My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Few passages of Scripture so poignantly chafe at my Western sense of social hierarchy and the filter I have developed for distinguishing those from whom I should be learning and those I should not. In my flesh, I seek out those with money, education, business success, or social influence and learn from them in order to gain what they have. I do this while ignoring those whom I feel have little or moderate success because they don’t have what I want. But what the flesh wants is not generally of much value to the spirit.
Now, I have no reason to shift from a fleshly pursuit to a spiritual one if I have no expectation that my current choices have eternal ramifications. The only way I will be persuaded to alter my perspective is by gaining a new understanding of what is truly valuable. My current sense of value is multifaceted. I desire pleasure in the moment, but I also desire increasing pleasure. What I have now is not enough, so I must acquire more things, new experiences, greater influence. My experience must be ever increasing because, as it turns out, desire is a fire—it never has enough. It always wants more, and to make it bigger you must exponentially scale things up.
If the Scriptures are to be believed, then it is evident that all those fleeting pleasures will pass away. What will be left is a realization that I invested all my time, money, and effort into a game that has no long-term gains, and I don’t even get back any of my investments. It is a total loss. If that is truly the case, then those whom I value in seeking to learn from are only proficient at helping me lose everything. So then what is it that I should look for in a person from whom I can learn? If not success, then what? Now, 1 Timothy and the letter to Titus have much to say regarding the qualifications for leaders of the church. I want to look at another of Paul’s letters in light of the teachings of Jesus himself.
Luke 6:37–49“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
We see in this teaching of Jesus that James was making a remarkably similar argument. Both dealt with us attempting to determine what is best, and by doing so we become the ones who transgress and are in the wrong. Jesus goes on, though, to make two additional points in his teaching. The first is that you will know how to distinguish between people by the fruit of their life. The fruit Jesus is speaking of is directly related to his teachings, as presented by the Gospel authors.
The test he gives is this: we can see whether someone is the kind of person we should learn from by asking if their life bears a resemblance to Jesus’ own life. The binary type of language that Paul uses when talking about a Jesus-like life is a life led by, or lived in, the Spirit. So the kinds of people we are called to be—and to learn from—are those whose lives bear the fruit of a Spirit-led life. That is a somewhat complicated way of saying what the Epistles say much more concisely. One could spend thousands of pages exploring and expounding upon all that Jesus said and did during his earthly ministry. However, the apostle Paul already captured these evidences in a very concise way in his letter to the church in Galatia.
Galatians 5:22–26But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
If I allow these fruits to be what I value—as opposed to money, education, business success, or social influence—then those whom I seek out as mentors will completely shift. Fruit has more to do with both personal character and relationships than it does with worldly success. The mentor I seek out may have no outstanding social standing or accolades at all.
It takes work to both accept and change a value system. To truly start to see the world through different eyes takes practice and intentionality. So ask yourself: Are the fruits of the Spirit my measure of a successful Christian life? And who in my community has a life that resembles the traits laid out in Paul’s letter? Then go and learn from them!