Books of James & Jude - Results of favoritism - James 2:5-7
James 2:5-7 · Roger Henderson · Apr 14, 2013
James & Jude, No. 14
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926348376127

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So could I get someone to read verses, there's only two of you. If you'd read chapter 2, 1-7. Chapter 2, 1-7. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool, have you not made distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motives. Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this 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. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? Today we are going to look at the next three verses. We had the beginning part and I am going to review that in just a second.

This part is going to be a contrast here. In the first four verses it talked about how they had this hypothetical situation where somebody comes into your assembly or meeting place and basically the choice is we'll choose the person who's well-dressed and looks good versus the person that doesn't look so well and is poorly dressed or dirtily dressed. Then he kind of makes quite a change here.

He says, listen, my beloved brethren, And he says, you know, God's choice, you chose the rich, but God's choice is the poor. And then he's going to justify why that makes sense. At first you think, well, it seems like a little bit harsh. Is God really choosing the poor over the rich? And so there's some things to think about there, and we'll look at that.

And then the last two verses basically kind of point out that you've dishonored the poor man. It's interesting, you know, that dishonored the poor man. And it says, well, and what's interesting is the rich man is the one in general, who basically oppresses you and drags you into court. And on top of that, they there, the rich man, they blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called. And that's really pointing toward the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's really a real contrast here between the rich and the poor.

And so we're going to see that. So let's just look at, I want to do a quick review of last week. So basically I was linking this back with, we started out in James chapter 1 talking about the process of temptation. So this is really a temptation. I think we all, we have it. I was kind of thinking here, I was listening to illustrations of this and people were saying well, typically what happens is that you're tempted, I'm going to close the door here even though there's not a whole lot of noise. In a typical meeting of believers, they say, well, the temptation is a guy comes in well-dressed, boy, this guy must have some money, and boy, we can steer you some money in this gathering here, so the temptation might be motivated by that.

So basically, it says, stop holding, this is verse 1, I kind of took the translation from the weasel here, stop holding your faith in our Lord Jesus in connection with an act of personal favoritism. And that personal favoritism, so the idea is something that's already going on, and so James is addressing it, something that's already going on, and it's basically saying you can't have faith, your faith can't be aligned with, or in connection with, or side by side with personal favoritism. That's not the life of Christ. That's not who he is, and that's not who you are in him. And this word personal favoritism is kind of an interesting word.

It's literally to receive one's face. And it came out of this, I haven't really said this a lot, but the Greek word comes from a word that stood for a judge in a court who would look at the face of the person and if that was somebody he knew or was somebody he thought was, you know, his buddy or whatever, he would judge him based upon receiving his face. So that's literally the personal. It's one word in Greek. The core word is prosopon, but to receive one's face. So this hypothetical case is presented. And that's kind of denoted by the word if as a third class condition. So it kind of points to the hypothetical situation.

So two men enter your assembly. One man comes into your assembly with gold rings and dressed in fine clothes. And I think we talked last week about this. That's not just one ring. He had many rings on his fingers. And we looked at the passage about the prodigal son, where his father dressed him with fine clothes and rings. And the fine clothes is actually shining clothes or gorgeous clothes. And that's the same word that's used when they dress the Lord Jesus. They mocked him. And they dressed him in what they call gorgeous clothes. So this guy is really well-dressed.

But in contrast, a poor man, or basically that poor is the word for beggar, he's in dirty clothes, or actually filthy clothes. And you might think it seems a little bit harsh, but maybe they didn't have access to cleaning their clothes. I mean, I don't know. It's not explained. So the contrast between a man who's well-dressed, well-fitted out in the clothes of the day, versus a poor man.

So there are two different greetings. The first greeting is to the one who's dressed finely. You pay special attention to him and actually it has the idea you spot him as he's coming in the door and you really make over him. And you direct him to a good place to sit, a well-situated place. Now in contrast to that, You say to the poor man, there's no special greeting. You just direct him. You say, he gets two choices.

