1 Tim 5:21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. 
	Over the past number of weeks, we have been considering some of the aspects of the charges which God puts upon us. One very key element is that we need to be obedient to the Lord God Almighty. There seems to be a sense, within modern Christendom, that we can ignore some or many of the charges and the precepts and the principles of God, as if they do not matter in the grand scheme of things. Because we are so wrapped up in the day to day living in this realm, we tend to consider the things of God with a foolish heart that puts the earthly before the heavenly. This is understandable, to a point, in those who are newly born into the spiritual life that is ours in Christ. There may not be that understanding, yet put into place, as to the difference between our earthly and our spiritual lives. The earthly may have a keener sense of our commitment of time since that is all we know.
	However, as we do mature, we must register, through the effective working of the Holy Spirit, that we are now a completely new creation in Christ. We are no longer a part of this world order, merely sojourners in it. We should be growing in the fact that our heart’s focus is to be more and more set on Christ. There should be that development of the true spiritual nature which is now ours in Him. We should be seeing that it is the earthly that is fleeting and temporary and that we are dealing with eternal truths and principles in Christ Jesus. As that realization takes form, there must be that utter recognition that the things of God are to be ever more highly prized and regarded over the transitory things of this earth. Our hearts must register the truth that as we consider God and all those elements that are now made to be our life in Christ, we must give Him our unhindered, unlimited, and especially attentive and obedient concentration. Charges set before us by God, in His Word, through His Holy Spirit, take precedence over our lives. They set aside any earthly consideration of human understanding that conflicts with His truth and His principles of spiritual life. That is all an integral part of the ongoing reality that they are no longer our lives to live. They now belong fully to Him to do with as He pleases, to His glory Alone. 
	Accordingly, take into account the charge of the Apostle Paul to Timothy….to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. This spirit of partiality needs to be dealt with in the hearts of Christians as the Church, the Body of Believers, the fellow members of the family of God. It is very heartbreaking when families are torn apart because of a spirit of partiality and favoritism that instills a brooding resentment and hardness within the hearts of those who feel slighted and less loved. That family often splinters and suffers decay and hostility because these elements of bitterness are allowed to destroy what should be a healthy and loving environment. 
As well, this is a terrible problem, too often present in the Church. Sadly, it is with awful frequency that we hear of churches that split asunder because factions and cliques have developed. They act as cancerous growths, festering and dividing groups of believers with resentment and unforgiveness. This deadly element of divisiveness serves only to belittle the testimony of Christ within the members of the church. That is the reason that Paul addresses it very specifically in this letter to Timothy. 
As well, this serious charge is given throughout scripture. The Holy Spirit, in the Old Testament, had much to say against partiality within the Children of Israel. It was very expressly forbidden with regard to the leaders and the rulers and the judges of the people of God’s choosing. Moses put this charge upon the men that were chosen to help judge the affairs and the concerns of the Israelites. Deut 1:16+17a Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. 'You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's. 
	There is a very deep aspect of our lives in Christ that is brought forth in this charge. Notice from Whom that judgment is received. It is the Lord’s judgment. His judgment makes no distinction between the rich or the poor. It does not favor the strong over the weak, the great over the least. All people are judged by the single standard of Jesus Christ. He is the sole basis of our salvation, and nothing else. When we deal with each other, we need to realize that we are dealing with the people whom God Alone has chosen unto Himself. As His heart chose you and chose me in Christ, so are we to consider and to treat each other as fellow Beloved of God in Christ Jesus. That attitude of complete surrender unto the will of God cannot separate us, but rather can only cement us into the oneness of Jesus Christ.  
	In Job 13:6-10, we read the following. "Please hear my argument, And listen to the contentions of my lips. "Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? "Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? "Will it be well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man? "He will surely reprove you, If you secretly show partiality. We have no basis to consider anything other than reproof from God, if we show any partiality within our hearts unto others. If we do so, we are making the most audacious and vile claim that we are better than God and acting to override His authority in our judgment of another. 
Please take serious note of this truth, even our secret partiality will be found out and dealt with by the Lord. We may try to put on the front of accepting all our brothers and sisters as equal, as co-heirs with all the life that is found in Christ Jesus. But, when we hold anything against another, hidden deep within our hearts; when we separate ourselves from others with any perceived sense of superiority; when we exclude others based on our likes and dislikes, we will find ourselves sinking into a cesspool of filth and decay. We deceive ourselves when we allow resentment, and hatred, and self-indulgence to smolder until it bursts forth in fiery flames of destruction. It will scald us and others, especially those whom we love, in a conflagration of catastrophic proportion. We will never be able to hide our disdain and our vile consideration of others from God. Know with absolute certainty that He will work to root out every weed of partiality within our lives, individually and corporately. Realize that that weeding process will involve the deepest cutting away of the roots of dissension within our hearts and souls.
