BLIND FAITH

JAMES 2:1-13

APRIL 16, 2000

 

"Blind" and "faith" really do not belong together. We might call this an oxymoron in light of the biblical teaching on faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." "For we walk by faith, not by sight." We often speak of the eyes of faith, demonstrating that there is a measure of sight through faith that transcends the physical ability to see. Faith may not have the tangible, physical evidence the person desires, but it is the capacity to see God's promises, faithfulness, and provision for particular needs. We see this certainty especially in our spiritual need, as by faith, we look to Jesus Christ for salvation.

 

So how can we put "blind" and "faith" together? When we claim to exercise faith, yet such a claim lacks genuineness, then that sort of faith is blind faith. The individual making such a claim believes that he has a reliable faith. But the evidence of his life negates such a claim, making his faith blind. James unmasks "blind faith." Even within the church we can make claims of knowing Christ, yet still be blinded to our heart's condition.

 

When we consider that once again, James is not introducing a new subject but enlarging upon what he has already set forth, it will help us in grasping the continuity of this book. We know that the next section, verses 14-26, addresses the subject of faith without works. James has already explained that the new birth takes place by a divine act through "the word of truth." Those who have been regenerated will thus need to be "quick to hear," having received the implanted word that saves them. Because of the genuineness of their faith in Christ, they must be "doers of the word, and not merely hearers," for to do otherwise would be a delusion. James has also identified Christianity as "true religion," explaining that it has inward, outward, and upward dimensions. The fact that he has already brought up the subject of "the brother of humble circumstances" helps us to see that he continues with the same vein of thought. We can profess to know Jesus Christ, but if our faith has not affected us morally, in word and deed, then we have exercised a "blind faith." How can we take the blinders off of such a spurious faith?

 

I. An explanation of blind faith

 

While we might focus our attention immediately upon the issue of partiality, it is imperative to see the foundation upon which James builds his remarks. He is explaining the reality of "faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ." He gives no room for merely professing Christianity without a corresponding transformation in word and deed. Frankly, what James states at this point certainly will not win him a popularity contest!

 

Any statistician exploring church membership and consequent qualitative change of lifestyle will admit that there a gap between what Christians profess and how they behave. It is not unusual for a person to call himself a Christian, yet give no thought to his moral behavior, the type language he uses, or his testimony in the world. The past century has witnessed the creation of a new category of Christian to explain this, the so-called "carnal Christian." This is supposedly a person who is truly saved but you cannot tell by the way he lives his life. His ambitions, morals, habits, and practices appear to resemble more of the world than one who has a new nature in Christ. This explanation of "carnal Christians" has been promoted to explain why our church rolls are bloated with people who do not act as though they have been regenerated. It even serves as an excuse for ungodliness. I recall speaking with a young man on an occasion about his relationship to Christ. He gave no outward evidence of knowing Christ. When I pressed the point, he quickly told me that he was a "carnal Christian," stating this without blushing or hesitating. I got the impression that he was proud and satisfied to be a "carnal Christian."

 

James would vehemently disagree with such a modern imposition upon the biblical revelation of true Christianity. He would not have called these people "carnal Christians." He would not have called them Christians at all.

 

Yet James recognized that the problem of false professions of Christ could become part of the Christian community. So he writes to his audience as "my brethren...my beloved brethren," to let them know that he did not stand in condemnation but rather for the truth. He was not tossing spiritual grenades their way, but was unmasking a blind faith that had possibly duped some in their number. As he analyzes this blind faith, he explains it by three distinct characteristics.

 

1. Blind faith shows partiality

 

The emphatic word of the first verse is "personal favoritism." "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." The word implies that someone looks at one person or shows them his face, but turns away from another. It is a picking and choosing who will see one's face. It is a simple word that James poignantly illustrates.

 

The scene is of a congregation gathering for worship when two different men walk into the service. One is wearing a gold ring, literally "gold fingered," with threads of silver woven in his elegant robe: "for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes." The text seems to imply that his clothes glistened in the Palestinian sunlight, reflecting the grandeur of the man's wealth and position in the community. The next man is as different as night and day. He has a disheveled appearance, with a filthy robe and impoverished background: "and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes." He obviously comes from the "wrong side of the tracks," as it is put. His whole countenance broadcasts that he is a down-and-outer, with little hope for a prosperous future. The two men could not be more different.

