It is easy to make someone feel welcome with words, and just as easy to undo those words without meaning to. We can say the door is open to everyone and still, almost without thinking, spend our warmth on the people who already look and sound like us. Scripture takes that ordinary habit seriously, seriously enough to call it a sin, and it points us toward a better way to receive the people who come looking for God.
Stop Ranking People
James ties this directly to what we claim to believe. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (). Then he paints a scene we can all picture. Two people arrive, one in a gold ring and fine clothes, the other in shabby clothing. One is offered a good seat, the other is told to stand off to the side (). Both were sized up in an instant, and both learned exactly how much they were thought to matter. James calls that kind of snap judgment becoming judges with evil thoughts. The trouble is that appearance is all anyone had gone on. No one had learned either man’s character, heard his story, or asked about his needs.
God Sees Worth We Overlook
Then James turns our judgments upside down. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ()? We simply cannot tell what God will do in a person’s life just by looking at them. Jesus proved this over and over. He called ordinary fishermen to become fishers of men, and he spent his time with the very people others wrote off. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (). He moved toward the ones in need rather than away from them, and if we mean to follow him, we have to get close enough to learn what a person actually needs.
The Royal Law
James gives the standard a name, the royal law, taken straight from the words of Jesus, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (, ). We already know how to notice our own discomfort. We feel it when we are lonely or out of place, and that very awareness is meant to teach us how the stranger feels walking into a room where no one knows their name. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows love in motion. He gave the wounded man his time, his attention, and his resources, and he came back to check on him (). He did not need to know everything about the man first. The question is not whether we know a person well enough to help, but whether we will become a neighbor to the one whose need is in front of us.
Doing, Not Just Hearing
It is possible to know all of this and still walk away unchanged. James warns against being hearers of the word who are not doers, like a person who studies his face in a mirror and forgets it the moment he leaves (). Favoritism, he says plainly, is sin, and no one gets to pick which of God’s commands to keep (). But the last word is mercy. Speak and act as people who will be judged under the law of liberty, for mercy triumphs over judgment (). Jesus said the same, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (). We are told to be kind to one another and to forgive, because God in Christ forgave us (). Somewhere back along the way, someone took our questions seriously and stayed patient with us while we learned. There are people we have not yet met who will need that same welcome, and how we treat them will show what our faith is really made of.