THE CODE 14 JULY 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:1–9 NKJV). Discrimination was a problem in James’s day, and discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s problems today despite some progress on certain fronts. It is hard to believe that in America, we are only a couple of generations removed from racial segregation that at one time demanded separate schools, water fountains and bathrooms. Yet tension still runs high in our land — and around the world — as discrimination continues to impact too many people. Radical discrimination is obvious in the rapidly expanding Islamic terrorism that threatens death to the "infidels," those who hold religious beliefs different from theirs. As this global threat ravages the Middle East and enters pockets of the Western world, the brutal and senseless deaths of Jews, Christians and even moderate Muslims result. Ironically, the victim of some of the most intense public discrimination in America is conservative Christianity. As a result of antiChristian bigotry, nativity scenes have been removed from town squares, Christmas carols are banned in most public schools, and the Ten Commandments are removed from county buildings. In more and more places, abortion information can be obtained without parental consent, and the Gideons are restricted from distributing Bibles the way they’ve done for decades. Secularists have taken advantage of the fact that many Christians simply turn the other cheek rather than fight for their rights like our Jewish friends do through their Anti-Defamation League or our liberal friends with their American Civil Liberties Union. Within the Church James called upon the church to address the issue of discrimination. One would hope that after two thousand years of church history, these words of James 2:1–7 would be archaic and irrelevant. Unfortunately, they are as applicable today and therefore as necessary as ever. Even as it’s the victim of discrimination, the church of the Lord Jesus ought to be the one place where discrimination is not tolerated. Unfortunately, that isn’t always so. Consider that many congregations look the same, dress the same, talk the same, and come from the same economic and social levels. Yet sermons on discrimination are the far exception rather than the rule. Maybe one reason for the church’s silence is that discrimination can be very subtle today. Some people still discriminate on the basis of race. Others discriminate based on income and have little to do with those not at their own economic level. Some have little respect for others unless they share the same social standing or they are of the same sex. Discrimination can work both ways. Some Christians with money discriminate against those without it, and some without money discriminate against the wealthier with responses of jealous, envy and suspicion. I have known white people who discriminate against Black people and some Black people who discriminate against whites. The same could be said for Jews and Gentiles and for men and women in the workplace. An object lesson Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I witnessed an object lesson about discrimination when, as a child, I saw the circus at the old Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. I was particularly intrigued by a certain clown act. One clow was a giant of a man standing almost eight feet tall (of course, I later found out that his pants covered the stilts he was walking around on), and his partner was a littler person barely three feet tall. These two characters carried on in such a fashion that the entire audience was soon laughing uproariously. The tall man got the best of the short man until the very final moments of their act. At that point, the little person sneaked up behind him and knocked the stilts out from under him, revealing the fact that he, too, was a little person. I share this story to make an important point: The vile sin of discrimination stands on two false legs that need to be knocked out from under it. One of those legs is prejudice; the other is presumption. The truth James set forth two millennia ago can help knock those false legs out from under this enemy of the church today. According to the Great Commandment, referred to as the “royal law” in James 2:8, we are to “love [our] neighbor as [ourselves].” However, on the evening before the crucifixion, Jesus gave us what He called a “new commandment”: He called us to “love one another; as I have loved you… love one another” (John 13:34). Until Jesus issued that command, we were to love on the self-love level of the old commandment. But obedience to this new commandment means loving the people around us in the same way Jesus loves us: selflessly and sacrificially. Ask God to help you begin to see others around you through His eyes today and to love them with His love. Taken from The James Code by O.S. Hawkins. Copyright © 2015 by Dr. O.S. Hawkins. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. O. S. Hawkins is the Legacy Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale and chancellor of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served pastorates, including the First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, for more than 25 years. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has a BBA from Texas Christian University and his MDiv and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For almost a quarter of a century, he served as president of GuideStone Financial Resources, with assets under management of $20 billion, serving 250,000 pastors, church staff members, missionaries, doctors, university professors, and other workers in various Christian organizations with their investment, retirement and benefit service needs. He is the author of more than 40 books and regularly speaks to business groups and churches nationwide. All of the author’s royalties and proceeds from the Code series support Mission:Dignity. You can learn more about Mission:Dignity by visiting MissionDignity.org. - Dr. O.S. Hawkins - Chancellor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Discrimination
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