Any sort of favoritism is a sin and against the word of God. Favoritism in the bible is a sinful act. An example of favoritism in the church today is racism. The racism that we have in the church today is the ‘separate but equal’ mentality. In the melting pot of North America, we face a situation of different races conducting different church services (Indian, Ukrainian, Filipino, African, German, Spanish, Korean, etc.).
This is a cover up for not wanting to mix with one another and it is not as per the bible’s standards for a congregation. It is true that the Apostle Paul differentiates between different Greek churches; Thessalonians, Phillipians, Galatians, and so forth. However, this is due to being in a specific country and not in a melting pot such as Canada. As a melting pot society, we will come in contact with more varieties of ethnicities than other countries that are predominantly one ethnicity. And so, we must all the more be constantly aware of our actions when dealing with other ethnicities.
Even today’s multicultural churches are not a true reflection of Christ. These churches are merely a diverse group of ethnicities who agree to gather in the same building. They don’t actually commune and fellowship with one another as brothers and sisters. In so-called “multicultural” churches today, people still congregate with their own racial group within the church.
The church is meant to be a mix of ethnicities, tribes and tongues. The key is the congregation should be loving one another as Jesus commanded with no favoritism. How do we love our brothers and sisters of different races if we refuse to mix, communicate with or invite them to our family gatherings and events, with no favoritism whatsoever?
Favoritism Is A Sin
If we pick and choose and show favoritism in the church due to something like race, we are actually breaking the whole law. I write this because I don’t want anyone to be fooled. You cannot show favoritism of any kind and expect to enter the kingdom of heaven. There is no partiality with God.
We must be able to interact with each other without feeling a sense of partiality to one group and ethnicity. In the body of Christ, we are all equal and this includes the way we view and relate to one another.
James 2:1-11 – My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
James is explaining that there should never be any sort of favoritism between us if we are to be part of the congregation of the Lord. James has decided to use the example of money as the differing factor (rich and poor). In short, any sort of favoritism or partiality for any reason is sinful and against the word of God.
We must not show partiality based on food, clothing, language, etc. These things are irrelevant and should not stand in the way of loving one another equally.
Continued….James 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
By showing favoritism to one group or another, we are breaking the royal law which is ‘to love your neighbor as yourself.’ In the eyes of God, this sin is the same as murder or adultery. God does not weigh sins differently. There is no greater or lesser sin, they are all equal.
So then, we must be very careful when considering James’ point. When we show favoritism to one ethnicity over another, we are breaking God’s law. For example, when a Filipino shows partiality to his own race over another, he is breaking the law of God which is to love your neighbor as yourself.
How To Stop Favoritism In The Church
We must begin to mix with other races within our church. It should be the goal of every church and church member to stop seeing a distinction between races, even if it is subtle. The change must start with each Christian individually. This can only be achieved by doing the following:
– First accept the fact that our current church model of ‘separate but equal’ is wrong and that we need to change. By ‘separate but equal’, I mean that the current church model of congregations that are predominantly a certain race (Ukranian, Indian, Filipino, Korean, etc) are wrong. They do not reflect Christ in Canada who preaches impartial love with no regard for food, language, race, culture, ethnicity or tradition.
– Acknowledge that everyone, no matter how open-minded they are, are more comfortable and partial to their own race and ethnicity and that this tendency is wrong and must be overcome.
– Approach your own circle of friends and people you deal with and explain to them the concept you have decided to accept.
– Begin to interact with people of all races within your church. Also explain to them the concept you have decided to embrace. When others see your change, hopefully they will follow your lead. Whether they do or not will not affect your standing with God. At least you will know that you are keeping the New Testament commandment of Jesus and the Old Testament commandment of God which is to ‘love one another and to love your neighbor as yourself’.
– Invite people of different races to your church services, functions and even family gatherings. By not doing so, we are breaking the most important law, according to James; which is to love our neighbors as ourselves. We would also only be fooling ourselves to believe that we are not doing anything wrong when being partial to our own race. We must understand that we cannot break the most important law and expect to still enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The truth is when we come to Christ, we should do away with the old traditions and culture we used to feel connected to. These things are worthless and only nullify the power of the word of God. Traditions and culture separate us from our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a clear indicator of racial and cultural distinction and not something that unifies people.
Mark 7:13 – Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
If Paul, who had a pretty impressive resume in the Jewish biblical sense, could count his traditions as worthless in order to fully accept Christ and become one with him, then we should be able to trample upon our traditions and cultures to receive Jesus.
Philippians 3:5-8 – circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.
Other translations of verse 8
Phillipians 3:8 BSB – More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Phillipians 3:8 King James Bible – yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Phillipians 3:8 Holman Christian Standard Bible – More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ
Phillipians 3:8 New heart english bible – More than that, I count all things to be a loss compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
Phillipians 3:8 Aramaic Bible in plain english – I also consider all these things a loss for the majesty of the knowledge of Yeshua The Messiah, my Lord, him for whose sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all as a dung heap, that I may gain The Messiah
Phillipians 3:8 God’s word translation – It’s far more than that! I consider everything else worthless because I’m much better off knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s because of him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ
Our traditions and cultures are regarded too highly amongst our society. Clinging on to the ways, priorities and philosophies of our forefathers leads to inheriting their iniquity. These are the ways of the world. Without Jesus, culture and tradition is all the world has.
As followers of Christ, we have something much greater than these dead traditions and cultures. We have the teachings and philosophies of Jesus! We need to appreciate this fact before we can truly let go of our cultures and traditions. The way we view our old cultures and traditions should be in the same way as Paul viewed his; garbage.
We cannot hold onto and believe in both our own traditions and Jesus’ teachings. It must be one or the other. Our families will most probably be angry with this decision, but Jesus said
Matthew 10:37 – Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Luke 14:26 – “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”
We must have the strength to choose Jesus over even our family members. Otherwise, we are not considered worthy to be his disciples.
Paul, being a Pharisee and zealous Jew, considered all of his traditions and culture as rubbish in order to gain the teachings of Jesus Christ. Simply put, there is no other way. How can we understand Jesus’ teachings if we hold on to different priorities based on culture and traditions?
Galatians 1:14 – And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
Paul considers all of his old ways merely as tradition. We also hold on to our traditions and cultures dearly like the rest of the world. The world must cling on to their traditions as they have nothing else. As Christians, however, we should not be doing as they do. How can we change if we cling on to our old ways of thinking (traditions and culture)?
We must let our traditions and cultures go by trampling on them and counting it all as worthless so that we can fully embrace the ways and philosophies of Jesus. We must not let them stand in our way. We trample on our cultures and traditions by declaring them to ourselves, as wrong, inferior to Jesus and unworthy of following. If both sides and all races in the church do this, they will then truly become one church and love one another.
The bible is not asking us to accept one another’s cultures and traditions. This is what some good natured but misguided Christians are trying to attempt. Rather, we should be trampling on and declaring as wrong, our own cultures and traditions, adopting the ways of Jesus and encouraging others to do so as well. This must not be mistaken with trampling on other people’s cultures and traditions. Each person must trample on their own and embrace Jesus instead.
I cannot possibly know each and every culture in order to be able to point out and prove how a particular tradition each of us is holding onto within our culture, is in contradiction to the word of God and teachings of Jesus. If you are sincere in your walk with Jesus, you can ask God to grant you an awareness of this. An awareness that will allow you to discern for yourself, how your traditions and culture is nullifying the power of the word of God in your own life.
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