James chapter number 2 this morning. Let us read together verses 1 through to verse number 13. 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 at 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? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? 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. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all Your quickening powers. Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. We come to You, oh God, asking that You would revive us again according to Your word and by the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Last week, we considered pure religion and what that looks like from chapter number 1, verse 26 through to verse number 27. That the gospel which makes us alive, God's new birth, the work of the new birth, changes the way that we speak and changes the way that we love. It causes us to love the needy and care for the needy, therefore loving our neighbor as ourselves, but it also causes us to love God in a way that we pursue holiness because we care about God's thoughts toward us and we care about honoring the Lord. And now in verse number 1 to verse 13 of chapter 2, there is a particular application of that second commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. You see that in verse number 8 quite clearly where it says, “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, which indeed is the opposite to loving your neighbor as yourself, you are not doing well. In fact, you're convicted by the law as a transgressor. And so what James is showing us here is how the second commandment, how pure religion plays out in a very practical application to something that was happening in the life of the believers there that were scattered abroad to whom James is writing. And he deals with the sin of partiality, which we're going to look at this morning. Now, I must admit that partiality is one of the most difficult ethical issues to apply. Say, “What do you mean? It's pretty straightforward here.” I said, “Yeah, but it's not straightforward in all of our cases. Maybe this case looks a bit more straightforward.” Let me explain. You're a parent and you have several children. Each of your children have various personalities, different struggles, and at various ages, they have different intellectual and social development stages that they're at. And both these children do something wrong, like they draw on the wall, or they refuse to say hi to your visitors, or they won't eat their food. You discipline one and not the other. Are you being partial? Are you being fair? And what makes the difference? Or you're interviewing several people for a job opportunity who all have equal abilities, experiences, and would serve the role well. You decide to choose one and not the other because you believe the person's gender, religious beliefs, or nationality will be a better fit for your business. Oh. Are you being partial? Are you being fair? Now let me add a few qualifiers and it might change the way that you interpret that one. What if it's a Christian school? What if it's a women's shelter? Might not be the best thing to hire a man to sleep in a woman's shelter to look after them. What if it's a Chinese restaurant? If I walk into a Chinese restaurant, I see a Lebanese guy like me behind the counter, I'm walking out. Not good for business. Or you hear of a serious financial need in the life of a friend or family member, and you're moved with compassion to contribute significantly to their need. And the next day you're walking through your local shopping center, and the World Vision folk with photos of the poor and needy children require and ask you, “Please help these people that are suffering in another country.” And you either give them $5 in comparison to what you gave your friend that was struggling, or you say to them, “No, look, I'm not going to give to this need.” Are you being impartial? Or are you being partial? You can see it's pretty nuanced, isn't it? And can be quite challenging. And I'm sure there are thousands of cases like this. And it is very—we must be very careful that we think about what are the key considerations that makes the difference. And I'm going to submit to you that the key consideration is what we call justification. And what that means is upon what basis may your decision be justified. So we all have to make a decision when we're in cases like this, but what is the justification for our decision? And the way that there might be justification for our decision might be one in terms of our relationship to the person. That is a good justification. Behavior is varied by our relationship to people. I mean, a judge acts differently to how a mother will act to her child. Okay, so you don't go to the supreme courts and to the local courts to learn how to raise your children. Although you do need justice. But the relationship that you share with them might be applied differently. A friend or a colleague might affect the way that you relate to them differently to how you relate to someone else. Or your child versus someone else's child can affect the way that you relate to a situation that you are faced with. Or there may be a fellow Christian or a family member. And I think something like Galatians 6 helps us see this. In Galatians 6:10 it says, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially those of the household of faith.” So there's a sort of an order of love, isn't there? That causes us in our relationship to others to, to, to relate differently. And I think that's a challenging thing, right? But that's something that will keep us from, from misapplying ourselves at this point. The second thing is relevance. Like I said, what is the nature of this organization? And then why would that affect who you choose to hire? Or the age or knowledge of the child, as I mentioned in the first one, might affect the way in which you apply yourself at that particular point in their life. Or, as I said, the order of loves, if there's you have a stewardship and and all that as well to certain people. You know, Jesus said to His when, when Judas said to this woman that broke the alabaster box and poured it out and in Jesus and anointed Jesus' feet, Judas says, “Oh, that could have been sold for a lot of money and given to the poor.” And Jesus said, “The poor you have always with you.” Not saying that you shouldn't then care for them, but He's saying is the