Paul and James: Discrimination and Christ's Faith

Both Paul and James speak strongly to the matter of discrimination, believers against believers. Though from different contexts, they both indicate that discrimination is a fundamental violation of the faith. They agree that the fact of discrimination, or more to the point, exhibiting favoritism for certain believers against other believers, fails to satisfy the faith of Jesus. James says, "In discrimination, you do not have the faith of our Lord Jesus of glory" (Jas. 2:1), Paul says that when believers separate themselves from other believers they "are not in step with the truth of the gospel." Gal. 2:14.

At the heart of Paul's letter to the Galatian churches we find him advancing this truth of the gospel: Persons are justified through faith of Jesus, not through circumcision and adherence to the law. As Paul attends to gentile believers pressed by Jewish believers to be circumcised, he notes that to receive circumcision (as means for justification) with all it implies is the same as to enter into slavery and to abandon the truth of the gospel. Gal. 2:4-5. Whoever, indeed, receives circumcision or the law, as a means for justification, is severed from Christ! Gal. 5:4. So, we read that all persons in Christ are a new creation, circumcised or not. Gal. 6:15. Being in Christ is all that counts, and make no mistake, his cross does stand as an offense against justification found in circumcision and law-keeping. Gal. 5:11. And Paul will not soft-peddle the truth of gospel to satisfy social norms.

When believers favor one believer over another as more important, they oppose God's character: God shows no partiality. Gal. 2:6. Despite this truth, Paul indicates that none other than Peter (Cephas), Barnabas, and other Jewish Christians in Antioch withdrew fellowship from the gentile Christians because the gentiles had not been circumcised. He condemned such withdrawal of fellowship as hypocrisy (v. 13).

In Gal. 5:7, Paul mentions "obedience to the truth." The truth of which he speaks is stated variously in the letter, but at this juncture he speaks that "we wait eagerly for the hope of justification (or righteousness), through the Spirit by faith" (v. 5). Now, how does one obey such a proposition? In part, one "obeys" a proposition by believing the proposition as true. In greater part, one obeys a proposition by engaging conduct consistent with the proposition's implications. In this case, uncircumcised gentiles and circumcised Jews, believers all in Christ, must live in fellowship with each other, serving each other in love (v. 13). To do otherwise is to devour one another (v. 15).

Here is Paul's call to conduct:
Love your neighbor as yourself. Gal. 5:14. Whatever the former religious and cultural backgrounds, all believers must serve one another in love (v. 13). To do otherwise is to violate the fulfilling word of the whole law (v. 14a).

James likewise addresses the challenge of discrimination (or partiality) among believers. In his concern, discrimination relates with believers' response to people of privilege (gold rings on fingers, splendid clothing) compared to their response to social pariahs: the poor (ragged, dirty clothes). Jas. 2:1-4. He condemns such discrimination indicating that it has no part in the faith of Christ (v. 1), that it dishonors heirs of the kingdom of God (vv. 5-6), that discrimination demonstrates evil motives (v. 4) . He later notes that such evil motives are demonic, not godly. Jas. 3:15-17.

James affirms that when believers show partiality against the poor, they oppose God's election. It is God's choosing that the poor be rich in faith and that they be heirs of his kingdom. Jas. 2:5. [Curiously, it is almost as though James indicates two groups of persons as heirs of the kingdom: (a) those who love God steadfastly under trial (1:12), and (b) the poor who are rich in faith.]

In his discussion against partiality, James notes that failure to observe the law in any point is to become transgressor of it all. 2:10. A believer cannot show partiality and simultaneously live righteously (v. 9). James links discrimination with a lack of mercy, and warns that God's "judgment is merciless to those who have shown no mercy" (v. 13). By discriminating in favor of privileged people, believers support those who oppress them, who drag them into court, and who blaspheme God's good name (vv. 6-7).

James discusses the difference between a wisdom from below (earthly, soulish, demonic) and the wisdom from above, that is, from God. Among the attributes of godly wisdom are these two: no prejudice and no hypocrisy. Jas. 3:17. Where earthly "wisdom" is rife with envy and ambition (v. 16), wisdom from above is impartial and sincere, it is unbiased and unhypocritical. To engage in partiality evidences, consequently, attitudes of the world, and not of God. To be friend of the world, indeed, is to stand an enemy of God. Jas. 4:3.

Here is James' call to conduct:
Love your neighbor as yourself. Jas. 2:8. To do otherwise is sin, that is, to discriminate against believers is wholesale transgression of the law (v.10).

Both Paul and James, within their respective contexts, condemn discrimination among believers and they advance the Levitical injunction to love one's neighbor as oneself. Despite the differences between James and Paul in their rationales, they clearly, deliberately, and unmistakably present a common behavior for believers, namely, to love fellow believers indiscriminately. James calls love for others the "royal law," Paul calls it the "one word" that fulfills the whole law.

Loving one's neighbor as oneself, together with loving God first, is indeed "the law and the prophets," as Jesus their Lord taught.