This is kind of interesting. You say, stand over there. You can stand, or if you look carefully, or sit by my footstool. You sit on the floor. You sit on the floor. The footstool, I guess, in biblical times was a little bit different. It wasn't necessarily the low footstool. It could be a higher one for possibly where people would stand up and speak. Two choices for the poor man, you sit on the floor or you stand over there.

And so then the kind of summing statement is, are you not dividing your mind? Are you not making a distinction? Have you become judges with evil or pernicious thoughts? And I kind of liken that to, you know, we studied the process of temptation. In this illustration, when you get down here, you've already taken the bait. You've already made your choice. And your choice is that you responded to your sin nature. And you've basically sinned. You've been dividing your mind and become a judge with pernicious thoughts. Go ahead.

Think of the scripture that says, man looks on the outside, God looks at the heart. Absolutely. And so when we make these distinctions, whether it's exactly this one, whether it's some other category, we judge by appearances. Like they talk about when you go in for a job interview, make sure you make a good first impression. Because that first impression is the one that sticks in people's minds. And I learned as a teacher, the most important part of my whole lecture was the very beginning and the very end. How it started and how it ended. What I did in between was blah blah blah, but I better have a good start and finish. So we do this all the time. It's almost unconscious.

We don't even realize unless someone checks us and says, do you realize what you're doing? If you think about it, this is exactly what James is doing. He's appealing, and we're going to see in verse 5 here, he's appealing to his brethren, my dear brethren, my beloved brethren. You know, listen to me, this is a real temptation, a temptation for you to sort people out based upon the way they look. And you know, we don't. Sometimes we take things chapter by chapter in the Bible, acting as though the chapters are separate. Inspired. Whereas they're just for convenience and so we can find it.

And if you go back to the end of chapter 1, You've got orphans and widows who can't do anything for you. And you're supposed to, it says, pure religion, undefiled, is take care of the orphans and widows. Because you're not, when you do that, you don't have an expectation of reward except from your Heavenly Father. They can't aid you in any way. They can't help you achieve a political office or status in the community or something like that. No, I agree.

And the rich, when you think about it, how did they get rich? Probably by oppressing the orphans and widows and taking what little they did have. I mean, Jesus talked about that very thing. No, it flows in very nicely. Thanks for mentioning that. It flows in very nicely. He gives this hypothetical case about a rich man and a poor man and how you treat them. You can't say you have faith and favoritism. Faith and favoritism don't coexist. That's not who Christ is. That's not who you are in Him.

Now that's great. Thank you for pointing that out. Okay, so now we're just going to jump into verse 5. So here's his appeal. Here's James' appeal. Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose. I'm just going to stop there and not finish it off. I'm just going to cover that part. So he basically says, listen, And this is the same word that we had earlier when he said, be quick to hear, the word listen, akuo, listen to understand, comprehend what I'm saying.

He's concerned about them. Remember, these are the Jewish believers that were in exile. So it's interesting that their community, there isn't a lot in scripture about them, but there's a little bit. They were in exile, so they weren't the... They would be considered the poor, in my mind. They're probably the poor. They're in exile in some other countries. They're not exactly the top dogs in those countries. It's interesting that he's telling them that they have a temptation to go out and greet the rich. It's interesting. I think we all kind of fall in that category.

OK, he says, my beloved brethren. That's a very endearing term, and that occurs quite a few times. We've had it already twice in James here. If you just flip back to chapter 1, he says, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, in verse 16. And he says in verse 19, he says, this you know, my beloved brethren. Everyone must be quick to hear. I just mentioned that before. So he's appealing to them. He's appealing to them as beloved brethren. And what's interesting is that terminology is not only James. Paul uses that as well.

Someone read that in Philippians 4.1. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. So you see that beloved brethren is really a very endearing term, just trying to get, like you might say to your children, to your husband, this is really important, don't stop listening to me, listen to me. Go ahead Nancy.

It seems that in the book of James, as he said this, he's going to follow it with a correction. He's not going to hold back. He's going to give it to them. He's going to say this is really a problem. He's going to point out that God has a choice and you have a choice and they don't match right now.

