“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 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,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4)
Favouritism. Prejudice. Partiality. Different words but all carrying the same meaning, although possibly different applications. Generally when we think of favouritism it is when we give someone unfair preferential treatment, usually at the expense of someone else. Prejudice on the other hand is usually when we are against someone without any reason and often this is just because of how a person looks.
The case in point is someone coming into an assembly of Christians. One person comes in who is obviously wealthy, the other person is obviously poor – we make these judgements because of what they are wearing. The wealthy person we make a big deal over, finding them the best seat. But we don’t have any time for the poor person – they can sit on the floor.
Notice what James said about this: when we act like this toward someone based on what they look like and how they dress we are discriminating and have “become judges with evil thoughts”. That is quite strong language, but when we think about it, we realise it is true. James went on to explain why treating people this way did not make any sense.
“Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: 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? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.” (James 2:5-9)
Although the observations in these verses are generalities, from experience we have probably seen that they are still true. When I’ve talked to people about Jesus and learning more about him, I have discovered that those who are doing well financially usually are not interested – “I’m doing very well on my own, thank you very much”. Whereas those who have less and are struggling with life are usually the ones who want to know more. Yet who would we tend to gravitate towards if both walked into one of our meetings?
As James pointed out, the poor are the ones who are rich in faith, whereas the rich are those who exploit others including Christians, even taking them to court, and they blaspheme the name of Jesus. Yet the latter are the ones we want to be seen with! How foolish we can be!
But it is more serious than that. When we show favouritism we are not practicing what Jesus told us when he said to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Instead, we are violating God’s law.
Prejudice is such a problem in the world around us, as has been seen in so many instances over the past few years. But our assemblies should be safe havens for everyone, a place anyone can come to worship God and be treated as humans who are loved by God and his people.
Rather than judging people on the basis of what they do or don’t have or even on how they look, we need to learn the meaning of mercy. As James wrote: “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).
Let us truly learn to love our neighbor as we love our self.