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My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.  James 2:1  NASB

An attitude of personal favoritism – If you read this verse in the NASB, the first thing you will notice is that the words “an attitude of” are in italics.  That’s the translators’ way of telling the reader that these words are not in the Greek text.  They have been added in order to make the English smoother.  But that raises an important question.  If the original readers didn’t need this addition and we do, what are the differences between the original language and our language that make this addition necessary?  Let’s look.

In order to understand the depth of this verse, we need some Greek and Hebrew linguistic study.  First, the Greek is prosopolempsiais, from prosopon, a word that originally meant “face,” but later came to mean “mask” (as in theatrical performances) and then “person.”  Think of the connections to expressions about the “face of God.”  This word is the usual translation of paniym, the Hebrew for face.  Now consider the idea of “face” in oriental cultures.  This is the same idea in ancient Semitic cultures.  Look at Deuteronomy 10:17.  Then ask yourself if you remember the passages about God’s face in relation to His children.

Now we need to add another element.  In the Greek text, these words come first in the sentence, rather than the statement about faith in Christ.  The Greek text literally reads, “My brothers, show no lack of respect as you hold the faith in our Lord Yeshua HaMashiach.”   Why is this important?   Because the emphasis in the Greek text is not on “faith” but rather on the action of showing respect.  Having faith in Yeshua as Messiah is the motivation for not showing disrespect to others.

Now James is a very pragmatic guy and his exhortations are actually rabbinic halachah (i.e., Torah-based explanations of required actions on the part of community adherents).  So this isn’t a suggestion for polite social protocol.  This is essential for the well-being of the community and the honoring of Yeshua as Lord.  Why would James even need to say such a thing if it was the common practice of the ancient near-Eastern culture to show respect even to enemies?  The answer must be that people within his assembly were not doing this, and that leads us to conclude that James must have been addressing those whose cultural mores did not expect respect for all.  Who would that be?  I can only imagine that it must have been Gentiles from non-Semitic backgrounds.  Gentiles that were now part of the fellowship of Yeshua but who did not grow up in a Jewish environment.  Gentiles who had to learn even the smallest of civil behaviors because these behaviors were foreign to them.  Gentiles who didn’t realize what it meant to be on God’s Face Book.

It seems to me that we have two lessons here.  The first is the practical application for our own circumstances.  God is no respecter of persons, but that certainly doesn’t mean God is anti-social.  It means that God treats everyone with the same dignity, respect and concern.  And so should we.

The second lesson is about understanding the text.  Often the assumptions of the author are important for exegesis, but the assumptions are not written.  That means we have to ask questions behind the text.  In this case, we have to ask about the cultural assumptions of first century believers who came from very different social backgrounds.  This lesson also applies to us because it suggests once again that reading the text as if it were written for us is a mistake.  In order to understand if it applies to us we have to know who it was written for – and that is sometimes accomplished by looking for what is not written.

Topical Index: prosopolempsiais, prosopon, paniym, face, James 2:1