Everyone wants to be loved unconditionally, but pure, unselfish love is really pretty rare.  We live in a self-promoting society.  It is unusual for the average person in America to show love and concern for another person and really expect nothing back from that person in return.

Most people in our society are concerned with looking out for themselves instead of looking out for others.  As a result, selfless love is countercultural in America.   A couple weeks ago, we saw that “pure faith is loving someone who is unable to show you the same kind of love in return.” The reward of unselfish love comes from God and not always from the people we are serving.

Our entertainment media often confuses the nature of love.  Hollywood often doesn’t understand the difference between Biblical love and strong emotional feelings.  So to cut through the noise of our culture, I presented you this simple definition of Biblical love a couple of weeks ago.   Love (Biblical love) seeks the best interest of others.  The Bible calls us to a pure love that seeks the best interest of another person without concern for how we might benefit from serving them.  Pure love is a rare thing in our culture and it is a beautiful thing to behold.

So few people in our culture do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.  Even fewer people do good works out of a love for God and His commands. More often, people do what benefits them the most.  I worked in radio sales for a while.  Sales people often joke that everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM. The acronym WIIFM refers to the phrase “what’s in it for me.”

Corporate sales is built upon the idea that everyone has a set of values that they are tuned in to.  If you can convince your prospect that what you have is the very thing they think they need then you are more likely to make and close the sale.

A sales strategy built on love, self-sacrifice, humility and philanthropy is rarely successful.  People don’t typically do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.  They usually do what benefits them the most.

I recently spoke with a local non-profit development director.  She was really frustrated that her corporate sponsors seemed more concerned about the appearance of their logos on the program than they were concerned about supporting the good work the non-profit did to help people.  We actually then joked about WIIFM.  Both sales people and development directors face the same issues.

WIIFM is usually a strategy the world uses to get things done, but it is not a strategy that is built on loving people sacrificially.  In the world’s system, honor and respect is reserved for those who can benefit you the most.  Successful sales people aim for wealthy business owners and executives.  They make friends with decision makers.  They don’t have much time for hourly workers or receptionists.

A writer on a marketing blog said, “Successful people have an excellent way of involving—early on—others who can have an impact on their success, and making them feel special, included, and benefited in some way—which results in future favors…”[1]  Showing favoritism is ingrained within our corporate culture because it is natural to want to attract those people who can benefit us the most.

Let me ask you this:  Is this strategy a good way to run the church?  When a WIIFM mindset enters into the church, there is a fundamental problem.  God has designed the church to be built on love for one another and love for Jesus.   Love seeks the best interest of others.  Love is built upon serving another person without expecting anything from that person in return.  God sees our works and HE blesses us accordingly.

Consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:2-4, “² “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

I’d rather have God’s rewards than man’s applause and I suspect that you do too.  The church is supposed to be a place where we show and even prove our love for Jesus in the way that we sacrificially serve others.  It is not intended to be a platform for personal gain.

The WIIFM system of sales is built on favoritism.  It is not built on a genuine, sacrificial love for people.  If a WIIFM mindset comes into the church, it begins to create some real problems.  James was dealing with this kind of self-centered mindset with the early church, just like we struggle against it today in the modern American church.  When church members are always asking, “what’s in it for me” that attitude will often display itself in the way the church treats people of various economic levels.

#1 The church is called to treat people differently than the world treats people – James 2:1-4, 1 Cor. 1:26, Acts 2:44-45, 2 Cor. 8:1-2

Take a look at James 2:1-4, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. ² For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³ and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” ⁴ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

The American marketplace is not the only place where favoritism was the norm.  In order to understand the emphasis that James placed upon wealth in this passage, it is important to understand that people in the early church were mostly poor.  Some were even refugees.

In their poverty, they had a great deal to gain from the generosity of a wealthy person whereas another poor person joining the church could pose a threat to their access to benevolence resources.  When visitors came in the door, church members were tempted to ask, “what’s in it for me” if this person joins our church.

You might remember (from the first week of our James study) that James was writing to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.”  The Jews were scattered all over the known world.  They sometimes refer to this scattering as “the Dispersion.”   James was writing to Jewish Christians who were scattered throughout Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Europe.

Major cities all over the region had Jewish populations within the cities.  Jewish people living in Gentile cities tended to be exploited by the Gentiles.  To make matters even more difficult, Jewish people who converted to Christianity faced further rejection and persecution from other Jews as well as from the Gentiles.  They were doubly persecuted.

Jewish believers often found themselves homeless, robbed of their possessions and subjected to the Gentile court system.  In today’s terminology, we might call them refugees.  Paul even acknowledged their relative poverty when he described the church in 1 Corinthians 1:26b by saying, “…not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”

In the time immediately after Pentecost, the absence of material wealth created the opportunity for believers to lay aside their economic differences in order to take care of the needs of the whole assembly.  You might recall the description of the early church in Acts 2:44-45 where it says, “⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common.⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

As Jews came to Christ, and they lost possessions, jobs, or status as a result, the rest of the body came together (at first) to make sure everyone’s basic needs where met.  The Book of Acts describes how many wealthy people came to know Jesus as Savior and it is no doubt that some of these wealthy people made great financial sacrifices in order to help out those who were being persecuted.

