Reflections

NIV: But if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers.

The Message: But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it.

Those are strong words indeed, telling us that when we show favouritism, when we give preference to someone because of the way they look, how they are dressed, the job they have, the money they have in the bank, the position and fame they have, then we are committing a sin. I mean, you wouldn't necessarily think that by showing favouritism you were sinning. But what are we doing when we give someone preferential treatment? We are actually preferring them to others, so someone else is suffering because we have not treated them in the same way.

I remember when I was a child, my brother and I would count the vegetables on our plates to make sure one of us did not have more than the other. Crazy, I know, but I have seen my own children do the very same thing. Nobody likes to be treated less well than others, it implies that you are not as good, not as worthy.

So exactly what is favouritism? Well, Chambers English dictionary defines this as:

favouritism or (US) favoritism noun the practice of giving unfair preference, help or support to someone or something

Then if you look preference up in a thesaurus, the following alternative words are shown:

• Preferential treatment
• Preference
• Partiality
• Nepotism
• Bias
• Discrimination
• Prejudice

Woah! This is a real eye opener to exactly what is implied and inferred by showing favouritism. When we show favouritism, we are actually discriminating against someone else. It is not a case of just doing good to one person, but of actively choosing not to do good to someone else. It is treating someone unfairly be virtue of the fact that we are choosing someone else above them.

So, for instance, if I give one of my children only chicken breast when we have a Sunday roast, and give the others the grey meat from the leg or thigh instead, then I am preferring one child and treating the others unfairly, showing bias. If, as an accountant, I only mix with other accountants and "professionals", then I am discriminating against those who do not have professional qualifications, the letters after their name, the higher education. Yet a fancy title and letters after your name don't make you a better person. What about when I ignore the Big Issue person, when I choose not to see them or hear them? That is a form of discrimination as well.

We are told to love one another. Not to love only those who have money, or dress well, or have a good education, who talk the same way we do, like the same things, and so on.

I know I take a very simplistic viewpoint but in reality, I reckon the whole of the bible comes down to love, the great love God has for each one of us, the love Christ has for us, so much so that he died on the cross for us, the way the Holy Spirit loves us and is actively changing us from within to become more like Christ. And we are instructed to do likewise. Not always an easy thing to do when some people are always insulting you, belittling you, and then what about those Christians who are being persecuted for their faith, locked up, imprisoned, raped, murdered? They too are called to love those who persecute them.

This is challenging. I am sure we can all think of people we would rather not have anything to do with, the ones we would cross the road to avoid. But those are the very people we are called to love. God loves every one of us, and we are to love others as God has loved us. I know I fail miserably at this, just as I fail miserably on many other things. So it is a case of leaning on God, asking Him for help me love those I would rather not be on a desert island with. And I know God will not fail, that even though it may take a month of Sundays in my case, He will be changing me from within, making me more Christ like (and He has a long way to go, believe you me!), so that one day, I will truly be able to say that I love all men and treat them equally, just as God treats each one of us equally.