Don’t show favoritism
2 My brothers and sisters, when you show favoritism you deny the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in glory. 2 Imagine two people coming into your meeting. One has a gold ring and fine clothes, while the other is poor, dressed in filthy rags. 3 Then suppose that you were to take special notice of the one wearing fine clothes, saying, “Here’s an excellent place. Sit here.” But to the poor person you say, “Stand over there”; or, “Here, sit at my feet.” 4 Wouldn’t you have shown favoritism among yourselves and become evil-minded judges?
5 My dear brothers and sisters, listen! Hasn’t God chosen those who are poor by worldly standards to be rich in terms of faith? Hasn’t God chosen the poor as heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the wealthy make life difficult for you? Aren’t they the ones who drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name spoken over you at your baptism?
8 You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself.
Reflection
We’ve all experienced favoritism, it may have been by a boss at our job, who passed us over to promote a less qualified, but favored coworker. We may have experienced ‘death by a thousand comparisons,’ as a sibling who could never live up to their siblings’ athletic or academic achievements. It’s a “Mom/Dad always liked you best” moment. In spite of the pain we may have experienced, we can’t help playing favorites ourselves. We tend to hang out with our besties and not invite people we don’t know into our circles, leaving others to feel alone and on the outside. We may think it’s not our intention to hurt them, but by omitting them from our group, we’ve already judged them to be different than us and excluded them.
In today’s scripture, Christians were showing favoritism to the rich and powerful, while dishonoring the poor, a judgement made totally on class and appearance. The writer of James says that when we do this we “deny the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, we are not acting like followers of Jesus. Jesus showed no partiality towards others and neither should we.
Society in the ancient world was based on a strict class system as well as a system of patronage. The upper classes could extend privileges to those in a lower class, but always with the expectation that the lower classes would extend greater respect and favors in return. The lower classes were taxed, enslaved and denied the rights of citizenship. The disadvantaged were exploited as a means by which the wealthy and powerful stayed on top. Sound familiar? Society hasn’t changed much in two thousand years. Followers of Jesus were seen as counter to the prevailing culture, treating everyone with respect and care, regardless of their status. Today, as then, we need to follow Jesus by not showing favoritism. God is not influenced by worldly wealth and power. God’s grace is available to all by faith in Jesus and we are the children of God who are called to help those who are exploited, enslaved and struggling in poverty.
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
Favoritism is a trap that is easy to fall into because it may make us feel good, to be seen with or associate with someone’s fame, power, prestige or position. We may hope to benefit by our association to get a better situation, or access to favors. When we do this we are not honoring our commitment to follow Jesus. We need to always look at our motives by asking ourselves, am I loving my neighbor as myself? Today ask God to point out areas where you may be showing favoritism.
Prayer: Holy and loving God, help us to see those times in our day that we fall in to the trap of showing favoritism. Turn our hearts to you God, so that we may better follow the example of our Savior Jesus, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Amen.
