How can we be a Church that shows Mercy and not Judgment?

Date: May 3, 2026
Series: Fruitful Faith - James
Passage: James 2:1-13
Preacher: Pastor Sammy Rodriguez

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You would open your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 2, verse 1. If you don't have a Bible, there'll be verses on the screen, but there'll be a Bible there in the uh seat in front of you underneath it. So you can open to James chapter 2 verse 1. There's a story of a pastor named Joby Martin, a pastor in Jacksonville. He shares a story of a time in his early 20s where he was working multiple jobs. One of those jobs was being a youth pastor, but he was also working at a gym. And at the gym, he was responsible for making smoothies at the gym. And across the gym that he worked in was a strip club. Now bear with me. One of uh some of these uh ladies would come to the gym regularly to work out every day around the same time in the morning. And there he would be working, making uh smoothies, and he built relationships with them. He started to get to know them. And in preparations for his sermons throughout the week to the youth, he would have his Bible out. So whenever he had downtime, he would be there with his Bible open and reading it. And sometimes these uh ladies would ask what he was reading. And so day to day he began to build a relationship with them. He began to share uh the word of God with them and even asked that, hey, every time you guys come in, it is okay if I share with you the message that I've been preparing to these ladies. They said, Yeah, sure. So they built a relationship with them. And uh eventually one some of the ladies uh talked to Joby and said, Hey, would you want to, you know what? You know, now we're we're becoming friends, you should come and stop by our work. And Joby said, That's probably not a good idea, but you can come uh to my work, to church. You should come to church one Sunday. And they said, you know, that's not really our thing. But eventually, after asking and asking, one of the ladies said, Yes, I'll go. And Joby was shocked. He's like, Oh no, like she said yes, now she's coming. There, there's no way I can take that invitation back. He was, you know, a little worried about it. But uh the lady said, I'll come, I'll I'll pick you up. And so he said, Well, we have to get there early because I give the announcement during the Sunday service. So the lady comes in her white Corvette, her daughter in the back to pick up Joby. And they head to church, they drop off her daughter into the kids' ministry and they walk into the worship center, walking to the front, because he needed to be there to give the announcement. And Joby said it was awkward. This lady was wearing a Sunday dress, probably not what people were used to in this uh Baptist church, traditional there in South Carolina. And so they were staring, and it was uncomfortable. Well, the Joby went, gave the announcement, sermon was preached, service was done, and as they were leaving and going to pick up the lady's daughter, a deacon came up to them and pulled Joby aside and said, Hey, I need I need to talk to you. Joby turned to his friend and said, Hey, you go pick up your daughter and we'll meet uh at your car. And so Joby is taken by this deacon over to the pastor's office where there are two other deacons waiting for them. And they said, How dare you? What were you thinking inviting a woman like that? Don't you know that we exist to protect our people from people like that? And Joby, he says when he recounts his story, wishes that he had the gospel confidence that he has today, back then, but he was in his twenties worried about his position, his career, his ministry. And they said, Don't you ever do that ever again? And he agreed, knowing deep down it was wrong. Well, he goes, meets his friend in the car on the way back to drop him off. And his friend says, That was about me, wasn't it? And he tries to make some excuse, but she can see through it. There was an awkward silence in the car. And Joby trying to break the silence, he asks just a question, Well, what do you think about church? And in the silence, he could see through her sunglasses, tears in her eyes. She says, I've never felt more embarrassed in my life. Joby says, think about this. This was a woman who was taking substances and drinking to perform in front of crazy and dirty men. And she was saying, I've never been more embarrassed. And in that moment in the church, while our daughter is in the backseat coloring pictures of Jesus. It's happened since the very beginning. And we see that in our text in James chapter 2, how our judgment and partiality is counter to the gospel. Counter to the faith that we may speak the gospel in words, but our actions show something different. And so the question that our text will answer today is how can we be a church that shows mercy and not judgment? So let's stand in reverence for the word of God in this moment. We stand in honor of God's word, that when this book is opened, God is speaking, and it has this word has the capacity to transform our lives. So we come hungry and expectant to hear. Just we're going to be reading or throughout the service, verses one through thirteen, but we're only going to read verses one through four of chapter two for now. It says this, My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and the poor man in shabbing clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Let's pray, dear Jesus, would we not be a church that speaks the gospel but does not live out the implications? That we are all in need of your grace, that we are all sinners. Lord God, that we would love and show mercy to all people, that we would leave the seat of judgment to you, God. Help us to listen to your word now and be the church and the people that you've called us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may have a seat. Before we jump into chapter two, walking verse by verse through these 13 verses, just a reminder of last week's portion that we looked at, what it was about. James was