Showing Partiality

"You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." - James 2:8-9
Partiality here means treating some persons better than others. It means loving some neighbors and not loving others. It means allowing our prejudices to interfere with expressing God's love for all persons regardless of gender, race, orientation, language, accent, status, wealth, zip code, nationality, citizenship, education, employment, health, denomination, party, clothing, affiliation, or preferences. It means being just as accepting of the ones who sit in our pew, the ones who camp out on the sidewalk, the ones who signs our paycheck, the ones who cut us off in traffic, the ones who send us greeting cards, the ones who clean the bathroom, the ones we call our heroes, the ones who enforce the law, the ones who share our faith, the ones who live by differing codes of conduct, and the ones with whom we share a meal. It means treating one an all as persons whom God loves and calls us to offer the hand of reconciliation.
That is a high bar for us to achieve. It means working hard at eliminating every category that would separate us into castes and classes of differing worth.
"For God so loved the world," without exception. That is an ambitious standard, but it is no less than what the gospel requires.
— ©Copyright 2019, Christopher B. Harbin

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