[Week 30] What We've Been Trained Not to See (James 2:1)

This week, we are memorizing James 2:1.

• Check out my latest Scripture Memorization song here: James 2:1
• If you're new here, see my introduction to this series here.

"My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ."
— James 2:1 (CSB)

What Is James 2:1 Pointing At?

Last week we walked through James 1:22 and discussed counting the right and wrong things for our salvation and what being a "doer" looks like when our hearts are changed. This week, James gives us one of the most specific, challenging examples of what it looks like to follow Jesus' commands.

On my first week at a new job, I got into the elevator. I stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do as people much more important than me got on. They had been there for years and they looked over, introduced themselves, and told me they were glad I was there. I had nothing to offer any of them. No history, no standing, nothing they needed.

As I was thinking about it, I realized that I never “paid” them back in any way. To be honest, I don't remember their names. I couldn't find them now if I tried. They spent something on a person who could give them nothing in return, and they got nothing in return, but the impact it had on me has remained for years.

That's the kind of person I want to be.

And it's harder than it sounds. I lead at work and I'm an elder at my church, and I know how easy it is to walk into a room and go straight to the people I already know. The first thirty seconds are already solved. I ride elevators with people I've never met and say nothing at all.

Nobody would call that favoritism. Nothing happens. That's sort of the problem though.

I've read this verse dozens of times as a rule about being fair, not playing favorites, don't do what Jacob did.¹ Got it. But when I looked at the word underneath "favoritism," I found much more than I was expecting.

What the Word Actually Says

The word our Bible translates as "favoritism" is προσωπολημψία (prosopolempsia), pronounced "pro-so-poe-lemp-see-ah". And, even for a Greek word, that's a strange word. It actually doesn't exist in classical Greek. No Greek philosopher used it, no Greek poet coined it. It was invented by Jewish writers who needed a Greek word for a Hebrew idea and couldn't find one, so they built it by copying a Hebrew phrase piece by piece into Greek.²

The Hebrew phrase they were reaching for? נָשָׂא פָּנִים (Nasa panim), pronounced "nah-sah pah-neem", and even reading it in Hebrew is not super clear to our modern minds: It means "to lift the face."

Here's what that meant in the ancient world. A person who was approaching someone with higher authority or standing would lower and bow their face. For the person in authority to lift their face was to grant them something: reception, standing, audience, access. It meant, "Your petition is heard. You are accepted. You belong here."³

When Lot begs to flee to a small town instead of the mountains and God says he has granted his request, the text says literally, "I have lifted your face concerning this matter also" (Genesis 19:21). When David receives Abigail's petition and spares her household, he tells her, literally, "I have lifted your face," which the CSB renders "I have granted your request" (1 Samuel 25:35).

Now here's where it becomes a problem that God speaks against. When a judge lifts one face and not another, not because of the merits of the case but because of who that person is, their wealth, their family name, their connections. That is the corruption God forbids.

"Do not act unjustly when deciding a case. Do not be partial to the poor or give preference to the rich; judge your neighbor fairly."
— Leviticus 19:15 (CSB)

"...the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe."
— Deuteronomy 10:17 (CSB)

The same Hebrew idiom, nasa panim, "lifting the face," sits inside both of those verses.⁴

Now watch what happens when you read James 2:2-4 through this lens:

"For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, 'Sit here in a good place,' and yet you say to the poor person, 'Stand over there,' or 'Sit here on the floor by my footstool,' haven't you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"
— James 2:2-4 (CSB)

Judges. James says that you have made yourselves judges. He's doing exactly what Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount, taking a command that applied in one setting and pressing it into everyday life.⁵ The assembly, or synagogue (the ancient version of church), didn't know they were convening a court. They were just being hospitable, giving the well-dressed visitor the good seat. But James says they were issuing a verdict. They lifted one face and left the other on the floor.⁶

And here's the question underneath the scene that James wants you to feel: why did the rich man get the good seat?⁷ Not because of his character. Not because of his faithfulness. Instead, it was because of what he represented: possible return on investment. Influence. Donation potential. Connection.

Notice what those have in common. Every one of them is something the man already had. He walked in with a “good” standing, and standing pulls attention the way a slope pulls water. Sometimes that standing is money. Sometimes it is nothing more than the fact that you already know that person's name.

When we really break it down though, favoritism is more than a rule you're breaking, it's a reciprocity economy we’ve become accustomed to live from.

The Economy Jesus Broke

Once you see this economy, you start to notice that Jesus spent his entire ministry dismantling it.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho (Luke 19:1-10). In the reciprocity economy, he's a terrible investment. He had money, sure, but associating with him cost you everything socially. Nobody would spend that kind of capital. And Jesus walked into town, looked up into the tree, and called him by name. "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house" (Luke 19:5).

Necessary. Not a nice gesture, not a detour. Something Jesus was under obligation by God to do.

The crowd complained: "He's gone to stay with a sinful man" (Luke 19:7). They saw the cost and gossiped about it. Jesus paid it anyway.

That is nasa panim. Jesus lifted the face of the person everyone else refused to see.

Then there's the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7-26). This isn't just a costly transaction, it's one the reciprocity economy says is impossible. Jesus crosses three boundaries at once: ethnic (Jews and Samaritans don't associate), gender (a rabbi doesn't speak privately with a woman), and moral (she's had five husbands). There is no social framework in which this conversation makes sense. The disciples come back and are stunned, not that she's there, but that he's talking to her at all (John 4:27). Jesus spent his time on someone the entire system said wasn't worth a single second.

And let's not forget the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43). This is the transaction that, by all accounts, should never have happened. The man is dying. Jesus is dying. There is no future here, no discipleship, no testimony, no changed community, no return of any kind. And let’s be honest, Jesus is having the worst day any human being has ever had, the one moment where turning inward would be the most understandable thing in the world. Instead, he turns to a criminal and says, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). He lifts a face at the moment of maximum personal cost and absolute zero return.

Costly. Impossible. Zero return. Jesus didn't just break the reciprocity economy, he inverted it. Every person he stopped for was someone they said to walk past.

And then he stated it plainly out loud. At dinner at a Pharisee's house, he turned to his host and said:

"When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." — Luke 14:12-14 (CSB)

Look at who is on that list. Your rich neighbors, yes. But he starts with your friends.

Do you see it? Jesus takes their economy and flips it on its head. The people who cannot repay you. That's who you favor. Not the people who won't, the people who cannot. Those are the ones he says to pursue, to invite, to lift.

The Face You're Walking Past

So here's the honest part.

You and I have been trained in this economy our entire lives. The schoolyard taught us who was worth playing with, and nothing since has contradicted it. Every room delivers the same quiet lesson: pay attention to the people who already have a place. The ones who can help you, sure. But mostly just the ones who are already known, already in, already easy. Everyone else is background.

That kind of training doesn't disappear because you read a verse about it. Seeing the people you've been trained not to see takes practice. It's not a switch you flip, it's a direction you turn and a path you walk.

What kind of person do you want to be? I know which kind God wants you to be (and so does James).

The kind who notices people based on what they can give you, their status, their connections, their ability to return the favor, or just how easy they are to talk to? Or the kind who shows everyone around them what it looks like to live like Jesus, lifting the faces of those who could never lift yours back, blessing the lowly, receiving those who have nothing to offer?

And, if you've asked Him, He's already retraining your heart.⁸ So find one hallway this week. One elevator, one lobby, one person who is overlooked, one person whose name you don't know yet. And go practice lifting their face.

"My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ."
— James 2:1 (CSB)

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References

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