DEVELOPING A FAITH THAT WORKS YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOVEMBER 2006

HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE RIGHT

Leader’s Notes

IMPT NOTE:
The important thing in this lesson is to help members effectively identify Objective:
At the end of this lesson, you
ways they could have showed favoritism and deal with it in a biblical
will be able to:
way. We will learn about God’s view of favoritism and why it is a
problem. 1. Discover 5 common ways
in which we show
favoritism.
Explain to members that if we cannot see how we have showed
favoritism, we will not be able to deal with it. 2. Identify 3 problems with
Tell members that God wants us to be more like Him: to not show showing favoritism.
favoritism. Therefore, we need to learn how to cure this common 3. Apply the prescription
disease in our lives. We want to reflect God’s glory in our lives. God has given us for
Favoritism is incompatible with that. overcoming favoritism.
4. Memorize James 2:8-9.
Remember that we must do what God says in order to be blessed by
the bible from the previous lesson. Take this time to review your
member’s application from the previous lesson on “how to be blessed by
the bible”.

HOOK (10 Mins)

Review last week memory verse.

Invite members to share a time when they felt unwelcome in a new

environment. Ask them what did it feel like and how did they respond?

Ask members to read today’s passage before continuing.

II. The Principle: Don’t Show Favoritism

 Ways We Show Favoritism

1) Appearance, ancestry, age, achievement and affluence.

2) Allow members to share their observation of how we as a ministry

have shown favoritism.

3) Bring the sharing to a more personal level here. Ask member to

share specifically how they have been showing favoritism to others
based on the 5 ways in their own lives.

Share with members that our society idolizes beauty and hates
ugliness. Sometimes, we judge others by their ancestry (language,
race, nationality) other than outward appearance. We may even judge
others as being too young or too old for us to learn from, whether at
home, school, work or church. In our society, we gush over winners and
forget about the losers. James points out that the most common basis
we judge others by is their wealth. We often seek to associate with or
feel proud to be with people of greater economic wealth, status and
achievement.
11For God does not show
Add that Jesus didn’t say that there’s anything wrong with wealth but
favoritism.
we should not show favoritism. Rom 2:11

III. Three Problems With Showing Favoritism 5Listen, my dear brothers:

Has not God chosen those
1) Unchristian, unreasonable and unloving. who are poor in the eyes of
the world to be rich in faith
and to inherit the kingdom he
2) As a family, God expects us to accept one another. In our society, promised those who love him?
there are many “classes” but this should not be so in the church. We Jas 2:5
were called to be different from the world. If we are to follow Jesus, we
cannot show favoritism. Jesus treats everyone with dignity. 14The entire law is summed
up in a single command:
"Love your neighbor as
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DEVELOPING A FAITH THAT WORKS YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOVEMBER 2006

yourself."
Gal 5:14
3) We sometimes show favoritism to the rich for different reasons. It
may be for them to do something for us in return. This verse tells us 20If anyone says, "I love
that God’s logic can be very different from our logic or what the society God," yet hates his brother,
he is a liar. For anyone who
teaches us. To God, it doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor.
does not love his brother,
Thank God that our salvation is not based on our economic wealth. whom he has seen, cannot
love God, whom he has not
4) Lawbreakers are those who does not do what God says. Jas 2:8 says seen. 21And he has given us
if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we are doing right. But when we this command: Whoever loves
show favoritism, we break God’s command for us to love our neighbor God must also love his
in both 1 Jn and James. Jas 2:9 calls favoritism as sin and those who brother.
show favoritism as lawbreakers. V10-11 tells us that even when we 1 Jn 4:20-21
break only one law, no matter how small a sin we see favoritism as
compared to murder, we are still lawbreakers. By not loving others and
showing favoritism, 1 Jn says that it also shows that we do not love God
because whoever loves God must also love his brother (v21).

IV. The Prescription For Overcoming Favoritism 7Accept one another, then,
just as Christ accepted you, in
The problem with favoritism is that it is unchristian, unreasonable and
order to bring praise to God.
unloving. So how should we treat other people? Rom 15:7

1) Accept, Appreciate and Affirm. 3Do nothing out of selfish

ambition or vain conceit, but
2) Affirm member’s sharing and encourage members to be open to God in humility consider others
to change them. Share with members that this is a growth process for better than yourselves. 4Each
many people. But we must be willing to obey God in choosing to not of you should look not only to
your own interests, but also
show favoritism and allowing God to empower us to live this out.
to the interests of others.
Phil 2:3-4
3) Allow members time to think and write down a practical step they
would like to take this week to apply what they have learnt. We do not 11Therefore encourage one
want to merely listen to God’s Word but do what it says. another and build each other
up, just as in fact you are
doing.
V. Conclusion 1 Thess 5:11

1) Encourage those who are not practicing this to share their reason.
Bring them back to our first question where they shared how they felt
when they were not welcomed. We don’t want others to feel the same
way as we did.
Ask those who are practicing already to share what motivated them.
Encourage them to share also how God has changed them if they had
not been originally practicing this to encourage the rest.

2) Collectively decide on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your group’s rating?

Ask newer members to share how they felt when they first came to join
this group.
You can also take this time to affirm the group on what they have done
well and proceed to think as a group as to what can they do to improve.
Take down one step that can be implemented in the following weeks.
If there is time, ask each member to share what makes them feel
accepted, appreciated and affirmed. They can also share more
specifically of what someone in the group did to encourage one another.

3) Spend some time in prayer with your whole group.

8 If you really keep the royal
 Thank God for not showing favoritism, but for saving you from your
law found in Scripture, "Love
sins and giving you new life in Christ. your neighbour as yourself,"
 Ask God to bring new people to your group. you are doing right. 9 But if
you show favouritism, you sin
 Ask God to give you His heart for people, so that your group and YA
and are convicted by the law
ministry will not show favoritism but will be a place that welcomes as law-breakers.
everyone, whatever their social status or background. James 2:8-9

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DEVELOPING A FAITH THAT WORKS YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOVEMBER 2006

4) Memorize James 2:8-9.

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Member’s Notes
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