James Chapter 2
Don’t Show Favoritism!
This passage says to not show favoritism. It compares a rich man with a poor man that comes into your church. If we give more attention to a rich person than the poor person, we show favoritism.
Why do we show favoritism? Is it for selfish reasons? I’ll give the rich man my special attention because perhaps I can benefit from his wealth in some way. The poor man can’t offer me anything. So I’ll ignore or give him very little attention.
It’s the same with the popular or not popular individuals. I want to be popular so I’ll try and associate myself with the popular person so I can benefit from it. To the “not so popular person”, I’ll give little or no attention because he won’t help my popularity. I have nothing to gain from it.
Seriously? We as Christians would not think or act like that! Or would we? Before I get too self-righteous, perhaps I need to think of my actions a little more. I see a not so popular, annoying, smelly person and I “feel bad” for them. I’ll even tell others that I feel bad for them, yet I invest little or no time into their lives loving and encouraging them. Doesn’t ignoring a person send a message that they’re not worthy or not important enough?
We have to be PROACTIVE with our faith. We just can’t say nice things about a person we have to pull ourselves from our clicky groups or popular group and take the time to genuinely invest into others: the less fortunate, the poor, the dirty, the annoying, the not popular, the handicap, etc etc etc.
CHALLENGE: Observe how you are at work, or church, or special gathering. Are you drawn strictly to those that you’ll benefit from? Go outside your comfort zone and invest into the lives of the poor and unpopular.
