Living HD - A Journey Through the Letter of James预览

It is a warm afternoon. A group of kids are hanging out at a neighbourhood park. Two boys, strong and athletically inclined, want to play soccer and decide to rally the other kids to join them. After sizing up the collective, the two boys pick their teams, starting with those they believe are most like themselves. One by one, the chosen fall in line behind their respective leader until the last few kids remain—those deemed not as “favourable” as the others.

The definition of partiality is an unfair bias in favour of a person or thing. Too often in culture, that partiality is based on the outward appearance. As a society, we tend to lavish our attention and admiration on those who are famous, or beautiful, or wealthy, or athletic. But 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us, “...man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

James recognised how easily we can be tempted to be overly impressed by what we see, even in the church. James 2:1 begins with “my brothers” indicating that he is addressing those who were believers. He reminds them to not let the sin of partiality—that earthly favouritism—cloud their kingdom perspective. We all are guilty of making snap judgments based on the outward appearance only to find out later how wrong we really were. By holding tight to our faith in our Lord of glory, we allow Him to take us beyond the surface to see others the way He does.

Take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where this sin has crept into your own lives and relationships and take action to become a hearer of the Word by doing different in those relationships going forward.