Better Together Without Prejudicial Favoritism

James 2:1-7 

1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

We have been given the boundless gift of grace in faith to salvation; how can we who deserve none of it dare to withhold giving that grace and love to others equally?  If we treat the wealthy or kempt ones better than the ordinary or unkempt in our assemblies, we are evil judges and have turned a blind eye towards the love of God given us in Christ, we who are no better than the ones we look down on.  This is especially pernicious when we claim to love and accept everyone equally, yet our actions show otherwise as we refuse to speak as equals to all but instead act as the world to associate only with the “worthy” ones.  None of us is worthy.  This especially applies to how we treat those who have little or who don’t dress or act as we judge by our standards that they ought to or must do.  There is no place for cliques or prejudice or haughtiness among God’s people who all are worthy only of the crumbs from our Master’s table (Matthew 15:27).  These are simply evil thoughts and actions which must be faced and done away with if we are to have impartial faith lived out to others, a faith that works goodness demanded of us in the second greatest commandment (Luke 10:27, Galatians 5:14).  The other side of this is that if we continue to treat the upper society and rich among us better, eventually they will also turn on us when it suits them to exact more out of us, slandering our name as believers along the way.  It is best and right to have faith that works God’s grace to all without partiality or favoritism.  We are called to be better together.