opportunity to care for the poor is always and should be always. But she had an order of love for Jesus that caused her to give to Jesus this and not to the poor. Do you understand that at that particular time in her life? And so there was a certain justification, wasn't there, for what she was doing that day. And that's important for us because when we look at this passage on partiality that is illustrated, it may not apply in exactly—it may it may it may be a same scenario that doesn't apply to us. What I mean is, if the rich man and the poor man coming both into the same church and the rich man actually was your friend and you said to him, “Hey, come sit next to me,” but you said it not because he is rich but because he is your friend, then it changes everything, doesn't it? Otherwise, you have to say at every, to every visitor, “Come sit next to me, come sit next to me,” but you've only got two seats next to you. And so it's important for us to think of it this way. So we look at the case before us. 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, “You stand over here, there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? The case is concerning two visitors that walk into the church that are unknown to the congregation, and how the people that are looking on are judging them by what they are wearing. Shabby clothing versus neat clothing or rich clothing or clothing that is expensive. And because of this, there is this drastic treatment of one over the other. “Come sit over here.” And the other one gets, you know, “Come sit at my feet” or “go sit in the corner somewhere.” And the reason is unjustifiable. It is totally superficial, built upon the external appearances, and there is no relationship or relevance in any such a way for any of these people in the church to be behaving in such a way. And it testifies to the fact that they have a problem with what they prioritize. Because what he says in verse number two of this of verse number three, he says, “And if you pay attention to the one who wears fine clothing.” And the word “pay attention” says means to look upon with favor. You see what he's saying here? “If you look upon with favor the person who has the fine clothing, you have just revealed the fact that your judgment is entirely superficial and unjustifiable.” And it reveals that partiality ignores deeper realities, that both the poor man and the rich man are image-bearers of God. That both the poor man and the rich man are made in God's image and are to be loved and cared for, and that we shouldn't discriminate on superficial grounds. And that might apply to us in our day with skin color or nationality or social class or gender. The word partiality literally means “receiving the face of.” And it shows that you're just looking at their face and you're just making a judgment and treating them differently on that basis. The reason why that is important, because we do treat people differently according to their specific context and needs, don't we? We do that all the time. Some people need more time and attention than others to get through particular problems in life where others don't. And so this is common sense, but it's also important lest we feel condemned by something that the Bible is not teaching us here. And so James looks at this case or presents this case and thoroughly condemns it. He says to the church here, to these believers, he says, “This whole scenario testifies to the fact that you guys are judges with evil thoughts.” And I think that is so strong of a statement, isn't it? Like, I mean, you might think to yourself like, “What's the big deal? Like, come sit here, come sit there.” James is like, “No, this is much deeper than that. For you to get to the point where you start treating people differently based upon their face alone or by what they're wearing alone, you have come to the place where you have set yourself up as a judge and with evil thoughts, worldly thoughts, you are now engaging with people.” He says, “You have now made distinction among yourselves. You have divided yourselves and separated God's people. Now there's a place for the rich and for the poor because through evil and worldly thoughts, you have now treated one another.” That's very strong language. God is obviously concerned about how we think of other people that walk into that church, or how we treat people in our lives. But why is partiality evil? Like, can't you just say this is just an entirely preferential thing? What, like what's it to you? I like rich people, you like poor people, fine. Like who you want, you know, that sort of thing. Well, God says, “No, no, no, no, partiality is actually evil.” And He gives us two reasons why it's evil. One, He tells us first and foremost that this is a violation of God's character Himself. And he says that in verse number 5 through verse number 7, when he says these words, he says, “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, verse 6, “You have dishonored the poor man.” You see what he's saying? This is how God treats the outcast. This is how God treats the poor man. This is how God treats those that are, that are marginalized. God has chosen in His mercy and divine sovereign providence to save and choose and redeem poor people. In fact, the church was made up mostly of slaves, we understand from the first century. And in God's economy of salvation, we He tells us it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, doesn't He? Why? Because their dependence is upon themselves so often, having fallen into the snare of the love of money. But with the poor, they don't particularly have that very same hurdle. And so what, what James's argument is here is God honors them. God honors them with salvation. God honors the rich, honors the poor with richness of faith. He makes them heirs of the kingdom. You know, those that possess nothing will inherit everything. And He has designed it so that their lack of earthly honor produces a humility in them that helps them more readily receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whereas the rich often have their honor from the world around them. But here's the point. Both rich and poor that are believers must all be poor in spirit in order for them to receive the gospel of, the gift of God through through Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. If you look there at verse number 5, at verse number, sorry, verse number 5, it says, He