“God Does Not Show Favoritism”
Text: Acts 10:34-38
1-12-2025
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. How many of you remember the Smothers Brothers? For those of you who don’t, they were a comedy act that consisted of 2 brothers, Tommy and Dick. One of the most famous lines from their shtick is when Tommy complained to Dick that, “Mom always liked you best.” Of course, there were plenty of funny stories that went with that line to prove that Dick was Mom’s favorite.
You know, they say that comedy is funny because it’s true. And sometimes, that comedy is based on some painful truths in our lives. That’s certainly accurate when it comes to this business of favoritism. It’s not funny when you feel left out, passed over, or unloved due to somebody playing favorites. Just ask the kid who gets picked last when choosing sides for a baseball game. It happened to me as a child and it really hurt. Sadly, that same preferential treatment can carry over into adulthood. We often selectively choose who can and can’t be part of our “group” based upon whether we like or dislike certain things about that person.
Does that kind of favoritism show up in the Christian Church? It shouldn’t, but it does. And God has a convicting message for us to hear about it in Acts chapter 10. Our text only gives 4 verses of the story, but we need to hear the rest in order to grasp the spiritual lesson it contains. You see, by this point in time the disciples were very active in spreading the Gospel. But they limited their evangelism to only their fellow Jews. Why? Well, go all the way back to the Old Testament and you’ll see that the Jews viewed themselves as God’s “chosen people, which was true. God had chosen them out of all the nations on the face of the earth to be His special instrument for bringing the Savior into the world. But God never said that the Messiah was only for them. In fact, He said just the opposite. Unfortunately, the Israelites didn’t listen to that part. To put a new twist on the Tommy Smothers line, the Jews felt that “God likes us best.” This attitude carried over into the New Testament. The religious leaders were shocked that Jesus would socialize with non-Jews. And apparently the disciples held onto some of those same views. Here in Acts 10, God shows Peter that this is not how it’s supposed to be. When Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations...,” He meant ALL nations.
Back in verses 1-2 of this chapter, we find out who Peter is speaking to in our text. It was a man named Conelius who was a Roman centurion. He had gathered with the members of his household who had also become believers in Jesus. The fact that he was a Roman was strike one against him. The Jews despised these foreigners who occupied their country. However, verse 2 says that Cornelius was “a devout man who feared God.” In other words, he believed and worshiped the same true God as the Jews. But because of his ethnic and religious background and his job, he and his family would never be accepted as full-fledged members of God’s chosen people. Thankfully, that’s not how God saw things. In verse 3 and following we see that God had listened to this man’s sincere prayers and saw his good deeds of faith. And yet, that was not enough. His prayers and good works couldn’t save him. He needed to hear and believe in the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.
So, God sent Peter to be His messenger with that good news for Cornelius and his family. But first, Peter needed an attitude adjustment. He needed to get it straight in his head that God doesn’t play favorites when it comes to us sinners and therefore, the Christian Church shouldn’t play favorites when it comes to sharing the Gospel. The way God got the point across was through a vision. Peter saw a large sheet come down from heaven with all kinds of animals on it. A voice told him to kill and eat. Peter refused because there were animals on it that were considered “unclean” for Jews to eat. This vision happened 3 times. Before Peter could figure it out, the men came from Cornelius to ask Peter to please come to his home. And the Holy Spirit directed him to go with them.
