Are You a Respector of Persons?

"For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?" James 2: 2-4

When you meet a person for the first time do you judge them instantly? I have done this many times. I think it is an automatic human response to draw instant conclusions and judgements about a person when you first lay eyes on them. We call this a "first impression." Notice that this is a human response and not a godly response. God sees the heart and not just the exterior. We see the exterior before we ever get close to a person's heart.

These verses in James 2 are warning us about judging based on appearances. There is a wealthy person and a poor person. The greedy, materialistic, and money-hungry part of our human nature makes us automatically attracted to the wealthy person. We want to put them on a pedestal and treat them well to earn their favor. The poor person is of no use to our greedy nature, so we cast them aside. All of this is done based on appearances and with no knowledge of each person's heart.

Formulating judgements is something that society has trained us to do throughout our lives. Undoing that training is going to take effort; which begins with prayer. We need to ask God to help us avoid instantaneous judgements and acting on those preconceived notions.

When I think about Jesus and all the people He hung out with while He was living on the earth, I see exactly how we should be approaching and welcoming others around us. Jesus ruffled a lot of feathers for hanging out with former prostitutes, tax collectors, and people society deemed untouchable. I know that Jesus would have put the poor guy in the good seat! We should be doing the same!