FAVORITISM

I can’t count the number of times that I’ve been told that a certain denomination or a certain church is better than all the others. I’m certain you know people who look down their haughty noses at others because of their denomination or their supposed standing within the denomination. Perhaps your denomination is one of them; I know mine sometimes is. The point is that too many people think they are favored because of their denomination or church. “Favored” by God I suppose.

If you are staying with us in the one chapter a day Bible reading, we have gone through the entire Old Testament, Gospels, and now we are in Acts. It was in reading Acts, chapter 11 that I came across this: “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.’”

I’m not a Bible scholar but it sounds to me that God’s acceptance of us is based on our personal righteousness, not on our denomination or church membership. In the above Bible verse, Peter was saying that Jewish believers were not favored over Gentile believers. Yet, look at all the energy people of our current Christian denominations expend fighting each other. Peter’s words are as true for us today as they were back then: God’s acceptance of us is based on our righteousness.