Tony Evans - The Sin of Elitism
- Watch
- Donate
James, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 13, I’m talking today about the sin of elitism. Now, what is elitism? Elitism is an attitude of superiority that lifts yourself or somebody else up while demeaning people who you do not feel worthy to be recognized, acknowledged, or treated equitably. It is a mindset that uses illegitimate criteria by which to judge people. It judges people based on false conclusions and ungodly perspectives, making some superior, treating others inferior. Elitism comes in a lot of different shapes, sizes, and forms. There is racial elitism. We all know we’ve seen it in America, in American slavery, and what came to be known as manifest destiny: that one group of people were recognized by God to be superior, and therefore it became legitimate to hold another group of people hostage in illegitimate slavery and to do it based on skin color and to do it based on race.
In fact, laws would be passed: that those folks brought from Africa would not be even recognized as fully human in many Southern states so that equality would not even have to be addressed man to man, human to human. It was a biblical issue. The Jews called the Samaritan dogs. «They were beneath our feet because we were the chosen people». It happened in Numbers, Chapter 12, when Moses married an Ethiopian woman. He married a Black woman. It was an interracial marriage. And Miriam, his sister; and Aaron, his brother, went off in condemnation. «How can you marry her? Don’t you know who we are? We’re here. She’s there».
It happened with Peter in Galatians, Chapter 2, when he disassociated with the Gentiles so as not to upset his Jewish brethren who had shown up who viewed the Gentiles as less-than. Their philosophy was «We need to live with 'em in heaven, but that don’t mean we need to eat with 'em on earth». Elitism produces segregation and inequity. There is cultural elitism. «I was raised on this side of town, and you were raised on that side of town. I was raised prim and proper. You were raised sort of in the underclass. And so because of how I was raised and how you were not raised, I’m better than you. My community, my culture, it’s better than you because we’re sophisticated, and you’re not».
There is educational elitism. «I’ve got a BA, an MA, a PhD. You’ve got a high school diploma. We’re not equal. I’m superior to you. Look at the degree I have on my wall. Where are your degrees? I’m superior. You’re inferior». There’s legalistic elitism. In other words, «I have preferences, and you have other preferences, and my preferences are better than your preferences. So I must be better than you 'cause I got my list, and your list is shorter than my list. So I must be more committed than you 'cause I have more rules to follow than you’re willing to follow». Even though God said, «Don’t judge one another based on preferences,» we do.
And then there is the elitism he discusses here in James 2: class elitism. This is elitism that’s based on dollars and cents. It’s a financial elitism. «I have money. You don’t. I’m rich. You’re poor. So because my bank account is better than your bank account, I’m better than you». So he paints a picture, in James 2, of two men who decide to go to church. It says one man, in verse 2, is rich. «It is clear if we can get this guy to join church, our offerings are gonna go up». And so because first impressions imply that this man can do something for you, has some clout in the community, recognition, because he has money, 'cause he’s rich, you give him a great seat. You seat him up front. You put him in a special place where the rich folks sit. He says, «But now a second man comes to church. And it is clear from looking at him, he’s struggling».
This man is poor, not able to meet his needs. We’re not talking about a lazy person. We’re not talking about a sluggish. He just says the man is poor. His clothes have come from Goodwill. His clothes let you know «This guy doesn’t have much going for him. He can’t help us. When the offering plate is passed, we’re fortunate if he puts anything in it because it is clear this man can’t benefit this ministry». And he says, «When the ushers met them at the door, they immediately made a value judgment».
Now, please notice the discussion is not about the rich man or the poor man. The discussion is about the church members who seated 'em. Please notice both the rich man and the poor man come to the same church. They come to the same church. The church will let both in. They just won’t seat them in the same section. The rich man is escorted to his place of honor. The poor man is told to «stand over against the wall or sit on the floor because your external economic status will control how the church treats you». That is elitism. That is making some superior by an external, illegitimate standard and some inferior because they don’t meet that proposed standard because they don’t have the same economic base. And James is an in-your-face apostle, and he wants to deal with classism, culturalism, racism, and all the other «-isms» that create a elite mentality.
Now, before we go on, 'cause this is getting ready to get deeper, God is not against the rich, and he certainly is not against the poor. He’s defending the poor here. He’s not against you being productive, but he’s against the spirit operating in his church where people are made to illegitimately feel bigger and better and badder than other folk for illegitimate criteria. He says, «How do you hold,» verse 1, «your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with personal favoritism»? «I love the Lord, but I’m gonna make illegitimate distinctions among his children, whether based on race or class or culture».
