated by the world's value system. Help me to see worth where You see it—in humility, faithfulness, and love. Use me in Your kingdom, not because of my status but because of my surrender to You. Amen.
Devo 4 – Breaking the Royal Law
Devotional
We often categorize sins, don't we? Some seem minor—white lies, gossip, or showing favoritism—while others feel major. But James challenges this thinking by reminding us that breaking any part of God's law makes us lawbreakers. The "royal law" to love your neighbor as yourself summarizes how we should treat others. When we show favoritism, we're not loving our neighbors equally. We're picking and choosing who deserves our love based on what they can offer us rather than on their inherent worth as God's creation. This perspective is sobering. It means we can't dismiss favoritism as a small issue or cultural norm. In God's eyes, it makes us guilty of breaking His law just as surely as more "obvious" sins would. But there's hope. James reminds us that we'll be judged by the "law that gives freedom." This isn't about living in fear of judgment but understanding that God's standards reveal our need for mercy. And wonderfully, God is rich in mercy. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve but offers forgiveness and a fresh start through Christ.
Bible Verse
"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." - James 2:8-9
Reflection Question
How does recognizing favoritism as a serious sin change your perspective? In what specific relationship or situation do you need to begin loving more impartially?
Quote
The gospel doesn't give us room to honor one group and despise another. No room in the gospel for that.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I confess that I've often dismissed favoritism as unimportant while focusing on other sins. Thank You for Your mercy that covers all my failures to love others as You love them. Help me to extend the same mercy to everyone I encounter. Amen.
We often categorize sins, don't we? Some seem minor—white lies, gossip, or showing favoritism—while others feel major. But James challenges this thinking by reminding us that breaking any part of God's law makes us lawbreakers. The "royal law" to love your neighbor as yourself summarizes how we should treat others. When we show favoritism, we're not loving our neighbors equally. We're picking and choosing who deserves our love based on what they can offer us rather than on their inherent worth as God's creation. This perspective is sobering. It means we can't dismiss favoritism as a small issue or cultural norm. In God's eyes, it makes us guilty of breaking His law just as surely as more "obvious" sins would. But there's hope. James reminds us that we'll be judged by the "law that gives freedom." This isn't about living in fear of judgment but understanding that God's standards reveal our need for mercy. And wonderfully, God is rich in mercy. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve but offers forgiveness and a fresh start through Christ.
Bible Verse
"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." - James 2:8-9
Reflection Question
How does recognizing favoritism as a serious sin change your perspective? In what specific relationship or situation do you need to begin loving more impartially?
Quote
The gospel doesn't give us room to honor one group and despise another. No room in the gospel for that.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I confess that I've often dismissed favoritism as unimportant while focusing on other sins. Thank You for Your mercy that covers all my failures to love others as You love them. Help me to extend the same mercy to everyone I encounter. Amen.
Devo 5 – Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
Devotional
In a world quick to judge and slow to forgive, mercy stands out like a beacon of hope. James concludes his teaching on favoritism with a powerful truth: "Mercy triumphs over judgment." This isn't just a nice sentiment—it's the heart of the gospel. Mercy is never deserved. It takes what should happen—judgment—and replaces it with unmerited kindness. Throughout Scripture, we see God's mercy in action: clothing Adam and Eve after their sin, providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac, Jesus touching lepers when others ran away, and ultimately, Christ dying in our place. When we truly grasp the mercy we've received—the shame covered, the judgment lifted, the welcome given despite our unworthiness—it transforms how we see others. No one is beyond God's mercy, which means no one should be beneath our love. In a culture addicted to labeling and categorizing people, the church should be different. We should be a community where labels go to die and mercy flows freely. Not because people deserve it, but because we didn't deserve it either, yet received it abundantly. Let's be mercy people in a favoritism world, until everyone sees in us this beautiful truth: mercy triumphs over judgment.
Bible Verse
"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." - James 2:12-13
Reflection Question
Think of someone you've been quick to judge or label. How might viewing them through the lens of the mercy you've received from God change your attitude and actions toward them?
Quote
When you remember the mercy God poured out on you, the shame he covered, the judgment he lifted, the welcome he gave, then you'll start to see everyone else through that same lens. Because no one's beyond his mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
Prayer
Lord of Mercy, thank You for not giving me what I deserve but instead showing me boundless grace. Let Your mercy flow through me to others—especially those I find difficult to love. Make me an instrument of Your mercy in a world desperate for it. Amen.
In a world quick to judge and slow to forgive, mercy stands out like a beacon of hope. James concludes his teaching on favoritism with a powerful truth: "Mercy triumphs over judgment." This isn't just a nice sentiment—it's the heart of the gospel. Mercy is never deserved. It takes what should happen—judgment—and replaces it with unmerited kindness. Throughout Scripture, we see God's mercy in action: clothing Adam and Eve after their sin, providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac, Jesus touching lepers when others ran away, and ultimately, Christ dying in our place. When we truly grasp the mercy we've received—the shame covered, the judgment lifted, the welcome given despite our unworthiness—it transforms how we see others. No one is beyond God's mercy, which means no one should be beneath our love. In a culture addicted to labeling and categorizing people, the church should be different. We should be a community where labels go to die and mercy flows freely. Not because people deserve it, but because we didn't deserve it either, yet received it abundantly. Let's be mercy people in a favoritism world, until everyone sees in us this beautiful truth: mercy triumphs over judgment.
Bible Verse
"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." - James 2:12-13
Reflection Question
Think of someone you've been quick to judge or label. How might viewing them through the lens of the mercy you've received from God change your attitude and actions toward them?
Quote
When you remember the mercy God poured out on you, the shame he covered, the judgment he lifted, the welcome he gave, then you'll start to see everyone else through that same lens. Because no one's beyond his mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
Prayer
Lord of Mercy, thank You for not giving me what I deserve but instead showing me boundless grace. Let Your mercy flow through me to others—especially those I find difficult to love. Make me an instrument of Your mercy in a world desperate for it. Amen.
Transcript
Welcome
Let me welcome you to church this morning. My name is Michael. I'm one of the pastors and I'm just so grateful you're here. Especially if you're a visitor or a guest. Um, and even if you're not a visitor, guest, you've been here for a while, I just want you to know the Lord knew you were going to be here today and he wants you to be here today.
See, here's what I love about the Lord. He loves you so much. He's going to meet you where you're at, no matter where that is. But he also loves you so much. He doesn't want you to stay there. He knows the life that you could live in him through faith. And he wants to meet you in that place even today knowing you were going to be here. And he wants you to experience him. And I love that about him. He doesn't just leave us. He has a plan for us.
So he knew you would be here today. And I'm grateful you're here because we're in week three or four, I forget, of the book of James. And if you've been with us last few weeks, you know anything about James, you would know this. James isn't writing some information so you can win a Bible trivia contest. Like, good for you. If you win one, that's awesome. James cares a lot more about you actually living out the information you are already uh or you already have.
He cares more about you experiencing the truth of God's word than just simply knowing it. Which is why last week we heard James 1:22, one of the most famous verses in James. But even in the whole Bible, he says, “Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only.”
Now, we could pause there. That could be its own sermon. How many of us just hear God's word and don't do it? That's the tension we have, right? He says, “Be a doer of the word, though. Experience him, the truth of his word, in your life. Experience it. Don't just hear about it.”
Which means he doesn't want just a nodding head and a quick amen on a Sunday. He wants a moving heart on a Monday. He wants a moving heart on a Tuesday. That's what he wants.
And so, as we're in this uh series this morning, we're going to see a tension. And the tension is this. What happens if the way you live doesn't match the faith you claim?
What happens if you come to a text in God's word and it's something you should do or not do and you choose to do the opposite? What do you do with that? How do we live the faith we claim?
Well, James isn't going to leave us guessing this morning. He's actually going to point to a pretty specific place where our faith and our actions collide.