In teaching terminology, it's pay attention, this is on the test. Beyond that, telling them But you are dear to me. I love you and I'm telling you these things because I desire them for you. For your benefit. I know Mike always mentions this. Miles Stanford.

He would write to brothers in the faith and he would write to correct them many times. But he would start out so graciously. He would point out that he's not attacking them personally. He just wants them to be on this... explanation of the scripture would be correct. And he would do it very graciously.

So I think that's kind of neat. OK. So he said, first of all, he said, did not God choose? And we'll get to the other part here in a second. So basically, at first you think, well, it seems kind of strange. It basically means this is God's choice. It's kind of an interesting phraseology. Did not God choose? He did choose. And to choose is to pick out, select, it's the middle voice, It's to choose for oneself. So this comes to the favorite question of many, many studies. God is choosing.

So let's look at Ephesians. Ephesians 1, verse 4 is always a good place to look. Al, could you read that? Ephesians 4, verse 1. Oh, I thought you said chapter one. I'm sorry. Yeah, chapter one of Ephesians. I didn't mean James. I meant Ephesians. Excuse me. I know, but you just said chapter four. Well, which verse do you want? Okay. 1-4. 1-4. Oh, I said four, didn't I? I said exactly that. You're absolutely right. What do they call that when you flip it around?

For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Thanks, Al. Thanks for listening to what I'm saying and not... It tells us here in verse 4 that He chose us in Him. So I think that's really key because you look at so many of the believers' riches and they're in Him. So the fact that Every believer is chosen. That's clear from scripture.

One believer says, I didn't get chosen, you guys got chosen, I didn't get chosen. No, you can't say that. You may not feel chosen, but you were chosen, because scripture says that. And so the fact that you're chosen in him says that's one of your riches of God's grace and so and of course the question comes up you know God chose me but I have faith in him and how does this work and I'm not going to go there but I think it's both are true where man is to exercise faith and what God has revealed to him and God in a sense once that happened he's chosen I mean that's it seems somewhat contradictory but that's what scripture says and we have to accept that so that's Anyway, and then the John passage just talks about that you did not choose me. You know, people are often offered to choose God, and that's kind of a poor way to, you know, inaccurate, because scripture says, you did not choose me, but I chose you.

I chose you out of the world. So God is choosing, but man is believing. That's about as far as I'm going to go with that? Go ahead. And wherein is our choice, isn't it? Exactly. We choose to believe. Right, exactly. Chester McAuley did a great series on the will of the believer. Yeah, I may have listened. It's been a while. It's long. Yeah, I'll listen to that sometime. Okay, that's great.

It's really good and one of the things that he has said is we are created in God's image and God has a will. He created us with a will. God chooses things, He created us to choose also. And His will for us is that we would always choose to be obedient to Him, to follow His will. So it's really a good series. So let's go on. Let's get the rest of the verse here.

Did not God choose the poor of this world? OK, did not God choose the poor of this world? The poor of this world, or literally, some translations have, the poor in the world's estimation. Because the world classifies the poor. It's interesting. So we're going to find that this poor really has a pretty broad definition here. It's the same word in poor we had back in chapter 2, verse 2 of chapter 2. And that's where basically we had the poor and the rich man.

So actually, let's look at some examples here in Luke. The one in Luke, let's look at Luke chapter 1. We're going to do a couple in Luke here. Luke chapter 1, because this is Mary's prayer, or Mary's exaltation of the Lord. Luke 1, could someone read 46 to 52?

And Mary said, My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has had regard for the humble state of his bond slave. For behold, from this time on, all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name. Okay, keep going down to 52. Let's see. Okay.

And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble.

So, I think this kind of gives a picture of God's mindset. It's not that God... You know, we see in Scripture a lot about The rich are associated with those who are self-sufficient, who think they can take care of themselves, they don't need God. And how about the person that came to the Lord and asked him, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And he was very wealthy. And the Lord says, well, keep the commandments, love thy neighbor as thyself. And he said, well, I've done all that. That's a pretty bold answer. And then he says, well, then sell all that you have and follow me. And boy, when that came to that, that was the end of the road.

