The Favorite

My children have a running joke among themselves as to who among them is the favorite child, sometimes called the "Password Child". It makes for some humorous and harmless sparring, aside from the increased pitch of my wife's voice as she boldly declares that she has no favorites. (And neither do I, for the record.) I wonder how many families this topic of conversation harmlessly rumbles through - or maybe not so harmlessly.

Paul addresses the factions and favoritism that had manifested itself among the Corinthian church in his first letter to that church,

I have applied these things to myself and Apollos because of you, brothers and sisters, so that through us you may learn “not to go beyond what is written,” so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of the one against the other. ¹

Position can be poisonous if not held correctly and navigated with understanding. Jealousy and provocation are ugly sisters. Envy and arrogance are volatile combinations in any church environment, or family environment. Just take a look at Joseph and his brothers.

In the biblical account given in Genesis 37, Joseph, without doubt, was his father's favorite and Joseph’s father Israel, the father of twelve boys, showed this by gifting his favorite the fateful multi-colored coat. Hatred and malicious plotting were stirred among Joseph's brothers that day and before long, the "Dreamer" Joseph found himself dumped into a pit and sold as a slave. Provocation and arrogance had played the field of envy and jealousy. Humbling and reconciliation would come, but that path was to be long and difficult.

I wonder if Paul had this story in mind as he addressed the emergent Hollywood dynamic at work in the Corinthian church. He made no room for superstar pastors and their adoring fans. He urged a cessation of the factional lauding among the cliques that had formed in the church he had birthed as a loving father.

What man doesn’t like to have the favor of a crowd? It can be seen in all styles of worship, whether Baptist or Presbyterian, Charismatic or Catholic. The need for heroes we can model and the desire to feel important and useful are familiar to us all. But this inborn tendency can quickly become unwieldly, so Paul tells us that to receive such adulation or to give it is “going beyond what is written.” It is swimming outside of our lane, assuming a position we were never meant to hold.

Paul addresses this issue at the root by saying that all of us (himself included) are simply servants, called to faithfully steward the gifts of grace given us by God. He reminds us that all that we have is a gift from God,

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? ²

There is no place for boasting in the arena of God-given giftings. So, how do we view others? And how do we view ourselves? These are important questions to be asked of ourselves. We do well to hold to the summation of Paul’s instruction to view those in “up front ministry”, as well as all members of the body, as servants and stewards and to remember that none of us have anything except that the Lord has given it to us!

As John the Baptizer said,

“No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.” ³

The responsibility that falls to us is to use well what God has given us and to pray for ourselves and for others that we would be faithful stewards of this diverse grace that God has entrusted us with.

References

¹ 1 Corinthians 4:6 NET

² 1 Corinthians 4:7

³ John 3:27 NET