 

At the door both men are met as they seek to enter the worship service. The rich man is ushered to a prominent place while the poor man is given an out of the way spot, so that no one could see him. James' question goes right to the point: "have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?" The word "distinctions" literally means "to face both ways or to judge between." In other words, the face of hypocrisy is evident as one claiming to be a Christian claims to look to Christ yet the evidence of his life is that he looks the other way through partiality. And for what reason was this done? The person in question looked to the rich man rather than to Christ to satisfy whatever needs might be running through his mind. His trust was ultimately in man, not God; riches, not spiritual reality; things, not truth. "Favoritism," Kent Hughes writes, "indicates the tilt of one's soul" [James: Faith that Works, 100].

 

The whole picture contradicts sound reason. "Listen, my beloved brethren; did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" God's electing grace includes the poor, not that the poor are automatically brought into God's kingdom as some liberal theologians express it. The fact is, while this so-called brother was rejecting a poor man, he was being totally unlike the Lord who has shown his kindness for the poor by electing many out of their number for his kingdom. So the question is put to the man: why do you reject the very one God has chosen?

 

Added to this is the oppression by the rich toward the poor and the church in the early days of Christianity. "Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?" As a rule of thumb, it was the wealthy who used their financial weight to knock around the poor, even dragging them into courts over the least charges. Added to this was their slanderous remarks concerning Jesus Christ and his followers, as they made fun of living like a Christian or walking in obedience. The brother in question was asked do you want to give the church to one who is accustomed to abusing it? 

 

James was neither castigating all the rich nor making saints out of all the poor. But he was speaking with a Hebraism that conveyed the principle at hand: for the most part the early church was made up of peasants, while the rich used their wealth to oppose Christianity. It made no sense to show partiality to the one oppressing the church while ignoring one who was more open to the message of the gospel. Such partiality and preferential treatment betrayed the faith of the person in question.

 

Partiality comes in different shapes. It might be focused on the color of a person's skin or the level of his income or his place in society or his country of origin or the type job he holds or his lack of a job or the fact that he owns no country club membership or his lack of education or the location of his dwelling. In all of this we must remember the word Yahweh spoke to Samuel as he investigated the sons of Jesse: "for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (I Sam. 16:7). We do not have the omniscience of the Lord to see the heart of a man, but when we have become new creatures in Christ we have a new capacity to love one another even as Christ has loved us. That is the point James is making: if we call ourselves Christians, then we must love like Christians.

 

2. Blind faith neglects the royal law

 

So that the recipients would not misunderstand, James joins verses 1-7 with verses 8-13 by the word "however." "If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,' you are doing well." He was not advocating that the church was to embrace the poor and neglect the rich. Instead, the church was to display the same love, acceptance, kindness, and gentleness shown by Christ to all men. All men are to be treated with the dignity and grace that we ourselves have known in Christ.

 

On one occasion, Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment. His reply sets forth the essence of the entire Law: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). The first of these commandments relates directly to the first four commandments. The second commandment relates to the remaining six commandments. Are these just arbitrary demands that God has made upon man? Rather these commandments in relationship to man demonstrate the divine character in our lives toward others. They are defined by "love," not as an emotion, but in terms of caring for others [cf. Alec Motyer, The Message of James, 97].

 

James calls this "the royal law." It is royal because of who gave the law, our Lord. It is royal because of who is identified by the law, those who belong to the King. We do well if we obey the royal law; that is, we demonstrate the reality of our faith in Christ. Motyer write, "The essence of the royal law is that wherever there is need there is an obligation to extend the sort of love we lavish on ourselves; the essence of partiality is to select the recipients of our care on some ground other than that they are in need" [97]. The faith that can overlook the royal law is a blind faith and in need of Christ.

 

3. Blind faith views obedience as arbitrary

 

But someone might say, "Hey, what is the big deal? So what if I am not fond of certain people and don't care about helping them? I do a lot of other good things. Is that not acceptable?"

 

James declares, "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." A blind faith has no problem picking and choosing his obedience. He does not mind sliding on the things that are uncomfortable or difficult or costly, while gladly following the things that seem to improve his standing with others. His concern, ultimately, is not for the glory of God, but for himself. His reason for action or speech is to please himself, not God. He boasts about what he does but pays no attention to what he has failed to do. He demonstrates that his faith is really in himself and not in Christ.

