FAITH WORKS NO LITTLE PEOPLE June 19, 2016

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1 Leona Helmsley was a billionaire New York City hotel operator and real estate investor. Her treatment of employees earned her the nickname Queen of Mean. A former housekeeper said that when she commented to Mrs. Helmsley, You must pay a lot of taxes, Leona replied, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." Unfortunately for Leona Helmsley her assertion proved to be wrong as she was later convicted of tax evasion resulting in an $8 million fine and 18 months in prison. Leona Helmsley was wrong on two accounts: First, that she didn t have to pay taxes and second, by evaluating the worth of individuals based upon their wealth or position. In the beginning of this series I emphasized that Christians DO things differently BECAUSE they VIEW things differently. Today we will see that the faith of the Christian does not allow him to separate people into categories of superior and inferior, important and unimportant, significant and insignificant. When we view people from God s perspective we discover there are NO LITTLE PEOPLE. James 2:1-9 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, You can stand over there, or else sit on the 1

2 floor well, doesn t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you dishonor the poor! Isn t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? Aren t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear? Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. Faith in Jesus Christ is incompatible with an attitude of favoritism. The sin of partiality or favoritism is the sin of assigning greater value to some people rather than others which in turn results in treating some people as superior and others as inferior. In this case, James audience was showing special favor to people who were wealthy and dishonoring the have-nots. Faith works against the sin of favoritism or partiality for three reasons: To believe in God and Jesus Christ is to affirm: God s character God s creative work God s commands 1. Their attitudes and actions contradicted the character of the God they profess to believe in. In Romans 2:6-11, God said he will reward right behavior and punish evil regardless of the ethnicity of the person. The reason given in verse 11 is that impartiality is part of God s very 2

3 character. To believe in God is to believe in the goodness of His character. 2. To believe in God also means to buy into His creative work. How can we who believe that God has created ALL PEOPLE in His image - regardless of their race, ethnicity or socio-economic status treat some as being superior or inferior to others? 3. To believe in God is to also agree with the goodness of His commands. In Leviticus 19:5 God said, You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. Partiality is a rejection of the character of God, the creative work of God, and the commands of God. Therefore, it is a denial of the faith. Why would they show favoritism to the rich and ignore the poor? James doesn t say, but it is not difficult for us to imagine. 1. Many people relate to others for the purpose of personal gain. Fallen mankind has turned God s intention for his creation on its head. God created people to be loved and things to be used, but we use people and love things. A more precise way to express it is to say, We use people in order to get the things we love. In this case the sin of favoritism is due to deficient faith. They had forgotten that every good and perfect gift comes from God and instead they sought after relationships with the wealthy, not motivated by genuine kindness, but for self-serving ends. If our faith is rooted in God s revelation, we will not seek out relationships based upon what the other person can do for 3

4 us. We will not be motivated to exploit others for selfish gain because faith influences us to value the glory of God and the good of others more than we value the material things of this world. 2. These Christians might have shown favoritism as a result of fear. Sometimes we treat some people more favorably because we are afraid of the power they yield. If that was the case among the Christians James was writing to, their sin of favoritism was the result of weak faith. They were possibly trusting in the rich, rather than God, as the one who controlled their destiny. We will become servants of whoever, or whatever, we believe to be our ultimate source of provision. 3. A third possible cause of favoritism is when Christians conform to our culture s cult of celebrity worship. Celebrity worship has spawned a whole industry of celebrity gossip. According to a NY Times online article, the annual revenue from celebrity gossip media outlets tops $3 billion. On a daily basis Paparazzi take photographs of celebrities and sell them to media outlets for thousands of dollars. It has become so bad that psychologists have identified celebrity worship as a new disorder. In a July 5, 2013 article posted by Psychology Today online Psychologist Mark Griffiths writes, Celebrity worship syndrome has been described as an obsessive-addictive disorder where an individual becomes overly involved and interested (i.e., completely obsessed) with the details of the personal life of a celebrity. We are designed to worship (admire, revere, stand in awe of). When we fail to worship the creator God, our worship will be transferred towards created things: Creation itself or people. Our faith opens our eyes to 4

5 view celebrities as people whose status before God is just like that of everyone else. Faith sees ALL PEOPLE as worthy of respect and love, but not worthy of worship. James identifies their sin as a failure to fulfill the royal law; to love your neighbor. I believe the sin of favoritism the sin of assigning greater value to some people rather than others is a sin against both the person being treated as inherently superior and the person treated as inherently inferior. Everyone recognizes the harm done to people when we sin against them by devaluing, degrading and even dehumanizing them. In his book, How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson relates how the former Arkansas State health director celebrated the positive public health impact of abortion. The evidence she cited to suggest it was positive was the fact that, due to abortion, there were 60% less children with Down s syndrome. The clear conclusion was that society was better off without the burden of people with Down s syndrome. Last year I was leading a young adult group. In our group was a young 19-year old girl with Down s syndrome named Andrea. We were discussing the scientific evidence that points to a creator and at the close I had everyone read Psalm 139 and write down any thoughts and feelings they had as they read. As everyone was reading and writing quietly, Andrea began to read out loud: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 5

6 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. And then, with her head bowed over her Bible she began to cry out in thankfulness to God for giving her meaning, and value and purpose! Andrea is a beautiful, loving, human being. Her life is just as valuable as mine! But not only do we sin against people when we devalue them We also sin against people when we deify them. Although it might feel great to have people worship the ground you walk on, in reality that will not be healthy for you. It will lead to an inflated sense of self that is very destructive. Those that are deified by others are not held accountable for their actions. They are treated as if they were above the law. The only one I know that is above the law is the Great Lawgiver; the creator of justice Himself! James wrote, these very people that you are favoring are the ones who oppress you! When we treat people like they are superior we shouldn t be surprised when they end up believing that others exist to serve them, and then proceed to exploit others for self-serving ends. James wrote, God has chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith. They were evaluating people based on their financial position rather than on their heart s condition. If you are going to have an abundance of something, better to have it be faith in God than the material goods 6

7 of this world. You can have a full stomach and full pockets, but be poor in Spirit and have an empty heart. Last Sunday, after working with the children my wife said to me, Thank you for letting me be who I am supposed to be. My heart is full. That is abundance! The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc... The very things that people chase after money hoping to find, are in reality produced by God s Spirit. If you want to experience the abundant life that comes from the Spirit, you will have to prioritize people over possessions, relationships over riches! The church needs to be a counter-cultural community where people are edified rather than exploited; valued, but not idolized. In closing I want to address our fathers here today. Fathers, your sons and daughters need you. They need you to be a counter-cultural influence in their lives so they can avoid the trap of devaluing certain groups of people and viewing people as commodities for our consumption. They need you to help them see and savor the glory of God so they won t worship the creature rather than the creator. Our young boys and girls don t need role models with athletic ability, charismatic personality, or musical artistry. They need dads who model integrity, responsibility, and genuine Christ-like spirituality! Fathers, there are no little people. The most awesome responsibility that you have is to raise the children that God has entrusted to your care in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Your mission is to lead them to trust in Christ so that they might be renewed in the image of God and then to lead them to follow Christ so they will live before men as image bearers of the glorious, good and gracious creator of the universe! 7

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