Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 2 – January 1991

 

Snobbery In The Church

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Westendorp on James 2:1-7

Scripture Readings: 1Corinthians 1:10-31; James 1:19 - 2:7

 

Introd:  Discrimination is a deep-seated problem in the human heart.

I grew up at a time when Australia still held to the “White Australia Policy”...
despite the fact that our original inhabitants were very obviously non-white.

Some of us in church have experienced South Africa’s Apartheid Policy...
and more recently they have now witnessed a kind of apartheid in reverse.

Discrimination was most shockingly seen in the Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust;
And in the Klu-Klux-Klan’s actions in America’s deep south.
But racism is still alive and well today... also in this land.
                Whether that be in our attitude to our indigenous people;
                or the attitude of our indigenous people to white Europeans.

However there are more subtle forms of discrimination.
We are prepared to put up with something from one person but not another.
We readily befriend some people in the church but keep others at arms-length.

Probably the most common form of discrimination is on basis of class distinction.
The university educated professional who snubs the blue-collar worker
  or the labourer who ridicules anyone who has an education.
                That kind of discrimination we might call “snobbery”.  A word gone out of fashion.
                And today James reminds us that at times this problem deeply affects the church.

 

A]        FAVOURITISM CONDEMNED            (vs.1-4)

 

1.            In our text James exhorts his listeners: Don’t show favouritism!

James literally speaks of exalting someone over and above others.
And the context makes quite clear what James is driving at.
J.B.Phillips translates James’ opening words in terms of snobbery:
Don't ever attempt, my brothers, to combine snobbery with faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ!
As a Christian, don’t be a snob!

That’s a particularly relevant warning in an oriental society:
A society which is extremely class-conscious.  Think of India with its caste system.
In that kind of culture everyone knows their place and keeps to their place.
James gives an example – one that he may well have witnessed in one of the churches.

Two visitors come into a Christian gathering.

   - One is smartly dressed and wears several gold rings on his fingers.
Here is obviously someone who is fairly well off.
Perhaps he’s also someone with authority... maybe a local city councillor.
And the duty-elder quickly goes to meet him.  He shows him the best seat in the auditorium.

   - The other man comes in dressed in shabby clothes.  He’s obviously poor.
Maybe he’s one of the town’s derelicts... so someone points him to a spot by the wall.
Let him stand – we don’t want him dirtying the pew cushions!
Or maybe the room is full so let him sit over here by my feet on the floor.

We know that things like this happened in the early church.  It was a problem.

There’s an early Christian writing called “The statutes of the Apostles”.  It gives these instructions:
    When a wealthy visitor comes in late, the leader of the worship service
                may not interrupt or stop the service to conduct this VIP to his seat,
                he must leave it to the congregation to make place for him if possible. (The local Mayor???)
    When a poor man comes in then the elder ought to make sure he has a seat
                even if the elder himself must sit on the floor.  (A local derelict???)  I like that...!

The point is that the church in a class-conscious society must guard against favouritism.

It must make sure that there is no snobbery in the church.

Perhaps you think that this problem only occurred back in the days of James and Paul in 1Corinthians.

Well I’m not so sure.  During my college years a couple of students carried out a survey.
Over a period of several Sundays they visited many churches in Geelong.
One of the students was neatly groomed and smartly dressed in a suit and tie.
The other student wore an old pair of sneakers and dirty jeans.
                He hadn’t shaved for 3 or 4 days and wore an old jumper with holes.
                He also left his dentures back home in the bathroom.

The reaction of church folk was disappointingly clear.
                - Generally the well-dressed student was warmly welcomed.
                  Folk were generally happy to mix with him.
                - The shabbily dressed student was given a hymn book..!
                  A curt greeting... and that was about it too.
                The only exception to that was at the Salvation Army.

Snobbery in the church... discrimination... favouritism.

But of course in Reformed churches it’s different.  We aren’t like that!  Or are we?

A few Sundays later these same RTC students co-opted two friends who weren’t know in our church.
As they came into our church the story wasn’t all that different.
The well-dressed student again received the warmer welcome of the two.
That leaves me wondering what would happen if they came here to TCRC?
                Would we welcome both men with equal warmth?

Favouritism is always a danger in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many years ago snobbery showed itself in some very dangerous ways.
Only rich farmers and businessmen were ever voted in as elders or deacons.
                Some of you older members may remember that.  It affected my grandparents.
                The workers, labourers, were not even considered.  No matter how godly they might be.
There also used to be a practice of paying yearly rent for seating in the church.
Of course only the rich could afford it – the poor had to make do with benches at the back.