By the time they got there, Peter had figured out the vision. Because in verse 28 he says, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” Cornelius then tells Peter about the angel who had visited him, and Peter began to see the powerful message God was sending. So, he declares in our text, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
That word “partiality” can also be translated as “favoritism.” I like that better simply because that’s the way most of us talk. Now, that word in the Greek is really quite interesting. In ancient times it was used for when a judge “looks at a man’s face and renders a verdict, not according to the merits of the case, but according to whether he likes or dislikes the man.” (Lenski) That rubs us wrong as Americans because we believe that justice is blind. That’s why at many courthouses there’s a statue or picture of the blindfolded lady holding the scales of justice. It’s symbolizes that in our system everyone is to be treated the same regardless of race, creed, color, age, gender, how they dress, their education, or their financial status. That’s why it bothers us when certain people receive preferential treatment in our courts. Peter says this is not how God operates. When God looks at us, he sees all of us sinners as the same. St. Paul explains it this way in Romans 3: “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”
When God looks down, His heart is filled with love for every soul that He created. We have a hard time accepting that because some people seem more lost and more rebellious towards God than others. In other words, we judge them to be worse sinners than we are. And yet, He loves us all the same. I can remember struggling to understand this with my parents. My Dad would regularly tell us kids, “Your Mom and I love all of you the same.” There were 7 children in my family. Some of us were harder to raise and some easier. {I won’t tell you which category I fit into.} Regardless, I just couldn’t understand how my parents could love us equally without favoritism. And yet they displayed this kind of impartial love towards us. My Dad would regularly say, “I have a special place in my heart for each one of you.” I didn’t really grasp this until I had kids of my own. Each of my children is different and yet I love all 3 of them the same. As much as is humanly possible, I try not to show any favoritism.
In our text, Peter learned that God is truly impartial. He shows no favoritism. His message of love and forgiveness is for everyone, regardless of who they are. And that’s how us Christians are supposed to act too. Have we learned that lesson? Are we willing to show Christian love to the sinners around us without partiality? Do we judge certain groups of people according to our own likes or dislikes? Are we willing to share the Gospel without any favoritism? Sadly, I’m afraid that the answer is “no” for every one of us. We all have our biases that hold us back from spreading the Gospel equally. If you’re not so sure about that, then I’d ask you to examine your own heart. I’ll give you some examples and I want you honestly ask yourself the question, “How receptive would I be towards these people that might come to our church?”
How welcoming would you be to a person who is out of work? Or someone who is poor? Or a person who wears old, worn-out clothes because that’s the best they have? Or someone with a physical handicap who can’t walk or talk like the rest of us? Or a person with a mental handicap or perhaps a learning disability? What about a person who doesn’t shower or wash their clothes as often as we do? Or a person who comes from a non-Christian background? How receptive would we be to a Hispanic or Black person or some other race? What about someone who we know has a wild and sleazy past or a bad reputation? Or a person who was an alcoholic or drug addict? Or an ex-convict? Would we welcome a deaf, blind, or mute person?
Now, what if one of those people walked into our church at the same time as a young man or woman, nicely dressed and well-groomed, with a college degree? I think you know who would get the warmer reception. And yet Peter’s words from our text powerfully remind us that, “God shows no favoritism!” He loves all of us sinners equally. Since He shows no favoritism, then He wants us to do likewise. As followers of Christ, we are to show love and friendship to others without partiality. We are to share the Gospel with all people regardless of our likes or dislikes. We need to ask God to search our hearts and show us our sins of favoritism, especially the favoritism that exists here in the fellowship of our own church. When we confess these sins to God, we can be thankful that He shows no favoritism when it comes to forgiving. He promises to wipe away the sins of anyone who comes to Him and sincerely asks for it, including you and me.
As we heard in the Gospel reading, when Jesus was Baptized, He got in line with all those sinners who were coming to John. Not because He needed to repent of any sins and have them washed away. But He came so that He would be identified with the sinners that He came to save. He didn’t choose to rub shoulders with the upper-class religious people who didn’t think they needed forgiveness. Instead, all throughout His ministry He welcomed repentant sinners from every walk of life who were willing to receive Him as their Savior from sin. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, showed no favoritism when it came to His offer of free salvation. To borrow a line from my father, God has a special place in His heart for each one of us. He loves us equally and forgives us equally. May the Holy Spirit continue working in our hearts so that we may live and act the same way towards others, sharing the Gospel with everyone and anyone as we welcome all sinners without favoritism. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!