THE BOOK OF JAMES
PREJUDICE AND PARTIALITY
DR. JIM DIXON
MARCH 17, 1985
JAMES 2:1-13
When Israel became a nation in 1948, Christendom immediately sent 172 missionaries to Israel. All 172 of them were from different denominations and all of them were seeking the first Jewish convert. It appeared as though the kingdom of Christ was divided. There are 200 denominations within Christendom and many of them have various factions. Now, there’s nothing wrong with denominations as long as we don’t take them too seriously—as long as they don’t become the basis of prejudice and partiality and as long as they don’t divide the body of Jesus Christ.
15 years ago when I had three of my wisdom teeth taken out in Van Nuys, California, I was given sodium pentothal. When I woke up, the oral surgeon had a smile on his face and I asked him what was so funny. He said, “You’re not going to believe what you said just as you passed out.” He said, “As you went under the anesthetic, your final words were, ‘I am a Presbyterian.’”
Now, Bob loves to tell that story at the new members classes, and he has me saying, “I am a Presbyterian” over and over again. I really only said it once, but it kind of bothers me that I said it at all. It kind of bothers me that as I was going under my final words would be “I am a Presbyterian.” Perhaps it meant more to me 15 years ago to be a Presbyterian than it means to me today. This church is a Presbyterian church. We’re affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in America. We have a Presbyterian form of government, but it is far more important to be a Christian than it is to be a Presbyterian.
There are Christians who are Baptists, believe it or not. There are Christians who are Lutherans, Christians who are Methodists, Christians who are Episcopalians, Christians who are Presbyterians, Christians who are Congregationalists, Christians who are Catholics, and Christians who are Pentecostals (such as Foursquare and the Assemblies of God). Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life is a Christian. To be a Presbyterian doesn’t make you a Christian. To be a Methodist doesn’t make you a Christian. To be a Baptist doesn’t make you a Christian. You must believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then you’re called to be united with all of those other people—brothers and sisters—who also believe in Jesus Christ as Lord. All of us who believe all over the world are called to be one.
In the early church, they didn’t have denominations but they had partiality, prejudice, and division. The Bible tells us that in the early church, in many parts of the Christian world, the body of Christ became divided as Christians began to give their allegiance to different apostles and different leaders. Some people said, “I’m of Cephas, I’m of Peter.” Other people said, “I’m of Paul.” Some people said, “I’m of Apollos.” And so the Apostle Paul had to write to them and tell them that all are meant to be one in Christ Jesus. There’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Holy Spirit, and one God and Father of us all who is above all, through all, and in all. We are called to be one.
The Bible tells us that in the early church there was partiality and prejudice. There was division encompassing various socioeconomic groups. The Bible tells us that in many places in Christendom whenever they had what were called the agape meals—when they had communion—sometimes rich people would sit together at one table and poor people would sit together at another table. The body of Christ was divided and the Apostle Paul had to write to them and he had to warn them that if they continued in their division the judgment of God was going to come upon them because they’re called to be one. We have many people in this church, Cherry Hills Community Church, from many different socioeconomic categories. It would be a horrible thing if on the basis of those socioeconomic conditions we began to divide ourselves. We’re called to be one and we’re called to show no partiality. We’re called to show no prejudice.
The Bible tells us that in the early church sometimes the body of Christ was divided on the basis of race. In some churches, there were Jewish Christians and there were gentile Christians, and never the twain shall meet. The Apostle Paul had to write to them and say, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” The Bible tells us that in the early church sometimes the people were divided because of partiality towards peripheral doctrinal statements. The doctrine of circumcision was a doctrine Christians divided over. In the early church, some Christians were in the circumcision party and some Christians were in the non-circumcision party. The Apostle Paul had to write to them and say, “It’s not worth it.”
The same thing is true of the Christian church today. There are Christians divided over peripheral doctrinal issues. It’s not worth it. Some Christians would divide themselves from other Christians on the basis of the mode of baptism—whether to sprinkle or immerse. It’s not worth it. Some Christians would divide themselves from other Christians on the basis of the timing of baptism—whether to baptize infants or whether only to baptize believing adults. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth dividing the body of Christ. Some people would divide the body of Christ over the baptism of the Holy Spirit—the gift of tongues. It’s not worth dividing the body of Christ. Some people would divide the body of Christ over communion and the meaning of communion—whether it is transubstantiation or consubstantiation. It is not worth it.