So the rich often are associated with those who are hostile to God or contrary to God. The poor, many times, are associated with those who are receptive to God. So when it says, God has chosen the poor, we shouldn't get all bent out of shape and think, well, the poor, they have an advantage over the rich. No, God is wanting everyone to come to Him.

But this kind of points out here, just a couple of things, and I'll entertain your question. You know, in verse 48 it says, But He has had regard for the humble. So God has regard for the humble. So God is compassionate. That's 48. Then Mary says here that He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts. Those who are proud, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble, right? That's just the way God operates. And then 52, He's brought down the rulers.

There's the rich people right there. Rulers are usually rich. And he's exalted those who were humble. Sorry Al, I just wanted to get those... No, it's not a problem. Just thinking of Christ, the very first of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And to properly understand that verse is right along the same... Exactly, that's good. And if you think about Christ, God's choice for his son was not with the rich. He said, you know, my son is going to be born.

And actually if you look in Luke 2.7, basically it's Christ's birth. He was put in, laid in a manger. And the manger is literally a feeding trough.

So that's not really the greatest accommodations for a new baby. I mean, I don't know what, I'm not sure what the norm was. And actually Verne probably would know all his good stuff there. The norm probably wasn't super duper for the poor, but I don't think it was it. Maybe that was sort of a make-do crib, I don't know. I just don't know enough, but it's not exactly sounding like the best accommodations.

And then, I think the one that is even more interesting is in 1 Corinthians. Let's look at 1 Corinthians, and Lonnie, if you could read that. 1 Corinthians, let's do 26 through 29. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. How far did you step? 229. And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. Thank you. If you look in here, you'll see that, like in 27, there's all these contrasts.

God has chosen. He's chosen the foolish things. He's chosen the weak things. The base things are actually, base is the idea of, another translation has non-entity. His choice, because man is proud of what he's done, and typically that goes along with him doing things, he's chosen the things that are already weak by man's standards.

It's sort of like God realizes that people will be more receptive. He knows the heart of man. That's why he's made all these choices here. You think, boy, this sounds rather... He chooses to fool you. Sounds kind of opposite. Why don't we go to the intellectual center of whatever? But the intellectual center will not honor God, will not even entertain God. They're already puffed up beyond. So he goes to the foolish things, to the weak things. So this is a really good passage to kind of seeing where God's coming from in his choices and what he does. And actually I heard, I'm not sure I'm going to get this very right, maybe Bonnie can help me here. Who was the believing Queen of England? Was it Mary? Catherine. Catherine? Of England? Who stood up at the... I should have asked you this before we came, I apologize.

There was a Queen that basically was a believer and she honored God. Anyway. Possibly Victoria. Maybe it was Victoria, I don't know, whatever. It was said that of this verse, she was thankful for this verse because it says there are not many mighty and she says well okay there are some so she felt good that as a believer she was mighty she was a queen of England but she could be counted as being a believer so she liked this verse and she didn't even quote the verse directly she just said I like the many or the M she just said If I can get the story right, I'm not really good at that sometimes. Anyway, so that was kind of cool.

So Chester Macaulay, not Chester Macaulay, this is Hebert, said in the New Testament the term is used, this is the poor, in a broad sense, to note the poor in contrast to the rich. So you could say, I was thinking about that, in terms of Bill Gates and a few other millionaires, we would consider the poor. But the people down who are walking on, homeless people, we would consider the rich. So it's kind of relative what you're considered. But it's interesting, I was kind of thinking, it seems like, especially in our country, the middle class are the ones that are responding. And maybe, I don't know, I don't have any numbers to back any of this up, but just kind of thinking off the top of my head, the middle class tend to respond to the gospel in general. You don't see many rich people. I don't know.

God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him. including the poor believers, has these truths in 5b. So he's stating some truths which are true of every believer, and they include the poor as well. So basically he's saying these people are poor in material things, but boy are they rich in faith, and they're heirs of the kingdom. So let's look at those two aspects. They're rich in faith. Literally, they're wealthy in the sphere of faith, he says.