dealing with being doers of the words and not just hearers. That true faith and true religion actually does something. There's evidence of it. And we saw this in the last two verses of James 1, and I want to go to those. It's important when we're reading our Bible or teaching the Bible that we understand the context. A lot of times we'll see bridges of ideas and meaning. And so we see this in verse 26 and 27 of verse 1. It won't be on the screens, but you can look there in your Bibles. It says, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and widows and their afflictions and to keep oneself unstained from the world. What James does here in the end of chapter one, and now this chapter two is he moves from the theoretical to the practical. He moves from the idea to an action. He shows what true religion, true faith looks like, and what it doesn't with this illustration of a rich and a poor man. Look at verse one with me, chapter two. My brothers, whenever we see that, we can see that phrase, my brothers or sisters. This is a transition of a new idea or something different. And it says, Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Really, verse one is the summary of the passage. He says, blatantly, clearly here, James gives a command to the church, show no partiality. What does this word partiality mean? It's not a word we often use. Some other Bible translations will translate this word as favoritism. The Greek word here is it literally means to receive the face, it means to look upon the exterior of someone and to judge them based off of that. By appearance, dress, body, posture, the outward, to treat someone differently because of what they look like. Partiality is putting value and honor in a person over another simply because how they look. Because of the exterior. And so this first point of this question of how can we be a church that shows mercy and not judgment is this reject partiality among God's people. Reject partiality among God's people. We can assume that there was a problem of prejudice and partiality in the early church because James is talking about this. He's writing it and including it in his letter. And he makes it clear: show no partiality. But he connects that. Do you see that there in verse 1? As what? As you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That a follower of Jesus cannot hold on to partiality and hold on to the faith of Jesus at the same time. It's not possible. It's not. You can't hold both of them. And we know that there have been moments here, we see it in the text of the early church, but throughout church history where that's been the case. Where people try to hold on to the Bible, to the gospel, to Jesus, and their favoritism at the same time. And James is saying, you cannot do it. It's impossible. You cannot have Jesus and discrimination. And verse 2 talks about the discrimination, this example of class and wealth, but the word partiality here in the Greek is plural. It means different, it can mean different types of partiality, not just one. Whether it be age, ethnicity, background, culture, dress, no partiality. Let's look into verse two and three, this illustration. It says, for if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your synagogue, or as there is assembly. The Greek word there is synagogue. It sounds familiar, right? Just synagogue. This is a reminder of who James is writing to, the audience. These uh Jewish believers who are in dispersion. And so some of them would come together, and the synagogue was a place that they would hold service. They would have assembly together. And in this moment, a poor man and a rich man come in. We can assume that these are visitors because they don't know where to sit, where to go. And so, much like today in churches, we have visitors who come in, and we're glad that you're here with us and visiting, and we hope that you come back and feel like you can be a part of the family. But look at how they're treated. It says, a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in. Verse 3, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet. James brings up two types of people who walk in the church. One is chic and the other is shabby. One is well dressed and one is under dressed. One is proper and the other is poor. See the rich man. James describes the rich man as wearing gold rings and fine clothes. The Greek word for gold rings, right here, to see kind of the intention, the implication of what that word means. It means not necessarily a gold ring, it means gold fingered. The implication is the fingers covered in rings. He was blinged out. Or as some of the kids say, iced out. This was prevalent to show status. There were even some shops in Rome during this time where you could rent a ring for a special occasion. We also see fine clothes he was wearing. This fine clothes can be translated as sparkling clothes, glittering clothes. To give you a picture, the same word used here is used in Acts 10 when Peter is describing the garments of the angel he sees. It's the same word. Fine clothing. And we see the poor man in verse 3. Verse 2. And what happens? The rich man comes in and he is offered the best seat in the house. Unfortunately, today in our church, most people don't see the friend as the best seat here other than my wife. But maybe one day, you know, maybe one day. And the poor man is said to go to the back, or there's a place by my feet. I would assume that the poor man probably wasn't surprised by the treatment that he experienced. He was just used to it. It just confirmed how he's been treated everywhere else and was treated there in the assembly. Notice in the text that both men seem to come in at the same time. What do you think that communicated to the poor man? When he's told to sit at the feet at the floor, and the rich man is brought to the front. What does that communicate to him? I'm not as valuable. I'm not as worthy as a human than this rich man. Look at verse four. Says, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Says, make made distinct distinctions. What is that to look at two different