When I say it, you may be shocked because he's going to call what I'm about to say a sin. And you got to think, this is early in the book of James. So, what is he going to talk? Is he going to talk about murder? These big sins? No. He's going to talk about something that we've all, if we were all honest, have probably done in our lives. And he's going to say, “It's a sin and it's not worthy of the gospel.”
And so, what is it that he's going to talk about today? Favoritism. Favoritism. Now, it doesn't seem like a big deal. It seems small. It seems harmless. But James is going to tell us and show us that it's a big deal to God. It matters to God.
So, why would this matter? Why would he spend time at the beginning of his letter to not address these big sins but this kind of seemingly small one—favoritism? Well, simply put, favoritism distorts the gospel. See, favoritism whispers some people are worth more than others. But we know the cross of Christ says everyone's on equal playing field.
And so if we define favoritism, I would probably sum it up as this: Favoritism is honoring status and dishonoring people. Simply put, it's honoring status and dishonoring people. So, the sin of favoritism is when we decide to withhold love or we withhold honor based on shallow categories like appearance, wealth, influence, or status—which, by the way, God never uses any of those to measure someone, but we do.
The Lord of Glory Reframes Status
But James is going to make it clear. Favoritism doesn’t line up with faith in Jesus. And he’s going to paint a picture of what favoritism looks like when Christians let it creep into their lives and into the life of the church body.
Look at James chapter 2, verses 1–4. It’ll be on the screen if you didn’t bring a Bible, but I’d encourage you to bring a Bible. There’s something good about just having God’s word and looking at it, but it’s up there. This is what it says:
“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, ‘Will you sit here in a good place?’ and you say to the poor man, ‘Uh, you stand there, or, you know what, just sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Partiality. Favoritism. Prejudice. This is what James is going to be talking about this morning.
And I wonder if anyone caught that all-important title and phrase speaking about Jesus that James seemingly just threw into first uh verse one. He calls Jesus Christ the Lord of glory.
This is interesting because you know he just said, “Hey, this is uh don’t hold the faith of Jesus Christ,” but he decides to just add it just to set our minds on this all-important truth—that Jesus is the Lord of glory.
He’s giving us insight into who Jesus really is. Like the Hebrews writer in Hebrews 1:3, he says "Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory. He’s the exact imprint of God’s nature." And here’s the point James wants Christians to understand. He’s laying it out here at the beginning before he gets to really hitting us hard with the sin of favoritism.
He wants us to know: If we already have the favor of the Lord of glory, why would we then chase the favor of the wealthy or the powerful or the impressive?
It would be like you bowing down to a penny in front of a mountain of gold. Makes no sense.
We have the Lord of glory who we should always be looking at. But when we take our eyes off of him and begin doing a scan, then favoritism can creep in and we begin to search and look at the right person that will help you—when Jesus is the one who’s already done that.
Favoritism. Not only does it mistreat people, though it does, but it downplays the majesty and the glory of Jesus because it takes our eyes off of him.
So James here at the beginning says, if you believe in the Lord of glory, then you need to let it show because every person needs to be treated with equality and with dignity and with love because that’s the only response that could come and make sense of who Jesus is and our response to him.
Honor Image Bearers, Not Sin
Let me be clear. I don't want to confuse anyone. James is not talking about approving of people's sin.
This is an important distinction. I think he's talking about how we should posture our hearts towards people. So when I say treat every person with equality, dignity, and love, what I'm not saying is every action or every lifestyle of that person is good.
What I am saying is that every person though—despite how they're living in sin or not or their actions or their political beliefs or their whatever label we want to give them—every person bears the image of God just like you and deserves to be treated with honor and respect. That—that's—we're all made in his image.
But we take our eyes off the Lord of glory and we scan and we begin going, “Well, that person looks like they can be a benefit to us.” And we downgrade people who shouldn't be downgraded. We skip over people who don't. And we're playing this game not on God's field—on ours. We're playing with our terms.
And so we forget that that person and that person and you and every person is simply made in the image of Christ. And there's honor and there's respect and there's equality due for that simple truth.
But this is the gospel tension. How do we honor image-bearers without honoring their sin?
Well, James is going to drive this point home with this picture.
A Church Scenario of Partiality
He says, “Imagine two people walk into Coppell Bible one day. One pulls up in a brand new whip right here, first parking spot, gets out, wife and husband. You can tell they got some money. They look great. Maybe he's not wearing rings because of our culture in our day, but maybe she's wearing a lot of them. And they come in and our eyes catch them.
But then maybe here comes someone else and they're like, ‘Oh, I can't park by that guy. I have an old vehicle. I'm going to go to the back even. I don't even want people to see my vehicle.’ And the door back here is locked. Why do they always lock this door back here? And they go around front. They kind of try to sneak in and they're wearing grubby clothes. Looks like they just got out of bed, but it's all they have. And they're trying to sneak around and they see us missing them and going to the rich people.”
James, Jesus, God call that sin.
James says that when the rich enter into the house, they get the best seat. The poor person though—“Hey, you know what? You can stand in the back. Thanks for being here, though. Better yet, take it. Just sit on the floor. Grateful you're here, though. Really grateful.”
James calls it what it is—partiality, favoritism, prejudice. But he says at the end of verse four, when we think this way then and act this way, we are judges with evil thoughts.
He's going to make a big deal about this. So strap up. This is what he says—that we would be people with evil thoughts because we're making distinctions that God never makes. We are judging people based on their worth—not on their worth in Christ—but on their worth in our eyes of what they're wearing.
If I could get you to understand one thing that I think would be helpful for our life, it would be this: The gospel doesn't give us room to honor one group and despise another. No room in the gospel for that.
No Room in the Gospel to Despise
Now, let me tell you, this didn’t just happen in James’s day. This happens in our day. I’ve actually experienced this firsthand at a church that my dad pastored in Arkansas.
Now, I’ve told this story before, but most of y’all know I was adopted. My adopted dad was a pastor. We traveled all over the South. I felt like we were moving every year, year and a half. And at one point, we land in southern Arkansas in a town called Star City.
And we—this is like so old school—we were staying in the parsonage. Y’all know what the parsonage is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The parsonage. Okay. Connected to the church. So the pastor’s always on call. I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be.
And the backyard wasn’t just the backyard of the parsonage; it was the backyard of the whole church. And it was about two acres. There’s a basketball court there, you know, concrete and two goals. And then I had a—uh—my dad made a go-kart or bought one for me. And then we had this kind of fort and it had slides and swings, a trampoline. Man, this was awesome.
And then behind this property is like 750 acres of kind of like national forest. And so that’s where I just would be out there all the time. It’s where I got my love for the outdoors. I loved it.
But this one time came where I’m outside after school and I see a bus pull up on the other side of the church property’s dirt road. And if you go about a mile down, you would show up at an African-American community.
And this bus—the doors opened up—and it was all just African-American kids. And I’m out there looking at them. I think I’m jumping on the trampoline and there’s probably thirty kids getting off the bus. And about five or six stop and they’re peeking through the chain-link fence, you know.
And I’m like, I’d rather be with people. I’m extroverted. So I just go over there and open the gate. And my parents didn’t really care. I was like, “This is fun. Here we go.” And my parents bring out lemonade and all this stuff. And it was awesome.
And they stay for about an hour and I said, “See you tomorrow.” And they go, “Yeah.” And off they go. And so for over the course of a couple weeks, this is happening.
Now, at the same time, I was starting quarterback of the fourth-grade Star City Bulldogs—the little dogs—and a pretty impeccable… We went undefeated and I threw one pass and it was incomplete the whole season. But how we won is I just 36 tossed to Antonio and Antonio would take off and go around the corner, and he was the fastest guy in school.