made them rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. And this is what it says here, “Which He has promised to who? To those who love Him.” Do you understand that? Rich and poor, those who love Jesus, who have humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, have confessed their sin, the promise of eternal life is to them. But make no mistake about it, God plays no favorites. He has mercy on all. And by having mercy on all, He has made it so that the gospel goes to both rich and poor. But in the economy of salvation, we will find more poor than rich converted because of the humility and brokenness of needing more. So what He's saying here is, “You're dishonoring those whom God honors.” First Corinthians chapter 1 talks about it. God is not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. And He is saying, “You're choosing to honor the rich over the poor and make that a distinction is contrary to God's purposes, because that's not how He does it.” You see, partiality rewards the wrong thing, doesn't it? It rewards the external and it doesn't reward true brokenness. And what, what the Bible's showing us here in verse number 6, particularly, “You have dishonored the poor man,” but then He goes on in verse 6 and 7 to say, “Are not the rich ones who oppress you and drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?” Now, obviously, this wasn't a money thing, right? The rich in the early church were those that were, that were, if I could say, were it was commonly known that the rich were the oppressors. Okay, they were in positions of power and the poor had no sort of say in that culture. And so the distinction there is, is, is different. You could translate, in our modern day, the rich might be like those that use their social privilege to step on others. It's got negative connotation. He's not saying riches equals oppression, but He's saying this is what's happening among you. The rich among you and in the society around you are oppressing and they are abusing their power. And now they come into the church and what you do is you honor them and reward them. And by doing that, you honor them and reward them by showing a sharp distinction between them and the poor. When the truth is they're coming through the doors of a house to which everyone in this house should be humbled under the gospel of Jesus Christ as both poor in spirit and in need of Him. But partiality rewards the wrong thing, doesn't it? And why were they doing that? We don't know. But it could be because they thought the benefit would come to them. If we make room for the rich man and make him feel special in the church, then his money will come to us. Maybe something like that. Maybe they thought to themselves that we could benefit from this. This is a powerful man and he can help us in our own personal lives. What I'm simply saying is that self-interest is so blinding that it causes us to act partially towards people and to flip on its head what God has designed. And we start honoring that which God does not want us to honor. The second reason is not only that it’s contrary to the character of God, but it is also contrary to the law of God. If you look at me in verse number 8 of this passage, it says, “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.” He talks about the royal law here, which refers to the law of the king, royalty, Jesus, King Jesus. This is the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? To love your neighbor as yourself. This is the law of His kingdom. This is the law of Jesus. And to act partially towards others is to violate this law. So He says, “If you keep this, that's good, but if you show partiality, contrary to that, you break that law and you're not submitting to the King.” The law of the King, though, is not a new law in the sense that this is not something that was known in ages past. Because he says there in verse number 8 of this text, he says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the what? Scripture, to the Old Testament Scriptures. 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well.” So He's saying to them, “This is exactly what God's heart has always been about.” And He has sent His Son, the risen King, and He said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give unto you, which is not an old commandment.” Meaning it's not entirely new. This has been true of the Old Testament too. What is true of the Old Testament? That you should love your neighbor as yourself, taken right out of the book of Leviticus. And Jesus says, “Well, you should love your neighbor as yourself. But now you should do it in light of my example,” says Jesus, and in that sense, it is new. You look at the cross and you love your neighbor. You love your neighbor, which in the nation of Israel was the people that lived around you, but now you love your neighbor, which includes the Gentiles that don't live among you. So you could love the sojourner, now that's the guy that's passing through your town and living among you as he passes through. But this goes beyond that and says, “You should love your neighbor as yourself, including the Samaritan that loves the Jew, and they were enemies.” “Who is my neighbor?” Everyone's your neighbor. All who are made in the image of God is your neighbor. And so this law, the royal law, calls us to live a life in, as one man said, “in step with the gospel.” And partiality is a sin because it transgresses that law. And it's almost like you could hear the justifications that these people would make, making for why they were treating people differently, you know? Maybe saying to them, “Look, does it really break the law? You know, where can you find that in the Ten Commandments about partiality?” Maybe they were trying to twist this and and curve that and trying to justify themselves so that they feel comfortable treating people differently whom God has made in His image. But James says to them that the law is a unity. And at the heart of the law is this truth: to love your neighbor as yourself. So you can't play games with the law. I'll take this one and not that one, and I want that one and not this one and then construct your own religion and set up barriers so that that word doesn't cut you to the heart. The gospel of Jesus sets the law of love up higher than it has ever been revealed before with an example that calls us to a love that we have never seen before in all its glory and