Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish it to be. — Thomas Kempis

About the only time I complain about “favoritism” is when I’m not the favored one. In the world, it’s all about favorites, actually. We reward those who behave as we wish, act as we wish, look as we wish. That’s the way it works in the flesh, but God has a different standard in His family:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

Knowing who you are as an individual in Christ can transform your individual life. In the same way, a corporate understanding of who we all are in Christ can transform the Church. God’s truth trumps temporary social distinctions every time. Earthly ethnicity, gender, or social standing does not define us in God’s eyes. If we are in Christ, we are brothers and sisters. The Church of Jesus Christ is the one place where ethnicity, gender, and social standing should not matter.

Is it possible that we must learn to walk in the Spirit as a family just as we must learn to walk this way as individuals?