Favoritism – August 31, 2022

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.
James 2:1

Favoritism

Deep down, we all know that we should not play favorites. Parents should not have a favorite child. The teacher should not have a favorite student. The coach should not treat one player any differently than another. In the Bible, God encourages us to love and treat everyone the same way. Our love and care should be consistent.

But it is so easy to fall into the habit of showing favoritism. The teacher may, in fact, have a teacher’s pet that is quite obvious to the other students. Parents perhaps seem to favor one child over another. Coaches sometimes let the star player get away with more than the rest of the team. We have all witnessed the results of such favoritism: anger, resentment, hurt feelings, and frustration may all stem from favoritism. Deep down, we do not want our authority figures to play favorites.

We don’t want that from God either. If God played favorites, then our salvation would be in jeopardy. We wouldn’t know if he truly loved us as much as others. We would constantly wonder if we had impressed him enough to be saved. We would look around at others and constantly feel like they are better than we are. We certainly would not have any confidence in going to heaven.

Thankfully, God doesn’t play favorites. The Bible says: “God so loved the world”(John 3:16). God loves us all. He sent Jesus to pay for the sins of all. The Bible also says that God wants all people to be saved and to come to believe in Jesus for salvation. And when Jesus came into this world, he didn’t play favorites either. The Bible tells us, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Before any of us could even begin to try and impress him, Jesus died for us. His death for us does not depend on us or our efforts. Jesus died for everyone, you included. Thank God that he shows no favoritism!

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love for me in Christ. Thank you for loving all of us equally. Help me to model that same love in my life and to not show favoritism. Amen.