Embracing Christlike Impartiality in Our Lives

life must be our life must be a a constant discovery you know like these explorers who went into the heart of africa to find new places and people who climb mountains trying to get into new spheres like even man trying to reach the moon there's there was a pursuit in the heart of these even the scientists who discovered various things through the centuries the progress of science and man's way of life discovery of computers and everything else was because there was in the heart of people of passion to discover more and more and more and any christian who is not doing that to discover more and more of the life of jesus should be ashamed when he looks at these scientists who have such a passion to discover something new for example the tremendous passion that so many pharmacy companies have in these in this year to discover a cure for kobe 19. [00:15:44]

so many competing and each saying we got it we got it of course they're doing it for money and i say my passion to discover more of unchrist likeness in me things which are worse than kobet 19 right in my flesh should be far greater than all these pharmacy companies i mean god is greater than money if they can do it for money i can do it for the lord and it says here in 1 john 3 and verse 2 last part when he appears we will be like him but who are the ones who are going to be like him i mean a lot of christians sit back and say oh yeah i just relax and i'm gonna i have a hope that i will be like him well let's look at scripture scripture cannot lie the proof that you have this hope that you will be like christ is written in verse 3 that you purify yourselves as he is pure if you're not purifying yourself as he is pure day by day that means lord i haven't yet come to your standard i want to be more pure i want to be more pure if you're not doing that we don't have this hope according to one john 3 3. [00:58:08]

and i tell you the most of the christians i've met in my life they're not seeking to become more like jesus they're not seeking this saying lord there are areas in my life i'm not christ-like yet give me light give me light the passion that a lot of people have to get advancement in their job to find a better job to get more money and all the immigrants who want to come to the united states the passion they have to get a visa what a lot of trouble boy if christians had half that desire to discover more of jesus they'd have made a lot more progress so i don't think a lot of christians have that passion they don't feel that there's a lot of undiscovered areas of self and the only way to discover it as we look to jesus running the race looking under jesus is the only way we can get light on ourselves if we look at jesus and say i see there's something i don't have that [01:29:12]

so i was thinking of a couple of areas it says in john chapter 4 that when jesus was traveling it says here he went away john 4 verse 3. he left judea that's where jerusalem is and went it's a straight line north to galilee but the jews would not take that straight line the road because it went through some area and the samaritans were not pure jews the assyrian nation had occupied samaria when israel was split into two nations and there was a lot of mixture between the assyrians and the descendants of israel of jacob that they were a mixed race and so the pure jews who are the descendants of abraham isaac and jacob would not even walk through there because they had a prejudice against they would go from jerusalem eastwards towards the river jordan by and go right away it's a long route go up and turn back in to galilee that's how much prejudice they had against the samaritans and even if it meant a much longer walk for them and it says here that jesus verse 4 had to pass through samaria he was breaking down those racial prejudices and the disciples of course they were with him they had to go with him and then he was found there speaking to a samaritan woman and he says the disciples were surprised when they saw that they had such a prejudice against the samaritans [01:56:56]

another evidence of that is in luke chapter 9 where we read in verse 52 jesus sent messengers ahead of him again he wanted to go through a village of the samaritans luke 9 52 to make arrangements for him but the samaritans you know the jews consider them low-cost or lower level than us and the samaritans were upset with the jews for that so they said we don't care for this jew coming down here and they did not receive him verse 53 because he wasn't really coming to samaria it was going to jerusalem and when the disciples james and john fervent jews saw this and heard it they said shall we command fire down come down from heaven and consume them why because they did not receive him verse 53 but the pharisees in jerusalem also did not receive jesus but you never find james and john asking jesus shall we command fire to come down on these pharisees why because they were not they were the same race it was a racist thing uh well we won't ask fire to come down on the pharisees because they belong to the same race as us so they may have some weaknesses but it's not so serious but when the samaritans do that we got to bring fire down on them there's a lot of that among christians and we have to be careful living in a country like this in the united states where a lot of these racist problems that as christians we don't allow even an atom of that to enter into our heart [02:23:52]

and if you're born in a particular family whether you know it or not with the influence of parents grandparents there'll be a little bit of that in your heart and you if you cleanse it away if you acknowledge it and cleanse it you'll be free so here is an area where a lot of people don't seek for light and it's good for us to ask ourselves whether we have it see in india our churches are all full of people of all different mixed races and extremely poor people who are lowest class in india you know the lowest class where an upper-class hindu will not go anywhere near that person and they get converted and then there are people from the upper caste of hindu who get converted we have hundreds of people who are converted from different religions and they come together in the church and build fellowship and they have to see that my fellowship is equal with this person as with this person without any feeling of racism and that's a good question for everyone to ask ourselves particularly if you're blessed to be in a church with mixed races because jesus had zero racism in him he he loves all people equally [02:49:20]

