No. 51: With Friends Like These . . . We men tend toward partiality. Sometimes with forethought, many times with no thought, we give or withhold based upon characteristics of the potential recipients. We can, therefore, find ourselves directing all our time and attention, all our kindness and generosity, toward only those who live, look, sound, spend, sin . . . like we do. This plays out in many areas of life and, therefore, many areas of faith—in service, in giving, in worship, and certainly in brotherhood. Long ago, however, James called us to oppose this tendency: For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? (James 2:2-4). So, what’s so wrong with partiality? Well, intending to or not, we harm people. We harm them by disregarding them, those who God wants us to impact or serve or befriend, but who don’t quite “make our cut” (Proverbs 28:21). God put us here for one another (Matthew 22:39). Partiality means we forsake people who need us. If that’s not bad enough, we harm ourselves. We cut ourselves off from relationships . . . and often the weightiest. You see, those we’re meant to impact are also meant to impact us, right back. Okay, so what do we do? My brethren, do not hold your faith . . . with an attitude of personal favoritism—James 2:1 How’re you doing, brother? The test is simple. Look around. Whom are you spending time with? Whom are you serving? There should be people in your life who’re nothing like you. Are there?
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 21:20:01 +0000
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