Anti-Partiality

Finally finished my house chores. Here is the post for the day. Feel free to initiate any discussions! =)

James 2

Beware of Personal Favoritism

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? ⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^a]">[a] you do well; ⁹ but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^b]">[b] also said, “Do not murder.”^c]">[c]Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

So in James 2 here, the people of God were warned to not look at status to treat a person right, but rather treat everyone equally. For there is no favoritism in the kingdom of God. Then, why does it seem that God has chosen the poor to have more faith and the rich seemingly destined for doomed?

Ha....here is where I find the bible becomes interesting. You see, often we take things as they are as we read. But knowing the heart of God, does make a difference when we read the context.

Reading the bible, at times we often wondered, why God seem to favor the "poor" so much? So are we suppose to be poor to be godly? Well....I don't know bout you guys, but I do not deny the fact that I once thought that Christian need to be poor in order to be a great man or woman of God. Well...I was proven WRONG of course. Haha.

Who are the poor in this context? I have came to realize that, God favor the poor, not because they are physically poor, or materialistically lacking. But, the "poor" here refers to those who are often hungry and wanting more of something. For instance, if you are materialistically poor, you would not complain there is too much money. Right? In fact you would want more money! And you would learn to be grateful with what you have, because you know a lot of things in your life don't come easy! Well, here, I believe the poor refers to those who are always wanting more of God. Those who really rely very much on God. If you are poor, you would know that without God you really cannot survive. So you always need a miracle! You will always be humble and grateful.

Speaking about the rich (as referred to those who think that they can have anything they want in the world), those who are rich rarely have anything in lack, and are often proud (not all but usually). Why? Because they think they can have anything they want, they can do anything they want, they can buy anything they want. They can afford to be INDEPENDENT of God. They do not need God. They already have everything.

So then, is it better to be poor than rich? The answer is NO. We can be rich financially, but still poor spiritually. In other words, if we are able to have a lot of possession, and yet still humble ourselves, wanting more of God, God has no problem with abundant finances. In fact, the bible says, God wants us to prosper in EVERY WAY. This means, even financially. So what is the point of the verses in James 2?

It calls for equality in the kingdom of God. The first shall be the last and the last shall be the first. God will humble the proud and make the humble rise. So our call as Christian here is we do not set status among people. We do not discriminate others just because of who they were or who they are. Oh, you are rich, so you can sit at the front seat. You are poor. Go all the way to the BACK! Your father is a sinner, you have no rights to be in the church. You have committed adultery, you cannot be part of our church. You are a gay! Get out of our church....You are from such a complicated background, a broken home...please don't mix with my kids!

Bible says, when you do that...when you have partiality in acceptance....YOU SIN! Who does the Kingdom of God belong to? To everyone. The poor, the rich, the sinners, the saints. Jesus came to this world, not for the righteous, but for the sinners. He set an example when He decided to eat with the tax collectors, receive the love of a prostitute so on and so forth. Who are we indeed to judge? Are we God? Can we determine who will enter heaven? Or are we given the authority to preserve the church only for the people we think "worthy?"....the RICH?

The one thing that I admire Pastor Kevin is when he said, whatever past a person carries, or whatever struggles (whether gay or not gay, whether adulterers or not adulterers, whether prisoners or drug addicts) we open the church and welcome all of them. If they still sin, our job is not to condemn or reject them, but to guide and teach and support them, hoping that one day the power of God is going to change them inside out. We cannot change a person. But God can. All we can do is to be a vessel for God to use to impact and engage the lives of others. So are we to judge?

The bible says....God desires mercy more than judgment. So today, if we have judged and we have partiality in accepting others, then we have already sinned. And there is no such thing is greater or smaller sin. When you sin, you sin. Big or small...

Let's live a life right before God, and start loving our neighbors as ourselves. :))



God despised partiality. Partiality = lukewarm. And when you are neither hot nor cold, God will spit you out. Choose your side today. You can either be totally accepting, or totally rejecting.

Hope you are blessed. Have a great day ahead!