We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Anchored in James 2:1-13, Brian Crawford, Neddie Winters, and Austin Hoyle explore how to embody impartiality and neighborly love in our daily interactions and within our church communities. Emphasizing that our commitment to love and grace should rise above cultural identities, they offer practical advice on living out these biblical directives.
In this episode, the guys delve into scriptural warnings against favoritism and the pitfalls of affluence, making a compelling case for inclusive discipleship efforts that encompass all socio-economic groups.
Take a listen as they encourage us to treat everyone with equal honor and respect, truly embodying the gospel's call to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Anchored in James 2:1-13, Brian Crawford, Neddie Winters, and Austin Hoyle explore how to embody impartiality and neighborly love in our daily interactions and within our church communities. Emphasizing that our commitment to love and grace should rise above cultural identities, they offer practical advice on living out these biblical directives.
In this episode, the guys delve into scriptural warnings against favoritism and the pitfalls of affluence, making a compelling case for inclusive discipleship efforts that encompass all socio-economic groups.
Take a listen as they encourage us to treat everyone with equal honor and respect, truly embodying the gospel's call to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on episode 52 of Living Reconciled. I am your host, brian Crawford, with good friends here today. I'm really excited because these friends I love deeply Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle, gentlemen how are you doing? Oh, we love you deeply too, Well, I'm great man.
Speaker 3:I was a little concerned when you paused really great friends and you paused them. Can you remember our names?
Speaker 1:I thought we talked about this last week. It's for dramatic effect. It's for dramatic effect.
Speaker 2:I paused. I don't think it's translatable when you're in the room. Yeah, but maybe it's something that works over the air.
Speaker 1:Or maybe people hate it. Nevertheless, special thanks to our sponsors Nissan, St Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms Doris Powell, Mr Robert Ward, Ms Ann Winters. Thank you, guys, so much for everything that you do. It's because of what you do that we're able to do what we do. And today, gentlemen, what we are doing is diving a little deeper into our theme for this year living reconciled by loving all our neighbors. Living reconciled by loving all our neighbors. It is a commitment this year that we have made to think more deliberately about what does it mean to neighbor? And the reason why we want to think more deliberately about what does it mean to neighbor is because, of course, in years like this one, where politics are at their peak or at its peak, it's easy for us to look at one another not as neighbors, but as others Others to be feared, others to be rejected, others to be condemned, criticized, Be indifferent towards, Be indifferent and apathetic, because I think that's probably the larger category Absolutely, but it's also the most forgotten Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so this year, this season, we wanted to remind the body of Christ, we wanted to remind Mississippians that neighbors are those that you come in contact with along the way and you have a call and a commitment to love them as you love yourself. The Bible mentions often the call and the command to love your neighbors as yourself. One such place in which the Bible mentions it is in James, james chapter two. And today we want to talk a little bit about James chapter two and all that is in there for us, the wisdom that is there for us to glean. And so what I'll do is I'll read James chapter two. We're going to look this here. Look in this text, at verses one through 13. And I am reading from the Austin. Guess what version would I be reading? English standard version, english standard. This is what I have pulled up, english. You're already ready.
Speaker 1:So, james chapter two, verse one my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, 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, 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 in my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 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? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court, and are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
Speaker 1:If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Let's stop right there. Let's just pause and reflect on that passage, because I believe that's plenty for us to think through. Austin Nettie, as you reflect on James 2 and the call away from partiality and the call to loving your neighbor as yourself, what are some of the first reflections that come to mind?
Speaker 2:First and foremost, I want to note the context of this entire thing is talking about the. I think it's a theology for the church, not a theology for a politic.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely so. This is talking about how we relate with one another in the body of Christ. So he's not trying to write. This is the ideal political philosophy that we should adopt as a society. Unfortunately, I've heard James be used as such, which it doesn't work. When you try to ascribe what should be for the church or the totality of society, it breaks down on multiple levels when we make that move. So, first and foremost, when I read this, I want us to be clear. We're talking about partiality in the church. I mean, obviously you don't want to have partiality out there. I mean, I'm not saying that we don't, but I think the practices are applied differently than in the church, than out in society. Does that make?
