James 2:1, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.”

The focus of today’s nugget is the issue of how we treat other people in relationship with us, especially those of them who happen to be believers like us. Relationships are very demanding. Often, we are tempted to treat people the way they are or based on our PERCEPTION of them. That is, if we think they’re better off or doing better than us in the things of this life, we treat them differently than if we ASSUME we are better off than them based on physical evaluations and parameters.

Dear child of God, so, what exactly does it mean to be PARTIAL? According to the dictionary, to be partial means, “to be biased in favor of a person, side, or point of view, especially when dealing with a competition or dispute.” An important word in this definition is the word BIASED. And all thanks to the Holy Spirit, there’s a descriptive illustration of the meaning of partiality in James 2:2-3, so you can better understand the word bias.

It reads, “for example, two men come to your worship service. One man is wearing gold rings and fine clothes; the other man, who is poor, is wearing shabby clothes. Suppose you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say to him, “Please have a seat.” But you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet.” (GodsWord)

Dear friend, can you relate to this, either as a victim of such condescending attitude and action or as the perpetrator of the same on other people? This is what today’s scripture is warning you against as a genuine believer. You MUST not treat one person better than the other just because of their physical appearance or well-being. There must never be a different attitude, action and relationship to the rich or poor. Why?

Simple! Because, whether rich or poor, influential or common, well dressed or poorly dressed, looking like a potential helper or a potential begger…we all belong to God and carry the same Holy Spirit on our inside. This is why today’s scripture is warning you. More so, do you know you can never ACCURATELY or correctly evaluate, predict or spot who will be of benefit to you or not? Why? First, you are human and can never truly know the true heart, motive or intention of any human being. Isn’t this what LURED and enticed many into scams and frauds?

Because, there are many people actually looking big, influential and successful who are living on debt and deliberately HUNTING for “magas” or “mugus;” people they can deceive or dupe. While many others are looking common or poor, but, they’re actually living below their means and wealth. Not everyone wearing designers and looking successful is actually successful, generous or even helpful. While many poor looking people are even more generous and helpful. Be careful so you don’t misjudge, look down on, ill-treat or maltreat your own God ordained helper Selah!

Further Reading
~ 2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we live by faith, not by what we see with our eyes.” (TPT)

~ 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We live by what we believe, not by what we can see.’ (NCV)

~ 2 Corinthians 5:7, “Indeed, our lives are guided by faith, not by sight.” (GodsWord)