And so that’s how we won. And Antonio was my boy. And I was like, “Hey, Antonio, would you come to church?” I’m in fourth grade. He goes, “Yeah, I’ll go to church with you.”
So he starts coming to church—two, three, four weeks—and at some point I’m eating family dinner and my dad gets up and he’s like, “Okay, I got to go to this meeting at the church.”
Okay, whatever. And I noticed it was really shocking because like ten minutes later he comes back and he kind of goes in his room, shuts the door. Don’t think anything about it.
The next morning at breakfast, my dad says to my sister and I, “Hey, um, we’re going to bring some boxes in. We’re going to have to move.” And so, we’re going to have to start packing up.
And I didn’t ask any questions. I’m in fourth grade. We moved a lot. So I was just like, “Ah, it’s time.”
And so, I’m sitting here going, “Okay, uh, I guess we’ll pack.” And I never asked my dad why.
But I got to high school and we’re talking about all these places we’ve lived and I said, “Hey, Dad, Star City—what happened there?”
He goes, “Well, son, we didn’t want you to feel like this was your fault.” Because it wasn’t. But I left dinner that day and I went to this meeting. And the lead elder stood up and said, “Okay, John”—that’s my dad—“elders, and some deacons and other leaders in the church there. Uh, I don’t think this will be a long meeting. We just have really an ultimatum we want to give you. Here it is. You have to tell your son to quit letting African-Americans play on church property. Um, and you got to ask him to quit letting or inviting African-Americans to church.”
And I go, “Dad, are you kidding me? What’d you do?”
And he goes—and my dad’s not like the man’s man, right? But I know in this moment he was speaking truth—he goes, “I wanted to punch them all on their face. Like, are you kidding me?”
And I go, “So, what did you do?” And he goes, “It was the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit came over me and my heart broke for them because I’m looking at all these men who are leaders in the church and they think they’re doing the right thing.”
I go, “So, what did you do?” He goes, “I pushed my seat back. I stood up. I looked at all of them. I said, ‘You’ve made this an easy decision. Goodbye.’”
And we didn’t even have a place to go move to. We had to move into someone’s small travel trailer on the back ten acres of their property. And we lived there for six months before we moved to Guymon, Oklahoma up in the Panhandle.
And we didn’t have a job. And I loved it because I just lived outdoors. I thought this is what we were doing. We’re camping for six months. It’s great.
But that’s the kind of faith that my parents were living. But that’s the experience of partiality in the church. It was favoritism.
But the gospel doesn’t give us room to honor one group and despise another. That’s not the gospel.
And when we do, we don’t just hurt people. What James is about to tell us is we’re actually insulting God’s heart, because the people the world often overlooks are the very ones that God, like, delights to use.
God Chooses the Poor Rich in Faith
And James talks about this in verses 5 through 7. He says, “Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?”
Here’s what James is saying: the people the world pushes to the margins—literally the marginalized people, maybe even humble people but overlooked, the poor—they’re usually the first ones to realize that they can’t make it without God because they have nothing else to hold on to.
So, they’re living life with nothing to get in the way of God.
Now, in North America and in Dallas, even in a lower socioeconomic place, you still have so much that you can use and hold on to and literally get in between you and God. That’s why the Bible talks about when you’re a rich person, it’s real tough.
Money’s not bad. He’s not saying that. But it’s tough because you count on those things and you really lean into that, and that can get in the way of you living by faith every day because your daily bread is taken care of. But the poor people, fringe, marginalized, the humble even—they recognize, “All I have is Jesus.”
And so they want to be used by Jesus. And I think that kind of dependent faith is priceless to him.
And so James says here that God has chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom.
Now, let me explain. He’s not saying being poor is what gets you into heaven. He’s not saying poverty saves you. Salvation is always grace alone and faith alone and Christ alone. That’s what saves you. Doesn’t matter how much money, how many zeros, what you do in your life—like, that phrase is what saves you.
By God’s grace, you’re trusting in him for it. You receive everlasting life.
But being an heir of the kingdom here in James’s writing is different than just getting into the kingdom, which is what salvation does. Because eternal life is a free gift to everyone who trusts in Jesus for it.
But the inheritance of reigning with Christ—or as James is saying, being a co-heir with him and all of his kingdom blessings in the kingdom that’s coming—that’s promised only to those who love him and faithfully walk with him.
So salvation is like being placed on the team—you’re in. You’re on the team. You got the jersey on your back.
But the playing time, the position you get out on the field, the way you impact the game—that’s based on how you train and how you live out while you’re in the game.
So everyone who trusts Jesus is saved. But the rewards and the reigning with him—that’s only for those who stay faithful in the game.
You earned it. You earned it here. And he’s going to give it to you there.
God’s Value System — Crowns vs. Crosses
And this is where James begins to turn everything upside down. Like, God’s kingdom values are opposite of the world’s value systems.
And he’s going to talk about this because the world chases crowns—and this is what we do. We chase status, we chase wealth, we chase recognition. I’m not saying those things are bad. But God values people who chase crosses.
God values people who have humility, who sacrifice, who love—and love by putting their life even down if needed.
It’s a different value system, and the very people that we tend to overlook seem to be the ones in the Bible that Jesus draws near to.
One of my favorite stories happens in Mark chapter 10. Jesus is with his disciples and all of a sudden these families start coming—and families have kids. Can you imagine the scene? It’s a little chaotic.
All these kids running around. If you can’t imagine it, then you should be a volunteer in our kids ministry and you should go right up there.
All these kids running around. You can imagine they’re tugging on Jesus’ robe, they’re maybe playing with his beard. There’s a mom holding a baby who’s crying.
And the disciples are indignant. They’re thinking, “These kids are getting in the way of the work. Jesus, what are you doing? Why are you allowing this? They can’t do anything for you. They’re getting in the way of these important people.”
And Jesus stops everything. In fact, he gets indignant. He pulls the children in, he blesses them, and then I can imagine him looking at the disciples like my dad looked at that room of people, and he says, “Let the little children come to me. What are you doing here? Let them come to me. Don’t get in the way of them because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The disciples valued only the adults, the parents, the influence, the important ones. And Jesus values them and gave them plenty of time, as you can see throughout the gospels.
But he also values the overlooked and the vulnerable and the ones who couldn’t do a thing for him.
God’s Pattern Through Scripture — The Overlooked and the Used
Now, you may think this is just a one-time story in the Bible—that’s the only story of that happening. I got to tell you, this is God’s pattern all throughout Scripture.
Anybody know King David? What about that story when God tells Samuel the prophet, “Hey, I need you to go to the house of Jesse. We got to anoint our next king over Israel.”
Great. So he’s following what the Lord has. He shows up at Jesse’s house—“I need all your sons out here.”
And Jesse brings all his sons except one. And so he has them lined up, oldest to youngest. And Samuel’s like, “Oh God, I bet this is the guy. Look at him! He looks like he’d be the king, right, God?”
Nothing. That’s weird. “Well, this guy looks like he could be the king too, so this is probably him then, right, God?”
Nothing.
All the way down until Samuel’s like, “Jesse, do you have another son? I know the Lord told me one’s coming from here.” And he goes, “Yeah, little pipsqueak shepherd boy. He’s out watching the sheep—youngest. Bring him.”
And wouldn’t you know, he’s the one that God wanted to anoint as the king. Which, in 1 Samuel 16:7, God says, “Man looks at the outward appearance”—favoritism—“but the Lord looks at the heart.”
You think about Zacchaeus—one of my favorite stories in the Bible—in Luke 19. He’s greedy, he’s a crooked tax collector. He’s kind of the lowlife of Jericho.
But Jesus shows up, understands that he’s made in the image of God, gives him respect and honor, calls him by name, goes to his house—and before that time’s over, he is now a son in the family of God and becomes the most generous man in all of Jericho.
