“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.”
-James 2:1
Showing no partiality seems like such a simple command. James is warning the church that the poor should not be looked down on and he reminds them that God has chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom, this promise is not for the rich only but to all people who love God.
It may seem petty to think that something inside us looks to the poor with contempt. There is a great warning here against that. It’s also helpful to see that, America is different from the times of James writings. We have government founded aid for those who qualify. We have organizations that exist, many of them are ran by the church because if anyone has justification to love those that have nothing to offer it is those who know that everything, they own, has been given to them from God. Atheist love to hurl insults at the church by pointing to the poor people that are without, but they have to climb over hundreds of years of evidence that the church does in fact love the poor.
What James is warning against is the sin of favoritism. It’s the sin of judging by the world’s standards instead of God’s holy standards. We must remember, there is a way that seems right to men, but its end is death. Church, there is in all of us a tendency to trust our own way. So, we must be reminded.
Favoritism is the charge of having unequal weights and measures. It’s like seeking the approval and benefits of a rich man’s friend, while refusing the worldly cost of drawing close to the poor.
Favoritism isn’t just about the poor. Its about justice and its about God. Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe”.
A call to be impartial in your judgement is a call to be like God almighty. To be just as He is just.
This applies in every area of your lives even when it’s hard. When you have been sinned against are you eager to handle it according to his word or do you take revenge for your pride. Selfish gain is selfish favoritism.
This also applies when we sin against others, are we eager to admit the injustice committed against them? Or are we only concerned about ourselves? Again, you are called to be impartial in our judgements.
What if following God here cost you something and left you without any worldly benefits? God’s word is saying practice justice and use equal weights and measured anyway. Don’t practice favoritism.
For some reason conflict has a way of penetrating our holy walls, and maybe that’s why God brought it about in the first place… To show us where we can grow. To drive us deeper into our hope and appreciation of the gospel.
Church, the gospel is good news. It is the power of God to save and it is for us the power of reconciliation. It is the power and justice of God committed for the cosmos. May the pride of favoritism die in all its forms. May we rightly see our sin for what it is before a holy God and trust in Christ work on our behalf.
Just like God doesn’t judge anyone based on what He can gain from them, we too enjoy a blessed inheritance that far out reaches anything we can gain from this world. Let us live accordingly.