The Danger of Playing Favoritism in Your Life

Do you play favoritism? Do you show partiality? Do you know its danger in your spiritual life? In this post, discover why God doesn’t play favoritism and why you should not as well!

The danger of playing favorites or showing partiality

I once heard of a story of a lady and a man who sat next to each other in an airplane.

The man came first to his seat. As the lady approached her seat, she noticed the man was too ugly and wore average looking clothes.

With no reason, the lady was disgusted with the man. She called the flight attendant and angrily demanded that the seat arrangement should be changed.

The flight attendant gently explained to the woman that everyone has a right to their assigned seat. After all, they paid for it. The man was just meekly listening and felt shame in himself as the lady continues to berate and belittle him.

The flight attendant finally gave up and told the lady that she will see what she can do. The flight attendant left and went to the captain to ask for advice.

The flight attendant then went back and told the man, “Sir, please come with me.”

The angry lady put an evil smile on her face as she felt victorious over this situation. She knew that she deserves better and she should not be placed anywhere this man.

However, the lady immediately felt greater frustration and her head suddenly heats up in more anger when she heard what the flight attendant had to say:

“The captain wants you to sit in first class. You don’t deserve to sit beside this grumpy lady.”

Surprising Lessons from the Life of...
Surprising Lessons from the Life of Esau

A lesson about favoritism

The story shows how favoritism can make people feel entitled, disgruntled, and even cheated. Playing favoritism means you favor someone or something more than the other. In this case, the lady favors other people more than the man sitting next to him.

She acted based on what she sees and feels. When she saw the man who she felt ugly based on her standard, she discriminated and condemned the man.

Thankfully, the story ended positively. But not all favoritism ends in that way. Some lead to even bigger problems – problems that affected not just the one discriminated but everyone around them.

Some stories that come to mind is Joseph and his brothers. Because Joseph’s father loved him more than the others, the brothers of Joseph sold him to slavery.

Another story is concerning Esau and Jacob. Esau was the favorite son of Isaac while Jacob is the favorite son of Rebekah. We know how Jacob cheated Esau of his father’s blessings with the help of Rebekah. As a result, Jacob had to run away from his angry brother.

Let’s face it: favoritism does not lead to anything good. It always leads to a disaster.

Do you like what you are reading? If yes, learn more spiritual insights straight to our mailbox when you subscribe below!

Join 2,987 other subscribers

God plays no favoritism

Here’s the good news: God does not play favoritism and this is also what we see in Yahshua.

When Yahshua was looking for people to be counted as His disciples, He was by the Sea of Galilee. We read:

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Matthew 4:18-22

Did you notice that?

Yahshua was walking by the Sea of Galilee while looking for his disciples.

Yahshua wasn’t searching among the chief priests, elders, leaders, kings, and other prominent men. He wasn’t looking in Herod’s court, palaces, and castles where He could have found the mighty and noble.

But He was on the Sea of Galilee – an obscure place a lot of people haven’t even heard before.

He could have called the people whom the society considered to be wise, strong, and famous.

Instead, Yahshua called fishermen to be part of His inner circle. In the standards of men, Peter and the others are no one.

But to Christ, they were someone.

At that moment, Peter and his companions had no idea how they would eventually change the world!

We read in I Corinthians 1:26-28:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen.”

As you can see, God has chosen us not because we are brilliant, rich, or beautiful. While it is true that God does call a few rich people, the majority of the members of the church are “nobodies.”

They are not celebrities, billionaires, or world-class athletes.

Rather, the majority of people in the church are simply ordinary folks. At best, they could be just people who have a decent job.

What does it mean for God not to show partiality?

We read in the Bible:

“For there is no partiality with God”.

Romans 2:11

When God makes His judgment, He based it on the intrinsic value of a person and not their outward appearance.

God does not love us based on our race, wealth, rank, influence, and appearance. He does NOT choose us because we are richer than others or smarter.

Now, it does not mean that when God does not show partiality, he would make people equal in strength, beauty, grace, or health.

God made people unique and special at the same time. God still bestows his favor where he pleases but that does not mean that He plays favoritism.

God does not show partiality. It means that He judges us not out of respect to our rank, physical appearance, and wealth.

In short, God looks at our character, inner beauty, and heart.

When Samuel was looking for the next king of Israel, God told him:

“Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

How should we respond?

It is wonderful to know that we serve a God who does not play favoritism and does not show partiality. If God bases His love on how we look, how rich or smart we are, and what position we hold, then a lot of us have already failed.

Thankfully, God does not work that way.

This very fact should inspire us to concentrate more on developing our godly character. While outward beauty may look attractive, it does not last for long. It is our inner beauty that we should focus on.

I’m not saying that dressing for the occasion or looking presentable before people is not important. In fact, you should also do that, but not at the expense that you forgot who you are in the inside.

When God calls us to be part of His church, we must have a change of heart. We need to change our lives so that when God looks at our heart, He would be pleased.

Yes, God does not show partiality and we should as well.

May we have the wisdom to become more loving to everyone and not just to the few. Remember that Yahshua died for all and not just for his friends or those people whom He liked.

When we refuse to show partiality, we become more loving and caring and in turn, our hearts become more acceptable to God.

Featured book…

Blog posts you shouldn’t miss!
5 Little-Known Amazing Facts about Jesus Christ
The One Powerful Secret to Staying Extremely Focused
Which Day is the Sabbath Day?
Why SMART Goals Are Stupid (And What You Should Do Instead)
What Was REALLY Nailed To The Cross?

4 thoughts on “The Danger of Playing Favoritism in Your Life

Leave a Reply