And I was kind of thinking, we are wealthy, We are wealthy because we are in him and he is wealthy. I just thought of a couple of places that talk about that. One I actually, if you don't already have this, I presented this a couple of weeks ago. I made a few copies. which is a divine grace. If you're wondering how wealthy you are, I have you get these in the class.

That's Schaeffer. Actually, I misspelled Schaeffer. It's only one F. I apologize for that. It's one F there. But Ephesians 1.3 basically says that, let's see, because I'm going to quote that, but I was going to make sure I had it right.

Ephesians 1.3.

It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So, you know, the believer's wealth is not in material things, it's in spiritual things. And so I think that's what he's kind of saying, is that God, did not God choose the poor of this world? And he's going to say, the poor of this world, if their believers are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. So that's the rich in faith part, heirs of the kingdom.

So I have a question here. So this kind of gets down to a little bit of rightly dividing the word, also of law and grace is what Vern's been going through, and also Israel and the church. So what kind of kingdom is promised for the believer? It's kind of a trick question.

I'm planning it to where I want to go. A heavenly kingdom. Right, exactly. You're familiar with our teaching here. We're dispensational here. So basically, Israel is looking forward to an earthly kingdom, right? That's where Israel is going to have their kingdom, earthly kingdom. That's what they expected from Christ on Palm Sunday. Exactly. He's talking to believers here. He said, my beloved brethren, he's talking about, he says, your heirs of the kingdom.

So the first thought is, wow, is he saying that they're Are they looking forward to an earthly kingdom? No. I have some passages to back this up. We're looking forward to a heavenly kingdom with our Savior. We're not looking forward to an earthly kingdom, even though we're going to be here with our Savior, right? We're going to be with the Lord when He's ruling and reigning as the body of Christ with Him. So we're going to be here, we're just not going to be on the earth in that kingdom.

We're going to be ruling and reigning. certain parts of the earth, I don't know. I mean, it's not clear in scripture. It just says we're ruling and reigning with Christ. So I like that. I like that we're ruling and reigning and we're in Him and with Him. So that's our stake. These verses here, let's just look at a couple.

Could someone read Colossians 1.13?

Al, if you could read that, Colossians 1.13. I just want to see if I can find it. I'm sorry. Is this a test?

No, no, no. Colossians 1.13 in my translation says, from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So what I like is, the kingdom that we're going to enjoy is the kingdom of his beloved Son. I thought that was just really beautiful. Our kingdom is all wrapped up in our Savior, and all wrapped up in the Lord. Israel's kingdom, God is still there, but it's wrapped up in a place, in a sense, right? And He's going to bless them there, and they're going to be happy. And they're going to be satisfied with that. They will have received the fulfillment of all the promises. Exactly. The whole system will be wonderful.

And then in Ephesians it talks, again, Nancy, if you could read Ephesians 5.5? For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. I like that. In the kingdom of Christ and God. Like we were studying for the Good Friday service there about the oneness we have with the Father and the Son and with us. So this is the kingdom of Christ and God.

And the last one is just basically that we inherit the kingdom. So I think in the interest of time, I'll just skip over that one. But I was just thinking, let's see, what was my last point here? Yeah, and then certainly we're going to be in the millennial kingdom with our savior. So I think the focus here is that we're heirs of the kingdom with our savior and with the father.

All right, so let's go on to the next one. The last part says, which he promised to those who love him. And see, which he promised to those who love him. Promise is to announce, to proclaim. It kind of has two meanings in the New Testament. It can mean to profess or to promise.

So let's look at, does someone read 1 John 2.25?

This is the promise which he himself made to us, eternal life. So basically just using that word, God makes promises and he has promised us eternal life. He is talking about believers here. He promised to those who love. The same phraseology was used earlier in James. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised. to those who love him. So God has made promises over and over again to those who love him. That's just characteristic of who he is. And that's what the poor man is going to enjoy as well as all believers.

And I was thinking, you know, It says, to those who love Him, you know, sometimes people say, well, I can't love God. Well, God says that's true. He says, we love God because He first loved us. We only can come to love God when we understand how much He loved us. Once we understand His love for us, then it's easy. But if we don't understand how much He loves us, I think people will struggle with that. They always say, I can't muster up love for God.