You can think about the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. She’s been married five times, living with a man she’s not married to. She’s showing up to get water in the middle of the day because she doesn’t want to come earlier in the day—because then all the gossip—and that’s when you’re supposed to go because it’s cooler and the women are there, and she’s, you know, she’s on the fringe in this.
She’s over here in the village, and so she’s going to come middle of the day. She meets Jesus, and Jesus offers her living water. She receives it. She becomes the first evangelist in her village.
You could think about the disciples themselves—fishermen, tax collectors, political nobodies. But God used them to build his kingdom.
And you could even think about Jesus himself—born of a young teenage virgin girl in the backwoods, the backwater town of Nazareth—to which Nathanael in John 1 says, “Does anything good come from Nazareth?” And it’s like, “Yeah, the good news does.”
This is the pattern. This is the thread. Do you see it? Time and time again, the world likes to dismiss certain people, and God likes to delight in using them.
And anyone can be used by God. It’s not about being poor or anything like that. Here’s what it is: you may have been skipped over, you may have been cast aside, you may have been looked past, you may be labeled a nobody—but if you want to be used by God, whether that’s true of your life or not, here it is: you cling to him, you trust him, you follow him, you pick up your cross and walk with him.
And when you do, he will lift you up and use you. That’s the pattern of God throughout the Bible.
And that’s why favoritism is so out of place in the church—because it ignores God’s heart. And it ignores it by ignoring the very people that Jesus wants to welcome with open arms—which, by the way, you were one of them.
Favoritism Breaks God’s Law
So James doesn’t stop here. He actually is going to go a layer deeper. He’s going to say favoritism isn’t just out of step with God’s heart—it’s not just an insult to it—it’s actually breaking His law.
Look at James 2:8–12.
He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ then you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and you are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
James here calls this at the beginning “the royal law,” and he quotes the Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But why call it royal? Well, simply because it comes from the King Himself.
Jesus says this in the New Testament, plus the command of loving God with everything in you. And if you love your neighbor and love God with everything in you, then you have summed up the entire law, which was in the Old Testament 613 commands—248 commands of things that you should do, 365 commands of things you should not do.
That’d be hard for anyone to keep. But it’s all summed up in loving your neighbor and loving God. That’s way easier—at least on paper it’s way easier to do that.
But here’s the warning James gives us: if you show partiality towards a group of people, it is a sin. It’s a sin. And you are convicted by God’s law as a transgressor.
Now, you can’t think like, “Oh, not that big a deal. It’s favoritism. It’s kind of a small thing.”
But how come he puts it in the same courtroom as adultery and murder?
And it’s because God’s law is all one. It’s all whole.
So you break any part of it, then you’ve broken all of it.
You know, you never go before a judge in Dallas and go, “Hey look, it was only one little felony.” Huh? You wouldn’t say that. The judge doesn’t care. Guilty is guilty.
So when favoritism happens—when you are prejudiced towards a group of people as a believer—what you have to know is that you are now stamped as a lawbreaker. You’re insulting people. You’re insulting the heart of God. You are not following His way.
But there’s hope. Jesus doesn’t leave us there.
Because Jesus is the judge. And the same judge that would declare us guilty is also the Savior who takes off the robe, comes and steps down, takes the penalty, and declares mercy on our lives instead of judgment.
So yes, favoritism exposes us all as lawbreakers—as any sin does—but we have mercy given to us by God, and it frees us to live as law keepers in Christ.
And that’s why James ends with this awesome truth in verse 13—our last verse.
Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
He says, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.”
So, I got to pause for a second. Got to unpack this just a little bit.
What judgment is James talking about? He’s not warning that if you didn’t show favoritism—or if you did have favoritism, I should say—you’ve lost out on everlasting life. That’s not what he’s saying.
Romans 8:1 is clear—there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That was settled at the cross.
But in 2 Corinthians 5:10, we are told that every believer will stand before Christ in what he calls the judgment seat of Christ.
And it’s not about salvation there—it’s about evaluation.
It’s about how did the… I mean literally, you’re going to look at the Lord of glory, as James says in verse 1, and you’re going to look at him in the eyes, and he’s going to say, “What did you do with the freedom I gave you?”
“How did you not represent me here, though?” That’s a good word—I like breaking it down and saying, “How did you represent me here?”
You have the Gospels—you can see how I lived. Now I called you to do it, and then I ascended to the Father in the book of Acts, and it’s your turn.
How did you represent me to the world here through the freedom I’ve now purchased for you?
That’s what the judgment seat is going to be about.
And James says, if we live without mercy here, we shouldn’t expect it there—which simply means you’re going to miss out on some of that inheritance that James was talking about earlier.
You’re still going to be in the kingdom—you’re before him about evaluation, not salvation—and so you’re in, but you’re going to miss out on some things.
So favoritism actually isn’t a small little slip-up. Or like those men in Arkansas, “It’s just the way they’re born, nothing they should do about it.” Not true.
Favoritism reveals a heart that’s forgotten the gospel. And it’s a big deal.
He ends verse 13, though, to lift our eyes to this beautiful truth—that mercy triumphs over judgment.
You know what “triumph” means? Means to boast. It means to celebrate.
So mercy doesn’t whisper—mercy shouts.
And we have a God that we serve who is a merciful God.
Listen to the truth about this in the Bible: Micah 7:18 says, “Who is a God like you that delights in mercy?”
Ephesians 2:4: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together in Christ.”
Lamentations 3:22: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because those mercies are new every morning. Thank you for your faithfulness, O God.”
Or one I like to use—maybe you forgot—Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
From beginning to end, our God is a God of mercy.
The Story of Mercy
But let me ask you—what is mercy?
Let me use a story. The military leader Napoleon was about to exercise judgment one day. The man before him had two counts against him—punishment: death.
The man’s mother knew that. The man’s mother shows up to plead with Napoleon. She says, “Napoleon, look, I know he deserves justice, but could you give him mercy?”
Napoleon looks at the mom and he says, “Well, he doesn’t deserve mercy.”
The mom shakes her head, gets on her hands and knees, and looks up and says, “Sir, it wouldn’t be mercy if he did.”
See, mercy is never deserved. It takes something that should happen and goes, “No, no, no—I’m going to do the opposite.”
And Napoleon was so moved, he said, “I’ll exercise mercy.” And he let him go free.
Well, that’s the mercy of the Lord in our lives too.
Some of you walked in here today carrying some shame. And maybe you didn’t even think about favoritism as a sin, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been doing that at work. I’ve been sucking up to the boss and ignoring the janitor. Or the neighbor who has money versus the neighbor who doesn’t. I want to go to their house to eat or watch games or whatever it is.”
These things we think are small—James is saying these are a big, big deal.
So if you walked in carrying shame, or if you even experience it today, like “Oh my gosh, this is me,” and you feel like you can’t shake it—failure is something you cannot undo.
You got to understand: judgment will always say to you, “Guilty.” It’ll always say that.
The enemy wants to be on your shoulder as that little devil saying, “Guilty. Yeah, remember what happened to you? Remember when you did that one time? It’s in the past and it’ll never go away, and I’m going to constantly bring it up. Guilty. Guilty.”
But mercy actually shouts, “Forgiven. Forgiven.”
Can’t take it away. Happened in the past. But you are a new creation in Christ, and that has been forgiven.
And this isn’t just your story—this is the story of all of Scripture because God is a God of mercy.
Let me paint it to you.
Mercy is God clothing Adam and Eve after they sinned.
Mercy is Noah finding favor when no one else on the planet did.
Mercy is Abraham seeing a ram stuck in a thicket as he was following God and about to sacrifice Isaac.
Mercy is Joseph forgiving his brothers who sold him into slavery though he had the power to kill them.
Mercy is God passing over the bloodstained homes in Egypt on that final plague.
Mercy is Jesus not just going to the leper but touching the leper when everyone else runs away.