Some people would divide the body of Christ over the issue of Calvinism—predestination, the sovereignty of God, and the freedom of man. It’s not worth it. Some people would divide the body of Christ over the end times (what is called eschatology) and the timing of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Some people are pre-tribulationists, some mid-tribulationists, some post-tribulationists, some premillennialists, some amillennialists. It’s not worth it. Some people would divide the body of Christ over liturgy—whether to recite the Apostles’ Creed, whether to say the Lord’s Prayer, and whether to use Latin in the worship service. We debated whether or not to use pig Latin. But it’s not worth it.
You see, the message of Jesus Christ to Christians and to the church is very, very simple. If you love Jesus Christ, if you’ve made Him Lord and Savior of your life, then nothing should separate you from your brothers and sisters in Christ. Nothing should separate you from another person who has also asked Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their life. We are called to be brothers and sisters with Christians all over the world.
When I was in third grade, I went to Montrose Elementary School in Montrose, California. At that elementary school, they divided the students into two playgrounds. Grades one through three were placed on the lower playground and grades four through six played on the upper playground. There was a slope that divided the two playgrounds. Every once in a while, a fifth or sixth grader from the upper playground would come down to the lower playground and show off, kind of like an advanced skier on a beginner slope.
Sometimes they would kind of be bullies. I remember one fifth grader (I remember this very clearly) came up to me on the lower slope and he began to push me around and threatened to beat me up. I did what any red-blooded American would’ve done. I called for help and I saw my brother, Greg (who was also a fifth grader), up on the upper field. I called for Greg. He came running down the embankment, came up to that bully, and told that kid to leave me alone. I remember that the kid turned to my brother and he said, “Shut up.” My parents told us that we could never say shut up, and I could see Greg was very frustrated. Finally, Greg said, “same to you,” but Greg hung in there and eventually the bully kind of ran away.
I remember afterwards how good I felt to know that I had a brother who was willing to stand by me. Through the years, my brothers and I and our whole family—my mom and dad—have stood together. We’ve been united through mountain tops and valleys. Barb and I have told Heather and Drew that they need to be united, too, because we’re a family. God wants His people to know that we’re called to be united. He wants us to understand that we’re called to be brothers and sisters. We’re called to stand with each other. Nothing should divide us. No partiality and no prejudice should divide us. The Apostle Paul said, “As in one body there are many and all the members do not have the same functions, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.” Paul says, “Strive for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Paul calls for unity, with no division and no partiality.
Secondly and finally, the Apostle James tells us that God hates prejudice because prejudice reflects judgmentalness. God hates judgmentalness. When we show partiality or prejudice, we are really judging people. We’re judging the worth of people. James says, “When you make distinctions among yourselves, have you not become judges with evil thoughts?”
About 70 years ago, a little boy named Giuseppe and his family came to the United States of America. Giuseppe’s family had been in the fishing industry for more than 300 years, and when they came to San Francisco Giuseppe’s father opened a fishing business. Eventually, to Giuseppe’s father and mother nine children were born, including Giuseppe. All the children began to take to the sea. They got their fishing legs real quick. They entered the fishing industry—all of them except Giuseppe. He couldn’t stand fishing. He couldn’t stand the sea. He couldn’t stand the smell of fish. He couldn’t stand the rock of the waves. It made him sick. So he began to withdraw from his father’s fishing business and his father began to almost hate him for it. His father began to refer to Giuseppe as a good-for-nothing.
As the years passed, Giuseppe tried as best he could to help the family. He wouldn’t go out to sea, but when the boats came into dock he would scrub the boats and mend the nets. But the smell of the fish in the gear made him sick. He began to fear his father’s rejection, and whenever his father came home Giuseppe would hide under the bed. He could not face his dad. Giuseppe grew a little older and he tried to help the family in other ways. He got other odd jobs (such as paper routes) and whatever money he got he gave to the family, but it was never good enough because he wasn’t a fisherman.
