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“Now in those days, when the disciples were growing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”

Acts 6:1

Even in the early church led by the 12 apostles who lived with Jesus and learned at his feet, the Church was susceptible to favoritism. The early church embraced a radical, communal life in which they pooled their resources, and everyone in need was taken care of. More or less!

The native, Hebrew widows were being taken care of, but the foreign, Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked. Things were not perfect then, and they never are. People are people, and we tend to fall short, even in our best moments.

People naturally tend to look after our own. “Me and mine”, as Pete might have said in the iconic Coen brothers film, O Brother Where Are Thou?

This human characteristic is not all bad. It prompts mothers and fathers to care for and look after their own children. It inspires family members to look after other family members and friends to look after friends.

At the same time, this human characteristic causes us to care more for our own children and families than for others and to care more for our friends than for our neighbors. It causes us to “take care of our own” to the exclusion of “others”, and that can lead to things like racial discrimination, nepotism, and a failure to have empathy for strangers.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, also deals with favoritism in his letter to the early Church. (James 2:1-13) He called the Church to account for showing “special attention” to men “wearing fine clothes” by giving them the best seats while making the poor churchgoers stand or sit on the floor. (James 2:1-4)

James called favoring the wealthy over the poor sin in no uncertain terms! (James 2:9) He described it as breaking the law of God – the law of loving your neighbor as yourself. (James 2:1-2)

James was clear that this kind of favoritism has no place in the family of God. If any favoritism is sanctioned by God, it is the kind of favoritism that focuses on the poor, the less fortunate, and the people that are marginalized by our human tendencies to show favoritism for our own, personal benefit.

When our favoritism is motivated by selfishness, it is sin. James was particularly strong in his condemnation of favoritism motivated by selfish desires. If we “favor” the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the ones who have less influence in this world, we do it without expectation of personal benefit, and we follow in the example of Jesus.

Not that this is really favoritism, as the people who have power, influence, wealth, reputation and station in this life are already favored. Because we live in a fallen world, inequality, unfairness, and injustice runs through human interactions and the systems we construct in our fallenness.

I have spent some time contemplating the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in God’s Radical, Generous Unfairness and other writings that I am in the process of completing. In that parable, which is set up as an example of the kingdom of God, the vineyard owner hires workers at the beginning of the day for a day’s wage. The owner hires workers throughout the day, and he pays them all a denarius, even the workers who worked only an hour.

We naturally recoil at that seeming injustice, though the people who worked for a day were not shorted. They got exactly what they signed up for and what they expected.

I find it interesting that this parable seems to provoke our sense of justice. People generally have a strong sense of justness and fairness; otherwise the God paying a day’s wage to the workers who came late in the afternoon and worked only an hour would not have seemed objectionable.

But again, the parable is intended as an example of the kingdom of God and God’s radical, generous “unfairness” in welcoming all people into His kingdom to all people – not on the basis of what we have earned, but on the basis of God’s generosity, alone.

When we understand that God offers eternal life freely (through His generosity) to all people who are willing to receive it, we realize that God is no less generous to those who come early to the table. How does this life even compare to eternal life? A person might gladly exchange a lifetime of labor for eternal life.

At the same time, this model of how God treats us is no example for how we should treat each other. We are not God, and we do not have the same prerogative that God has in offering His kingdom to us.

Various passages throughout Scripture align with James’s rebuke to the early Church. God desires that we treat each other fairly and justly. God has divine prerogative to do what he wants, but we should not presume that same privilege.

Showing favoritism to the Hebraic Jews in the church was sin. God is God, and we are not. If He wants to give the thief on the cross eternal life though he lived a life of sin up to the point of his death, that is God’s prerogative. We do not have the same latitude.

The measure of favor we enjoy or do not enjoy in this life is nothing compared to the weight of glory we can expect in eternity with God. We can’t even imagine (no eye has seen and no ear has heard) what God has in store for us.

God’s mercy shows no bounds, and He is equally merciful to all of us. We may feel like God is being (unjustly) generous to those who don’t deserve His favor – giving a day’s wage to a person who worked only for one hour. In reality, however, He is being equally generous to everyone.

It’s hard for us to put these things in perspective in our finite limitations. We would err to think that God’s generous mercy to all people, regardless of the degree to which people have lived up to God’s standard of righteousness, is unfair.

We also would err to think that this parable, somehow, might justify an employer, for example, treating workers the same way the vineyard owner treated his workers in the vineyard. It’s a false equivalence to think that this is a model for how we should treat each other.

James makes that clear in his epistle. Jesus demonstrated the same attitude in his earthly, human ministry: when he said that he came to “proclaim good news to the poor”. (Luke 4:18) Jesus even elevated the way we show favor to the poor, weak, and marginalized by saying, “Truly, whatever you have done (or not done) to the least of these, you have done (or not done) to me!” (Paraphrasing Matthew 25:31-46)

Jesus, of course, did not (and does not) withhold his favor to the privileged. He shared the good news with Nicodemus just as he shared the good news with the lowly Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus healed the Centurion’s daughter just as he healed the blind, the leper, and the paralytic

In truth, we are all on the same level of spiritual need. Some of us can see that need easier than others. (Thus, perhaps, this is why the message Jesus spoke to Nicodemus (he must be “born again”) was different then the message he spoke to the lowly woman at the well (offering her “living water”). She knew her condition, while Nicodemus likely did not.

When Jesus told the Pharisees, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick,” he wasn’t excluding them from the good news, but they might have excluded themselves. They didn’t know they were spiritually sick like everyone else!

Jesus suggests that how we view and treat the least of people – the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, and the prisoner – separates the sheep from the goats. When we marginalize people and ignore them, especially those who are already poor, we make a value judgment and treat them as if they do not deserve our favor.

God does not do that with us, but He will treat us as we have treated other people unless we recognize the error of our ways and repent. Thus, when Greek widows were ignored while the early church tended to the Hebrew widows, the disciples knew immediately that they had to do something about it.

We are not always going to get it right, just as the early church failed almost immediately (in the way they treated the Hebrew and Greek widows). We will never likely eradicate poverty and the marginalization of people in this fallen world, but we need to understand the heart of God and his desire for us to begin to live our lives with a heart for people saturated in His love for us.

In truth, we are all “in the same boat” as the saying goes. None of us are any better in God’s view than anyone else, though some of us may fail to see it. We judge by appearances, but God sees what is in the heart.

If we have any wrong view of people, favoring some wrongly over others for selfish reasons, may the Holy Spirit help us to see it and repent. Even as I write this, I am convicted, and I recognize that I have done that (and do it) in my own life. God, help me to see people as you do and to act accordingly!