Partiality Revealed

James 2:1 (Part-II)

1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

As a young high-schooler I often found myself in defense of those kids in the school that seemed to always get picked on. It’s not like I was a sucker for the hard-luck case necessarily, but for those kids who were slow minded, poor, or for what ever reason just did not fit in with the world of the average school kid, it seemed like I was always there to defend them.

I was thinking about this the other day, and it came to me after reading this passage and applying it to that situation that there was a reason for it. It’s not that I was just in the right place at the right time so often. And at the time, I was not a believer, so it was not like these were known spirit lead incidents; but their was an innate drive to defend these other kids. I was not looking for it, and nothing was really leading me in a vigilantly-style attack against the bullies, so why did it seem to happen so often then? It was simply that I saw so many of these incidents because my heart allowed me to, when so many others were blind to it.

I have always been a right is right, wrong is wrong kinda guy. Ask my wife, to a fault probably, I do not have any gray areas, although grace and mercy through the Spirit seem to me making a great deal of what used to be black and white a little more gray. I knew then that it was wrong to treat others in such a way. Back then though, my thought patterns only allowed me to see that because right was right, and wrong was wrong; everyone should be treated equally. But to look back now, with Spiritual hindsight and the grace of God’s mercy shading those visions, I now understand fully why it was right to feel like I did, and still do today.

Who are we, any of us, to treat others in any way, shape, form or fashion, less than ourselves, when we ourselves are, in the words of my good friend and mentor Justin Alfred, “less than the wart on the backside of a hog!”? In view of Christ, and His perfection we are all equal; equally poor and equally low. We are equally sinners and equally destined for hell if we do not seek Jesus and the salvation that He alone can provide as the Lord of Grace.

You see, as Christians, there are some things in our lives, that if we are sincerely dedicated to Jesus, that we have no choice but to do a certain way. This is one of those things. Kindness, love, grace, mercy, and in dealing with this specific verse, equality. Don’t feel badly if you did not overnight after accepting the Lord, become the model in this area. Be comforted to know that this is something that Paul recognized and grew in through time. He began his ministry as the least of the Apostles, and ended it as the chief of all sinners. When we, in humility, recognize who we are in Christ, defending those who need it, will come more naturally. Our vision will show us inequities, and our hearts ache when we do not see it. Having been captured by Christ, reaching out to others, showing no partiality, should become our way of life.