Finally, Giuseppe found something he was very, very good at. It was something that made him famous. Today in San Francisco Giuseppe and his name are very, very well known. In fact, Giuseppe is well known all over the United States (and certainly in the city of New York). He is known by many people all over the world. His name was Giuseppe DiMaggio. Americans called him Joe DiMaggio. He was one of the greatest baseball players of history. For 15 years he played for the New York Yankees. We might say that Giuseppe’s father judged him a little too early, because he rose to greatness.
But you see, whenever we judge another person, we judge them too early. Whenever we think of another person as good for nothing, we judge them too early because the Bible tells us that all judgment waits for God. The Bible tells us that only God is able to judge another human life. Only God has all the information on another human life. Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this. As the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son to have life in Himself because He is the Son of Man. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment into the hands of the Son that all might honor the Son even as they honor the Father.”
Many years ago, in the year 1904, a man named Ota Benga who was a pygmy and lived in the Congo was captured by a famous explorer whose name was Samuel Verner. Samuel Verner brought Ota Benga back to the United States of America and exhibited him in the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. When the St. Louis Exposition was done, Samuel Verner gave Ota Benga—this little black pygmy—to William Holiday, the director of the Bronx Zoo in New York. And Ota Benga was placed in a cage in the Bronx Zoo of New York with an orangutang and a parrot. He remained there for years, despite the protests of civic and religious leaders in New York City. He was the only human being in the history of the United States of America to be imprisoned in a zoo. Finally, Ota Benga committed suicide. We ask ourselves, how could something like that ever have happened? It could happen through partiality and prejudice. It happened through partiality towards white people and partiality towards normal-sized people. Only a black pygmy would’ve been encaged in a zoo and judged as subhuman.
Most of us are far more subtle in our prejudices and partialities. We would never judge another human being as subhuman, but we might judge another person as below us. We might judge another person as beneath us, maybe because of the color of their skin or maybe because of the clothes they wear or the way they look or maybe the job they have (or don’t have) or maybe the size of their bank account. God says, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
There’s a story I love of a class of students (and with this we’ll close) taking a class in ornithology (ornithology is the study of birds) at a college. As they went into the class, they had prepared for their final exam. This was the last day of school and they’d studied hard. They got into their classroom and suddenly they saw 15 birdcages in the front of the classroom. They didn’t know what to make of that, but all the bird cages were covered with blankets. They took their seats, and as they were waiting for the examination they saw the professor stand and pull a little string and the blankets rose just a little bit. All the students could see the bird legs underneath, but that’s all they could see. The professor said, “This is your examination. I want you to identify all the birds just by looking at their feet.”
Well, the students were just totally appalled. They were disgusted. They began to grumble and murmur all over the class. Finally, one student had had enough. He stood up, took his examination paper, and went up to the front of the class. He slammed it down at the professor’s desk and he said, “I’ve had it.” He started walking out. At first, the professor was kind of taken back. Then he gathered himself and he turned to the student and he said, “Young man, wait a minute. You can’t do that. What’s your name?” The student turned around, pulled up his pants, and said, “You tell me.”
As people, we are no more qualified to judge another person than those students were to judge those birds. We just don’t see enough. We don’t see enough of another person to make a judgment on their worth or their dignity (and certainly not on their destiny). We see externals: the jobs people hold, the color of their skin, and their appearance. Some people we get to know and they become our friends, but even then, we only know a measure of their inward person. We don’t know them well enough to judge them, and that is why all judgment waits for God. The word prejudice simply means to prejudge, and whenever you judge anyone’s worth you’re prejudging, because all judgment waits for God. The Apostle James warns us that, if we judge people, one day when we stand before Jesus Christ His judgment of us will be harsher. James says, “So live and so act as those who are to be judged under a law of liberty, for judgment is without mercy for those who have shown no mercy.” You see, God hates partiality. God hates prejudice because it divides the body of Christ and because it represents the judging of another person’s worth. Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your love, love so great that You left Your throne of glory and came into our world. You shared our humanity and took our flesh upon Yourself. Your love is so great that You were willing to die for us. You promised us that You love all of us—rich or poor, red or yellow, black or white. You love us all. We who believe in You are called to share that love. We know that. Lord, help us not to show partiality. Help us not to show prejudice. Help us not to divide the body of Jesus Christ. Help us never to judge the worth or destiny of another human life. Before You no creature is hidden. All are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Teach us not to judge. In Your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.