 

The continuity and cohesiveness of the law is evidenced by the fact that it is a reflection of the divine nature. God's demands have a rationale; that we might demonstrate the goodness and holiness of God in relationship to our fellow man. So if we boast about partial obedience it demonstrates that we understand little about the character of God. Each command can be compared to a different facet of the rays of a prism; the purity of the light of God's character is manifest in the multicolored rays of his commands. We cannot negate one ray while accepting another for to do so is to deny the Light itself.

 

One who has a blind faith actually manifests the character of an unregenerate man, not that of a new nature in Christ. For the partiality shown, the neglect of the royal law, and the arbitrary obedience demonstrate "the tilt of one's soul" toward self, the world, and not toward the Lord. Does this say something about the quality of your faith?

 

II. An explanation of true faith

 

James has no concern to promote doubt or to merely deal with the negative. Instead, he is seeking to make sure that the faith a person claims is indeed true, saving faith. At each step along the journey of his epistle, James is concerned with a faith that works. He finds mere profession to be worthless. So he counsels these who have united with the church to consider the quality and content of their faith. Is it a real faith demonstrated by changed character, different morals, loving relationships, and genuine concern for others? Is it the kind of faith that so changes a person that others must think of Jesus Christ when seeing the quality of his life?

 

1. True faith is in One Person

 

The word "faith" is a common term in this epistle. He speaks of "the testing of faith (1:3), the prayer of faith (5:15; cf. 1:6), the works of faith (2:18, 22), the perfection of faith (2:22), being rich in faith (2:5), a dead faith (2:17, 26), an idle faith (2:20), and so on" [Curtis Vaughan, Bible Study Commentary, 43]. His purpose here does not concern "faith" as a body of doctrinal truth, as we see so often in Paul's epistles, but faith as a life commitment, believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism."

 

Faith is not just something that we have in a general fashion in the world or even in the church. "Your faith" reminds us of the personal, decisive element involved in trusting Jesus Christ. A person does not become a Christian because he is around other Christians. He becomes a Christian only when he exercises faith personally in Jesus Christ. I vividly recall that timeframe when I came to faith in Jesus Christ. It was quite common during those days of the so-called "Jesus Movement," for young people to claim in mass that they had become Christians. It was not unusual during the summer nights of 1969-70 to have several youth rallies each week with hundreds of teenagers streaming in. Many of these claimed to have faith in Christ. But the months that followed exposed the spurious faith of so many. Rather than the personal, "your faith," they sought to live off of someone else's faith.

 

Perhaps you have been doing the same. Maybe it is the faith of you parents or an older sibling or your best friend who has exercised faith in Christ and you are trying to cling to their faith. See the simplicity of what James writes, that it is "your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ."

 

Note that the pointed focus of faith is not in a movement or a religious idea or even in a creed. It is faith in a Person. "Do not hold your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." The little preposition "in" explains the essence of the gospel. For true faith looks to Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the gospel. True faith casts one's hope and eternity upon the revelation of Jesus Christ as God who became a man in order to be our Redeemer. It is a confession of who Christ is, but even more, it is an inward confidence that Jesus Christ is indeed who the biblical writers claim: the Son of God, God incarnate. Faith trusts in his capability as God to be adequate for salvation and as man to be acceptable for the work of redemption.

 

Faith looks to the obedience of Jesus Christ as vicarious, that is, the obedience of Jesus Christ in fulfilling the law was for me. What God has demanded for righteousness in a positive sense, Jesus Christ has accomplished. So my trust is in him and his obedience. But faith does not stop there, for it recognizes that not only do I need righteousness to stand before God but also I need forgiveness for my great offense as a sinner. So faith looks to Jesus Christ crucified as God's acceptable sacrifice for my sins. Faith glories in the bloody death of Christ as sufficient for my salvation.

 

A person is not saved because he has faith. Christ saves him because he has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Most people claim to have some kind of faith. But only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ changes us inwardly and sets our affections upon God.