Mercy is Jesus restoring the demon-possessed man who lived in the caves back to his right frame of mind and giving him dignity because he was made in the image of Christ.
Mercy is the Father looking out, seeing the prodigal, and running to him.
Mercy is Jesus writing in the sand in John 8 when the adulterous woman was caught in the act of adultery and stones were getting ready to kill her.
Mercy is the thief on the cross who deserved to be there, yet Jesus says, “Today you’re going to be with me in paradise.”
Mercy is Peter restored after he said, “I’m not going to deny you”—and he did it three times—and then shortly after that, Jesus is restoring him at a charcoal fire on a lakeside.
Mercy is Paul being struck by grace instead of wrath when he was down the road getting ready to kill Christians.
And mercy is Jesus dying in our place—the sinless One bearing your judgment, my judgment—so that we could be free.
That’s mercy. That’s the mercy of the Lord given to every person.
And so when we have eyes that look at someone and we downgrade them, that’s a sin—as it should be—because that person is made in the image of Christ, and God’s mercy wasn’t just for me. It was for them.
Mercy is for us. It’s our story because mercy met us where judgment should have fallen.
A Wake-Up Call to the Church
So I think today we just needed a wake-up call to the ways in which we have favoritism that takes over.
The ways in which we go to work, pick up our kids from school, the parents we talk to, the parents we don’t talk to—that’s distorting the gospel of grace and mercy.
But James says that we’ve been given great mercy through Christ.
So here’s the call: we live in a world addicted to labeling people. Like, it’s bad.
My wife was a counselor, and you know—you always—every time someone comes in, they have to get diagnosed. It has to be a diagnosis. They have to have the label for it.
You post something on social media these days—you get a political label.
You see someone’s post, and you politically label them.
We just label all the time.
But the church should be where labels go to die.
If mercy has reached you, it must now flow through you.
Do you understand that?
So we don’t talk about mercy—we’re not just hearers of the word. We embody it. We do it.
And when you remember the mercy God poured out on you—the shame He covered, the judgment He lifted, the welcome He gave—then you’ll start to see everyone else through that same lens.
Because no one’s beyond His mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
So what we need to do is walk out of here as a mercy people in a favoritism world until the whole world sees in us what James declares here in verse 13 to be true—that mercy triumphs over judgment.
We should let mercy win.
We shouldn’t just take it and then not give it.
So favoritism—we do it, we’ve done it, we may not think it’s that big of a deal, but to God it is.
But honestly, it’s like any other sin—it breaks His heart, breaks His law.
What we’re going to do is sing this song about mercy, because I want us to understand the mercy of God.
To actually sit and think, “Punishment is mine. I don’t deserve to be here. The things I’ve done in my life that have been so dishonoring to God and what He wants from me—He shouldn’t even allow me to be born. He should have taken me off after I did these things.”
But He hasn’t—because He’s merciful.
And what I want you to know, if you’re here and you’re experiencing something about, “Man, I just don’t know if I can trust this”—look, Lamentations 3:22 and 23:
“His mercies are new every morning.”
Why? Because He’s a faithful God.
Let me welcome you to church this morning. My name is Michael. I'm one of the pastors and I'm just so grateful you're here. Especially if you're a visitor or a guest. Um, and even if you're not a visitor, guest, you've been here for a while, I just want you to know the Lord knew you were going to be here today and he wants you to be here today.
See, here's what I love about the Lord. He loves you so much. He's going to meet you where you're at, no matter where that is. But he also loves you so much. He doesn't want you to stay there. He knows the life that you could live in him through faith. And he wants to meet you in that place even today knowing you were going to be here. And he wants you to experience him. And I love that about him. He doesn't just leave us. He has a plan for us.
So he knew you would be here today. And I'm grateful you're here because we're in week three or four, I forget, of the book of James. And if you've been with us last few weeks, you know anything about James, you would know this. James isn't writing some information so you can win a Bible trivia contest. Like, good for you. If you win one, that's awesome. James cares a lot more about you actually living out the information you are already uh or you already have.
He cares more about you experiencing the truth of God's word than just simply knowing it. Which is why last week we heard James 1:22, one of the most famous verses in James. But even in the whole Bible, he says, “Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only.”
Now, we could pause there. That could be its own sermon. How many of us just hear God's word and don't do it? That's the tension we have, right? He says, “Be a doer of the word, though. Experience him, the truth of his word, in your life. Experience it. Don't just hear about it.”
Which means he doesn't want just a nodding head and a quick amen on a Sunday. He wants a moving heart on a Monday. He wants a moving heart on a Tuesday. That's what he wants.
And so, as we're in this uh series this morning, we're going to see a tension. And the tension is this. What happens if the way you live doesn't match the faith you claim?
What happens if you come to a text in God's word and it's something you should do or not do and you choose to do the opposite? What do you do with that? How do we live the faith we claim?
Well, James isn't going to leave us guessing this morning. He's actually going to point to a pretty specific place where our faith and our actions collide.
When I say it, you may be shocked because he's going to call what I'm about to say a sin. And you got to think, this is early in the book of James. So, what is he going to talk? Is he going to talk about murder? These big sins? No. He's going to talk about something that we've all, if we were all honest, have probably done in our lives. And he's going to say, “It's a sin and it's not worthy of the gospel.”
And so, what is it that he's going to talk about today? Favoritism. Favoritism. Now, it doesn't seem like a big deal. It seems small. It seems harmless. But James is going to tell us and show us that it's a big deal to God. It matters to God.
So, why would this matter? Why would he spend time at the beginning of his letter to not address these big sins but this kind of seemingly small one—favoritism? Well, simply put, favoritism distorts the gospel. See, favoritism whispers some people are worth more than others. But we know the cross of Christ says everyone's on equal playing field.
And so if we define favoritism, I would probably sum it up as this: Favoritism is honoring status and dishonoring people. Simply put, it's honoring status and dishonoring people. So, the sin of favoritism is when we decide to withhold love or we withhold honor based on shallow categories like appearance, wealth, influence, or status—which, by the way, God never uses any of those to measure someone, but we do.
The Lord of Glory Reframes Status
But James is going to make it clear. Favoritism doesn’t line up with faith in Jesus. And he’s going to paint a picture of what favoritism looks like when Christians let it creep into their lives and into the life of the church body.
Look at James chapter 2, verses 1–4. It’ll be on the screen if you didn’t bring a Bible, but I’d encourage you to bring a Bible. There’s something good about just having God’s word and looking at it, but it’s up there. This is what it says:
“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, ‘Will you sit here in a good place?’ and you say to the poor man, ‘Uh, you stand there, or, you know what, just sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Partiality. Favoritism. Prejudice. This is what James is going to be talking about this morning.
And I wonder if anyone caught that all-important title and phrase speaking about Jesus that James seemingly just threw into first uh verse one. He calls Jesus Christ the Lord of glory.
This is interesting because you know he just said, “Hey, this is uh don’t hold the faith of Jesus Christ,” but he decides to just add it just to set our minds on this all-important truth—that Jesus is the Lord of glory.
He’s giving us insight into who Jesus really is. Like the Hebrews writer in Hebrews 1:3, he says "Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory. He’s the exact imprint of God’s nature." And here’s the point James wants Christians to understand. He’s laying it out here at the beginning before he gets to really hitting us hard with the sin of favoritism.
He wants us to know: If we already have the favor of the Lord of glory, why would we then chase the favor of the wealthy or the powerful or the impressive?
It would be like you bowing down to a penny in front of a mountain of gold. Makes no sense.
We have the Lord of glory who we should always be looking at. But when we take our eyes off of him and begin doing a scan, then favoritism can creep in and we begin to search and look at the right person that will help you—when Jesus is the one who’s already done that.
Favoritism. Not only does it mistreat people, though it does, but it downplays the majesty and the glory of Jesus because it takes our eyes off of him.
