The Evils of Prejudice: James 2: 1-13
In some way or another, we all wrestle with preferences and prejudices in our hearts and minds. From our neighborhoods, to our family demographics, from living isolation to a big community, to our family and social values, all will create in us some kind of preferences of prejudices. Those may be seen in whether we look to television shows and news which glorify the rich and famous. We can also look at who we struggle to talk to, who we cross the street to avoid. There are people that bother us because of how they look, what their cultural background is, who they are married to, their weight and appearance, or the struggles they’ve faced in life. Every person in life has some sort of preference or prejudice in their heart and mind.
In the opening to James chapter two, we are told how to act and behave given these thoughts and beliefs which are socialized into us. But let’s start first with God’s view. In I Samuel 16:7, we are told this, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” God, then, looks at the heart and now what can be seen. James gives us the example of a rich person in church. Don’t favor someone who appears wealthy and powerful over the poor in God’s house, a problem James struggled with in his own church.
There are several reasons that we should do everything in our power and with God’s help to quell the favoritism in our minds and actions. First favoritism is unfaithful. The need to impress and show off is something valued by humanity and society, but it doesn’t speak to a depth of faith. You can have the nicest car, the best clothes, the most spectacular talents in the world, but God looks to the heart and not to these outward things. There is nothing you can bring to the table or that will impress God. God is looking for people faithful, willing, and who can be made into the image of Christ. Furthermore, Jesus often spoke of liberating the poor. In Luke 6:20, “God blesses you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” In other places, Jesus says the last shall be first. Faith teaches about making whole the broken, saving the sinner, and helping the least of these, not bolstering the already complacent and well off.
Favoritism is also misdirected. James pointedly says in verse 6, “Isn’t it the rich who oppress you?” In the early days of the church, the rich classes harassed the Christians because there were so many from the poorer classes. They also used debtors prisons to make the early Christians suffer. Jesus even spoke to forgiving debts in the Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor in Matthew 18. We cannot change this emphasis on forgiving debts and helping those in need to a worship of wealth and power in our faith and in our society. That utterly misses the mark of what Jesus taught and preached. Instead we must make sure our faith lifts up, helps, and blesses those who are in need. There should be joy in an encounter with God’s people, not suffering and humiliation.
Favoritism is unloving and unchristian. If we isolate or keep someone out because of how we feel or look upon them, we keep them from being part of God’s family of faith, but it also deprives us of learning from them and receiving their love in return. When Jesus said “love your neighbor,” he meant every neighbor, rich, poor, whatever and whoever they are in the same Christ-like way. We are all going to have some kind of learned prejudice in our lives, but Jesus extended the arms of grace to all people that all might know the love of God. In every human there is imperfection, which is why we need God in our lives. That is the reason we look to the heart and what God can do to change the heart to a more Christ-like way of living.
So if our learned prejudices and preferences are the problem, James tells us that the solution is providing ourselves with accountability in our words and deeds as well as in our thoughts. First we must speak and act with fervor. James says in verse 12, “So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free.” If we live free from judgment and even the shadow of judgment we must encourage others to live free of judgement as well. Then in our speech and actions we must not judge. Perhaps the best way to phrase that is to live with the same hopes expectations we have. For instance, if we hope and expect to be welcome in heaven, then we must practice the same level of welcome on earth that God extends in heaven. We speak and act with further to bring grace and love into lives that are broken and hurting.
And above all else, we must show mercy. In our worst days and times, God showed us mercy; therefore, we must be merciful. It is easy to be harsh. We tend to err towards angry accountability, holding feet to the fire, punishment, vengeance, just desserts, and you get what is coming to you. But then when we are in the hot seat we demand and plead for mercy. If we are unwilling to be merciful, then we should not expect mercy for ourselves. You can expect accountability and still show mercy. You can push and challenge others in a merciful way. We can overcome differences in and amongst ourselves if we remember to pause and speak first with mercy, for mercy will always, always triumph.
I go back to that parable of the unforgiving debtor. in Matthew 18 A king called up his accounts to get all the debts up to date. One of the debtors who owed him a significant amount of money begged and pleaded for mercy on behalf of him and his family. The king was filled with mercy and forgave the debt of millions. But that same man who was just shown mercy, turned around and grabbed the person who owed him money by the throat demanding payment. This man also could not pay. The forgiven man showed no mercy. He threw the debtor who only owed him thousands in jail until the debt could be paid in full. The forgiven man was utterly unmerciful, and the angry king asked him this: “Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow [debtor] just as I had mercy on you?” In the end we are all one and the same—people who need the Holy One in their lives to bring love and grace.
In all of our hearts, some form of prejudice and preference exists, and yet prejudice of any kind is a sin. Perhaps this is one of the most difficult areas of our growth in Christ—finding the kingdom way instead of “the way I know.” Instead of looking to what we see, what we hear, what we have been taught, we must look to the heart just as God does, and pray that each and every heart will be attuned to Christ. That is perhaps the only way to break the chains of prejudice that keep us from fully following Jesus’s way. Look to the heart of the person, speak and act with fervent love and grace. And remember that to all people we must be merciful, dealing first and foremost in love. For when we were poor and poor in spirit, God was rich in mercy to us, and so too, must we be to others.