men and point out their differences in your mind and then treat them differently because of that? There may have not been any words that were stated to the rich man or the poor man saying that he is better than you, but they showed it with how they treated them. James says, it is as if you have become judges with evil thoughts. To become judges means you start deciding people's value based on your own standards instead of God's. Based off the exterior rather than the inward. This is wicked. It is wrong. Why? Because of evil motives. What's the motive? The motive is if I treat a rich person kindly, right? Maybe he'll come back. Maybe he'll tie to the church. Maybe he'll help me out in a need of trouble. But what can the poor man give me? What can in the verses before the orphan and the widow do for me? Inconvenience me. Maybe ask something of me. Here's the thing we need to understand: partiality, favoritism, it's evil but it's natural. It's evil but it's natural. People are prejudiced naturally. Dr. Caitlin Millet, a neuroscientist, says this about the human brain. It says the human brain is wired for prejudice. Social motivations, such as the desire to be a member of a group or compete with others, are among the most basic human drive. In fact, our brains are able to access or assess in-group us and outgroup them in a fraction of a second. What it's saying is the way we're wired, we quickly decide who we feel, who feels like us and who feels like them. There is what's being communicated here, a basis for our bias. It's part of our fallen nature. Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. I mean, it's it's so natural. Think of uh the scenario if there's a group of pay people sitting at the table who look like you, act like you, talk like you from the exterior, and there's another group of people who don't. It's natural to go to the place we would feel comfortable. It's in us. We have our own partialities. We have our own favorites. We need to see that inwardly. Mahatma Gandhi in his autobiography. When he's writing about the issues of the caste system, maybe some of you are familiar with that. This issue where people are judged by their skin color, what caste they come from. This was prevalent in uh South Asia, where me and Mariah served as missionaries for two years. Not just in the culture, but in the church. I mean, friends of ours or people that we knew that we would talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the dividing wall that has broken down, but then we're still told by believing parents or believing relatives they couldn't marry people outside of their caste in the church. And Gandhi, in reading the gospels and reading about Jesus and the gospel of Jesus Christ, he said, This is the only answer to India's problem. He actually said that. He said, This gospel, this message of Jesus can fix our cultural problem. And so he went to a church and said, I should convert to Christianity. And when he went in, an usher rejected him and said, Go worship to your own kind. And he said, if Christians also have a caste system, then I might as well stay a Hindu. And we don't have to just talk about a place across the ocean. We can look at our own homes. Where not too long ago, there are people here in this room who experienced segregation of churches that existed that they could not enter into or they had assigned seating to be in. So what does it look like today, partiality for us, even here in this very church? It may not look like giving one person a better seat than another. It's a lot more subtle than that. It looks like walking into a church and naturally gravitating towards people who look like you, talk like you, live like you, and overlooking those who don't. Or making judgments about someone before you've heard their story. Giving your time and energy to people who seem important and very little to those who don't. Choosing comfort over compassion. Staying in familiar circles instead of stepping towards someone who feels different. Knowing the names of the influential, but not noticing the ones on the margin. Assuming someone is more put together spiritually based on how they look on the outside. Seeing someone and quietly choosing not to engage, and maybe most of the time we engage just on a surface level. We can show partiality for many reasons. It could be ethnicity, it could be age, or we look down on someone maybe because they're too young, they're too old, the way someone's dressed, look, class, status. And James is saying, reject partiality. It is evil and it is wrong. How can we approach uh be a church that shows mercy and not judgment? First, reject partiality among God's people. Second, reflect God's character. Reflect his character. We see this in verses five through seven. It says, Listen, my brothers, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him, but you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? What is James doing in these verses? James here is creating a distinction between the rich and how the rich treat the poor and how God treats the poor. He's trying to show them the difference. That what does God do? God chose the poor in the world to be rich. But the rich oppress you. They drag you into courts. God chooses the poor and gives them favor and value, and the rich in this situation that James is writing to, the rich people at the time were taking advantage of the poor, dishonoring them. And we have to know this in the text. There was nothing wrong with being poor. There was nothing wrong with being rich. The issue was partiality. The issue was showing favoritism based off the status of these two men. He says, You have dishonored the poor men. What James is saying here is that we need to reflect God's character. We see God. He doesn't show partiality. We see that in Deuteronomy 10, verse 17. It says, For the Lord your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribes. Acts 10, 34 says, So Peter opened his mouth and said, This is Peter talking about the situation with Cornelius and the Gentiles coming to faith where there was this division. And he says, This truly I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. This is God's character, this is who he is, what he does. He shows no partiality, that God looks at the heart, but man does what looks at the outside. And aren't you glad that God doesn't show partiality? That God didn't look at you and say, you can enter into the kingdom because of your tax bracket. That you can't be washed by the blood of Jesus because of your blood type. That you can't be born again because of the family you were born in. That you can be uh can't be adopted into the family of God because of who is in your family or what you've done. No, he is in partial. And God says, What? Let anyone who thirsts come. Are you thirsty? Come and drink the fountain of living water, who shows no partiality. Verse 7 says, Are they not the ones who blaspheme? Talking of the rich, these people that you honor. Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name? What name? Jesus, by which you were called. We can think, how would they do that? These rich people who are dragging these poor people to the core, or these rich people who are blaspheming the name of Jesus during this time, how would they show them honor? You know, I think about us. The excuses that we can make of those in status. Maybe think of your favorite artist, your favorite athlete, your favorite actor, who may be blaspheme the name of Jesus. And the honor you would show them if you ran into them, that you would not give to another who is your brother and sister in Christ, who just has a different background, who looks differently than you. Or we would show honor to one, but not honor to one who shares the name of Jesus Christ with us. How can we be a church that shows mercy and not judgment? First, reject partiality among God's people. Second, reflect God's character. Third, recognize your failure of God's law. Look at verses 8 through 11 with me. It says, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as a transgressor. Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, Do not commit adultery also said, Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. James, what does he do there? Here, he points them to the scriptures. He points them to the law of God. Two reasons. I think James does this first. God is showing them the seriousness of their sin of partiality. He's saying partiality is breaking God's law. He wants them to see that. It's not to be taken lightly. Secondly, what he's trying to do is to show that we are all equally lawbreakers. We are all equally sinners. That the murderer has broken the law, the adulterer has broken the law, and the one who is partial has broken the law of God. This is significant because oftentimes we will show partiality, maybe not on the exterior, but based on people's past or sin struggles that look different than ours. We have judgment over a person. They struggle with this, they struggled with that, they did this in their past, and we can treat them differently because of that. Or we can have this idea of, oh, I'm not as bad as them, or that person. Also, notice the two sins James brings up here: adultery and murder. These are the two that Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, where he goes deeper, he says, You've heard it said that if you commit adultery, that's a sin. But I tell you, if you look upon a woman with wrong desires and murder. He says, What? He says, hate. If you have hate and call your brother a fool, that it's murder in his eyes. Well, James is saying, if you've broken one law, you are guilty of all of it. If you break one point with a hammer, hit one point of a mirror, the whole mirror is shattered. You have a link of chains and break it in the middle, the chains are shattered. We are guilty. And when we recognize our failure of God's law, then we will not judge others who have broken it as well. We are all equal at the foot of the cross of Jesus. Last point, how can we be a church that shows mercy and not judgment? Fourth is this remember God's mercy. Remember God's mercy. Look at verse 12 and 13. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James is saying here, speak, act, live in a way as someone who has been given mercy. God has given you mercy. Although we are lawbreakers, God took our place. Although we've broken his commands, Christ took our place. We deserve death and punishment and separation from God, but mercy was given. And when we experience that mercy, we extend it to other people. And so James gives a warning. Hear the warning today. If you want to judge, you will receive no mercy. That is a scary place to be. We know that God is loving, but God is just and a God of holiness and righteousness and wrath. And if you want mercy from Him, extend mercy to others. And not to some people, to all people. No matter who they are, no matter what they look like, and no matter what they've done to you. Here's the thing. We have to show mercy to all people. Even our enemies. Maybe you and here have been judged. You and here have been treated partially. Maybe you've been treated differently because of your exterior. Before you said a word, there was already a thought of about you. And I know there are some of you who have experienced hate and discrimination because of the color of your skin, because I've heard that from you. Or maybe it wasn't that, maybe it was the way you speak, the way you look, the way you dress, your background in some way. You were judged. And everything within you wants justice. That if they treated me like this, then they should be treated the same. That they should feel the same way I felt. What was the problem James was dealing with? The church was sitting on the judge's chair. And they were making distinctions of one another. And that chair, that judgment seat, only belongs to God. And it is dangerous when we put ourselves there. And God is the God of justice. He will take care of those who offend people made in his image. And it's giving it to God and saying, I will show mercy. It's a call to forgiveness. That judgment doesn't belong to me. What is mercy? It's giving compassion