“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts”

James 2:1-4

How do you treat others? Do you show favoritism to one person over another? Are we guilty of doing what James warns against in the verse above? Do we treat those who have a higher social status or wealth? Or, do we judge people by the color of their skin and treat other human beings differently?

There is a movement that is creeping into many churches that promotes the idea of actually judging people simply by their melanin content or relatively lack thereof?

Why do human beings do this in any circumstances, when Romans 2:11 reminds us that, “God shows no partiality.” So, neither should we.

Before encountering Christ, we were all the same whether we acknowledge it or not. We were dead in our sin, but once we are in Christ – there is no partiality. God sees us all as His. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes that –

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

James writes further on the sin of partiality as well –

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

James 2: 8-9

From the beginning of time, people have struggled with the sin of partiality. I’ve heard it said that you can tell a lot about a person by how he or she treats others, especially those who apparently have little to offer?

Loving your neighbor as yourself is more than an ideal, it is the challenge of Scripture for each of us because there is no difference. We are all human beings in need of the Saviour.