I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of James 2:1-4: 

“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”  

Then we go straight to the First Book of Corinthians 2:8: 

“…which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”  

Partiality - I looked it up in the dictionary; it means being biased, influencing unfairly, prejudice, and basically having favourites. Jesus has no favourites. You see, in that reading in the First Book of Corinthians, what the writer is saying is that if the rulers of Israel knew who Jesus was, they would never have crucified the Son of God. 

We look at Jessie, the father of King David, in the Old Testament. He had eight sons but showed partiality first to the oldest, then the next, until the prophet Samuel said, “Don’t you have any other sons?” He said, “Yes, I have got one. He is a young boy, he is probably about 13. He is looking after the sheep.” Samuel said, “Call him here,” this very handsome young boy with a ruddied face, he must have been a redhead, walked in and there he was, anointed as the greatest king that Israel has ever had, next to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Because your son or daughter is not a good sportsman or sportswoman and the others in the family are, be careful not to show partiality because your other son or daughter might be artistic and may be a great musician or an artist. We must be so careful about that. When I was a little boy, I think I was quite an awkward character because I went to my mom once when I was small and said, “Mom, who do you love the most? Dad or me?” But that old Scottish woman, she was so wise. She sat me down. “Angus, I love your dad, and I love you in two different ways but I love you both exactly the same.” I was quite happy and I ran outside to play. Today, do not show partiality. There are no favourites in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.