Favoritism

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

FAVORITISM

Prov 18:5

5 It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice.

NIV

Favoritism is not permitted by God, in fact he tells us he does not how favoritism.

Rom 2:11

11 For God does not show favoritism .

NIV

There are also other scriptures which directly instruct us not to show this type of favoritism to our fellow man. This proverb has a direct connection to the Law God gave to Moses.

Lev 19:15

15 "'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

NIV

The idea here as we know full well has certainly been forsaken by the wicked. We see in our cultural people of great wealth or position get away with crimes any normal person would be convicted guilty of and incarcerated for. Their money buys them influence to pervert the laws of our country. At the same time our society allows the poor and indigent relieve from some criminal behaviors. The homeless or poor panhandle alone the roads without penalty. There is a perversion to this whole idea of not be partial for one reason or another. Although Solomon may be focused on justice or the judicial system of metering out sentencing for crimes against humanity, it also brings us to the idea of not showing any favoritism in other ways. Some churches may be guilty of this behavior in preferences given to those who give large sums of money in the offering. Do we believers seem to give more credence to those who have either more wealth or education, knowledge, or degrees then those with less of those things or to the beautiful people and ignore the not so beautiful. Is that not showing favoritism? Of course we are not saying they are wicked just because of wealth or degrees or beauty. But this favoritism does have a way of its way into our thinking. As far as crimes, we should as a society seek the same justice for both the wealthy and the poor. As far as being unfair with who we share the gospel with, we should seek justice, fairness without partiality, all who are in need of hearing the opportunity to finding eternal life. When it comes to our interactions with the community of faith, we should also be fair in our service, our ministry or our gifts. We must not show partiality in our service to others. All men are equal in the eyes of God. He desires all men to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. How then can we see other people in any different light? We are all sinners saved by grace. Yet here we are finding those who do give more credence to those who either have more wealth or education then to those with less. How do we handle that? What is our responsibility? Should we join the crowd or follow God? It seems it is just the way of humanity to show favoritism, it is a natural effect of being human. But we are instructed against it. Would then showing favoritism be a sin? Certainly we are told to lift others up, to prefer them over ourselves. But that is to be done without partiality. We are also told to love our neighbor as ourselves. Do we do that equally? It would seem any form of favoritism is a result of our looking at the outward appearance of others. God sees a person’s heart and judges them accordingly. In the end the judgement will be all about a person’s heart, whether it is bent toward God or toward wickedness, whether they have given their heart over to Jesus or refused Jesus. God will not show any favoritism in his justice. Let us render ourselves as being impartial in our way of seeing others.