Love Your Neighbor

Row of mailboxes against green bush

What is the first piece of information you want to know about a person? What is the first thing that you notice when you meet them? For those in sales, the most relevant thing about you is how much money you have, and they often tell by looking at your dress, particularly your shoes. For others, it's what kind of job you do, or whether or not you have kids, what color you are, or your denominational affiliation.

Collecting this information isn't necessarily a bad thing, but how you treat them based on what you think you now know about them might be. Do you assume once you've noticed their brand-new, brand-name shoes that these people are more valuable to know? Do you think that because you know where they are from you know what they are really like?

Years ago when I moved to Brewton, I needed to run an errand with a local farmer that had us in his truck for two hours having never met before. I thought I knew what a farmer was and did: manual labor. Feed stuff, plant stuff, wait for stuff to grow. What I found was an intellectual of the natural world who spent his time crossbreeding plants and navigating the economy of long-horn bull genetics that is every bit as complex as Wall Street.

I listened with fascination and discovered that he made assumptions about me, namely, that I was a city-slicker who wouldn't have any respect for him and his work. We both thought we knew enough about each other, and we were both wrong.

James point, however, isn't merely "there's more to people than meets the eye, so give people a chance." He doesn't motivate from such a self-serving position. Instead He passes along God's perspective and law, namely, the poor in your eyes are loved by God, and therefore you are commanded to see them as your neighbor. To do otherwise is to be guilty of partiality.

In our walk with James, we are going to see what partiality is and why we shouldn't be partial. The national conversation on this topic doesn't begin to cover what James does in just these few short verses.

Partiality is "receiving the face"

So what is partiality, really? Interestingly enough, the word that we translate as "partiality" is a word that the New Testament writers appear to have invented. It is brought over from Hebrew and literally translates to "receiving the face." In other words, partiality is judging people by external qualities, how they look, how they dress. Our English idiom works in a similar way by saying that we are taking something "at face value."

Here in James this particular partiality is rich versus poor, which is more universal than people tend to think. In this situation, two people walk into a church service, one rich one poor. Both are described in external features, brilliant versus shabby clothing. The rich guy is given the best seat in the house, while the poor guy is barely even given a seat! This is partiality, and this is wrong.

Now, James isn't telling us to pretend we don't notice differences. The command is about what we do with that information. Do we give better seats to the rich guy because we think that the rich guy will give us money if we do? That's wrong. Do we give better seats to the poor guy because that will make us look better on social media and the church brochure? That's wrong, too. Both of these actions are selfishly motivated and are seeing the rich and the poor as an object not a neighbor.

It isn't just a money thing, either. Dan Dorianni points out that people can be poor or rich in personality (some are boring and others aren't), mind (some are quick and educated, with others slow and not), and body (some are more attractive than others), and to unfairly favor one over the other is still wrong (James, 64).

Now there might be a challenge to James here, what about hiring? Are you saying that I have to give the dumb guy the job of launching rockets? Or I have to let the former embezzler of funds be church treasurer? No! James is talking about not receiving the face, pure external circumstances. We don't apply this to character. If someone has a thieving character, it isn't unfair to deny him the church treasurer job. That isn't partiality, that is consequences. You have to be a neighbor to your givers. The same goes for the guy launching the rocket. You don't want him to blow up your other neighbors.

But that isn't really where we are living, though, is it? It's being at a get-together and seeing the ugly, boring guy (cause that's all you see him as) moving with intent towards you. You know not only are you going to be trapped in conversation, but no one will come to your rescue either.

Kids, you live in much the same world. How do you feel when you see your younger sibling come to you when you get out the magnet tiles? Oh, she's going to knock everything over! Or, if he gets the controller or he is on my team, I'm going to lose! He's slow, she's not good at this!

I'm not saying that some people are easier to enjoy than others, but what I am saying is that each of these people are your neighbors, loved by God, and in their own ways gifts to you. You sometimes have to look at people like an artist. See beyond the initial image. Look at your younger sibling's tendency to knock over magnet tiles as the chance to play the knock over game.

And even if you can find no redeeming quality, so far as you can see, then see them with heaven's eyes.

God's law is receive your neighbors with grace.

As James moves into the second half of our passage, he gives three reasons to not dishonor the poor man, in whatever way he is poor.

The first reason he gives is in verse 5 and that is God loves the poor. Now, as one commentator points out, that God doesn't only love or bring salvation to the financially poor (Doubglas Moo, 107), but we shouldn't despise the people that God has a heart for. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. If these are the kinds of people that God saves, then why do we look at them with a special distaste? To do so is to be unlike Jesus.

My friend Blake Harris has modeled this better than anyone I've seen. When in seminary together, we had to prepare sermons and inflict them on our fellow students, and you could invite others to the class as guests. I invited my girlfriend at the time, Abby, to come to mine. You know who Blake invited? And do you know who came to his? The school library janitor. The rest of us didn't even notice her. This was how Blake lived his whole life. He saw neighbors everywhere. He saw them as God did.

That's the first reason: look at those you'd rather not the way God does, with love.

Secondly, and ever practical, James points out that being partial doesn't guarantee anything. You can be a kiss-up to the rich, but they can still (as they have been doing) take you to court to take your stuff. So not only are you unfairly judging people, but even by your own selfish standards, this sort of godless behavior doesn't actually guarantee you anything. Did not the popular kids dump you once better things came along? Does not the star player leave the team when the money is better elsewhere? Unfair treatment, even at another's advantage, does not breed fair treatment in return.

Thirdly, and finally, James points out to us that partiality is no little sin. It turns out that the royal law, the summation of all God's commands are Thou Shalt love thy neighbor. To practice partiality is to reject that law. Now, you might say, well, murder surely has to be worse! You'd be right, but here is the thing about God's law. Dorianni sets this up so well. We tend to think of our sins as like a pile of things. We hope that by doing good things, we can reduce that pile. That's not what breaking God's law is like. God's law is a like a sheet of glass, and even one sin sends a brick through it (75). You don't break part of a window. If I throw a baseball at your car and put a dent in the door, I don't say, "Hey, I didn't dent your car, just the door!" You wouldn't buy that, and neither does God.

Yes partiality is a sin that all of us commit at some level or another, and it turns out that God will judge us for it.

But that's why this last line is so welcome. James tells us to be merciful in our judgements, doing the opposite of partiality, seeing people for the neighbor that they really are, and if we are God will be merciful to us. This doesn't mean that we are earning our way to heaven. Not at all. The only way that we are able to be merciful to others is to experience God's mercy on us. When we come to Christ in faith and repentance, our heart is remade and begins to beat in time with His, as it were. Not all partiality disappears at once, but God slowly works it out of us.

So when we see partiality flare up in us, no matter how often, we come to Christ, ask for our forgiveness, ask for the power to see the hard person in front of you as a neighbor, to see them with heaven's eyes, and offer the mercy that we want extended to us. A heart like that has been captured by Christ and will find mercy on the day of judgement. To quote one last time from Dorriani, if we can come to God daily asking for bread, we can come to Him daily asking for forgiveness.