Epistle of Ya’akov (James) ~ 2:1-13

The Sin of Partiality

This passage is concerned with how Believers, specifically Messianic Jews, treat non-Messianic Jews inquiring about the Brit Hadashah faith. In Isra’el, as in most of the Roman Empire, the rich were oppressing the poor (2:6–7). But the temptation to make wealthy converts or inquirers feel welcome at the expense of the poor was immoral (2:4). The language of impartiality was commonly applied mainly to legal settings. Still, because synagogues served as houses of prayer and community courts, this predominantly legal image naturally applies to any gatherings.

¹ My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. ³ If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, “Have this good seat here,” while to the poor man you say, “You, stand over there,” or, “Sit down on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ then aren’t you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven’t you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?

Your synagogue is talking neither about a Christian church service nor a gathering of Jewish non–Believers but a Messianic synagogue. He would not refer to your synagogue and assume his readers were in charge of seating visitors if the Messianic Jews did not control the synagogue. This verse establishes a solid Brit Hadasah basis for modern-day Messianic synagogues, provided they do not exclude Gentile Believers. To do so would raise the middle wall of partition once again, in violation of Ephesians 2:11–16. A Messianic synagogue, while committed to preserving and developing a Jewish rather than a Gentile mode of expressing New Covenant faith, must be open to participation by believing Jews and Gentiles alike, as was Congregation Heart for Isra’el.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers, hasn’t God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith (see Matthew 5:3) and to receive the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you despise the poor! Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name of Him to whom you belong?

Why treat the rich nonbelieving Jews in some particular way when they are the ones who oppress you and drag you possibly into a beit-din, a Jewish religious court, and insult the good name of him to whom you belong, namely, our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah?

⁸ If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

Kingdom Torah is not a new Torah given by the Messiah. It does not make the Mosaic Law obsolete, even though, as Galatians 5:14 puts it, the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (See also Romans 13:8–10.) Instead, Ya’akov means that Kingdom Torah is, in essence, nothing other than the Torah of Moses carried out, by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, in conformity with its own passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Yeshua was pointing in this direction when He said that this is one of the two mitzvot(principles) on which all of the Torah and the Prophets depend (Matt. 22:40).

⁹ But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.

If you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, no matter how much faith you claim to have.

The Torah condemns favoritism in another context with these words: Do not respect persons in judgment but hear the small as well as the great; do not be afraid of the face of any man, for the judgment is God’s. ~ Deuteronomy 1:17.

¹⁰ For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all. ¹¹ For the One who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah.

A person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all, that is, of breaking all the points of the Torah, as illustrated by v. 11. No one can have a right relationship with God apart from Yeshua. But it is not true that once violating a commandment means that one has broken the Torah permanently and is impossible to repair. That is not what this verse is saying. And it is certainly not true that the Mosaic Law as given was unfulfillable.

¹² Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah, which gives freedom. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy toward one who doesn’t show mercy, but mercy wins out over judgment. ~ Ya’akov 2:1-13 (CJB)

Therefore, speak and act with the knowledge that you will stand before the judgment of Yeshua one day. Everyone who enters our Kehillahs should experience them as environments of mercy and hope. If you don’t show mercy, don’t expect mercy. If you don’t offer hope, don’t expect hope. Confess any partiality in your life and look for opportunities to show mercy, for mercy wins out over judgment.

We will learn more about Ya’akov as we dig into what he says about Faith Without Works Is Dead.

Click here for the PDF version.