Neighboritism

The last few weeks in church, we've been discussing how we can obey the "second great commandment" as it is sometimes called.  Jesus agreed with a lawyer in Luke 10:27-28 that the summary of the entire law was to love God with all we have, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  The lawyer of course, being a lawyer, wanted to define neighbor.  He should have quit while he was ahead!  The Lord gave him, instead, a reminder that "neighbor" really means "anybody around us."

Of course, the problem is that the people around us are so inconvenient!  They have bad habits, they irritate us, they're not trustworthy and they often aren't the kind of people we'd prefer to be around.  So we tend (like the lawyer) to spend our time and attention on those we're more comfortable with.  With or without expressing it in words, we may say things like "they're not like us;" "they have too many needs for us to help with;" or even "he got himself into that mess, he can get himself back out." 

In the book of James, written by the brother of Jesus, we're instructed that favoritism speaks against the love of Jesus Christ:  "If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?" (2:3-4).  James goes on to say in verses 8 and 9, "Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law."

It may be impossible to give lots of time and attention to everyone in our lives, especially in the days of email, Facebook (some people have 2,500 'friends' on FB -- is that even possible?) and a generally over-extended lifestyle that a lot of us have.  But that's not what James is saying; he is telling us not to favor one over the other due to judgmental thinking, writing some people off because they don't fit our standards or we feel better about loving others instead.

I have neighbors that take good care of their grass, keep their stuff neat and don't make much noise.  I have others who, well let's say, aren't quite as considerate.  It's easy to start thinking of them as a nuisance, assigning them a "back seat" in friendship compared to the ones that are less trouble.  But that's just what James tells us not to do.  Our love for others is supposed to stretch to everyone, even if they are not like us or maybe more trouble than we'd like to deal with.  After all, God has loved "the world" (John 3:16) not just a select few.

If the "glorious Lord Jesus Christ" (James 2:1) had died only for good people, where would that leave me and you?