Favouritism or favoritism?

This week we will be exploring with James the idea, or the sin of favouritism. Now I wasn’t going to come back to James until later but the place of our journey through this book aligns perfectly with the lectionary reading this week, and so I took it as a sign that we carry on with it. I think also that it resonates well with our communion service.

Our lectionary reading then for this week is taken from James 2 but we will only deal with the first seven verses, at least I hope that we will get through the seven verses! But it deals with an issue that is common to all of us, it’s an issue that we all tend to fall victim to whether we know it or not: favouritism, or is it favoritism?

Scripture indicates that this issue is foreign to the nature of our loving God. It is foreign to the way that our Lord Jesus engaged with everyone that came across His path, and James is saying this needs to be foreign within God’s church. But out in society, favouritism is the norm as much as people might deny it, because it is a heart issue and as Jeremiah tells us, “the heart is deceitful above all things…” (Jer 17:9).

Just this morning after my walk, Carolynn, my daughter and I stopped at a local café. A couple of places in front of us was one of our local Takapuna ‘transients.’ He was pushing his trolley into the café and the look on the face of the barista was one of barely hidden contempt for the man. After their engagement, he left and the next customer approached the counter and the barista’s countenance completely changed and lit up with the brightest smile. This is just one situation within an endless multitude of societal engagements that favouritism rears its ugly head. And we must ensure that the church is the stronghold that stands against this unloving and ungodly sin.

Can I urge you to search your hearts for instances when you have shown favouritism in your life, (we all have, and we all still do!). Can I then encourage you to be intentional about being more loving despite your feelings toward the other. This is not easy, especially if we don’t acknowledge or recognise our predisposition to showing favouritism for whatever reason that we do.

Please continue reading through James, please continue to pray for each other and for our church. May God bless you and bless us as we love more completely and with impartiality.

Josh