Speaker 1:sense society. Does that make sense? It does. It does to the extent that, as long as we think about the church and the implications of the Christian as they move into society to be carrying a similar ethic. Now, of course, like you said, in terms of how it plays out in politics and in terms of how it plays out in government and things of that nature, there's a whole lot to parse out there and to unpack there. But in terms of the Christian, like you said, the first implication, the first place, the first context, is the local church or even the universal church, the body of Christ yeah, the larger kingdom work, exactly, and moving out. How is that ethic that we carry in the church? How is it shaping the way we interact with the world around us? What resonates to your heart most when you read through that passage?
Speaker 3:This is strictly for a believer. He's talking to the church. He says, brothers, man, I'm talking, we can stop right there, and so it shouldn't exist in the church Partiality, prejudice, because we don't use the word partiality these days, I don't think as much as they did then. But today he's talking about, in today's vernacular, we are talking about racism, prejudice, hatred, envy. Those things are evil.
Speaker 3:So I think about, first of all, he's talking to the church, right, and that the church ought to first and foremost illustrate and demonstrate how we ought to love our neighbor. It's interesting only the church acts like who is my neighbor? Like okay, how about we just love everybody as our neighbor? And we will have to try to figure out who is our neighbor because, based on a biblical definition, every person that we on this journey, every person that we on this journey, every person that we confront contact, come in contact, come in connection with, is our neighbor. So this saying of who the neighbor is is a way to escape Right, exactly, or trying to figure out how not to do what the passage is telling us to do.
Speaker 1:Our commitment to love neighbor is a commitment, is an act of worship to a God who has created all of us in his image, and so to love those that we come in contact with along the way is to testify that our God has created us in his image and in his likeness, and so, therefore, I'm going to value you as an image bearer, I'm going to treat you as an image bearer. That's what it means to honor my God. It's interesting that James says in this passage, immediately my brothers to Nettie's point, grounding it in the church, show no partialityity. There's the command, and then, as you hold to your faith in the lord jesus christ. So he said basically, hey, this is very much a reflection of the faith that you, that you, hold dear to show no partiality.
Speaker 3:And then he says in verse 4 that really jumps off the page for me With evil thoughts. Psalm says evil motive, but I'm reading from the New King James or something it says with evil thoughts.
Speaker 1:Have you become judges With evil thoughts? Have you become judges with evil thoughts?
Speaker 2:Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves? You stand over there, you get the really nice place. So when?
Speaker 3:you look at the word partiality, how you define that, whether it be racism, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, all of those words, man, that is evil stuff. We make distinctions and have distinctives about ourselves. He's saying that's evil and Nidhi.
Speaker 2:I think you bring forth the examples you brought racism, sexism, all of that stuff. I think really the large principle that helps connect all of those things you mentioned is that anything that would prioritize a worldly identity over that of your identity in Christ and your rootedness and foundation in Christ. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I need some color in my skin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, as we know, we have God. I think in the modern world, you know, we have thousands of different identities that we encounter on a regular basis just here in America, counter on a regular basis just here in America, and I think that anytime we prioritize any of those above that of Christ, we're running into trouble, and I think that's part of the ethic that's being exposed here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. You know, in walking through this passage on several occasions, one of the things that always jumps out to me is this this is really about a passage of value. You know that this is how do you, how do you see people and how do you value people? Um, and, and you, you, you hear that being reflected in in the example that he uses. Hey, if you got this rich man that comes in gold, ring and fine clothing, he comes into the assembly and then you got a poor man's shabby clothing comes in and me and Austin before we started recording, we were talking about how Douglas Moo kind of turns the conversation. The theologian Douglas Moo turns the conversation and he gives you this illustration in this example of picture these people as being new converts coming into your church. Right, and so these are new believers walking into your church for the first time.
Speaker 1:And you got one brother who is all he's well-kept, he's dressed to the nines, as they would say. You know, his shoe game is wonderful, all these great things about him, and everybody's, like you know, just clamoring to get close to him and celebrate what God has done and bringing him to salvation and saying, hey, man, come grab a bite to eat with me and hey, let's have some coffee this week because everybody wants to be around this brother. But then the same thing has happened to this other brother. His shoe game isn't that great, his clothes are shabby, he looks a little disheveled, if you will, and the same wonderful thing has happened to him, but nobody's paying attention to him. And when I first read that, um, that new convert picture and um, that douglas moot gives you man, it convicted me to my core, because I can't tell you how many times I have seen that play out in real time and that that is partiality.
