We've all been there. A hot summer day when you're a kid and all your neighborhood friends gather together outside to play a nice game of football or kickball. God seems to always bless a group of friends with one particular leader of the group…usually the loud-mouthed and arrogant one, but kids are kids. The leader steps up and lays out the ground rules, then chooses you to be the other team's leader. As you and he choose from your group of friends who will be on your team, you don't even make eye contact with the short, skinny kid with glasses. It never crosses your mind to pick the chubby kid with frequent asthma attacks. You go for the tall, stronger ones and then work your way down the totem pole. Then, there's always the last kid who you're stuck choosing because he evens out the teams. Scripture tells us that God chooses the opposite way and calls us not to show favoritism or partiality toward others in return.
As James teaches us from his letter to the believers living outside of Palestine, we ought not show partiality because we were the skinny "Four eyes" and the chubby asthma boy. When God looked down from Heaven to see who He could pick to be on His team, He didn't do the high school yearbook thing and look for the one "most likely to succeed". God chose to give the grace of salvation to those who were the most likely to fail, all so that He would receive the glory (1 Cor. 1:26-31). If a kid thinks he is so much better than everyone else, he would choose the runts of the group for his teammates so that when that team dominates, everybody would know he did it. James writes to us,
"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 accountable for all of it. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment."
-James 2:1-13
The believers to whom James wrote had their fair share of financial issues. Commentators think these believers once owned large plots of land and had healthy farming businesses, but when the government brought new and steeper taxes on it they were forced to sell their land and work as farm-hands going from place to place (sometimes even working the land they once owned). You would think none of this would affect the way Christians treat one another in their worship gatherings, but when money is the issue, people can do crazy things. James gives us a picture of the way it went. Here were these poor Christian farmers just trying to make ends meet and who comes walking in the worship service, but the wealthy landowner. Here this rich man comes strolling in with his name brand sandals and AD 65 chariot with double horse power parked out front and how will he be treated? People are running to greet him and shake his hand, offering their front row seat (or back-row for us Baptists), and rolling out the red carpet for him because he is someone you've got to know. Meanwhile, the man who hasn't been able to find work in months and had to sell his last donkey for food for his family comes walking in and is forced to sit on the ground in the back of the service.
James tells us that the reason we cannot favor certain people above others is because God shows favor to those we despise. James then reminds us of the Law (the 10 Commandments and those in the Pentateuch) and how Jesus revealed that its commands reach even to a person's heart. Remember how Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, taught that hatred is murder and lust is adultery of heart? James is saying that favoritism or partiality is just another form of murder at the heart level, and if you're breaking one then you're just as guilty before God as the one who breaks all of them. In fact, if loving your neighbor as yourself is the whole law summed up in one, then you break the whole law when you show favoritism.
So we know that favoritism is not our place because we are not God and cannot choose and we know that those who show favoritism are complete law-breakers, but how can we practically repent of this sin? James tells us to first realize that we're going to be judged by Christ's law of liberty (His teachings on the new covenant people of God in the Sermon on the Mount). Are you a peacemaker? Are you meek? Are you pure in heart? Are you persecuted for righteousness' sake? And especially, are you merciful? Jesus says in Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." When we know that Christ judges us based on the lifestyle we should live as His new covenant people of God in response to His grace at the cross, we are challenged to renounce favoritism. Basically, if God in Christ has not redeemed you from all your wicked ways and transformed you by His mercy and grace to be His servant, then you can withhold mercy from others. If God judged you as you deserved, then you can feel free to judge others as you'd like. The cross means that we who were once rebellious and wicked, self-centered enemies of God have been given the grace of Heaven so that we can overflow with mercy, grace, kindness, and love toward those we would not normally deem worthy of it. As one author has said, that's lop-sided love!
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