 Please listen to the wisdom set before us in Prov 24:21-23. My son, fear the Lord and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change; For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them? These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good. Rather than showing partiality, our hearts are to be singly set on that which pleases our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to seek to honor Him in our every interaction with others, especially our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Our judgment of one another must be based on the same judgment of God in our lives, the measure and the value of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Anything else is immaterial, is not valid, and must have no part in our dealings with each other. 
As we are told in this verse of Proverbs, To show partiality in judgment is not good. We do great disservice unto God and unto one another if we allow our earthly judgment and likes and preferences to distract us from the beauty and the purity and the heart of Christ, Who now indwells His Body of Believers. To practice partiality is not good; in fact it is a vile and demeaning and forceful statement that we are not satisfied with what Christ has done, period.  
	This attitude of self-righteous partiality is addressed quite vehemently, by God in Mal 2:8-10 "But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the Lord of hosts. "So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction. "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? Just as the Children of Israel were corrupting and defiling and profaning the very covenant of God with their partiality and treacherousness, so do we when we set ourselves on the path of superiority and exclusivism within the church. 
	James addresses this very issue in James 2:1-5. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
It is the attitude of self-seeking and self-serving that infests and separates the members of the church, the heart and soul of the fellowship of God. The rich are given preference because they might give more generously and more readily. Some people are given special treatment because they might have influence here or there that could be of benefit. This is a manifestation of the base motive of what he can do for me. Any partiality has, at its deepest and darkest center, the motive of what I can get out of this condescending action. That has no place within the church. After all, God did choose the poor of this world to inherit His riches in Christ. He chose the foolish to confound the wise. He chose the needy and the helpless to support and overcome the great and powerful. Such is the love of God and such must be the expression of His Love within the church, His own Beloved family of believers. 
When we make distinctions, when we mark out others as less worthy, when we deprive ourselves of the company and the fellowship of any of God’s people and choose to treat them with any partiality, we are defaming and defiling the Assembly of God. We are placing our earthly thoughts and our fallible reasoning and our meager understanding of love and pitting it against God’s Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. There is no doubt that we will become the recipients of God’s humbling reproof. He will not allow the testimony of His Beloved Son to suffer such desecration.   
As we read in Jude 14-21, And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, "In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts." These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 
This passage presents a terrible picture of the consequences of those who are apart from Christ Jesus. It describes their nature and their behavior. There is nothing of beauty or of any value in anything that they do. Why then would we emulate them in our dealings with others in the very Body of Jesus Christ? Why would we allow ourselves to practice those things which serve only to bring forth destruction and harsh punishment? Do we think that we can stand against God as He deals with this heart of partiality and self-service? Do we think that we will not have to suffer the consequences of our betrayal and subversion within the Church? 
	As Gal 6:7+8 warns, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. We will reap that which we sow. This is an unerring principle of God that we cannot escape. Knowing this, wholeheartedly seek after the Holy Spirit to root out any dissension within our hearts. Rather, look for any manner in which we can express love and be of service one to another. Stop our mouths from being full of gossip, and bridle our tongues. Seek after God to fill us with nothing but praise and adoration unto Him in all gratitude for His mighty Love. Resolve in our hearts to encourage one another and to build up one another in the grace and the mercy and the lovingkindness of God in Whom we have been so loved. This very moment, set aside any spirit of partiality that infests us. Humble ourselves before the throne of God’s grace. Seek Him to make us contrite servants unto one another. We are all fellow heirs and partakers of the full grace of God in Jesus Christ Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Brother, Our Life. Honor Him in honoring and uplifting one another without any trace of partiality, or bitterness, or conceit, or self-seeking in our hearts. Forgive as He has so freely forgiven us and be the true witness of the purity and the joy of Jesus Christ to His Glory Alone. Do not allow any self-manifestation to taint our fellowship together in Jesus Christ for His sake and for the sake of His glorious testimony on this earth. So be it!
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. Amen

This morning’s benediction   1 Tim 6:13-16 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time —  He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.