Speaker 2:And also talking about the two, the story of the two people coming in. I remember CS Lewis talking about how each different person, when we come to Christ, we each have different places and different lengths and different breadths and depths that we all have to go in order to arrive at holiness. Because in the Christian framework we have justification. We're justified by our faith in Christ, by a grace that is an act of God, and the act of God brings us to sanctification, brings us to holiness, and each person has different journeys. So the thought experiment that both James and Mu offer we have the person who is rich, and they have certain things that they have to work on in order to reach that place of holiness.
Speaker 2:So that's what the church should be doing, and the person walking in his shoe game isn't that great. They have things they have to work on and it may be different things. You know, with resentment of being downtrodden, of being looked down upon in their life, and that they need to, in fact, adopt different disciplines so that they can operate within the community of Christ in a more active way. Because I think the whole point of the Christian church is that when we walk in we don't stay the same. The rich man doesn't stay the same. That doesn't mean that he gets rid of all of his riches if that's not a part of the discipline that God needs for him but that just means that he uses his riches in a wise manner for the sake of the kingdom.
Speaker 1:And the church's role for those people, wherever they are, wherever they come from, is to love them, to value them, to not demonstrate or display partiality towards them. Exactly.
Speaker 2:For the sake of their holiness, for the sake of their holiness, for the sake of their holiness, don't let those who are immature in the faith stumble. Absolutely Right. I mean this goes to different passages, particularly Paul, that stumble passages. So the younger—I mean that's not just younger in age, that's also younger in faith.
Speaker 3:I hear people say—we used talking about new converts. I hear people say they'll look at some famous person or some popular person or whatever and say things like they sure would make a good Christian. And I'm thinking will they money make a good Christian? How do you make a good Christian? Absolutely, so absolutely.
Speaker 1:we are guilty Because that's a value thing, right. We internally have valued their prestige, their popularity, and so we then say, well, that's what's going to make a good Christian, the fact that they have this platform X, y and Z.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, go ahead, that's what hey, Daddy Yankee, he converted to Christianity. He used his platform. Sorry, sorry, let me go in.
Speaker 3:No, no, you guys are just, you know, hammering it out, unfolding it like I couldn't have done better. But with that, so when we come into the body of Christ as brothers, who would think that that would be? You know, you're getting these people saved, you're getting them off of drugs. That would be. You know, you're getting these people saved, you're getting them off of drugs. And many a times we act as though all the lost folks are in the who. There's no lost folks in the burbs. There's no lost folks in the so-called mega rich churches. Absolutely there's no lost folks in certain locations in the city. You know we don't say it out loud, but when we the last time somebody campus, as it relates to Jackson, mississippi, I've never heard of a church campus in northeast Jackson. I just I haven't heard that, you know, but they're in South Jackson, then West Jackson, they in the heart of Jackson, they in the ghetto of Jackson.
Speaker 3:Even in Clinton and other places there are certain locales. You find people even spreading the gospel, as though rich folks don't need the gospel, or it's only poor people that need the gospel, or it's only addicted people that need the gospel. So we make these judgments with I'm talking about this should be penetrating to every Christian that's listening, that we make these distinctions and judgment without a second thought, never appreciating the fact how evil it is. Because he says isn't this an evil moment If you got this guy coming in and then he goes on to say you giving all that hype to the rich guy and he didn't want to take you to court? Well, I was just about to say.
Speaker 1:I really wanted to address that. It is tying to Austin's call back to holiness and how sometimes we don't understand what holiness, the call of holiness, looks like. So we will pay a lot of attention to what holiness looks like amongst our poor brothers, amongst our brothers in struggle, but we don't give enough attention to what the call of holiness looks like for us who have means, who have opportunities.
Speaker 2:With means comes our capacity to hide lack of holiness. That doesn't mean that we have more holiness. We have a clear capacity to hide the lack of it.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Not so much hide the lack of it, as much as oh, this is going to get me in heaven, I don't need Right.
Speaker 1:There's a blindness that can come with wealth and the church oftentimes doesn't do enough work in the discipleship with me. We talk about discipleship like you said. We talk about discipleship in our working class areas, in our poor areas. We talk about discipleship like you said. We talk about discipleship in our working class areas, in our poor areas. We talk about substance abuse. We talk about discipleship in all these areas, but there's a kind of discipleship that needs to happen when you have people with means and it's really just as important, because I mean think about this the people with means.