Well if you see what He's done, if you truly understand what He's done for you, you're going to get excited just like you would in any relationship with people. If a person loves you, after a while, some people have been pursued, or guys have pursued girls, and eventually it seems like if he really loves her, it will It's interesting how that works out.

Sometimes I'll say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know. Was that the case with you and Byrne? I forgot. I don't mean to pry here. I'm sorry. Neither of us liked the other one. And it was a gradual getting to know one another and becoming friends. That's good. I actually forgot. Thanks for reminding me of that. It was pretty funny. That is good. OK. All right. Okay, so now that's into verse five.

So now he's going to say, he wants you to listen. He tells you what, he says, you know, back in the illustration, you chose the rich man who walked into your group, but God is focused on the poor, the ones that want to respond to him. And he's given them the riches and the heirs of the kingdom. And these promises are to those who love him.

So now he's going to say, he's going to get kind of hard here, but you have dishonored the poor man. And he's speaking about these Jewish believers have dishonored the poor man. Dishonor is to signify, to treat shamefully, to insult either in word or deed. And I have a couple of verses here, and I'll just read what I have here. It says, and this is the Lord talking, but I honor my father, but you have dishonored me. And then in Acts it says, rejoice that that they have been considered worthy to suffer shame or dishonor for his name, for the name of Christ. So he's telling them that their actions are shameful, are dishonoring the poor. And then Macaulay here, I just liked his little statement here, he says, the contrast is between God's view of the poor believers and how you treat them. God chose them, you disgraced them.

And I like this verse, 1 Peter 2.17, honor all people. We're to have honor for all people. What's interesting is, but there's a distinction. We honor all people, but where's our love? The love is for our brothers. I take that to be the body of Christ. And that's what we're to love one another. And that implies we love our believers in Lord Jesus. Fear God and honor the King. We were struggling with honor of the king here.

I won't go there. Anything like the Sunday school teacher. No, no, no. I come under love of brotherhood hopefully. Not the king. Anyway, so it obviously, you know, he's pointing out that that is not consistent with Christ's life or who he is, to dishonor the poor man. Now he's going to show another contrast. He's going to say, you know, this doesn't make any sense. Is the rich guy really on your side? How's that rich guy helping you out these days? Is he really on your side? And he's going to show he's not.

What do you think that involves to honor? Well, that's a good question. Actually, I did not... In one of his epistles, I can't quote the verse right now, but where Paul writes to the church and says, consider others better than yourself. The honor is to consider the needs of others, to consider their thoughts, their feelings, the whole idea of don't put a stumbling block in front of others. So the whole idea of honor isn't so much the idea of exalting, it's the consideration, we would call it compassion and consideration. That's what I kind of think too. Is more the idea than honor, like paying taxes to or like Abraham to Melchizedek or something.

Didn't it say honour the widow earlier? Honour widows? Honour the widow who is a widow indeed. And I think respect. You know, we're called to honor our parents as... Honor your father and your mother? Yes. Right. But as we become adults and establish our own households, that honor, how that is exhibited... It changes, but it's still there. But it's still respectable. Right. Exactly. I guess I remind my daughters. I'm still your father and I still know it all.

So now he's going to launch into his... He's almost saying this is illogical. He says, the rich are not on your side. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? They oppress you, it's now your turn to exercise power over you, tyrannize, oppress harshly.

OK, so this is kind of interesting. So here's some examples. Let's see, what are we going to do? I'll just tell you about them here, because we're getting kind of close. So basically, Acts has a lot of these. Basically, a lot of the missionary journeys.

The captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees. Now, I went through this and I said, well, who in these passages here, who is Who are the, quote, rich people that he's saying are oppressing you? And I kind of came up with it. It was the temple guards and the Sadducees. And many times, all these people, they were well-off people. If you had that position, you were in good shape. Temple guard or a Sadducee.