So James here at the beginning says, if you believe in the Lord of glory, then you need to let it show because every person needs to be treated with equality and with dignity and with love because that’s the only response that could come and make sense of who Jesus is and our response to him.
Honor Image Bearers, Not Sin
Let me be clear. I don't want to confuse anyone. James is not talking about approving of people's sin.
This is an important distinction. I think he's talking about how we should posture our hearts towards people. So when I say treat every person with equality, dignity, and love, what I'm not saying is every action or every lifestyle of that person is good.
What I am saying is that every person though—despite how they're living in sin or not or their actions or their political beliefs or their whatever label we want to give them—every person bears the image of God just like you and deserves to be treated with honor and respect. That—that's—we're all made in his image.
But we take our eyes off the Lord of glory and we scan and we begin going, “Well, that person looks like they can be a benefit to us.” And we downgrade people who shouldn't be downgraded. We skip over people who don't. And we're playing this game not on God's field—on ours. We're playing with our terms.
And so we forget that that person and that person and you and every person is simply made in the image of Christ. And there's honor and there's respect and there's equality due for that simple truth.
But this is the gospel tension. How do we honor image-bearers without honoring their sin?
Well, James is going to drive this point home with this picture.
A Church Scenario of Partiality
He says, “Imagine two people walk into Coppell Bible one day. One pulls up in a brand new whip right here, first parking spot, gets out, wife and husband. You can tell they got some money. They look great. Maybe he's not wearing rings because of our culture in our day, but maybe she's wearing a lot of them. And they come in and our eyes catch them.
But then maybe here comes someone else and they're like, ‘Oh, I can't park by that guy. I have an old vehicle. I'm going to go to the back even. I don't even want people to see my vehicle.’ And the door back here is locked. Why do they always lock this door back here? And they go around front. They kind of try to sneak in and they're wearing grubby clothes. Looks like they just got out of bed, but it's all they have. And they're trying to sneak around and they see us missing them and going to the rich people.”
James, Jesus, God call that sin.
James says that when the rich enter into the house, they get the best seat. The poor person though—“Hey, you know what? You can stand in the back. Thanks for being here, though. Better yet, take it. Just sit on the floor. Grateful you're here, though. Really grateful.”
James calls it what it is—partiality, favoritism, prejudice. But he says at the end of verse four, when we think this way then and act this way, we are judges with evil thoughts.
He's going to make a big deal about this. So strap up. This is what he says—that we would be people with evil thoughts because we're making distinctions that God never makes. We are judging people based on their worth—not on their worth in Christ—but on their worth in our eyes of what they're wearing.
If I could get you to understand one thing that I think would be helpful for our life, it would be this: The gospel doesn't give us room to honor one group and despise another. No room in the gospel for that.
No Room in the Gospel to Despise
Now, let me tell you, this didn’t just happen in James’s day. This happens in our day. I’ve actually experienced this firsthand at a church that my dad pastored in Arkansas.
Now, I’ve told this story before, but most of y’all know I was adopted. My adopted dad was a pastor. We traveled all over the South. I felt like we were moving every year, year and a half. And at one point, we land in southern Arkansas in a town called Star City.
And we—this is like so old school—we were staying in the parsonage. Y’all know what the parsonage is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The parsonage. Okay. Connected to the church. So the pastor’s always on call. I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be.
And the backyard wasn’t just the backyard of the parsonage; it was the backyard of the whole church. And it was about two acres. There’s a basketball court there, you know, concrete and two goals. And then I had a—uh—my dad made a go-kart or bought one for me. And then we had this kind of fort and it had slides and swings, a trampoline. Man, this was awesome.
And then behind this property is like 750 acres of kind of like national forest. And so that’s where I just would be out there all the time. It’s where I got my love for the outdoors. I loved it.
But this one time came where I’m outside after school and I see a bus pull up on the other side of the church property’s dirt road. And if you go about a mile down, you would show up at an African-American community.
And this bus—the doors opened up—and it was all just African-American kids. And I’m out there looking at them. I think I’m jumping on the trampoline and there’s probably thirty kids getting off the bus. And about five or six stop and they’re peeking through the chain-link fence, you know.
And I’m like, I’d rather be with people. I’m extroverted. So I just go over there and open the gate. And my parents didn’t really care. I was like, “This is fun. Here we go.” And my parents bring out lemonade and all this stuff. And it was awesome.
And they stay for about an hour and I said, “See you tomorrow.” And they go, “Yeah.” And off they go. And so for over the course of a couple weeks, this is happening.
Now, at the same time, I was starting quarterback of the fourth-grade Star City Bulldogs—the little dogs—and a pretty impeccable… We went undefeated and I threw one pass and it was incomplete the whole season. But how we won is I just 36 tossed to Antonio and Antonio would take off and go around the corner, and he was the fastest guy in school.
And so that’s how we won. And Antonio was my boy. And I was like, “Hey, Antonio, would you come to church?” I’m in fourth grade. He goes, “Yeah, I’ll go to church with you.”
So he starts coming to church—two, three, four weeks—and at some point I’m eating family dinner and my dad gets up and he’s like, “Okay, I got to go to this meeting at the church.”
Okay, whatever. And I noticed it was really shocking because like ten minutes later he comes back and he kind of goes in his room, shuts the door. Don’t think anything about it.
The next morning at breakfast, my dad says to my sister and I, “Hey, um, we’re going to bring some boxes in. We’re going to have to move.” And so, we’re going to have to start packing up.
And I didn’t ask any questions. I’m in fourth grade. We moved a lot. So I was just like, “Ah, it’s time.”
And so, I’m sitting here going, “Okay, uh, I guess we’ll pack.” And I never asked my dad why.
But I got to high school and we’re talking about all these places we’ve lived and I said, “Hey, Dad, Star City—what happened there?”
He goes, “Well, son, we didn’t want you to feel like this was your fault.” Because it wasn’t. But I left dinner that day and I went to this meeting. And the lead elder stood up and said, “Okay, John”—that’s my dad—“elders, and some deacons and other leaders in the church there. Uh, I don’t think this will be a long meeting. We just have really an ultimatum we want to give you. Here it is. You have to tell your son to quit letting African-Americans play on church property. Um, and you got to ask him to quit letting or inviting African-Americans to church.”
And I go, “Dad, are you kidding me? What’d you do?”
And he goes—and my dad’s not like the man’s man, right? But I know in this moment he was speaking truth—he goes, “I wanted to punch them all on their face. Like, are you kidding me?”
And I go, “So, what did you do?” And he goes, “It was the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit came over me and my heart broke for them because I’m looking at all these men who are leaders in the church and they think they’re doing the right thing.”
I go, “So, what did you do?” He goes, “I pushed my seat back. I stood up. I looked at all of them. I said, ‘You’ve made this an easy decision. Goodbye.’”
And we didn’t even have a place to go move to. We had to move into someone’s small travel trailer on the back ten acres of their property. And we lived there for six months before we moved to Guymon, Oklahoma up in the Panhandle.
And we didn’t have a job. And I loved it because I just lived outdoors. I thought this is what we were doing. We’re camping for six months. It’s great.
But that’s the kind of faith that my parents were living. But that’s the experience of partiality in the church. It was favoritism.
But the gospel doesn’t give us room to honor one group and despise another. That’s not the gospel.
And when we do, we don’t just hurt people. What James is about to tell us is we’re actually insulting God’s heart, because the people the world often overlooks are the very ones that God, like, delights to use.
God Chooses the Poor Rich in Faith
And James talks about this in verses 5 through 7. He says, “Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?”
Here’s what James is saying: the people the world pushes to the margins—literally the marginalized people, maybe even humble people but overlooked, the poor—they’re usually the first ones to realize that they can’t make it without God because they have nothing else to hold on to.
So, they’re living life with nothing to get in the way of God.