Speaker 2:What is the unique calling that God?
Speaker 1:has for them.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, they are people who, even if they're Christians, who are probably going to live a very fairly, uh, comfortable lives. Yes, um, you know, I want to look back at this, though I versus six and seven, because, um, I, I think there's two different ways. I think he'd been waiting for this. Yes, um, but you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
Speaker 2:I think there's two different ways to take it. You can say either rich as a category has this overall problem, and you always have this problem, or this is a condition of the human heart and the rich just happen to have the means to do it. Condition of the human heart, and the rich just happen to have the means to do it. So when these things happen, it can only come from the rich, not because the rich have a worse heart than anyone else, but this particular sin in and of itself can only practically occur in the potency that is described with persons who have immense means. So I mean, I think once again this goes back to the uh, not the money is the root of all evil. The love of money, the greed of the money is the root of all evil. I want it, want it, I gotta have it, I gotta hold on to it, and this is not a.
Speaker 1:This is not a. Let's hate anybody with wealth and means exactly james is calling don't. Don't hate the people with means I mean, this is not a let's hate people with means, like you said, austin, this is means has the ability to unveil and expose different corners in our hearts and anyone who has means and anyone who has means, anyone, no matter what person group they're from, no matter what upbringing, has the capacity to fall to this particular sin, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Well, now I want to be clear here. But not you, eddie. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to be clear Right right, not you, eddie. No, we're not talking about people with means and people that are wealthy and well-off. We're not saying that you—no no. No, we're saying you're well-off, we're saying that you aren't susceptible to this sin. Go ahead, eddie. Yeah, you know, I want to remind you guys that I did pastor a church in the inner city.
Speaker 3:I want to remind you guys that I did pastor a church in the inner city and I work for an organization that's a non-Christian nonprofit. That is not wealth accumulation. I just want to remind you of that. But I wanted to say that didn't Jesus say something to his disciples, his followers? He said it is easier for a camel to go to the eye of a needle than it is for the rich man to get into heaven. And the disciples are like well, the rich folks ain't going. Who going? That's funny. It's like wait a minute, hold up, jesus, what's the deal? These people are not going. Who's going? And so we have to understand that. Our riches, our wealth. What did he say to the rich young man that came to him and said what shall I do? And Jesus gave him all of that. He said, well, I've done all that for my youth, so I got this right. Yeah, he said he'll sell everything. He just said, oh, you crazy man. He walked away sad. So he was sad, but he still walked away.
Speaker 3:As you all point out, to the wealth and things of folks. It's not so much. The individual has the wealth that he's wanting here yes. I want you to understand that he's wanting those that don't have the wealth or any wealth, or want the wealth or are recognizing their wealth. He's talking about us.
Speaker 1:He said, brothers, they are in just as much need as anyone of Christ, as everyone else.
Speaker 3:So you're the one he's talking to you, brian Nettie and Austin about. You're the one showing partiality through. We're sitting here in the podcast room. I dare say I've been in settings where someone will walk through the door, depending on their title or who they are. I tell you we'd always rise to our feet, disrupt what we're doing and what we're going to do, and then some people open the door and come in. You're in the wrong place, man. Get back Right. That's how I keep about it. You know, that's right. You're surely in the wrong place.
Speaker 2:And has been the person when every run rises in the room. Oh yeah, that's right. You know, I can really tell you, dan. First of all, it's the greatest feeling in the world.
Speaker 3:I absolutely, I wouldn't trade it, I just want you to know I wouldn't trade it for anything, really.
Speaker 2:Everyone accurately sees me, who I am.
Speaker 1:Every room we walk in, people stand to their feet. When we're in the room, I mean they just knock If someone's in that room.
Speaker 3:they shoot me and say you're in the wrong place. You better not. The hand is saying shut the door.
Speaker 1:But when you are such as I am, you also have to say hey, man, I want also look at this guy right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't forget that, don't forget that. So when I introduce people to Brian, yeah, I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking, it's really the other way.
Speaker 1:But no, but Nettie's point to the fact that he is talking to the church, there is an important one, because it's the church that is struggling with valuing people according to worldly standards. And he's saying listen, no, no, no, no, no. Value them according to the divine standards, value them in the way that Christ has called us to value. And if we begin to value one another in the way that Christ has called us to value one another, it doesn't mean that we will treat the wealthy, so to speak, with less honor. It just means we will treat everyone with the same honor that we're treating the wealthy.