power and says, “You live like that to your neighbor.” No excuses, in other words. And that's why he's so sharp here in verse 9 and 10. He says, “If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors, because at the heart of the law is love your neighbor as yourself.” And then in verse 10 he goes on to say, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has been guilty of all.” And verse 11, “For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” You see what he's doing here? What James is doing here is showing us that the entire law is a unity because it comes from the one lawgiver and it comes from the one judge who is God. And all the law can be narrowed down, as it were, to this one commandment: to love your neighbor as yourself. And you say, “Yeah, but what about the other great commandment: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?” True, that's part of it. But you know what Galatians 5:14 says? “The whole law is fulfilled in one word, which is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” And John so boldly picks this up and says in 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar.” Why? “For he who does not love his brother whom he sees cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Do you get that? So all the law is fulfilled, yes, in this one word: love your neighbor as yourself. And you can't squirm your way out of it. The same God that said, “Don't commit adultery,” also said, as he shows in this passage, “Do not murder.” And if you violate one, you violate all. But this is the same God who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” You can't escape it. And you break one of the laws, you become a transgressor of the law. That's really humbling, isn't it? You know, it's like a chain with a heavy piece of metal, let's say an anchor on it, and there's links in the chain. They're all the commandments. You know, we like to think of it as, “Yeah, I'm keeping this one. Yeah, I'm not doing so well in this one, but this one's good and I'm all right here,” and all that. And what James is saying is, “Hey, you break that chain at any one of those links and that anchor's fallen.” He’s saying, “That's what it's like.” Meaning don't think the law can justify you. And don't think you can play games with the law, thinking, “I'm okay with God here and not so okay with God there.” But it's okay, God's cool. No, He's saying you're under the law, you're under the judgment. And you want to now be judged that makes your own law? Get ready. You'll be a judge without mercy. And so He's showing us that the law is this unity and that we ought to be careful lest we start playing games with the law, but realize that the heart of the law is the same message of the heart of the gospel, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. And that's why He can move on in verse number 12 to give this instruction in verse number 13 where He says, “So speak and so act as those who are judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, and mercy triumphs over judgment.” You can see what he's doing, can't you? The law of liberty. That is the law that will judge you. What is the law of liberty? It is the gospel and its ethics that we've talked about a couple of weeks ago. On that final day, the gospel will stand as your judge. Did you love your neighbor as yourself? Did you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved? And is your life demonstrating that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are saved by your love for neighbor? And He's saying that is what it will be like on the final day, and that is the thing therefore that you should strive to obey. That is the law of liberty and of freedom that gives you an example in the gospel and gives you a power to obey that the law, if I could say. And so on He goes to say in closing here, “Judgment without mercy is reserved for those who show no mercy.” What is He saying? You haven't been living up to the law of liberty when you treat people like that. You're not a merciful person. You don't love your neighbor as yourself when you mistreat people. And because of that, you will have no mercy. That is so fearful, isn't it? Think of the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Jesus said, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” And in the same vein, He's saying, “If you want to stand as a judge over these people that walk into the assembly, judging them by their clothing and by their, and by judging them superficially and not loving your neighbor as yourself, and you want to have that kind of judgment, well, you will have judgment without mercy too. If you're not going to show mercy to people that are different than you, then don't expect God to show you mercy on that final day, because you'll give evidence that you're a judge and God's not the judge, and that you have your own law and you're not submitting to God's law, and you will prove to yourself, to the world, and God will make it known that you are not truly His because you've set yourself up in the place of God as a judge.” “This is not pure religion,” says James. This is thinking of yourself in a way that is wrong and thinking of others in a way that is totally contrary to the gospel. Proverbs 22 verse 2 says, “The rich and poor meet together, and the Lord is the maker of them all.” And the rich and poor will meet together on the day of judgment. And the maker of them all will open the books and will judge. And only those whose names are found in the Book of Life will enter into the kingdom of heaven, whether rich or poor. God is the maker and judge of them all. And so then on he goes to say in verse 13, the last 13, he says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” What an amazing thought that is. Here is judgment, the most fearful thing for which we are all awaiting. And James says, “See mercy? Loving your neighbor as yourself? Boasts against judgment.” The person who believes in Jesus that lives like Jesus will have their heads up high and be vindicated on the day of judgment. They will be His sheep. Not because of their merit, not because of their social standing, but because of His mercy, which transformed them so that they now show mercy. And they will triumph as overcomers in the day of judgment. And so the challenge to us is simply to then remember the law of liberty. To love our neighbor as ourselves and not to show partiality to those who are