One of the subtle ways we sin is by showing respect of persons in the church. Do you treat the well known and gifted people in the church the same way as the struggling and unknown ones in the church?
Excerpt from the full sermon, “The Commonplace Christian is the Glory of the Church“.
All the saints are in Paul’s heart – the most carnal, the weakest, the neediest, the most marginalized on the fringe of the church, the one who feels like a shrimp every time they go to church and they’re around the mature ones. All the saints from the leaders to the struggling believer, all are valuable and important to Paul. And Paul says to the Corinthians some remarkable things. Remember? He says this: To those who seem to be less, you’re not less. And to those who feel: I’m not a hand. I’m not an eye, so I’m less. They’re not less in any way Paul says. And those members who seem to be less are not to be viewed by anyone as being less, but rather as indispensable and necessary and honored and significant. Now brethren, we sin this way often in the church subtly and we don’t even realize it. Respect of persons. Do we ever show it? The popular, the important, the well known, the gifted, the whatever. Do we show them respect of persons? Do we treat them differently than the newest babe in Christ? Than the most struggling saint who needs our love and our attention and a word in season? Rather than our favorite friend in the church? Jesus said “the least of these.” The least of these – that’s Me. In that you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to Me. That’s who I lovingly identify with – the unknowns. Just believers. Followers of Christ.
