“If you’re really Christian, … .” That’s a phrase geared to make us squirm. Once we’re saved and know we’re forgiven, we don’t like to think much about sin. But part of the Christian life is self-examination. As believers, we must continually step out of our comfort zone into the place where conviction occurs.
Last week, we learned real faith influences every action we take. This week, we study how our faith affects the way we treat others.
The Golden Rule
James writes: “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (James 2:8-9).
Jesus taught that all the Law can be summed up in only two rules: Put God first, then love others as yourself. Putting God first means obeying him in the nitty-gritty of everyday life. Loving others as ourselves means letting their needs influence our decisions. It means we take the time to think about how our actions affect them. And it means we do our best to act in ways that help, not harm, them.
What we value
We need to be aware that our treatment of other people reflects our faith. God says all people are valuable and commands us to love one another. If we really believed him, we’d treat all people with respect and kindness.
Yet what we value and what God values often don’t line up. As a result, we find it difficult to treat all people with love. We value wealth, social status and power, and we favor people who appear to have them. We like hanging out with people who are like us, so we create cliques and exclude those who are different.
In reality, it’s a judgment that certain people are worth more than others. And we rarely give thought to the needs of people we’ve judged to be unworthy.
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Which is greater? Faith or fear?
Perhaps the more important question today is why we play favorites. Having deemed someone to be lacking in grace or style, why do we need to avoid them? Is it, perhaps, that our fear is greater than our faith?
We fear being like the one who has been judged less valuable. We fear being rejected in the same way we reject. It’s a valid concern. Jesus says in Matthew 7:1-2: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
The problem of playing favorites really is a problem with faith.
What did Jesus do?
Jesus ate with sinners and publicans, the outcasts of society. His closest friends were poor fishermen and tax collectors. He spoke with a Phoenician woman, the woman at the well and a woman about to be stoned for adultery. Jesus never brushed off a person who needed him, regardless of who they were, where they came from or what they had done in the past.
His standard is reflected in a prayer recorded by John. “I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23).
Unity is the golden standard of Christianity. When people of different cultures, different social standings and different personalities care for one another, work together easily—in short, achieve unity—people are going to notice. Unity is our best testimony about the life-changing love of Christ.
Of course, the opposite is true as well. If we say we know God but can’t love one another, we undo our testimony with our actions. Our trouble is we want to love only our friends.
Jesus tells us there’s no credit for loving the easy-to-loves. “Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them” (Luke 6:32). God is kind to us at all times, even when we’re ungrateful and wicked. By not playing favorites and loving the unlovables, we show our appreciation for God’s lovingkindness, and our testimony becomes much more powerful.
James sums it up perfectly. “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12-13).
Food for thought
• Why do you think God places so much importance on the way we treat one another?
• God made each of us and loves us all. How do you think he feels when one of his children is treated badly?
• It makes life easier to “fit in.” Once we belong to a group, can that affect our ability, or even our willingness, to obey God?
• Is it more important to have the favor of people or of God? Do your actions support your answer?
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