Now, in North America and in Dallas, even in a lower socioeconomic place, you still have so much that you can use and hold on to and literally get in between you and God. That’s why the Bible talks about when you’re a rich person, it’s real tough.
Money’s not bad. He’s not saying that. But it’s tough because you count on those things and you really lean into that, and that can get in the way of you living by faith every day because your daily bread is taken care of. But the poor people, fringe, marginalized, the humble even—they recognize, “All I have is Jesus.”
And so they want to be used by Jesus. And I think that kind of dependent faith is priceless to him.
And so James says here that God has chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom.
Now, let me explain. He’s not saying being poor is what gets you into heaven. He’s not saying poverty saves you. Salvation is always grace alone and faith alone and Christ alone. That’s what saves you. Doesn’t matter how much money, how many zeros, what you do in your life—like, that phrase is what saves you.
By God’s grace, you’re trusting in him for it. You receive everlasting life.
But being an heir of the kingdom here in James’s writing is different than just getting into the kingdom, which is what salvation does. Because eternal life is a free gift to everyone who trusts in Jesus for it.
But the inheritance of reigning with Christ—or as James is saying, being a co-heir with him and all of his kingdom blessings in the kingdom that’s coming—that’s promised only to those who love him and faithfully walk with him.
So salvation is like being placed on the team—you’re in. You’re on the team. You got the jersey on your back.
But the playing time, the position you get out on the field, the way you impact the game—that’s based on how you train and how you live out while you’re in the game.
So everyone who trusts Jesus is saved. But the rewards and the reigning with him—that’s only for those who stay faithful in the game.
You earned it. You earned it here. And he’s going to give it to you there.
God’s Value System — Crowns vs. Crosses
And this is where James begins to turn everything upside down. Like, God’s kingdom values are opposite of the world’s value systems.
And he’s going to talk about this because the world chases crowns—and this is what we do. We chase status, we chase wealth, we chase recognition. I’m not saying those things are bad. But God values people who chase crosses.
God values people who have humility, who sacrifice, who love—and love by putting their life even down if needed.
It’s a different value system, and the very people that we tend to overlook seem to be the ones in the Bible that Jesus draws near to.
One of my favorite stories happens in Mark chapter 10. Jesus is with his disciples and all of a sudden these families start coming—and families have kids. Can you imagine the scene? It’s a little chaotic.
All these kids running around. If you can’t imagine it, then you should be a volunteer in our kids ministry and you should go right up there.
All these kids running around. You can imagine they’re tugging on Jesus’ robe, they’re maybe playing with his beard. There’s a mom holding a baby who’s crying.
And the disciples are indignant. They’re thinking, “These kids are getting in the way of the work. Jesus, what are you doing? Why are you allowing this? They can’t do anything for you. They’re getting in the way of these important people.”
And Jesus stops everything. In fact, he gets indignant. He pulls the children in, he blesses them, and then I can imagine him looking at the disciples like my dad looked at that room of people, and he says, “Let the little children come to me. What are you doing here? Let them come to me. Don’t get in the way of them because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The disciples valued only the adults, the parents, the influence, the important ones. And Jesus values them and gave them plenty of time, as you can see throughout the gospels.
But he also values the overlooked and the vulnerable and the ones who couldn’t do a thing for him.
God’s Pattern Through Scripture — The Overlooked and the Used
Now, you may think this is just a one-time story in the Bible—that’s the only story of that happening. I got to tell you, this is God’s pattern all throughout Scripture.
Anybody know King David? What about that story when God tells Samuel the prophet, “Hey, I need you to go to the house of Jesse. We got to anoint our next king over Israel.”
Great. So he’s following what the Lord has. He shows up at Jesse’s house—“I need all your sons out here.”
And Jesse brings all his sons except one. And so he has them lined up, oldest to youngest. And Samuel’s like, “Oh God, I bet this is the guy. Look at him! He looks like he’d be the king, right, God?”
Nothing. That’s weird. “Well, this guy looks like he could be the king too, so this is probably him then, right, God?”
Nothing.
All the way down until Samuel’s like, “Jesse, do you have another son? I know the Lord told me one’s coming from here.” And he goes, “Yeah, little pipsqueak shepherd boy. He’s out watching the sheep—youngest. Bring him.”
And wouldn’t you know, he’s the one that God wanted to anoint as the king. Which, in 1 Samuel 16:7, God says, “Man looks at the outward appearance”—favoritism—“but the Lord looks at the heart.”
You think about Zacchaeus—one of my favorite stories in the Bible—in Luke 19. He’s greedy, he’s a crooked tax collector. He’s kind of the lowlife of Jericho.
But Jesus shows up, understands that he’s made in the image of God, gives him respect and honor, calls him by name, goes to his house—and before that time’s over, he is now a son in the family of God and becomes the most generous man in all of Jericho.
You can think about the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. She’s been married five times, living with a man she’s not married to. She’s showing up to get water in the middle of the day because she doesn’t want to come earlier in the day—because then all the gossip—and that’s when you’re supposed to go because it’s cooler and the women are there, and she’s, you know, she’s on the fringe in this.
She’s over here in the village, and so she’s going to come middle of the day. She meets Jesus, and Jesus offers her living water. She receives it. She becomes the first evangelist in her village.
You could think about the disciples themselves—fishermen, tax collectors, political nobodies. But God used them to build his kingdom.
And you could even think about Jesus himself—born of a young teenage virgin girl in the backwoods, the backwater town of Nazareth—to which Nathanael in John 1 says, “Does anything good come from Nazareth?” And it’s like, “Yeah, the good news does.”
This is the pattern. This is the thread. Do you see it? Time and time again, the world likes to dismiss certain people, and God likes to delight in using them.
And anyone can be used by God. It’s not about being poor or anything like that. Here’s what it is: you may have been skipped over, you may have been cast aside, you may have been looked past, you may be labeled a nobody—but if you want to be used by God, whether that’s true of your life or not, here it is: you cling to him, you trust him, you follow him, you pick up your cross and walk with him.
And when you do, he will lift you up and use you. That’s the pattern of God throughout the Bible.
And that’s why favoritism is so out of place in the church—because it ignores God’s heart. And it ignores it by ignoring the very people that Jesus wants to welcome with open arms—which, by the way, you were one of them.
Favoritism Breaks God’s Law
So James doesn’t stop here. He actually is going to go a layer deeper. He’s going to say favoritism isn’t just out of step with God’s heart—it’s not just an insult to it—it’s actually breaking His law.
Look at James 2:8–12.
He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ then you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and you are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
James here calls this at the beginning “the royal law,” and he quotes the Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But why call it royal? Well, simply because it comes from the King Himself.
Jesus says this in the New Testament, plus the command of loving God with everything in you. And if you love your neighbor and love God with everything in you, then you have summed up the entire law, which was in the Old Testament 613 commands—248 commands of things that you should do, 365 commands of things you should not do.
That’d be hard for anyone to keep. But it’s all summed up in loving your neighbor and loving God. That’s way easier—at least on paper it’s way easier to do that.
But here’s the warning James gives us: if you show partiality towards a group of people, it is a sin. It’s a sin. And you are convicted by God’s law as a transgressor.
Now, you can’t think like, “Oh, not that big a deal. It’s favoritism. It’s kind of a small thing.”
But how come he puts it in the same courtroom as adultery and murder?
And it’s because God’s law is all one. It’s all whole.
So you break any part of it, then you’ve broken all of it.
You know, you never go before a judge in Dallas and go, “Hey look, it was only one little felony.” Huh? You wouldn’t say that. The judge doesn’t care. Guilty is guilty.
So when favoritism happens—when you are prejudiced towards a group of people as a believer—what you have to know is that you are now stamped as a lawbreaker. You’re insulting people. You’re insulting the heart of God. You are not following His way.
But there’s hope. Jesus doesn’t leave us there.