Speaker 2:That means we'll make the wealthy and the unwealthy co-chairs of a committee right.
Speaker 1:It means that we will extend the same amount of attention and the same amount of love, the same amount of care.
Speaker 3:You know, austin just said what we would do to make them co-chair Only buy one chair. Guess who that's for. Only buy one chair. Who's going to take that chair? Yeah, absolutely so. When we look at this, I guess the bottom line for me and all of this is that we have to look at the fact that we're all equally lost. Yes, we are all equally sinful. We're all equally going to hell without Christ.
Speaker 1:They're the handbags. Yeah, you know, you know and, and we've all been equally made heirs.
Speaker 3:He's a joint heirs with Jesus. So we're all equally saved, but not by some different method or different uh, or status. We are all saved by the same slave, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And there's that parable of jesus that talks about the, the work, people coming in throughout the day, they all get paid. And then, uh, they all get paid the same at the end, and it doesn't matter how late's the party yeah, I want to be that guy that comes in at six. Yeah, I know I know it, man, I if I, if I understand, that's how the system works, that's, that's pretty good, right.
Speaker 1:How, how, how can we remind ourselves of this call that we're wrapping up here? How can we remind ourselves of this call in the everyday as we are engaging and encountering both people different races or different ethnicities, rather, and cultures, different class in our church, outside of our church? How can we personally live in such a gospel-centered way where we remove ourselves more and more from that partial way of seeing people? Give me some practical tips.
Speaker 2:First and foremost, just dialogue, really getting to know people who they are, and really not, I was about to say, on their terms, but that doesn't really work out. I'm thinking really on God's terms, because on God's terms you're seeing the reality for who the person is, and that's really what we're called to be as Christians, because sometimes you know even the self-view of ourselves. I mean, think about the scenario that's playing out in James 2. Here the self-view of the rich man will be probably quite high because he's probably used to walking into the room and filling the space. The self-view of the person in poverty would probably be quite low.
Speaker 2:So what we're called to do, I think, is engage persons and see them for who God is and dialogue with them and work with them in such a way and work with ourselves, because we haven't really quite lived into that reconciliation that Christ is offering. And through the process of discipleship I'm thinking it was a church leader in this point through the process of discipleship, uh, we allow both the, the, the wealthy and the poor to be able to, um, have the Holy spirit. Uh, just do that, do that hard diagnostic work on their hearts and then, um, however, the Holy spirit does work in that person's lives to make sure that they come about through a process of reconciliation so they can live into the holiness that is being offered to them. So so we engage them in such a way and we, um we, we see them for who God is and hopefully they see themselves for who God, uh, for, for how God views them as well.
Speaker 3:Amen, Nettie. Oh, the bottom line for me is that we need to see each other as Christ sees us, through the lens of God, through the lens of Scripture. All of this partiality, racism, all that stuff was abolished through the cross, through the gospel, and we're now one in him and we've got to treat and love one another the same way. So I need to see you as God sees you and not as society. You know we talked about this letter was addressed directly to society. We got to remember that. That part of it is very important. Also, we can't allow society's standards to decide how we should see this. I think that's why I mean James was admonishing the group there, Church, the church, and he set us up in chapter one.
Speaker 1:Hard truth with soft address. My brothers, my brothers, it's almost like a pat on the shoulder. Let me talk to you for a second, you know like father, son talk.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, yeah, not one of them would power talk. But on the way to the wood, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. God bless, god bless the call. The call here, ladies and gentlemen, the call here is for us to see one another as Jesus sees us and to not move in such a way where we are taking our cues from culture, from the outside world, and describing value or describing value, for that matter in such a way that we lessen people and we lessen honor that we give towards people. Let's raise our standards and let's honor both those that have means and those that do not, those that look just like us and those that look nothing like us, because that's the way God values us all. Amen.
Speaker 1:It's been great to have this episode. Please subscribe. You can go out to Living Reconciled or search for Living Reconciled on any podcast app. Like share, subscribe. Please share feedback with us. We would love to hear it. This has been great. I am Brian Crawford signing off with Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle, saying God bless, god bless, thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at MissionMississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening. Thank you.