Now, that leads him to discuss the miscalculation that an elitist person has or that people who are treating people as elitists have. Now, the Bible does say, «Give honor to whom honor is due». So the Bible does talk about respecting leaders, respecting authorities, respecting, you know, officials. The Bible does say to give honor. But to give honor is not the same as being elite, because elite raises up and uses that to push down. So he says, «You’ve been making illegitimate judges,» verse 4. And then he says, «Listen, pay attention, my beloved brethren», so these are Christians doing this, «did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him»? He says, «To be an elitist is stupid, stupid». He says, «You don’t get it. Did not God choose the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? So you just discriminated against somebody who God has a special relationship with».
1 Corinthians, Chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, Paul told the Corinthians, «Look out there among you. Not many wise, not many mighty. God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise and the mighty». Okay, so let me explain something. He says, «You have discriminated against somebody who God has made,» number one, «rich in faith». When you have money, you don’t feel the need, naturally, for faith, 'cause you can pay cash. You got an expense allowance. You’re rolling. You got it in the bank. You got a credit card limit. And you don’t have to trust God, 'cause you can pay for it. Even though you may only be one check away from change of status, right now you all right. «And so I don’t have to trust God for my food. I got a freezer and that kind of stuff 'cause I can pay for it».
However, there will be times in your life when you will face issues you can’t buy your way out of. There will be times in your life when you will face problems where your clout, popularity, folk you know, influence won’t be able to resolve it for you. You will face times in your life where if God doesn’t intervene in this situation, you are done. You done. You’re gonna need the supernatural. But the problem will be because you’ve never learned to live by faith, you’ve never learned how to access heaven when earth has fallen apart for you. But God says there’s a group of folk who not only have faith but have a bank account full of it. He calls it being rich in faith. How do you get rich in faith? You get rich in faith by having to use it so much that your bank account gets full with it.
And, see, the poor who love the Lord, he says, have to exercise faith all the time. They gotta trust God for their daily bread, not their yearly bread. They gotta pray and ask God to «help this car not to break down on my way to work. I, just, get me to…I’m just trusting you». They’ve gotta believe God just to make it another day because if God doesn’t come through for 'em, they don’t know how they gonna eat, how they gonna take care of their kids, how they gonna make it. And so by practice, because of life circumstances, they become faith pros.
Now, here it is: When you are rich in something, you have an abundance, remember? The rich man has an abundance. He has an abundance of money. The poor person does not have an abundance of money, but they have something you can borrow. See, if you’re rich and I need something and you’re willing to share it, then I can come borrow some money from you. But when you face something money can’t fix, you better know somebody who’s got some faith you can borrow. He says the poor are rich in faith, which means you can borrow. But if you don’t know any and you don’t want to associate with any because you saditty, you up here and they’re down there, when you reach your crisis, you will have no one to borrow from who can get to God in ways you can’t get to God, 'cause you’ve never had to get to God at that level.
You better find some poor folk who love God and who learned how to trust God every day, ongoing, day in and day out, you better know them, and you better welcome them. That’s why the Bible says, «Associate with the lowly,» why? Because God has endowed them with an ability to trust him that a lot of people who have an abundance don’t possess. He says, «The reason why you should not be an elitist and discriminatory with personal favoritism and partiality is because the poor are heirs of the kingdom. These are the poor who are rich in faith and who love God». So it’s not just economics. They have a spiritual wealth to them. He says, «They are heirs to the kingdom».
Okay, now pay attention here. There are many poor who love God who God will never let out of poverty. They will spend all of their lives eking out a living. «The poor who are rich in faith and who love me, I have made heirs to the kingdom, which means I have decided to hold back on what I’m going to give them in time and give it all to them in eternity. When they enter the kingdom, I have decided for those poor who are rich in faith to…hold on. I’m not gonna let you get but so far. You’re never gonna become wealthy. You’re never gonna be, okay, but I got something: When you come to meet me and I read my will to you and you see that, in the kingdom, you gonna be mega-millionaires,» okay?
So watch this: You better watch how you treat that poor brother or sister driving a raggedy car, living in a shanty, who doesn’t have much to say, because when you enter the kingdom, tables will be turned… God’s gonna flip that thing over. You may be living in Highland Park now. You may be living in Bent Tree now. They may be living in West Dallas or South Dallas now. But if they love God and are rich in faith, God (when they enter the kingdom) is gonna flip that role. What is killing the church of Jesus Christ today is elitism, where people are illegitimately separated, segmented based on race, culture, class, education, or whatever form of elitism that makes some higher and others lower based on illegitimate criteria. I’m not talking about legitimate criteria, like a man who won’t work; or legitimate criteria, a person whose character is suspect; but legitimate 'cause they’re rich in faith. They love the Lord. These are legitimate poor.
