Playing Favorites (Friday Devotional)

‘Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all…All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”’

- Acts 10:34-36, 43

When I’m at a new restaurant, especially one with an expansive menu, it can be hard for me to decide what sounds tastiest. So when I’m feeling particularly indecisive, sometimes I’ll let my server make the choice for me by asking them a simple question: “What’s your favorite thing on the menu?” Usually they’ll hem and haw about how everything on the menu is good, but when pressed will offer three or four suggestions.

But I remember in one instance, I had a server who simply wouldn’t cooperate. I asked what his favorite dish was and he gave me the typical line about how he enjoyed everything on the menu, but when I asked again, he didn’t narrow it down as I expected him to. Instead, he said something that stuck with me: “I know there’s a lot on the menu, but the truth is, everything on it is my favorite.”

When it comes to God’s love for people, you could paraphrase Acts 10:34 similarly: everyone is His favorite. The early church had to confront this truth almost immediately as it grew beyond Jerusalem to, as Jesus put it, “Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” A church that had begun as a collection of Jewish disciples had to learn (with help from a vision God gave to Peter) that the gospel was good news not only for the Jews, but the Gentiles as well. Contrary to what they may have been taught by the rabbis growing up, God showed no partiality when it came to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today that conflict may seem almost quaint to you, an issue settled long ago—of course the gospel is for everyone, we think. But the truth is, Christians struggle just as much today as 2,000 years ago with who we think deserves to hear God’s word. We’re happy to invite middle class suburbanites to our church services, but expect inner city residents to find their own congregations. We gladly fork over $20 for a bad car wash to send teenagers to youth camp, but refuse to part with a $5 bill when we see a homeless woman sitting outside McDonald’s. We tell our children to be kind to everyone, but then say we don’t want them hanging around with the kids from that neighborhood. As much as we may intellectually understand that God shows no partiality and that we shouldn’t either, we can’t seem to help playing favorites.

We must remember that what makes the gospel so powerful is that it is available to everyone, that God does not limit His grace to a select race or class of people. God’s love stretches beyond the barriers that so often hold us back, it reaches into the pockets of society that we are too scared or too ignorant to approach. Everyone is His favorite, so may we in response take the gospel beyond just our familiar, favorite faces, ready to trade our partiality for His grace.