PODCAST
Don’t Show Favoritism
October 30th, 2019
Acts 10:23b-35
Susie, the youngest of several brothers and sisters, asked her mother, “Which one of us do you love best?” Her mother replied, “I love you all the same.” Susie persisted, “But which one do you love the very best?” Her mother’s answer did not change.
Before his encounter with Cornelius, Peter assumed God loved the Jews best. But after the encounter, he realized “God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right” (vv. 34b-35).
This mind-boggling concept of the new Christian movement—that God does not have favorites—is a major theme of the book of Acts and in later books of the New Testament. Paul summarized it in his letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
In our humanity, we tend to label and sort people, selecting the ones with whom we like and want to interact, but that is not God’s way. To be Christ-like, we must recognize that God does not show partiality and neither should we.
Author: Karen Hiner
