James writes about the problem of favoritism (James 2:1-13) to illustrate the misguided thinking that comes from a judgmental spirit. A judgmental spirit draws conclusions based on what is seen or perceived. It presumes to know motives before understanding another person. It detects faults in others while being blind to one's own issues. It seldom puts oneself in another's shoes.

Too often people judge outwardly or use a variable standard to justify what they think, say, or believe. Others recognize and try to address symptoms of the problem, often making God's Law the solution. Ultimately, favoritism is not a matter of improved morality or legalistic living. Favoritism is a matter of the heart. Bias arises from a heart that is not in the right place.

The word favoritism (partiality) is best translated, ‘with respect of persons.’ It’s a Hebrew phrase that means ‘face taking’ or ‘receiving the face’ and has to do with the accepting of one’s person. It comes from an Oriental custom of greeting which involved bowing one’s face to the ground. If the one being greeted accepted the person, the one doing the greeting was allowed to lift his head again. Accepting a person based on appearance was a Hebraic term for "partiality".

James' warning against showing favoritism was a command against seeing who someone is before deciding how to treat them. It pertains to judging purely on a superficial level without consideration of a person’s true merits, abilities, or character, resulting in bias against that person.

Christ-followers must live and be guided by duty and obligation as children of God. James' emphatic exhortation to live in a way approved by the ‘law of freedom’ - v.12) is to treat others with mercy. This is how Jesus lived, and it is how God’s people are called to live as we fulfill our calling to obey all the moral precepts and guidance (teaching & instruction) of the Torah (law). This requires mercy, which God in his wisdom grants to us so we can live without bias.

This wisdom reminds us that others need what we so often fail to give; that our hearts are not always guided by the heart of Jesus; and that one of the first casualties from spiritual maturity is mercy. It is only the Spirit’s power in us that gives Christians the ability to show mercy with the wisdom God provides!