Beware of Personal Favoritism

James 2:1-4 (NKJV)

Richard Gunther http://www.christart.com/

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

The Book of Acts says, God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) and his impartiality, James says should be reflected in the gatherings of his people.

The illustration James gave was probably very much evident back in the first century church. It may or it may not be this obvious today, especially here in the U.S., where most churches are probably made up of members who generally have the same background and social status.

But definitely it was very evident at that time and today in other countries where the gap between the rich and the poor is enormous and in places where generally there is no middle class.

As Sunday Team members who should be mindful that everybody coming in through those doors are wanting some thing, are seeking the truth, are looking for hope, are seeking out the light, are searching for God, a miracle, anything.

The hardest part is over, they made it to the house of God. Our responsibility is to love them as Jesus would.

In one of our previous team meeting one of you said that we shouldn’t discriminate. And yes, I remember that because we were talking about a homeless person who comes into our services, and unfortunately sometimes he is disruptive, especially if he is under the influence of something.

We do our very best to make him very much welcome here, we let him sit wherever he wants to. And normally he sits in a prominent place. We allow him the liberty to express himself like everyone else, but only up to the extent of not disrupting the service and offending anybody.

As I’ve said we strive to treat everyone the same way, yes just like how Jesus would. Of course a few people we have to deal with but generally we let the spirit of God guide us in all our dealings, showing God working through us and manifesting his love, his joy, his peace, his forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.

This is the lesson I prepared as I led our Sunday Service Team Meeting, March 22, 2015

James 2:1-4 (in NIV)

Favoritism Forbidden

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 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. 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,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:1-4 (in the MSG)

The Royal Rule of Love

My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?

Real Love is ...

1 Corinthians 13 :1-13 NIV 


If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Greatest of These is Love

Faith, we each have a measure faith, however big or small. 

Hope, needless to say without hope we are hopeless. But love, without love, we are nothing more than animals who wear clothes or jewelry or who eat with utensils.

But we aren't mere animals, we are created beings, made in the image and likeness of a Creator. One who are quite capable of love, real love.

And really we love because God loved us first. We love, because some other person first loved us  -- such as our mom who bore us, refused to give us up, didn't gave up on us, or who adopted and took care of us as if we were her own, toiling for many years until we can survive on our own, if we could even manage that. 

Love

Anyway, God is love, so really those same verses should read like this (as in the NLT):

God is patient, God is kind. God is not jealous. God is not boastful. God is not proud. God is not rude. God does not demand its own way. God is not irritable. God does not keep record of being wronged. God does not rejoice about injustice. God rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up. God never loses faith. God is always hopeful. God endures through every circumstance. 

We on the other hand are everything but. 

We are impatient as can be. We aren't kind. We envy. We boast. We are proud, and proud of that fact. We are rude. We want things done our way. We have our own little agenda. We are ticked off by just about anything. We may forgive, but we hardly forget the wrongs other people did to us. We are quitters. We are a bunch of whiners, fault-finders, lazy and stubborn fools.And we keep on doing the same stupid mistakes over and over again.

And what could we do about this? Nothing really. Except for love. We need to love ourselves and others with the same love God has first gave us, the love somebody else showed us.

Love -- the hold it, clench your mouth, close your eyes, breathe in, count to three and breathe out kind of love that always wins the day for anybody who just would want to strangle somebody who really deserves a good kick in the behind. When you could hug that one person who has done you the worst thing one could ever possibly do to you. When you could give that person a gift or treat her to lunch (no not dinner), ice cream or coffee. When you could do all these and more then you've found real love.

You could be anybody and you could have everything but without real love, what are you really? Nothing.

God is love, and that is the only place we could find it.

This is the lesson I prepared for our Sunday Service Team Meeting, February 15, 2015

Marys and Marthas In The Church

Acts 6:1-7 NIV

The Choosing of the Seven

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Early Christian Church

Last time I talked about the apostles waiting for the Gift of the Promised Holy Spirit that was in Acts 1 and 2. Now fast forward to Acts 6, after Jesus ascended into heaven, after Mathias replaced Judas (after he essentially abandoned his position), after Peter full of the Spirit preached the Gospel and 3,000 came to believe; after Peter and John healed the lame beggar and after they were later put in prison for; after they were tortured and warned not to preach again; after the disciples prayed and the whole room shook; after they did other miraculous signs, after they were persecuted and after their numbers kept on increasing, we come to chapter 6.

This is at the time when so many seemingly trivial ministries were being overlooked. And what happened? Believers started to get upset, feel overlooked and feel discriminated upon.

Who here knows that the enemy just loves to use these unintentional lapses to start discord, tension, arguments, conflicts and more?

Who here knows that these little unseen things eventually will lead to church families to break down or split? And that’s Satan’s plan.

Who here knows that these minor things in time add up to bigger and bigger things which eventually may cause more and more people to be upset, to be led astray, to leave the faith or to miss God’s purpose for their life?

So what did the apostles, who were filled with the Holy Spirit do?

Acts 6, they essentially appointed overseers, deacons, servants, and ministers.

They appointed ministers for the café, for the fellowship hall, for the parking lot, to do maintenance, to change the sign, to cook and to clean up, and to take care of children and babies. They appointed greeters, and ushers, and media, and worship and altar ministers.

They appointed people like us. Why? Because there was a need then, and there is a great need right now.

The Ministry of the Word cannot be hampered because nobody was taking care of all the other ministries that are also equally important. But who will minister in those ministries?

Again, Acts 6, and I quote “choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.”

And these are believers who are not only spiritually mature but also having good sense and judgment to do the work of the ministry. We’re not going to send a computer expert to fix the break in the water main or the expert plumber to program a computer network to be fail-proof, safe, secured and optimized.

And yes above all these ministers had to full of the Holy Spirit.

What did Jesus say, “wait”. He said “wait for the gift the Father promised”, wait for you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Once again Encounter Weekend, another reason for everybody to go through it.

Mary and Martha

Lastly Mary and Martha, Luke 10:38, when Jesus and his followers came to their house, Mary sat at his feet listening and Martha was on her feet taking care of the kitchen and everything else.

Of course, Mary had chosen what was better but really like in their own home, here in God’s house, there has to be a Martha. And not just one Martha, seven and preferably more.

Martha not in the strict sense but in what the seven (Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas) were appointed to do.

We need both Marys and Marthas but both need to be full of the Spirit and wisdom which comes from above. 

Every one of us is important, like I said, one Body of Christ, but is composed of many parts. One of us hurts everyone suffers, one rejoices, and so does everyone else. When we are in this kind of unity and purpose, we can handle everything the enemy throws at us individually and collectively.

This is the lesson I prepared as I led our Sunday Service Team Meeting, September 28, 2014