So when you look at the past and you see where God didn’t deliver your grandmother or your grandfather, you have to understand there is the rest of the story, and that is heirs in the kingdom. So if you’re here today and you feel like you’re losing out on life but you’re rich in faith and you love the Lord, he’s letting you eke by, but he’s never given you this surplus, this abundance that rich have, then you got… this is not the whole story. There is another part of that story. But I wanna say to those of you who are making it, those of us who are doing well, I want you to understand this: You better hook up with somebody who can believe God when all hell breaks loose in your life and the doctor says you have cancer and there’s nothing else that they can do or there’s a big collapse in your world. You better hook up with somebody who can get God when you can’t.
And that won’t necessarily be the person with the degree. That won’t necessarily be the person living on the hill. That won’t necessarily be the person with the new car. That won’t necessarily be the person who’s the power broker in the society. That’s somebody who knows what it’s like for God to come through at the last minute so that they can have a meal on the table. Oh, but it gets deeper. He says you’ve miscalculated. You’ve miscalculated. You’ve let personal success block you seeing spiritual success. He says it’s the non-Christian elite that’s dragging you into court. That’s what he says. He says it’s the non-Christian elite who dishonor you, who oppress you, verse 6.
Look, folks. The poor people aren’t the one taking you to court to stop talking about Jesus. It’s them people that’s graduated from college. It’s the folk with money. It’s them lawyers. It’s them philosophy professors. It’s them college folk who are denying God. You ain’t gonna go to South Dallas and just run up on a whole bunch of atheists. You gotta go to college to become an atheist. You gotta be educated into atheism. You ain’t gonna find that. The rich were dragging the Christians to court. It’s the unrighteous elite that are trying to get prayer out of school. It ain’t poor folk trying to get prayer out of school and prayer before football games cut off. It’s not the poor doing that. He says it’s the rich that are causing your faith to be compromised, and you giving them all the attention and the credit. He says you miscalculated this thing.
He says, verse 7, «You blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called». It’s blasphemy to be an elitist. Blasphemy, that’s the worst kind of sin. He says, «If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law of Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself', you’re doing well». Well, isn’t that second, «loving your neighbor»? But notice what he called it: the royal law, not the law, the royal law. In other words, this is not a regular law. This is a royal law, why? Because it came directly from the King. God and Jesus both gave this law. And it’s royal because it rules all the other laws. It’s the king over all the other laws. In other words, if you fulfill this law, you will have taken care of all the other laws because when you love your neighbor as you wish to be loved in return, your neighbor’s gonna be treated right because you wanna treat you right and you wanna be treated right.
So he said it’s the royal law. Even if you don’t remember all the rules of God, you remember this one, and you’ll catch everything else. But he says, «If you don’t remember this one, look at what it means». Because he says, «When you show partiality, you are committing a sin and convicted by the law as a transgressor». So elitism, discrimination, racism, culturalism, classism is a sin. It’s not a social problem. It’s a sin. Now, stay with me. «For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point is guilty of all. He who said, 'Do not commit adultery, ' also said, 'Do not commit murder.' Now, if you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you become a transgressor of the law».
In other words, he’s saying the law of God is interconnected. Verse 12, «So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty». You all done just heard a conundrum. He says, «Law of liberty». So it’s a law. A law always gives you a restriction 'cause a law is a rule you gotta abide by. That means you can’t break the law. So there’s a restriction in the law. But he says it’s a law of liberty. Liberty means freedom. So I got a rule that restricts me that sets me free. I got a law that’s gonna limit me, 'cause it’s a rule, but it’s a rule that’s gonna release me. Well, what kind of rule is this that’s gonna restrict me in order to release me? Of course, the law he’s talking about is the law he just mentioned: that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
That’s the law from Scripture. He says, «If you get this thing right, by not being an elitist, you will actually be keeping a law that God will use to set you free». If you will do this, God will do that. If you’re held hostage by something, the way to get released is to release somebody else from the abuse that illegitimately they are going through. And when God sees you releasing them, he’ll be glad to release you.
So the way to get free is to be a freedom fighter. The way to get free is to be a deliverer. And when you are delivering somebody else from abuse and mistreatment that’s illegitimate, God takes notice of that and says, «Well, I’mma release you from whatever is holding you hostage». So the law sets you free. And then he gives the bomb. The bomb is verse 13. This is the bomb. You’ve heard me quote it many times: «For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment».
I gotta read that one more time. «For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment». Mercy is being given, not being given what you deserve. There are very few people in this house today who have not, are not, or will not need mercy, and you are hoping God shows you mercy in the here and now and, most certainly, at the bema, the judgment seat of Christ. And what you will need today, and you most certainly, we all will need on that day is mercy: him not giving us what we deserve, because he says, «On that day, if you showed mercy, you will receive it». So if I were you, I’d go looking for folk to show mercy to.