Favoritism is a nearly unavoidable trait of human nature. Simply, favoritism or partiality refers to preferring or biasing one person over another. Although favoritism can refer to things, its theological relevance concerns the favoring of persons. The Scriptural account is unified in its understanding of favoritism: it should be avoided.
If we, as Christians, are to look to the Lord's example in regards to how we treat people. Paul indicates that God shows no partiality (Rom. 2:11). Although it can be said with certainty that God creates individuals and gifts them uniquely, He loves and treats them with equality. God simply requires obedience and faith from everyone.
As God's example becomes us, through the Holy Spirit and Bible study, we will begin to live lives that are guided by the Spirit. This process of sanctification infuses our selfs with God's self. As this happens, we will be severed from our fleshly tendencies towards favoritism in lieu of God's unbiased love.
Favoritism is a human, fleshly perspective. When we favor one person over another, we are letting our fleshly perceptions guide our love. The tragedy of this is that, too often, the one whom the Lord may intend for us to love, is rarely the one we would choose to love. Because man looks at the flesh while God looks at the heart, we should not rely on our fleshly perceptions in deciding who it is that God has called us to care for. Instead, we should rely on the Spirit to guide our perceptions and lead ys to those that we were meant to love and care for.
In his epistle, James confirms that we should not ever show partiality in our interactions (James 2:1-7). James insists that we should not show favoritism but should always maintain a care for people that transcends our fleshly perceptions of worth. One of the goals of the Christian life is to start to see the world as God. Being impartial and not showing favoritism is one of the ways in which we live out a faith in a life that sees as He sees and loves as He loves.
No comments:
Post a Comment