 

James adds the term "glorious" in describing our Lord. Translators have expressed this in various ways: "our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Glory" (Weymouth), "Jesus Christ our glorious Lord" (Berkeley), "our Lord Jesus Christ who reigns in glory" (NEB). If "glorious" serves to describe Christ, then it is a reference to the wonder and majesty of his character. He is the one who radiantly expresses the being of God. All of the attributes of God find their fullest expression in him. Or if the term is used as "the Glory," it becomes another name for Christ to join the scores of names given in the Bible to identify the Lord. As "Glory" we think of him as the Shekinah of God, that radiant cloud that led the children of Israel throughout the forty years in the wilderness and that cloud that descended upon the tabernacle whenever God had come to reveal himself. In this sense, "Glory" refers to God's revelation of himself to us. Indeed, John declared, "And we beheld his glory; glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

 

Let us consider again what James was saying in light of his addition of "glorious." He points to the reality that real faith is set upon Jesus Christ as the only God and Lord; that Christ was not some aspect of God, but God himself in all of his divine radiance. Is your faith in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, who has no rival or substitute?

 

2. True faith shows concern with obedience

 

Obedience follows the experience of grace. That is the thrust of James' message. Here the emphasis on obedience has to do with our relationships. "If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well." On one hand James upbraids the one who continues showing partiality and on the other, commends the one who seeks to consistently show compassion and concern for others. He does not pick and choose his obedience but seeks, by God's grace, to walk in obedience to all God commands.

 

As we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that in many ways we fail the Lord; often we are disobedient. But what is "the tilt of your soul"? Do you seek to treat others with compassion and care? Do you seek to follow after what God has commanded? It involves the direction and passion of our lives. True faith shows concern for obedience.

 

The problem he exposes in verses 9-11 involves the sin of partial obedience. As Curtis Vaughan expressed it, "Partial obedience is actual disobedience" [52]. James uses rather exaggerated language, showing someone who claims to be satisfied because he has not committed adultery, yet he has murdered someone. He reminds his audience, that partial obedience leaves a person as "a transgressor of the law." The implication is that he need not think that such a life pleases God.

 

Like a King Saul, he is satisfied because he has done some of the things God has commanded, mainly those things that he found convenient or conducive to impressing others. But the rest he was satisfied to neglect. Saul did not see himself as having obligation to be passionately obedient. He lived with partial obedience and never knew the Lord. So there is both a warning and an encouragement. The warning is that something is wrong with our faith if we can be satisfied with partial obedience. The encouragement is found, "you are doing well," in affirming the passionate obedience demonstrated in concern for others.

 

3. True faith is evident by a new nature

 

How are true believers to behave? "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty." Those born of God see the law, not as a collection of random commands and restrictions, but as "the law of love which redeemed men accept without compulsion" [Vaughan, 53]. There is a different attitude in the believer toward the commands of Scripture. They do not seem to be an oppressive burden to his soul, as the law was to the Israelites throughout their days. Instead the believer sees the commands of God as the revelation of divine character that is now to be expressed through his children. It is not restrictive and enslaving, but "the law of liberty." The believer knows that in following after God's revealed will he will know the greatest measure of freedom. "If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed" (John 8:37). "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). The most enslaving thing in the world is a human attempt to gain merit with God through a laborious effort at obeying God's commands. But the most liberating is not working to gain merit, but recognizing that all the merit you need is in Jesus Christ; and that Christ has now given you the capacity to walk in obedience-and delight in the process. James says, "Live like that!"

 

He returns to the main subject at hand, showing mercy toward others. "For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment." He is not advocating gaining merit through acts of mercy. Rather as believers we are to show the same kind of mercy to others that the Lord has shown to us. To fail to show mercy to others is to prove ourselves spiritually bankrupt. God's children are to act and speak like God's children. "They bear His image; they copy His example," wrote Curtis Vaughan. "It is therefore impossible for them to fail to share in His compassion, to fail to reflect His spirit of mercy. If one does not show mercy, he thereby shows that he has no vital connection with God" [54].

 

Conclusion

 

True Christian character is evident in the way we treat other people. This is a reinforcement that we do not live in a vacuum as Christians. We are to live unto the Lord in relationship to those about us. The sins of partiality and partial obedience, particularly regarding relationships, raises questions about the reality of our faith.

 

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has a new passion of obedience. One's character is affected by the reality of a new nature in Christ. That shows up best in our relationships.

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