16 Mar Study Guide | James Week 5

When reading through the Scriptures, one of the things that becomes clear is that there is a great gap between the world’s values and God’s values. One area where this is particularly notable is in the way we view and treat those who are poor. In the Old Testament, God shows a special interest in the poor (Deut. 15) and in the New Testament Jesus is seen making them the focus of his gospel proclamation (Luke 4:18). Knowing this while living in a world that highly values riches and material wealth makes the Christian’s treatment of the poor a very important discipleship issue.

Here we find James writing at length about the rich, the poor, and the sin of partiality (favoritism). Favoritism was then-and is now- one of the most common ways the church aligns itself more with the world than with God. As Christians, do we honor some people more than others simply because of their external appearance, social standing, or economic status? Worldliness would have us place the most value on those who can personally benefit us the most, but God’s desire is for our life to be guided by love for our neighbor (Matt. 22:39) and the mercy we would want to be shown to us.

The amount of space James devotes to this topic here gives us a hint at how prevalent this issue may have been for the early church. But it would be unwise for us to assume that we aren’t riddled with the same issues. As God’s people, we must be vigilant and take time to examine ourselves for the sin of partiality because it is so subtle that it often goes unnoticed.

Click the image below to download the study guide for week 5 and begin preparing for this weekend’s sermon.