James 2:9 - "But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers."
I am not a celebrity-chaser. I don't care what kind of news is in the tabloids at the checkout stand. The Academy Awards show is an embarrassingly boring parade of peacocks. TV and movies are becoming less and less a factor in my routine; even the news shows are celebrity-driven.
But we are a nation of worshippers. Not of God but of other men. We want to show favoritism to the taller, the stronger, the more creative, the person with better teeth or a more distinct voice. While it may be okay to admire certain qualities, there is no place for a Christian to show one person unfair favoritism over another.
In the words of the Bible commentator Matthew Henry:
"Notwithstanding the law of laws, to love your neighbour as yourselves, and to show that respect to them which you would be apt to look for yourselves if in their circumstances... Lev. 19:15, Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt though judge thy neighbour. Yea, the very royal law itself, rightly explained, would serve to convict them, because it teaches them to put themselves as much in the places of the poor as in those of the rich, and so to act equitably towards one as well as the other. "
