Avoid favouritism: Who you become

We are to avoid favouritism because of what it makes us
James says, if you show favouritism you sin v9, you are lawbreakers, like a corrupt judge v4, you are unmerciful and will be judged (by Jesus the true Judge) without mercy.
Look at verse 8 “ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture “ Love your neighbour as yourself’ you are doing right”. James points us to the Law found in scripture, in Leveticus 19, “Love your neighbour as yourself”, but more than that, he calls it ‘the Royal law’. This is the Law that Jesus, the king of God’s kingdom, has set down for his followers, that we might be people who have mercy on others, as he has had mercy on us.
Many of you might be uneasy with the term ‘law’ here, because of some of what Paul says about no longer being under the Jewish law. But even Paul says 1 Corinthians 9:21 “ I am under the law of Christ”. We kid ourselves if we think God doesn’t care how we live. Jesus really does have a pattern of life that he wants us to live out, and it is summed up in the command, “ Love your neigbour as yourself”. Now, if in the old Covenant, breaking one law made you a transgressor of the whole lot, what makes us think that as Christians we can ignore the one command Jesus gave us “Love one another” and he will be cool with that. God expects us to reflect his mercy to others.