Partiality AKA Discrimination

“My brethren, pay no servile regard to people [show no prejudice, no partiality]. Do not [attempt to] hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Lord] of glory [together with snobbery]!” James 2:1

^“Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren [of one household], compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted and humble).” 1 Peter  3:8

God wants us to be one. United. How shall we ever do that when we constantly divide and discriminate among ourselves? In Corinthians Paul makes it clear that it’s the body working together that keeps it healthy, yet we so often divide ourselves in groups by age, sex or marital status.  What else do you call “women’s groups”, “men’s groups”, “children’s groups”, “teen groups” and on and on? Oh my brothers and sisters if we would just be united!

I have heard many reasons for the divisions; we want to talk to people we have something in common with for aren’t those the people after all, who will understand our plight? Please, my friends, stop practicing the faith of our Lord together with partiality! Have you considered people older than you have learned more from the Lord and would therefore, be better qualified to offer you Godly advice than someone “your own age” might? Or that people younger than you need to hear about your struggles and triumphs and the thing the Lord is showing you to grow in wisdom? And that your level of wisdom has nothing to do with your marital status or gender? And most importantly, that the Lord makes no such distinctions on who He talks to or through.

We all are members of one body with unique and varying gifts from God to be used in the maturing of the body of Christ and we could do that if we would stop assigning value to one another and judging one another’s worth based on fleshy and worldly standards.

For my friends, what else do you call it when you only wish to fellowship with people in your same social status? Aren’t you in effect saying, “Well So&so  couldn’t know anything about my struggles and my walk with God because she isn’t married like I am.” or “She isn’t my age and doesn’t understand what it’s like!”

What do we all have in common? We have one Lord and one faith and maybe, just maybe, we should be focused a lot more on Him, living full of Him, and talking about Him rather than what music we like, what clothes we wear, or what movies we watch.

We need each other! I need you ! You need me! Let’s all get together and grow up.

That is the challenge for all of us.