The Call to Avoid Favoritism | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Call to Avoid Favoritism | Previous Challenge Entry
By Richard Krejcir
03/04/05
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What are your motivations? Do they line up with God’s precepts? James in chapter 2, verses 1 through thirteen, calls us away from the way we think we should do our daily life and our church and how we should treat people, and into the precepts Jesus gave us. People, within the new church that at this time was still a part of Judaism, were playing favorites, as was the tradition. Rich people were being catered to. They received the best seats and respect and were honored from the pulpit while the poor were being ignored, rebuked, and seated in the back—if they were allowed inside at all. The new Christians were doing the same as the Jews; not only was there no distinction in character or love, neither were the teachings of Jesus being adhered to. Perhaps, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was being read; a poor person, hearing this for the first time, hears blessed are the meek, and blessed are the poor. How excited he must have gotten, only to be disillusioned by an usher who kicked him to the back or out on the streets. Prejudice and hypocrisy were in action!

What is Partiality or favoritism? It means to receive by face value only, like judging a book by its cover. It is to favor someone externally based on their appearance, race, economic status, or value in society. Here, racism is superficial and it is condemned as being evil! Jewish wisdom stressed (but did not always practice) when our focus is on God, we are to see others in Him, not what they can do to or for us. We are called to discern evil from good, but not make judgments based on appearances only (Rom. 2:11; Gal. 2:6-8 Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25).

The advice James gives us is to seek within ourselves and observe in our actions whether true faith is working; and, if so, we will have no partiality. We will not show favoritism, rather believing and acting as if all who are in Christ are equal, which they are. The true measure of a person is not in his wealth or his estate; rather it is his character and maturity, how he exhibits the precepts of our Lord, how he lives his life. These are the true marks that are to be honored. The early Christians missed this point, as do many Christians today! The call is that we are to love and respect one another because of who we are in Christ, not because of our looks, clothes, or bank account.

Ironically, is was the rich were honored; yet, it was the rich who did them the most harm and even slandered our Lord. James tells us the true wealth is in our faith, the fact that we are chosen by God! The rich are only rich temporarily while the poor will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven—not for being poor, but for being in Christ (Matt. 25:34, 46; John 3:3-5). Insulting those who are in Christ is an attack on Christ Himself!

The basic, simple, and true thought is that we are to treat others as Christ has treated us! Being a Christian means we are to see one another as who we are in Christ. We are to treat one another the way Christ has treated us, because He first loved us. Thus, we see each other as the children of God just as we are the child of God (1 John 2:28-3:3). Each of us is a brother or sister in the Lord. So, we must treat one another as Christ has treated us! We do this through the empowerment of the Spirit! Worldly ways must not have an influence on we who are in Christ—period!—nor on how we run our church or our daily lives. As God is not influenced by societal desires, neither should we be (Mark 12:30-31; 1 Cor. 1:28-29; Eph. 1:4)! We need to realize this is important. We sin by playing favorites. This dishonors our Lord and diminishes our witness.

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