And then the one in 1350, they persecuted you. It says, a devout woman of prominence and the leading men of the city. So those are the rich in that passage in 1350. If you want to read those after class, that's fine. Then Paul and Silas were dragged into court. This is the one where the girl had a spirit of divination and she was making a lot of money. And it says it's her master, and that's all they say, her master. He was doing very well. But once Paul said, spirit leave, demon leave, she wasn't of value anymore. And the last one is, they rouse up the people against Paul. And this is where Demetrius, the silversmith, Once again, his trade was impacted greatly by Paul's ministry. He says, they're not going to want statues of Artemis. We're going to be out of business here. So basically, the rich are not on the poor side. And that's basically what this verse is saying.

Then he goes on to say, and then he says, basically, Do they not blaspheme the fair name of God? So I just make sure we're on the same page. They here, right, is the rich people. If you go back in the context. They, do they not blaspheme the fair name? Blaspheme means to mock deliberately, to speak contemptuously of God. And there's a verse there that talks about So a case where the Jews were blaspheming.

And actually, the last little phrase here is interesting. The fair name, or it's literally the honorable name. The King James has honorable name. Al, what does your translation have? N.I.V. Yeah, you have N.I.V.? Yeah, my big one that I usually bring is New King James, but today I brought N.I.V. What does N.I.V. say about, is it fair name or honorable name or what, good name?

Are we talking about Acts 13? No, we're talking, I'm sorry, I jumped around on you here. We're back to James 2.7. Sorry, I was doing some browsing. No, this is not like, this is not the story.

Okay, James 2.7. Yes.

Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him? Oh, the noble name. Okay, that's good. Okay, so it's the honorable name and the last phrase, by which you have been called, or basically been named. And actually, I forgot this from, I think, somebody pointed me to this, some reference I had. The NEB, New English Bible, has the honor name by which you have been claimed. And so this actually is a, this is a Hebraism. Verma loved this. This little phraseology is actually, that was called upon you.

So let's look at, just to kind of close out, let's look at Deuteronomy 28.10. And it shows how this little phrase, that Hebrew phrase was used.

Deuteronomy 28.10. Whoever gets there.

And all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will fear you. Right. So the thing where it says you are called by the name of the Lord is the same phraseology that we have here. So it's saying we have basically by which you have been called, the honorable name by which you have been called, that name is the Lord Jesus. He says, do they not, the rich people, blaspheme the fair name or the honorable name of our Savior, basically.

So that's what he's referring to, I believe, there. So what's interesting is the rich man, you're treating him very well, but he has contempt for you. And he's going to drag you into court. So it's totally illogical that you should treat the rich man so well.

So actually this continues on, this whole topic continues on in the next lessons here. The next two lessons coming up, we're going to look at James chapter 2. We're going to cover verses 8 through 13. So it's going to continue on this discussion about the rich and the poor. And James is going to talk more extensively about that.

And I've kind of labeled these, there's something called, there's more in favoritism, the royal law, and the law of liberty. So there's some interesting things coming up here in the rest of this discussion about the rich and the poor. So any last thoughts or discussions? This last verse that you brought up, Deuteronomy, that's a really interesting verse. all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you.

Isn't that interesting? And don't you think that that's a lot of why the Jews are hated? Because people fear them? This little tiny... I know, I know. It is kind of totally illogical, this little... and how the... people from childhood are taught to hate these people just vehemently. It validates scripture that they're going to be hated.

And then we see the body of Christ very much in the same category. You can be anything, you can be any denomination you want except a Christian believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is that category is unacceptable. You can be anything else. You can be the most nutball case you ever could think of, and that's just fine. But you mention Christ's name, and you're not going to be welcomed.

So in a way, we should take that as being confirmation of what we have in Scripture. And we should. Well, thanks for your participation. We were small. Let's close in prayer then. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for the many blessings we have, Father, for just the riches, Lord. Thank you for these reminders about favoritism, Lord.

And while we're not exactly in the same situation that James talks about, many times we do. fall into the temptation of favoritism. And we know that's not consistent with who we are in Christ. And we pray that you would just convict us of that and that we could confess our sins and go forward with that, Lord. Thank you that you desire that we recognize favoritism for what it is. It's not of you. And we thank you for your word. In Christ's name, amen.