different from us. The law of liberty reminds us that we were slaves and that our freedom has come through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has broke the chains of our slavery. Just like He reminded the children of Israel, “Show no partiality and care for the sojourner, because you were once slaves in Egypt.” And in the same way, the church bound in sin and set free by the glorious gospel of Jesus has no right to distinguish between people with in a superficial way, but rather to to to live according to that gospel that doesn't place emphasis on merit or on nationality or on, on, on outward things and the perishing, but rather it shows the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who gathers all people together from every tribe, tongue, and nation. You see, the whole point is the saving work work of gospel of Jesus Christ is bringing all peoples from all nations together in the church redeemed in heaven, and they will be singing the praises of the lamb forever more. Yes, alongside the rich and the poor. Yes, alongside the black and the white. Yes, alongside the Asian and the Aussie or whoever. The point is, all of us are going to stand redeemed before God, and the thing that makes us one is this gospel. Therefore, we should lay emphasis on the gospel and not upon the things that make us different. And this is why in chapter 2 verse 1 he says, “Show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” Meaning you cannot hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot hold the gospel, and live a life of partiality. It is contradictory to the gospel. The Lord of glory, Jesus, demands that we glory in Him and not in riches, not in wealth, not in our comfort, not in the color of our skin, not in our social standing, but we glory in the Lord of glory. He wants us to be enamored not with the beauty of a gold ring and a nice cloak, but to be enamored with the beauty of the Son of God that shines forth into the lives of others around us as we see Jesus in people. This is what Jesus did in the cross. He broke down the middle wall of partition, the dividing wall between us. He severed the hostility. He abolished the court of the Gentiles that separated the Gentiles from the Jews. And He He shattered and and and and destroyed all that prioritized the receiving of the face. And with unmistakable clarity, Jesus Christ gave Himself for Jew, for Gentile, for slave, for free, to show that we are all one in Christ Jesus. The only distinguishing mark that should be among us is do you belong to Jesus or do you not belong to Jesus? That's it. Are you His or are you not? And if you belong to Him, it doesn't matter about these other things. What matters is whether you belong to Him or not. And this is what we should be so concerned about and and and careful about, lest we fall into the sin of partiality and become judges with evil thoughts. We don't want to play favorites with our children. We don't want to avoid and ignore the poor. We don't want to be people that despise others and form tribal clans within the church of God. No, we must look at every man, woman, and child as image-bearers of God that should be honored as image-bearers of God. And all image-bearers of God deserve mutual respect. Racial, political, theological differences should not undermine that. 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.” Honor everyone. And it's so easy for us to allow our political, theological, and personal convictions, hold them up so highly and so vehemently that we start to fall in the trap of the sin of partiality. Look, I'm look, we can have different political differences on what we think about immigration. Fine. It's not what it's about. The reality is every person that we come into contact with is an image-bearer of God. No matter how you politically try and work through that, that's, that's not the issue here, is it? The issue is every image-bearer ought to be honored as an image-bearer of God. And so what happens then subtly, if we can put it this way, just to take for an example, we might allow our political views to start making us judge people that we think shouldn't be in this country and mistreating them. Do you understand what I mean? You might have a political view that, that, that, that says we should be tighter on immigration. And fine, that's fine. I'm not saying it's wrong. It's not even the point of discussion this morning. But the point of discussion is if you start now to become bitter with image-bearers of God because the policies don't align to the way that you like them, you know what's happened? You've just failed to love your neighbor as yourself. Do you see the danger? It's not about what political position you hold necessarily. It's about how that now translates into your life and how you treat others because of it. The rich and poor may be reversed. How many poor people despise the rich so much? I think in our Aussie culture, it's, it's not like it was in this culture. I think it's, you know, the other way, the underdog first sort of a thing, you know? And despise the rich. We look at someone with what car they what they wear and what car they drive and we judge them as ungodly. They don't really love the Lord Jesus Christ. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you wouldn't be driving that car. It's like, are you serious? You now sit as a judge over them? You see, in the church of God, there are no best seats in this synagogue. Sit over here, stand over there, no. There is no best seats in the synagogue. Every sinner that comes into the assembly of God ought to be treated with a dignity that drives them to Jesus Christ, that they might realize and know Him as their Lord and Savior. And so we must shun all spiritual forms of hierarchies built upon race and social and status, and we must have as a church a solidarity that comes through Christ and Him crucified. So that we know nothing more about that one thing alone. And I pray that God would keep us in the polarization of our society from allowing ourselves to treat one another differently because of how we're being influenced with what's going on out there. Look, I know it's challenging. I know governments don't make good decisions. We're not for all the policies that are introduced and all this stuff. I'm just wanting to be clear with you, do not lose focus. People are image-bearers of God. Don't be partial in your judgment. Let's pray.