James 2. “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ… but you have dishonored the poor man.” (2:1,6) In chapter two James takes the early church to task for how they are treating people.

To show partiality is to show favor or bias, to show prejudice. Prejudice means that we pre-judge someone, based on false presumptions about who they are. Prejudice is often based on external appearances. We all have prejudices – we use our eyes and ears to instantly assess people. At its root, this is a normal survival-based practice. We are constantly making quick, unconscious, internal judgements about whether someone is friend or foe, threatening or safe, one of our tribe or not one of us. We base these snap decisions on what people look like, sound like, what they carry, and how they act. Our brain sorts them into safe/us and unsafe/not us categories unconsciously.

Yet many of our prejudices are based on false assumptions. I will never forget a social media rant I once saw by a young white college-aged female. She said, “I need you all to rethink your prejudices. You act like young black men are all drug dealers because they are different than you. But my experience is that it’s the rich, white, frat boys in their loafers and BMWs who are selling drugs and sexually assaulting women. Different is not always dangerous, and same is not always safe.” I have remembered her rant for years now, because she highlighted false assumptions. We react to these kinds of statements because our prejudices are deep-seated, and because we don’t like people poking holes in our categories and worldviews. It is such a challenge for us to overcome our prejudices.

James states it clearly, “show no partiality (favoritism) as you hold the faith…” (2:1) In the early church, wealthy people were receiving special treatment like good seats, honor, and special attention. Yet it was the wealthy who were also taking people to court and creating drama for the church (2:2-7). In honoring the wealthy and showing them favor, the church had adapted the value system of the world. James offers a correction to this, reminding the church that true religion is caring for the widows and orphans (1:27) and that God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith (2:5).

The call for Christians is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself… but if you show partiality, you are committing sin…” (2:8-9). James tells us that one sign of spiritual maturity is to treat all people well, without discrimination or favoritism. Remember what we read in Acts 10:34-35, “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him, and does what is right, is acceptable to Him.”

I will say it again – we all have prejudices. What are yours? What group of people might you have false assumptions about, beliefs that could cause you to treat them differently? If you can identify where you are likely to discriminate against others, you have the opportunity to choose differently. Who can you show kindness to this week that is different from you?

What stood out to you in James 2?