James 2:4 - Printer Friendly

ESV: have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

NIV: have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

NASB: have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

CSB: haven't you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

NLT: doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

KJV: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

NKJV: have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

James has been painting a picture of favoritism or partiality. Today, we might call it discrimination. In this particular example, James is commanding Christians not to discriminate against poor people in favor of rich people. In the previous verses, James wrote that those who trust in Christ—the Lord of Glory—must not show favoritism. He then describes a scenario that may well have happened at some gatherings of Christians: people of wildly different status arriving at the meeting. After all, it's what would happen in their culture at any normal gathering of any group of people.

Rich, powerful people in that society were given places of honor and special attention at gatherings. Poor, dirty people would have been glad just to be allowed to stand in the corner or even to sit on the floor. This was for many of the same reasons rich people are unfairly favored today. Rich people could do things for you if they liked you. They could provide money and influence and even protection. Poor people couldn't do anything for you, at least not in terms of material help.

James's point, in the end, will be that people who trust the Lord of Glory should be confident that He will provide. They don't need the favor of the rich. They can afford to give their favor to the poor and rich equally. Imagine the shocking contrast that would be in a culture where poor people were treated so badly.

Now, in the form of a question, James states that this kind of favoritism is deeply sinful. Christians who show this kind of bias reveal their lack of faith. They fail to trust in God's equal love for all His children in Christ. Acting in prejudice shows they didn't really believe that Christians who are poor in this life will be equal heirs of the riches of glory forever. Instead, they made themselves the judges, distinguishing who was worthy of honor and attention and who was not. Their discrimination revealed their evil, earthly way of thinking.

James 2:1–13 continues the prior passage's focus on Christians living out what the Word of God says. Those who hold the faith of Christ should obey the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. This includes not showing favoritism to the rich over the poor. Christians should trust God to provide for and protect them, instead of seeking the favor of the very group of people who were oppressing them in the first place. According to the gospel, all of us are lawbreakers. Christians, as people who believe they will be judged by the law that gives freedom, should treat all others as equals.

Genuine saving faith in God leads to good and loving actions: ''works.'' In chapter 1, James discussed the importance of acting on the words of God, not merely hearing them. Favoritism to the rich over the poor demonstrates a lack of faith. In fact, this is a sin. Following up on these ideas, James insists that ''faith'' which doesn't result in good works is dead. Such belief is merely intellectual agreement. It is not trust, or true, biblical saving faith. James doesn't deny that belief in God is essential to salvation, nor does he claim that works are necessary to obtain salvation. Rather, he makes the case that works are to faith what the breath is to the body: a sign of life. A ''faith'' without works is like a body without breath: dead.

In chapter 1, James taught that a saving belief in God changes how a Christian looks at trials in their lives. It affects where they turn for help, and who they credit for good. Believers hear the Word and do it. In this chapter, James insists that our faith in God should keep us from showing favoritism to the rich and powerful on earth and should provoke us to love our poor neighbors as ourselves. He also makes the case that so-called-''faith'' which does not result in works, is not saving faith, at all. Despite controversy, this does not clash with Paul's view of salvation by grace alone. James refers to good works as an expected outcome of salvation, not the source of it. In the following chapters, he will continue to show what a life of genuine faith looks like.

The book of James is about specifically understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life? What choices does real trust in God lead us to make? Those are the questions James answers. Most scholars believe the writer was Jesus' half-brother, a son born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth. James may not have come to believe Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Eventually, though, he became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This is possibly the earliest-written of all the New Testament books, around AD 40–50. James addresses his letter to Jewish Christians scattered around the known world.