Favoritism is viewing the world through a perspective that values people based on beauty, fame, riches, popularity, skill, flair, and other external characteristics. Each of us views the world to some degree from this perspective and it shows up in our social interactions, church settings, and self esteem. Wherever Favoritism is allowed to touch, it causes death and destruction and has no place in God's kingdom of love and grace. The Bible touches on Favoritism in James 2:1-10:
1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.You may remember the argument that all sins are equal in God's sight. Well, the introduction to the that argument starts at the end of this passage on Favoritism. Favoritism is as much a sin as murder and adultery, just with different consequences. In its own unique way, it causes separation between us and God and each other. There are many different traits that can set this off. We all know people who are awkward, don't dress up to our standards, don't have the right friends, are loud, pushy, or in some other way lose the respect of us and our peers. When we isolate them and make fun of them, we set a standard in the Body of Christ: the more that you have in common with the outcasts, the less that our group will accept you. Sadly, I've found that this happens among believers just as much as with Non-Christians. Few will stand up for or befriend the outcast.
However, this behavior is completely out of line with the gospel of Christ. Let us consider how Favoritism compares with the famous gospel presentation known as the Roman Road. Its first verse is Romans 3:23:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,Here, we see that we are all equally fallen in sin and fall short of God's standard of perfection. However, when we push outcasts out of our social groups, we make some very clear statements against this idea. First of all, we create a subgroup that has fallen shorter of the "perfect standard" than we have. Second, we make our worldly standards higher than "the glory of God". Thirdly, if we can achieve the world's standards, it doesn't matter as much that we have fallen short of God's standard.
The next verse in the Roman Road is Romans 6:23:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.Here, we see that Favoritism rejects the gift of God and says we must do more in this world to get value and reach a point where we don't deserve death. We say that we don't need grace and, therefore, will now hide our sins from other people in order to meet the world's standards instead of God's standard, which calls for us to confess our sins openly to God and to others. This is expressed in the last verse of the Roman Road, Romans 10:9-10, and in James 5:16. Romans 10:9-10 says:
9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.James 5:16 says:
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.Additionally, 1 John 4:10-11 says:
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[a] our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.Here, we see that God loves us despite our sin and dirtiness and how that grace-centered love should motivate us to love others with grace. Christians should never lose love for someone because they have less value in the world's eyes. However, when we let ourselves succumb to our culture and to peer pressure, we stop loving others and start rejecting them. This causes several things. First of all, we will never ever let the world know about our dark side and will stay enslaved to fear of exposure. Second, when we see others fail the world's standards, we will push them down in order to stay afloat, like a drowning victim does while trying to save his life. Thirdly, we push God away because we say that his love is not good enough for us.
How do we get past this horrible sin and the world of fear and death that it causes? We'll start our first step away from Favoritism in our next post. Stay tuned.
In Christ,
Simeon Snow
Keep it up Simeon!
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