Impartiality

My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. James 2:1

Joel and I read this verse as part of our devotions yesterday morning, and I've been mulling it over since. This familiar passage of scripture addresses attitudes of partiality among Christians. Simply put, they should not exist. But oh how we have to battle this sinful tendency on a daily basis! Our own pride and impure motives tempt us to show preference or elevate others strictly on a superficial basis, such as on their appearance, social status, wealth, education, or race. These attitudes, left unchecked, will eventually manifest themselves in various forms of snobbery. And a snobbish Christian is not a pretty sight! Frequent self-examination is therefore necessary, if we truly desire to be obedient to the command to love our neighbor as ourselves (James 2:8).

I've been thinking about how this verse is applied at the rescue mission. Naturally, our very existence is for the purpose of helping the poor, but our attitude in serving must continually be that of "there, but for the grace of God, go I." We've had clients that are highly educated (graduate level degrees) as well as school drop-outs, business professionals as well as those deemed unemployable, people from a background of means as well as those chronically homeless, and people of different races. Once we staff members walk through those doors, it doesn't matter how educated, wealthy, or influential we are, or they are, and no one seems to care anyway. There is such freedom in that! What does matter is that we have received God's unmerited saving grace, and we're called to be faithful and humble ministers of that grace to others. God only recognizes two types of people...those whom He has redeemed and those still spiritually dead in their sins. To demonstrate partiality based on superficial criteria is just another way of feeding our flesh.