and kindness where it shouldn't be given. We need to remember God's mercy that me and you, we were lawbreakers. And rather than being destroyed, God pursued us. And so now we do the same. This is the fuel to mercy ministry. This is the motivation on why we show compassion. It's because the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the mercy that's been given to us. 2 Corinthians 8:9. It says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. So that by his poverty he might become rich. For our sake he became poor. I go back to verse one. Again, that's the summary of this whole message, this whole passage. My brother, show no partiality as you would. Hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. We can't miss that there, that phrase. He could have just said Lord. Could have just said Son of God. He says the Lord of glory. James is said to be one of the earliest, maybe the first, written book, written letter of the New Testament. And a common argument against the deity of Jesus or Jesus being God was this is something developed further on, later on. But here we see in the earliest writings that Jesus is called the Lord of glory. This word glory here is the Shekinah glory. A glory given to God alone. But don't miss it. It says, hold on to that faith. This glorious one, this Jesus, the one who was high and lifted up, became low for you. Low for you and for me. That he died for us. I just close with this story, one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament that just paints that picture of the gospel. It's a story of King David and Mephibosheth. See, David made a promise to a friend. He made a promise to Jonathan that he would take care of him and his descendants. Eventually Jonathan would die, David becomes king. And David one day he says, Is there anyone? Anyone who is a descendant of Jonathan that is still alive that I may show favor to. And he says, There's one. It was this man who was lame, who was tossed to the side, was a person of no status. And back then, what you would do if you became the king is you would take care of the previous king's line. See, Jonathan was the son of Saul, the son of a previous king, because there would be a threat that if there was still blood of a royal line or king, that they could gain power. And so what would have been done is David would have found the descendants of Saul and Jonathan and killed them. But what does David do? It says, David says, Call him to me. And he brings this poor man, this lame man of no significance and no importance. And brings him to his table. And he says, You will eat at my table. And set a place before him at the king's table. Do you see the gospel here? That we were nobody. Deserving of death. And Jesus, he sees you and me, undeserving, unworthy. And he comes and says, sit at my table and be here with me. He pursues us. And so now what's the call, church? We have received that mercy. And now we extend it. We pursue others. We pursue the vulnerable. We pursue the marginalized. We pursue others and don't judge them. Several weeks ago we announced that we'd be starting a meal ministry here at the Springs. There's excitement about it. And me and Jeff were talking about this. A worry that we were thinking through of what if this goes too well? What if as we were serving meals here to those in need, the homeless, the addict, the hurting, that it goes too well? That those who would come would hear the gospel, be saved, or come and be a part of our congregation. Would we be ready for that? Would we give them seats of honor and how we treat them and how we act? Regardless of what they've gone through or who they are, that we would show mercy and love to them. When the homeless man or woman comes dressed in all that they have, maybe they even smell and we would say, Come sit next to me. When the person comes in battling addiction, where we can see the needle marks on their body, would we share of the marks of the nails from Jesus' hands? When the woman who tries to hide her bruises from the physical abuse she feels trapped in, will we hear her story and tell her of her defender who is Christ?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

When the child of a broken home comes in, will we tell them of a new family in Christ Jesus? And the heavenly Father who loves us. When a person who looks like they have it all together from the outside, maybe well dressed and well spoken, would we love them too? And share the gospel. Why? Because mercy triumphs over judgment.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Would we be a church of mercy? This is who we are. This is who we are as a church. Because here's the thing: that the call to follow Christ is not a call to comfort. It is comfortable to be in a church where everyone looks like you and thinks like you. But that's not the call. We're a Revelation 7:9 church, a church that we see before the throne of God in the end of every nation, tribe, and tongue of all backgrounds, worshiping and praising Jesus. This is the call. So in this moment, as we close, I want you to examine, examine yourself, examine your heart. It's natural to have partiality and say, God, where is it? Show me. Show me where I need mercy. Show me where I could honor and love everybody and treat every single person equally, regardless of who they are, what they've done, what they look like, and pursue them. Let's pray, dear Jesus. As we have seen, this is an ancient sin. We've seen it in the early church. We see it throughout history. It's so natural, it's so easy, it's so just and it happens so fast. And God, I battle with that myself. God, would you reveal in our hearts the judgment that's there? And would we all see people made in your image to be honored, loved, and pursued? That every single person who walks through these doors would feel like they are part of the family. That they wouldn't second guess their value. That they would know that they are loved by us and loved by a living God. We need your help. We need your help. Give us your heart to be the people you've called us to be. In Jesus' name we pray.