Favoritism

James 2:1-4 (NLT)
1 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? 2 For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. 3 If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, 4 doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

The Apostle James, half-brother of Jesus, is speaking to Christians about favoritism. He tells them that just based on external appearance there are those who would give preference to someone who looks rich, while ignoring a person who looks poor. They do so in hopes of gaining good favor from the individual. His conclusion is favoritism is guided by evil and selfish motives of the heart.

When we see ourselves as "pretty good," we misunderstand the gravity of sin and our desperate need for grace. We place ourselves above others, become their judges, and give them the power to disappoint us. A physicist … uses this analogy: Each of us is like a light bulb. One shines with 50 watts of holiness, another has only 25 watts. Maybe the most stellar Christians are 200 watts. But these comparisons become trite in the presence of the sun. In the face of God, our different levels of piety are puny and meaningless. It makes no sense to compare ourselves with one another because we are all much more alike than we are different. ["Dr. Jekyll..." Men of Integrity, March/April 2005]

Do not place yourselves above others; for we are all sinners. We must not look at the external appearance of a person, but their internal relationship with God. We are reminded in Isaiah 64:6 “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.” Fortunately God sees past our poor state of righteousness and bestows love, compassion, mercy and grace to us all. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t show favoritism?