Lesson 11: Prejudice is a Sin (part 1)
Read James 2:1-13 - www.bible.com/bible/59/jas.2.esv

Principle Stated – James 2:1. No one can determine the heart of another in a first time encounter. James therefore reminds us here that prejudice and partiality are a sin. Faith in Christ and showing favoritism or partiality are incompatible. See God’s charge to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:1-13 when he was sent to anoint the next king of Israel, David.

James is not condemning the kind of discernment that comes from a thorough understanding of another’s character. We have to discern right from wrong. What he is dealing with is our tendency to be prejudiced towards others because of superficial judgments based on outward appearances.

The Principle Illustrated - James 2:2-4. Imagine, James says, you are the usher at a service and 2 men come in. One appears to be wealthy, the other poor. What will you do?

*How we behave toward people indicates what we REALLY believe about God. 1 John 4:20 ____

According to Matthew 23:6 – ‘And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues.’ There were “chief seats” or places of honor. Do we have unassigned or assigned seats here? If a visitor came in and sat in your seat, will they be asked to move? Would our motives be pure? Maybe our attitude is “What are they doing here?” In James 2, the ushers had made a distinction based on appearances thereby exalting one and mistreating another. James tells us it was done with evil motives (v4). Why did they cater to the rich?

The Principle Explained - James 2:5-11. There are 3 reasons why prejudice is wrong.


1-James 2:5 – prejudice is inconsistent with God’s methods. The real issue is one of the heart. God bases his choice on the heart, not wealth or appearance. (1 Corinthians 1:25-29)
2-James 2:6-7 – prejudice ignores the universality of sin. Aside from the fact that it was the rich who were persecuting them, James reminds his readers that by catering to the rich they were forgetting that they are sinners, too, just like the rest of us and in need of God’s grace.
3-James 2:8-9 – prejudice is sinful because it is inconsistent with scripture. Centuries before, Moses said in Leviticus 19:18, ‘You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.’

That was the standard then and still is today. If you and I show partiality we have sinned for we have broken the law of love. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our relationships were guided by the royal law of love? The fact is we all have built in prejudices which color our reactions to people - divorce, emotional illness, political, ethnic, race or religious background.

These kinds of prejudices produce clubs, gossips, and power hungry groups who put pressure on other groups. Each group has its own royal law that says ‘we will love, accept, vote for you and so on, IF you…’