TODAY’S VERSE:  

James 2:1 “My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?”

As we continue our study on the book of Esther, we meet the “bad guy” of the story. His name is Haman and he was an Amalekite, a race of people who were considered enemies of the Jews. Haman was an advisor to the King and very high in rank. People would even bow as he passed by. However, Mordechai (Esther’s cousin) would not bow because he was Jewish and only bowed before the Lord God. This made Haman very angry. So, he asked around and found out that Mordechai was Jewish. Then, he went to the King with a request, a very evil one.

Esther 3:8-9 “If it please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited in the royal treasury.”

Yup, you read that right. He asked the King for permission  to make a day when, across the entire kingdom, the Jewish people could be killed and all that they owned stolen. This is horrible, right? It is also a picture of both prejudice and favoritism. Do you know what those words means?

Prejudice is defined as, “an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics”. Basically, it means to dislike a person or group of people because they are different from you. This could mean a different gender, religion, or skin color, to name a few examples.

Favoritism is defined as,“ the practice of giving unfair, preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.” Basically, this means to treat a person or group of people better than another because you prefer one over the other. This results in hurting the less liked person or group.  

How does the Lord judge and treat people? Does He consider what they look like, their accent, or what kind of food they eat? Of course not, the Bible says that God  looks at the heart and treats all with grace.

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’.”

Matthew 5:44-45 “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

In today’s verse we are told that true believers in Jesus Christ are not to play favorites and treat some people with more grace than others.

Mark 12:31 “the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

As all of the verses above teach us, we are to treat ALL people in love with patience, kindness, and fairness! Does  this seem impossible to do? God will help you, just ask!