and the other thing i see with god you know one of the things that and if the one of the first verses that enabled me to see that jesus was a person i could follow that he was a man like me even though he's god he became a man like me was not from hebrews 4 15 which says uh he was tempted in all points as we are that was also helped me later on but it was from romans chapter 2 and verse 11 that i saw jesus was like me and that what god did for jesus he would do for me like we sing in that song what he did for jesus he'll do for you but that's from romans 2 verse 11. romans 2 11 says there is no partiality with god so i tried to find an illustration for that to help me to understand it and i saw in my own family i say is there any partiality in the way i treat my children do i do more for one or the other and a lot of parents have got partiality towards one child sometimes they have many boys and one girl and the girl is their favorite or they have many girls and one boy and the boy is their favorite or some other reason why the eldest son is their favorite there's a lot of it in every worldly family it should not be there in your family should be zero there's no partiality with god [03:19:36]

and i discovered in romans 8 29 that god wants jesus to be my elder brother i want to be he wants me to be conformed to the image of his son so that he might be the first born the eldest among all the brothers so then i realized that in god's eyes we are a family where jesus is the eldest brother so if i apply romans 2 11 to that there is no partiality with god i did not show partiality to my eldest son compared to the others well god is better than me he cannot possibly show partiality to his eldest son jesus and not show that to me i mean if he did something for jesus that he would not do for me that's partiality with god because he's my elder brother according to romans 8 29 and in that case even i would be better than god because i didn't show it so that opened my eyes to the fact to the amazing truth that changed my life what he did for jesus he will do for me but that's just one part of it now i have to be like him i have to be free from partiality myself and i have to judge myself not just to see that jesus what god did for jesus he'll do for me because there's no partiality in him and god i have to cleanse myself like it says purify myself as he is pure which means i have to purify myself from our partiality [03:49:12]

and there's a lot of partiality in our flesh maybe not towards our children but on other on the other bases james chapter 2 says that here's this verse james 2 verse 9 to 11 partiality is equal to committing murder have you read that in the bible showing partiality is equal to committing adultery you glory in the fact that you don't commit adultery wonderful but you show partiality you're just as bad as somebody who committed both adultery and murder let me read it to you james two verse nine if you show partiality remember he's talking to believers my brethren verse one you are committing sin and you're convicted by the law as a transgressor whatever type of christian new covenant christian you call yourself if you show partiality you're a transgressor not a new covenant christian and you can keep the whole law but you commit partiality show partiality that's the one point verse 10 he's talking about partiality then you're guilty verse 11 of adultery murder everything that's what i what i said just now if you show partiality you're guilty of murder adultery everything [04:24:48]

james is particularly keen on that why does he say that he says because he saw in the church people being partial towards a rich person and you know putting poor people away and we see a lot of that in many pastors and preachers i've seen it even in india among cfc elders i'm sorry to say that why because they've not judged themselves and seen that there's no partiality with god there's no partiality with jesus and they have not purified themselves as they pure and then it go it ends up in that downfall and i see a lot of this sometimes you know sometimes our partiality is seen at certain times it comes to light see for example in a time of like going on in usa now election and post election and before the new president is sworn in there's a lot of conversation going on and uh especially if you read the news all types of things are going on and it's very very easy to be partial we can have our own views that's okay have the view that jesus had in relation to politics and political parties people say should we read the news at all well i'll give you one verse in scripture which tells us that jesus read the news in his time luke chapter 13 [04:54:56]

we read some people came to jesus and said about told him about the galileans verse one whose blood pilate had mixed with the sacrifices and jesus said to them do you think those galileans were greater sinners than the other galileans no but if you don't repent you'll all perish and then verse 4 here is the proof that jesus read the news if there was a newspaper those days he'd read it if the news is on the internet he'd watch it you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in siloam fell and killed them how did jesus know there was a tower in siloam that fell how did he know the exact number of people who died if the twin towers fell jesus would know about it not because he's in heaven if he was on earth he would know about it because he heard the news he would even know how many people died so i see that it's good to be aware of what's happening around us but we have to be careful about partiality and i don't know if any of you are affected by this but i find a lot of christians charismatic and otherwise i find a partiality in them at this particular time they're not lovers of the truth they have a certain bent towards a particular party or a particular person and then every bit of news item that favors that they believe it this way or that way i'm not talking about any particular site if they happen to be bent in the other way whatever news favors that they believe that that is partiality [05:21:08]

and i tell you that if you have that attitude i tell you in jesus name it will affect your spiritual growth it'll affect your christianity you will not be able to grow because you're not absolutely impartial you're a bent towards a certain direction that's okay we have our choices concerning whom we want to vote for or something like that but when you're partial to such an extent that whatever that side says you believe it you're believing a lie or you're partial the other way and whatever that news supporting that side believe says you believe it you're partial and that can affect you it is a revelation that you are partial in your life and if you're partial in one area it's quite likely that you could be partial in many areas in your life without knowing it and so we need to be alert when something happens like that and say lord am i being partial here just because this guy is my favorite whatever he does is right and because that guy's not my favorite whatever he does is wrong either way i'm not supporting any side i'm by the way i'm not on either side i want to follow jesus i believe he'd be absolutely neutral in a situation like this because he was totally without partiality he's not on the side of the jews he's not on the side of the samaritans no [05:48:00]