Impartiality

Scripture Reading: James 2:1-13

I went to Bible college with a lot of young men who were anxious to have an opportunity to preach. Most of us got a shot at it here and there if we were willing to go street preaching or to the rescue mission for an evening service, but there weren’t many opportunities to preach in traditional church settings. The reasons were straightforward and understandable. First, with several Bible colleges and seminaries in the area, the competition was stiff. Second, most of us were from out of town. We moved in and had very few organic relationships with pastors or church staff. We were unknown.

There was a way to guarantee preaching opportunities. Have someone who is known and respected recommend you. If the president of the Bible college told pastors that you would be a good fill-in you were a shoo-in.

So, it was quite a disappointment to many of us when the president of our Bible college did that during one of our chapel services that were attended by a large number of area pastors. Why were we disappointed? We felt let down because the president didn’t recommend one of us, he recommended the high school age son of one of his professors.

What was even more disappointing to me personally was the obvious reason for this. He recommended this young man, who had only recently committed to a preaching ministry because he was the son of his friend. He had shown partiality.

I get it. We can and should admit that being partial, the thing James admonishes us to not do, is really hard to avoid. In the scenario James cites, he points to favoring the rich over the poor in the assembling of the church. But partiality can rear its ugly head in many forms. We can show favoritism based on friendships, family relationships, social status, the popularity of people, and someone’s position (a sports star, movie star, politician)…There are a lot of reasons why we lean toward being partial toward one person to the detriment of another.

James is blunt about it. This way of treating people is a sin. When we act this way we are not loving our neighbor according to the Royal Law: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

I think the way to battle against this temptation is, to begin with, awareness. If we are aware that this can be a problem and recognize it as a sin, we are more likely to catch ourselves when we start giving in to this temptation.

Live by the royal law. “Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Chris, the Lord of glory.”