Sometimes snobbery still shows itself in the relationship between churches.

One church discriminates against another one.
The church in the upper-crust suburb looks down on other congregations.
I’m tempted to name some names of churches... but I’m sure you know what I mean.
I grew up in a church in a predominantly blue-collar area.
                I was disappointed by the attitude of the youth from a neighbouring white-collar area.
                They didn’t want too much to do with us.  There were times when I felt that acutely.

More commonly snobbery influences the relationships within a church.
We’d rather not have too much to do with Mr. Vandermember...!
After all he lives in a housing commission house on the wrong side of town.
Sure we’ll talk to him!  But befriend him?  Invite him home?  That’s another matter.

Amongst Christians too it’s sometimes possible to work out a sort of “pecking order”.

And then we make sure we relate as much as possible to those in our class.

Can I ask you to think about this in a very practical way?
Who it is you usually talk to and mix with at church...?
Can you honestly say that there is no favouritism... no snobbery... no discrimination?

 

2.            James says that when there is discrimination then we become judges.

We set ourselves up to make evaluations between one person and another.

In fact he says that we become judges with evil thoughts.
That kind of discrimination is not thinking God’s thoughts after Him.
But it is judging with evil thoughts because it looks at the wrong things.
Then we no longer see someone as a needy person made in God’s image.
Instead we see that person in terms of what he owns.  Or in terms of the power he wields.

Have you not become judges with evil thoughts?

James seems to be hinting at what he said earlier, back in 1:22 & 26.
There he spoke about people being deceived in their thinking.
                If you only come to listen to the Word you deceive yourself.
                If you think yourself religious but don’t bridle your tongue you deceive yourself.

Well here is another way in which we deceive ourselves.
Another way in which our religion is worthless.
                When we call ourselves Christians but engage in snobbery.
                Favouring the rich... or the influential... or the popular...
                While we keep the poor and the unpopular at arms length.
                                Are we not becoming judges with evil thoughts?
                Religion that is pure and undefiled avoids all sorts of favouritism.

 

3.            Interestingly, James relates all this to FAITH.  In fact he begins with faith.

Our NIV reads: My brothers... AS BELIEVERS... don’t show favouritism...

James literally uses the word FAITH at this point.
Don’t hold your faith together with favouritism.
Don’t combine snobbery... with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Those two things just don’t go together.  Faith in Jesus and discrimination don’t mix.

Snobbery - like all other sins - is faith threatening.

Our faith centres on Jesus – He whose Advent we remember at this time of the year.
He came to earth to save both the rich and the poor... the popular and the unpopular.
And in Him we see no signs of snobbery or favouritism.
                The outcast came to Him and were welcomed by Him.
                But so was Zacchaeus the rich tax-collector.  Jesus didn’t play favourites with people.

We should note that in this context James speaks of the glory of Jesus.

Not just the Lord Jesus Christ – but the Lord of glory.  Our faith is in a GLORIOUS Lord Jesus Christ.

The point James is making is that His glory far outshines anything in this world.
And here we are – so often judging by a passing outward glory... by someone’s appearance,
We react to a woman on her social standing, a fellow’s position of influence, a girl’s popularity.
Faith in a glorious Lord does not mix with that kind of favouritism.

 

B]         GOD’S BIAS TOWARDS THE POOR    (vs.5)

 

1.            However favouritism not only contradicts our faith, James says that it is also totally unrealistic.

For two reasons. The first reason lies in God... the second in those they were favouring.

Favouring the rich and influential is unrealistic...
Firstly because – if anything – God is biased towards the poor.
Vs.5: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world?

Of course it’s true!  The Bible tells us that God does not show favouritism.
The same word James uses here of us is also used of God in a negative way.
                - What we are called not to do, God does not do either.
                - God does not pander to the rich and influential.

So there is a sense in which God does not discriminate at all.  He accepts all kinds of people.
Peter confessed that when he saw the Roman centurion Cornelius come to faith in Acts 10:34:
He said: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism.”
Paul says the same thing in Romans 2:11: God does not show favouritism.

In both these instances the same word is used as in our text.
God is even-handed in His dealings with people.
                He receives into fellowship people from highest ranks of society.
                He also receives into fellowship with Himself people from the worst slums.

 

2.            Yet we also have to add that God has a special place for the poor.

Not that He doesn’t have a room for the rich – far from it.
Some of the great saints were wealthy people: Abraham and David.
And yet again and again the Lord sides with the weak and powerless.

