Judging our Neighbor: The Quest: Day 9.0

Won’t you be my neighbor?

What does James teach us about how we are to treat our neighbor? What about when they annoy us, or do something downright wrong? What if we catch them in sin? Do we judge them? Can we judge them, please? Let’s find out what James has to say!

Partiality

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory…

⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it….

¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:1, 8-10, 12-13

James is here echoing our Lord Jesus when he admonishes his readers against showing favoritism. For me, this is a bit of an odd opening. James gives a lengthy scenario, verse 2 and following, that does not seem familiar to me. He talks about seating rich folks up front as the congregation prepares for worship, and forcing the poor people to stand in the aisles or sit on the floor. Does it sound familiar to you?

Different cultures, different customs

The culture in which James was writing is perhaps more striated between rich and poor. It is certain that the gospel spread initially through the blue-collar types more rapidly than through the upper crust. Rome required Emperor worship. In some places this was enforced or even en vogue more than in others.

As is the case even now, the rich had more to lose – wealth, status, property – than did those with little or nothing, if we are speaking of the world and the flesh. At the same time a small house church taking up an offering to the saints, no doubt had much to gain from the alms of a rich man, than by the man coming to worship with nothing. So, the local congregation’s elders might well have been tempted to honor men in fine clothes, and dismiss disheveled wretches to the weeping and gnashing of teeth section.

See you after church, Neighborino!

I have not witnessed this in America. If anything, I see most people desperate to sit as near the rear (and the exits) as possible, rich or poor. Conversely, I have often seen greeters desperate to herd anyone they can find into the front two pews.

“We have a whole row open up front,” he says with a hopeful smile. “No?” he asks, seeing they would rather stand against the back wall, or in the restrooms, rather than be so near the worship team.

After all, the music is rather loud, and the preacher, a near-sighted fellow, tends to make eye contact when he drops a solemn statement.

“Those are the only seats left where your family can all sit together,” the greeter says with a sigh. “No? Okay, two of you can crowd in over there, and we can probably fit one here, and one around on the other end.”

With a sigh of relief, the family splits up. “See you after church,” they say. Their relief is palpable.

That is really why I lumped so many verses together, and skipped pasting Jame’s scenario in the scripture quote above. It doesn’t appear relevant. The spirit of it, however, is very relevant. Where I can see it applying is to non-worship situations. What do you do after worship? To whom do you extend invitations to Sunday lunch? Here, I can imagine people on the fringes of society finding themselves left out. In many cases, it may not have anything to do with prejudice. We gravitate to people with shared interests, to families with kids of similar ages to ours, etc. I don’t believe this is wrong. But, I do think we should be on guard if we ever felt aversion to someone joining us based on their clothes, the state of their hair, or the jalopy they parked out front.

Do you really love your neighbor?

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

James, echoing Jesus, says we can love our neighbors as our selves, and in doing so we do well (James 2:8). But, he reminds us that we ain’t none of us perfect (James 2:9-11). Therefore – actually James doesn’t use the therefore here. He uses the reader-friendly, So. So what?

Mark this well. I really have come to love this. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. There is our neighbor – out there. And, there is (as a scholar once wrote) we ussins right here. We are to love them both. We are both temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). So, let’s see to it we love both them and ourselves the same. But, wait. James congratulated us for doing that already. James reminds us of the corollary. Judge one another as we judge ourselves. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Now, that seems relevant!

“Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

Forgiving our neighbor, the other side of judgment

So, we need to remember that we all like sheep have gone astray, and all of our iniquity was laid on our savior at the cross (Isaiah 53:6). Therefore, we forgive. We show mercy. It is even at the core of the Lord’s prayer.

⁹ Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:9-15

You cannot avoid all judgment. You will judge others whether actively or passively. We are observant creatures, given discernment from our Creator. The point is that we must not in our pride pass judgment without granting mercy.

No ordinary people

I think C.S. Lewis wrote one of the most illuminating passages ever concerning the way we view our fellow man. I will close with his quote. It is most helpful to keep in mind when we endeavor both to love our neighbor and to show him mercy. If you have never read it before, it may even help deepen your thoughts about yourself. Read this passage and turn it inward, but be careful with what you find. If it engenders terror, please go humbly to God in prayer. If it engenders pride, go to God in prayer in fear and trembling.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory