James: The Problem with Favoritism

Continuing our series on the book of James, in James 2:1-10 James shows how favoritism and faith are fundamentally incompatible as he returns to a theme touched upon in the first chapter. We may think we don't show partiality in the same striking way that James talks about with the rich and poor, but we draw lines between ourselves and others every day, even in the family of God.

Favoritism is contrary to God's character and the inversion of the world that He desires His Kingdom to be. This is because when we show favoritism, we put ourselves in God’s place as judges, we invert what God sees by looking at the outward rather than the inward, we ignore the sin that we don’t want to see, and we forget about what God’s love looks like, the very same love He has graciously shown to us and richly lavished upon us. Instead of showing favoritism, we should reflect God's character by loving others as ourselves, regardless of who they are and because of God's great love. Faith and favoritism are incompatible, but aren’t you glad we serve a God who loves like he does?