James considers this important.  He introduces it with the words: Listen, my beloved brothers!
Hasn’t God elected those who are poor in the eyes of the world?
Yet these are the very people you are passing by in your anxiety to side with the rich.

James could easily have mentioned examples of God siding with the poor and needy.
* God chose for His own people, Israel, a poverty stricken slave nation.
* God calls Himself a Father to the Fatherless and the Defender of the widows.

Abraham Lincoln once said:
God must love the common people because He made so many of them.

We might almost change that to say:
God must love the common people because He saved so many of them.

God certainly does NOT favour the rich and influential

 

3.            In the N.T. we get a clearer view of God’s bias towards the poor.

A bias that lies in the very nature of the gospel itself.
When John the Baptist had some doubts about Jesus he sent messengers.
And Jesus told them to tell John what they heard and saw:
                The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the sick are healed.
                And then Jesus added these words: And the poor have the good news preached to them.

Jesus didn’t mean that the gospel wasn’t for the rich.  For them too it is God’s good news.

But the very nature of the gospel means it especially good news for the poor.
The gospel is that salvation is not in any sense our doing.  We don’t buy it or earn it.
It’s not our achievement.  It’s all God’s work through Jesus Christ.

We sing it in the hymn: “Nothing in my hand I bring - simply to Your cross I cling”
                But it’s easier for the poor and the destitute to sing that.
                It’s harder for the rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
                God has especially elected those whom the world classifies as poor.

Not that poverty in itself is ever a guarantee of salvation.  Neither does being rich disqualify someone.

Yet God’s bias to the poor is very clear in Scripture.  To show that it is all of grace and not of works.

So James says: When you judge folk by their wealth, then don’t do it in terms of the car they drive.
And don’t do it in terms of the house they live in... or the street or suburb where they live...
                but do it in terms of the real wealth that lasts.

Judge them in terms of their spiritual inheritance in the Kingdom of heaven.
Then the poorest beggar is richer than all the Rupert Murdochs of this world.

The believer’s real riches are ‘faith riches’ that Jesus gives all those who trust in Him.

That is wealth that really is “out of this world”.

 

C]         THE BIAS OF THE RICH AGAINST THE CHURCH   (vs.6,7)

 

1.            But there is a second reason why this kind of favouritism in our text is unrealistic.

Another reason lies in the very people they are favouring.

Those same rich people in that society had a bias against the church.

In the early church there weren’t many rich by worldly standards.  Paul spelled that out in 1Cor.1.
So we can understand that when some wealthy people did take an interest
                then folk were keen for them to be added to the church.

James reminds them there is another side to it.
In their society the wealthy belonged to an oppressive power structure.
                All the property was in the hands of the few.
                They exploited the poor and oppressed them.
                Of course they did help them with easy loans... but for their own economic gain.
                At such high interest rates that they had no hope of getting out of debt.
                Here were people who – by and large – were used to playing the tyrant.

Favouritism towards the rich and influential.

And James asks: Isn’t it these rich who are exploiting you? Aren’t they the ones dragging you to court?
So that their cronies on the bench will judge in their favour?
And these are the same people that you now want to favour in the church...?

John Calvin made a very simple comment about this situation in our text:
He said: It’s odd to honour one’s executioners while injuring one’s friends.

 

2.            Even worse is that these very people blasphemed the church and the faith.

The reason for that would have been obvious.
The rich and powerful would have felt threatened by the church.
The Christian church was the great equaliser in their society.
In the Christian church the master sat down in the same pew with his slave.
In fact it was possible – and always should be possible:
                That in the church the master must submit to the slave.
                It even happened that the Master would receive communion from the hand of his slave.

In Acts we also read that at times the income of the rich was threatened by the church.
Often then the reaction of the wealthy and powerful was to curse the church.
To blaspheme the name which is named over the Christian at his baptism.

 

3.            It’s no wonder then that James sounds almost indignant in verse 6: But you have insulted the poor...!

Favouring the rich above the poor is a disgrace.

Especially so in the light of the injustices in their society.  But it is always a disgrace.

Favouritism of the rich is a dishonouring of the poor.
And therefore a perversion of true religion.  So don’t mix your faith with snobbery or favouritism.

We who belong to Jesus Christ need to work hard at portraying the gospel.
The Gospel is the great equaliser.  Jesus came that first Christmas for all kinds of people.
But if anything then He was especially compassionate to the poor and needy.

Let us then live out of the gospel and avoid any hint of snobbery or discrimination.

In that way the likeness of Jesus will be seen in us.

Amen.