Because Jesus is the judge. And the same judge that would declare us guilty is also the Savior who takes off the robe, comes and steps down, takes the penalty, and declares mercy on our lives instead of judgment.
So yes, favoritism exposes us all as lawbreakers—as any sin does—but we have mercy given to us by God, and it frees us to live as law keepers in Christ.
And that’s why James ends with this awesome truth in verse 13—our last verse.
Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
He says, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.”
So, I got to pause for a second. Got to unpack this just a little bit.
What judgment is James talking about? He’s not warning that if you didn’t show favoritism—or if you did have favoritism, I should say—you’ve lost out on everlasting life. That’s not what he’s saying.
Romans 8:1 is clear—there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That was settled at the cross.
But in 2 Corinthians 5:10, we are told that every believer will stand before Christ in what he calls the judgment seat of Christ.
And it’s not about salvation there—it’s about evaluation.
It’s about how did the… I mean literally, you’re going to look at the Lord of glory, as James says in verse 1, and you’re going to look at him in the eyes, and he’s going to say, “What did you do with the freedom I gave you?”
“How did you not represent me here, though?” That’s a good word—I like breaking it down and saying, “How did you represent me here?”
You have the Gospels—you can see how I lived. Now I called you to do it, and then I ascended to the Father in the book of Acts, and it’s your turn.
How did you represent me to the world here through the freedom I’ve now purchased for you?
That’s what the judgment seat is going to be about.
And James says, if we live without mercy here, we shouldn’t expect it there—which simply means you’re going to miss out on some of that inheritance that James was talking about earlier.
You’re still going to be in the kingdom—you’re before him about evaluation, not salvation—and so you’re in, but you’re going to miss out on some things.
So favoritism actually isn’t a small little slip-up. Or like those men in Arkansas, “It’s just the way they’re born, nothing they should do about it.” Not true.
Favoritism reveals a heart that’s forgotten the gospel. And it’s a big deal.
He ends verse 13, though, to lift our eyes to this beautiful truth—that mercy triumphs over judgment.
You know what “triumph” means? Means to boast. It means to celebrate.
So mercy doesn’t whisper—mercy shouts.
And we have a God that we serve who is a merciful God.
Listen to the truth about this in the Bible: Micah 7:18 says, “Who is a God like you that delights in mercy?”
Ephesians 2:4: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together in Christ.”
Lamentations 3:22: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because those mercies are new every morning. Thank you for your faithfulness, O God.”
Or one I like to use—maybe you forgot—Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
From beginning to end, our God is a God of mercy.
The Story of Mercy
But let me ask you—what is mercy?
Let me use a story. The military leader Napoleon was about to exercise judgment one day. The man before him had two counts against him—punishment: death.
The man’s mother knew that. The man’s mother shows up to plead with Napoleon. She says, “Napoleon, look, I know he deserves justice, but could you give him mercy?”
Napoleon looks at the mom and he says, “Well, he doesn’t deserve mercy.”
The mom shakes her head, gets on her hands and knees, and looks up and says, “Sir, it wouldn’t be mercy if he did.”
See, mercy is never deserved. It takes something that should happen and goes, “No, no, no—I’m going to do the opposite.”
And Napoleon was so moved, he said, “I’ll exercise mercy.” And he let him go free.
Well, that’s the mercy of the Lord in our lives too.
Some of you walked in here today carrying some shame. And maybe you didn’t even think about favoritism as a sin, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been doing that at work. I’ve been sucking up to the boss and ignoring the janitor. Or the neighbor who has money versus the neighbor who doesn’t. I want to go to their house to eat or watch games or whatever it is.”
These things we think are small—James is saying these are a big, big deal.
So if you walked in carrying shame, or if you even experience it today, like “Oh my gosh, this is me,” and you feel like you can’t shake it—failure is something you cannot undo.
You got to understand: judgment will always say to you, “Guilty.” It’ll always say that.
The enemy wants to be on your shoulder as that little devil saying, “Guilty. Yeah, remember what happened to you? Remember when you did that one time? It’s in the past and it’ll never go away, and I’m going to constantly bring it up. Guilty. Guilty.”
But mercy actually shouts, “Forgiven. Forgiven.”
Can’t take it away. Happened in the past. But you are a new creation in Christ, and that has been forgiven.
And this isn’t just your story—this is the story of all of Scripture because God is a God of mercy.
Let me paint it to you.
Mercy is God clothing Adam and Eve after they sinned.
Mercy is Noah finding favor when no one else on the planet did.
Mercy is Abraham seeing a ram stuck in a thicket as he was following God and about to sacrifice Isaac.
Mercy is Joseph forgiving his brothers who sold him into slavery though he had the power to kill them.
Mercy is God passing over the bloodstained homes in Egypt on that final plague.
Mercy is Jesus not just going to the leper but touching the leper when everyone else runs away.
Mercy is Jesus restoring the demon-possessed man who lived in the caves back to his right frame of mind and giving him dignity because he was made in the image of Christ.
Mercy is the Father looking out, seeing the prodigal, and running to him.
Mercy is Jesus writing in the sand in John 8 when the adulterous woman was caught in the act of adultery and stones were getting ready to kill her.
Mercy is the thief on the cross who deserved to be there, yet Jesus says, “Today you’re going to be with me in paradise.”
Mercy is Peter restored after he said, “I’m not going to deny you”—and he did it three times—and then shortly after that, Jesus is restoring him at a charcoal fire on a lakeside.
Mercy is Paul being struck by grace instead of wrath when he was down the road getting ready to kill Christians.
And mercy is Jesus dying in our place—the sinless One bearing your judgment, my judgment—so that we could be free.
That’s mercy. That’s the mercy of the Lord given to every person.
And so when we have eyes that look at someone and we downgrade them, that’s a sin—as it should be—because that person is made in the image of Christ, and God’s mercy wasn’t just for me. It was for them.
Mercy is for us. It’s our story because mercy met us where judgment should have fallen.
A Wake-Up Call to the Church
So I think today we just needed a wake-up call to the ways in which we have favoritism that takes over.
The ways in which we go to work, pick up our kids from school, the parents we talk to, the parents we don’t talk to—that’s distorting the gospel of grace and mercy.
But James says that we’ve been given great mercy through Christ.
So here’s the call: we live in a world addicted to labeling people. Like, it’s bad.
My wife was a counselor, and you know—you always—every time someone comes in, they have to get diagnosed. It has to be a diagnosis. They have to have the label for it.
You post something on social media these days—you get a political label.
You see someone’s post, and you politically label them.
We just label all the time.
But the church should be where labels go to die.
If mercy has reached you, it must now flow through you.
Do you understand that?
So we don’t talk about mercy—we’re not just hearers of the word. We embody it. We do it.
And when you remember the mercy God poured out on you—the shame He covered, the judgment He lifted, the welcome He gave—then you’ll start to see everyone else through that same lens.
Because no one’s beyond His mercy, which means no one is beneath your love.
So what we need to do is walk out of here as a mercy people in a favoritism world until the whole world sees in us what James declares here in verse 13 to be true—that mercy triumphs over judgment.
We should let mercy win.
We shouldn’t just take it and then not give it.
So favoritism—we do it, we’ve done it, we may not think it’s that big of a deal, but to God it is.
But honestly, it’s like any other sin—it breaks His heart, breaks His law.
What we’re going to do is sing this song about mercy, because I want us to understand the mercy of God.
To actually sit and think, “Punishment is mine. I don’t deserve to be here. The things I’ve done in my life that have been so dishonoring to God and what He wants from me—He shouldn’t even allow me to be born. He should have taken me off after I did these things.”
But He hasn’t—because He’s merciful.
And what I want you to know, if you’re here and you’re experiencing something about, “Man, I just don’t know if I can trust this”—look, Lamentations 3:22 and 23:
“His mercies are new every morning.”
Why? Because He’s a faithful God.