It is notable that it wasn’t only the rich who were giving, but even the poor were giving sacrificially as they could.  Consider the Macedonian church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:1-2, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

But with all this sharing and helping, there was also an opportunity for the flesh to reveal its ugly character.  It is possible that when a church, full of poor, persecuted and struggling people, saw yet another poor, persecuted, struggling person in dirty clothes come in the door, they were tempted to think, “We hardly have enough resources to take care of ourselves.  We can’t possibly add another poor person to our assembly.”  They may have lost sight that God was their source and their supply.

So when a wealthy person came in, there was a great deal to gain.  Think of how the poor and persecuted in the church might benefit if a wealthy philanthropist walked in the door and gave a large donation.  They might say, “You sit here in a good place.”  In most synagogues in those days, there were only a few benches to sit on.  Most people sat cross-legged on the floor.  To give up a coveted seat on a bench to a visitor was a sign of great respect and honor.

On the other hand, when the poor visitor came in, they were not welcomed in quite so warmly.  They may have suffered greatly for Jesus.  They may be radically on fire for Christ.  They might be the future elders or pastors serving in the church, but they were not wealthy.  When people asked, “What’s in it for me, ” they assumed they had more to gain in the church from the wealthy visitor then from the poor one.

A mindset that sees a visitor and asks, “What’s in it for me” is not a mindset of love.  Showing preference or favoritism based on what a person might be able to do for us is always selfish.  The message of the gospel and the love of Christ compels us to ask a much better question of those in the church.  A disciple asks questions like:

• What can I do for you?
• How can I serve you?
• How can I help you to love Jesus more?
• How can I equip you for ministry?

If the way we love Jesus is displayed by the way we love His people, then a disciple treasures every opportunity they have to show the love of Jesus to those who walk in the door of the church – regardless of their race, their background, their appearance or their economic status.  The sacrificial love of Christ compels us to love others.

When a church is built on love for God, love for His people, a passion for the Word and on making disciples, the social or financial status of those who come into the church starts to matter very little.

• The question for the wealthy business man is, “How can we help you grow as a disciple of Christ?  How do you want to serve Jesus by serving others in the Lord’s church?”
• The question for the persecuted poor man is, “How can we help you grow as a disciple of Christ?  How do you want to serve Jesus by serving others in the Lord’s church?”

#2 The desire to love people and make disciples is the great equalizer within the body of Christ – James 2:5-7

Our desire to pursue Jesus is not restrained by our economic status.  What I mean is that poor people can grow in their love for Jesus and for one another and so can rich people.  Sometimes the rich need to grow spiritually and sometimes the poor are spiritual giants and vise-versa.  Look at what it says in James 2:5-7, “⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? ⁷ Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?”

The gospel reverses our status in the world.  Those who are poor in this world might possess a richness in Christ that money could never buy.  James is asking the church to consider their motivation for honoring the rich instead of honoring the righteous.  The pursuit of Jesus changes our criteria for honoring others.

Now I want to be careful not to imply that poverty means holiness and wealth means wickedness.  James is not saying the poor people are usually godlier, nor is he saying that wealthy people are usually evil.  He is saying that it is inappropriate to respect or disrespect people in the body of Christ on the basis of their car or clothes.  The Bible tells us to look up to people who honor God with their lives – regardless of how much money is in their account.

The scripture turns our world system of value upside-down.  Our reward for good works doesn’t always come from people we are serving.  Not everyone “pays it forward.”  But God is ever faithful and rewards those who are diligent to carry our His commands.  The Bible asks us to consider ourselves and others through the lens of of God’s grace toward us in our spiritual poverty.  When we consider how God showed us love when we had nothing to offer him, it drives us to love others when they have nothing to offer us.

#3 God loved us in our spiritual poverty – Eph. 2:1-3, Romans 8:7, 1 John 4:8, 19

The Bible paints a really bleak picture of our spiritual condition before Christ.  Ephesians 2:1-3 describes our life before Jesus.  In this passage, Paul said, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

So according to that passage, before Jesus was in our lives, we were so spiritually poor that we were:

• Following the course of this world (Eph 2:2)
• Followers of Satan (prince of the power of the air)
• Sons of disobedience
• By nature, we were children of wrath

It is not an enviable position to be an object of God’s wrath!  Then the picture of our lives before Christ gets even bleaker.  This passage says that men and women by their nature don’t love God.  Without God’s intervention, we would never choose to love God.

Romans 8:7 says “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”  According to Romans, the natural man is an enemy of God.  A natural man is a slave to his sin and has absolutely no capacity to care much about God’s law – much less to be devoted to Christ.

