We continue to study the subject of favoritism and see that if we practice this form of prejudice, we are breaking the Royal Law of Love. Since Love underlies all of the Commandments, to break any one of them breaks the principle that is behind all.

We discover that it is a test of our own standing before the Lord that we have the love within us that is quick to show mercy and forgiveness to our neighbor. Favoritism as we have understood it in the context of this passage is not demonstrating mercy.

• Scripture commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
• Showing the sinful partiality we learned of this morning breaks this command.
• If we break one of God’s commandments, we break them all.
• If we are not merciful to all, God will not deal mercifully with us. This does not mean that we must first show mercy to draw God’s mercy down on ourselves, but rather that if God has shown mercy towards us and changed our hearts, we will as a consequence show mercy to others.

We are urged again to search our hearts and seek forgiveness for our sins in this area, asking God for grace to be more like Christ who showed no favoritism but kept the Law perfectly.