Warning against Partiality

2My brothers and sisters,^* do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?^*2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in,³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’,^*4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.^* Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?⁶But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.¹¹For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.¹³For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.

This is a coherent attack on the behaviour of church members who show partiality to the rich and dishonour the poor. The author asks them to note that it’s the rich with their power to manipulate legal process who cause damage to ordinary people. He argues that partiality is a breach of the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves; and he repeats the old Jewish teaching that breaking one commandment is just as much transgression as breaking another. They should not imagine that partiality is a minor offence. Judgment will be without mercy on those who have shown no mercy (the biblical notion of human mercy includes kindness). On the other hand those who display human kindness overcome the severity of the judge. 

Stained galss window in rich suburban church

In the Church of Scotland, members of rich churches are very unlikely to see a poor person in the congregation because our parishes mirror the social divisions of society. This is a crime against the body of Christ which leads to ignorance, arrogance and irresponsibility in the rich churches and lack of resources in the poor ones. This is a fundamental injustice which has weakened the church and fostered a loyalty to buildings, parishes and congregations rather than to Christ and his community. Any reform of the church must begin by creating socially inclusive congregations.

But it’s also a challenge to the prevailing capitalist rhetoric of abusing the poor as lazy, feckless and dependent, which is based on nothing more than the desire of richer people to deny that there is any injustice to poorer people. Well, James says that those who have shown no mercy will receive none.