Do you strive to treat everybody the same? Whether they are rich or poor, educated or not, politically powerful or not, your skin color or not, American or not, fully able or not, beautiful or not, we should treat everybody with the full dignity and respect that they deserve as a human being, especially when we are together in the assembly of the church. To do otherwise, according to James 2, is to commit the sin of partiality.

Instead of translating the original Greek word as partiality, your Bible may translate it as favoritism or respect of persons. But the literal meaning behind the original Greek word is the idea of lifting up someone’s face to judge them based on their appearance. It’s judging somebody based purely upon some superficial level of some outward characteristic.

You might be thinking, “Well, that’s a very human thing to do,” and you would be right. It’s very natural for sinners like you and me to judge others based on their appearance or some other outward characteristic such as the size of their bank account. But that doesn’t make it right, does it?

No, God has put dignity and value into every human being. And we should strive to treat every person with the utmost dignity and respect by showing no partiality. Besides, don’t you hate it when people play favorites against you? I sure do. Then treat others how you like to be treated and show no partiality.

Change begins in you!