It is a picture as bleak and as dark as the most pitch black night.  Without Christ, we were in rebellion toward God.  We did not love God.  We were in the deepest pit of despair, enslaved to sin, and probably not even aware of the depravity of our spiritual condition.  We deserved nothing but God’s righteous wrath poured out for all of eternity.  We can’t begin to know anything about the heights of the love of God until we face the realities of our spiritual poverty without Christ.

Romans 5:8 says “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God’s word makes it clear that when Christ came, we were the enemies of God, not the good guys.  We were spiritually poor and had absolutely nothing to offer

God in return for His kindness.  God shows us his love for us that when we were poor and his enemies, he sent His own Son to suffer and to fight and die for us. 1 John 4:19 says, “¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.”

We defined love this way: Love seeks the best interest of others.  Someone who has experienced the selfless love of God is compelled to be selfless in their love for others.  Being a person who loves is yet another evidence of God’s grace and further proof that we are children of a God who is love.  1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

A mark of dead faith is partiality and a “what’s in it for me” attitude when thinking of serving other people.  A mark of genuine faith is a selfless love for our neighbors – especially our neighbors in need.    Faith is trusting that God will fulfill His promises and when we follow God’s commands and trust Him to follow through, He is always faithful to reward, protect and provide.  If God promises that He’ll reward those who selflessly love others, we can bank on that promise.

#4 Genuine faith displays itself in selfless love for other people  – James 2:8-9, 1 John 4:20-21

James wrote in verse 8-9, “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.”

In the same way, John wrote these words in 1 John 4:20, “²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

The church is called the bride of Christ in the scriptures.  Can you imagine if a person claimed to be your good friend that then hauled off and hit your wife?  The person who thinks they are my friend will show their respect for my wife.

Our love for God cannot be separated from our love for other people because the way we display our love for Jesus is by the way we love others.  The way we express our love for the lord is especially shown by the way we treat his bride, the church.  It is absurd to think that a person could love Jesus, who he has never seen, if he cannot love the people in the church – the bride of Christ – who he can see.

Neither James nor John beat around the bush.  Their statements in these verses are very clear.  If a man says that he loves God, but his behavior contradicts what he says, then John says that man is a liar and James calls that person a transgressor.

1 John 4:21 says, “²¹ And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

John Stott: “Every claim to love God is a delusion if it is not accompanied by unselfish and practical love for our brothers and sisters.”

Application

As I have observed our church, I don’t usually see partiality as a big issue here.  I’d like to keep it that way!  Rich and poor and middle class people worship here, side by side, all the time.  I don’t think we typically show a preference for people based on their income level.    Every person who genuinely wants to grow in their faith is welcome here.  We are all a part of the body of Christ!

I also know that we have generous people in our church who are willing to step up to assist the poor, the single mom, the widow and the orphan.  I’ve never been in a church where the people are more generous and loving than what I’ve seen here at Canyon Verde.

This demonstration of love to brothers and sisters in Christ is proof that the Holy Spirit is at work within the hearts of the people in this church.  It’s an evidence of God’s grace at work here because only by the grace of God is genuine, self-less love even a possibility. True faith is expressed through the capacity to act in the best interest of other people without regard for ourselves.  So if we find ourselves:

• Loving another person who is difficult to love or
• Helping someone who has no ability to ever return the favor

…it is further evidence that we are being controlled by a loving God and not by our own flesh.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself said to “love your enemies” and to “bless those that curse you” and to “do good to those who hate you” and to “pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.”  Jesus asked in Matthew 5:46, “⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

Jesus said in the previous verse (Matthew 5:45) that our love for God is proof that we really are the children of God and God’s Kids are the inheritors of eternal rewards and infinite treasures.  In Romans 8, Paul calls God’s people, “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”

He’s telling you to love others like God loves us and He will reward you.  We always welcome disciples here no matter who they are!

• I think we are (and can continue to be) the kind of church that loves every person who walks through the door.
• I know that we are reaching out in love to the poor, the widows, the orphans, the single moms and to the lost.

 We’re going to continue to pursue the opportunities to obey James 1:27 as the Lord reveals the needs in our community to us and do so with the understanding that the poor in the world are sometimes rich in faith and co-heirs of the kingdom with all of us!

Impartiality and Strength in the Church | James 2:1-9, 1 John 4

#1 The church is called to treat people differently than the world treats people – James 2:1-4, 1 Cor. 1:26, Acts 2:44-45, 2 Cor. 8:1-2

#2 The desire to love people and make disciples is the great equalizer within the body of Christ – James 2:5-7,

#3 God loved us in our spiritual poverty – Eph. 2:1-3, Romans 8:7, 1 John 4:8, 19

#4 Genuine faith displays itself in selfless love for other people  – James 2:8-9, 1 John 4:20-21

Application: Love others like God loves us and He will reward you

[1] http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/general/the-most-important-marketing-acronym-wiifm